If anyone could give me a simple set of instructions on how to get the front page to look like a normal page a not a blog post that would be great. Also how to get the slider to work at all or at the least actually get it to display the blog posts with “featured images”. A simple image slider would be preferred though. Thanks.
You can use static page on front page by enabling it via Settings → Reading → “Front page displays” → “A static page (select below)” → “Front page”.
To enable slider you should:
- Create a regular blog posts.
- Assign featured images to those posts just like described here.
- Set a category for these blog posts
- Use this category via Theme Options to enable slider using posts from this specific category.
It is also possible to create slider manually creating HTML like this. This tutorial is for Dazzling theme but it will works the same way for Sparkling theme as well.
Let me know if this helps.