=== CustomNews ===
Contributors:      chrisyau83
Requires at least: 5.9
Tested up to:      6.5
Requires PHP:      7.4
Stable tag:        1.0.0
License:           GPL-2.0-or-later
License URI:       https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

A clean, modern news theme built in navy and blue tones for credibility and readability.

== Description ==

CustomNews is a professional general news theme designed with a navy and blue colour palette
for editorial credibility and clarity. It features a configurable breaking-news bar, a category
navigation strip, and a responsive card-based article grid that works on every device.

Features:
* Responsive layout — mobile-first, tested from 320 px up
* Accessibility-ready — skip links, ARIA labels, keyboard navigation
* Translation-ready — all strings wrapped with gettext functions
* Breaking news bar — configurable text and link via Customizer
* Category navigation strip below the main header
* Three-column card grid on homepage, collapses to one column on mobile
* Featured first article spans full width on homepage
* Right sidebar with three footer widget areas
* Custom logo support
* Three navigation menus: Primary, Category Bar, Footer
* Sticky header with dropdown menu support
* Reading time estimate on single posts
* Block editor styles and custom block style for pullquotes
* No custom post types, no shortcodes — presentation only

== Installation ==

1. In your WordPress admin panel, go to Appearance > Themes and click Add New.
2. Click Upload Theme and choose the customnews.zip file. Click Install Now.
3. Click Activate to use CustomNews.
4. Go to Appearance > Menus to create your Primary, Category Bar, and Footer menus.
5. Go to Appearance > Customize to set your breaking news text and footer copyright.
6. Go to Appearance > Widgets to add widgets to the Sidebar and three Footer columns.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= How do I set the breaking news bar? =

Go to Appearance > Customize > Breaking News Bar. Enter your text and optionally a link URL.
Leave the text field empty to hide the bar entirely.

= How do I set up the category navigation strip? =

Go to Appearance > Menus, create a new menu, and assign it to the "Category Bar" location.
Add category links to this menu to populate the strip below the header.

= Where are the theme options? =

All options are in the WordPress Customizer (Appearance > Customize). The theme intentionally
keeps settings minimal — layout and presentation follow WordPress best practices without
extra plugin-territory features.

= Does this theme support page builders? =

CustomNews works with the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg) and supports wide and full
alignment for blocks.

== Credits ==

* CSS reset approach inspired by normalize.css by Nicolas Gallagher and Jonathan Neal,
  MIT License — https://github.com/necolas/normalize.css

* System font stack — no external font dependencies, uses OS-native fonts for performance.

== Changelog ==

= 1.0.0 =
* Initial release.
* Responsive three-column card grid homepage.
* Configurable breaking news bar via Customizer.
* Category navigation strip.
* Accessibility-ready with skip links and ARIA labels.
* Translation-ready.
* Three footer widget columns plus primary sidebar.
* Block editor styles and pullquote block style.
