Advanced Custom Fields Pro (ACF) is the plugin that powers every extra box on the theme’s edit screens: the Options screens, the event dates, the homepage messages, the staff profile fields and so on. It is built into the theme, so you do not need to install or license it separately, and its own admin menu is hidden because there is normally nothing to do there. This page explains how to show the menu and when you might need it.
Show the ACF menu
- Go to Options, then General, then the Text and features tab.
- Switch on Show ACF admin. It is off by default.
- Select Update. An ACF item appears near the bottom of the admin menu, for administrators only.
Switch it off again when you have finished, to keep the admin menu simple for other administrators. All the other settings on that screen are described in General intranet options.
What you can and cannot do there
The theme’s own field groups are defined in the theme’s code, not in the database, so you cannot change them from the ACF screen: renaming a profile field or removing a box from the news edit screen is a theme change, and updates would undo it anyway. What the ACF screen is for:
- Adding your own field groups, for example an extra box on the page edit screen that a child theme or a bespoke plugin then displays.
- Checking a field’s name when you are writing a shortcode or a report that reads it.
- The Tools screen, to export or import field groups between a test site and the live site.
Ask Agento Digital before adding fields to the theme’s own screens, so that they do not clash with a future update.
If you already have ACF installed as a plugin
The theme only loads its bundled copy when no ACF plugin is active. If ACF Pro is installed and activated as a plugin, that copy is used instead and needs its own licence for updates. The free ACF plugin does not have the options pages the theme needs, so do not activate the free version alongside the theme.