Author

This section gives you the ability to control what information is shown about the author on the archive page.

Archive Page

Show Bio
Set this option to “On” if you want the author bio to show, and “Off” if you do not want it to show.
Bio Template
This option allows you to select a template for the author’s bio. There are a number of templates included with Intensity, but you can also create your own. See Creating Content > Templates for more information.

Icons

There are thousands of default icons to choose from. Intense includes over 4,500 icons that are all in zip files. Some of our demos include their own additional icon zip files. The current list of available icons can be seen by looking at the Intense plugin site, on the Icon shortcode page.

Adding Your Own Icons

You can add your own icons by creating an intense_icons folder within Intensity or a child theme. Inside of that folder, create another folder and place your icons inside of it. Here is an example of what the folder structure should look like.

theme/
  intense_icons/
    my-icons/
      myicon.svg
      anothericon.svg

If the icons are designed to be one color, you may need to manually remove the fill color from the individual SVG files. This will let you set the color using the shortcode. For multicolored icons, this isn’t necessary since you will want the fill color of the icon.

There is also a pack.json file that you can put in the folder with the icons to add more details about the icons. This isn’t necessary but, if you are curious, look at the example pack.json code below. This pack.json file is from the Font Awesome icon folder.

{
    “title”: “Font Awesome”,
    “name”: “font-awesome”,
    “author”: “Dave Gandy”,
    “license”: {
        “type”: “SIL OFL 1.1”,
        “url”: “http:\/\/scripts.sil.org\/OFL”
    },
    “website”: “http:\/\/fortawesome.github.io\/Font-Awesome\/”,
    “source”: “http:\/\/fortawesome.github.io\/Font-Awesome\/”
}

Page

This section gives you the ability to control page options.

General

Show Featured Images, Video, Audio, etc.
Set this option to “On” if you want the featured items to show, and “Off” if you do not want them to show.
Show Page Comments
Set this option to “On” if you want the page comments to show, and “Off” if you do not want them to show.
Show Image Page Comments
Set this option to “On” if you want the image page comments to show, and “Off” if you do not want them to show.
Reply Icon
Set the icon that you want to be used. You can select from a number of icon sources. Select an Icon Source, then the Icon Type will be populated. The default is to use the Font Awesome “arrow-down” icon.
Error 404 Page Icon
Set the icon that you want to be used. You can select from a number of icon sources. Select an Icon Source, then the Icon Type will be populated. The default is to use the Font Awesome “warning-sign” icon.

Meta Options

The following meta options are available on the these post types and custom post types included with Intense. With each of the post types, there are many meta options that are specific to each post type. Please see the Custom Post Types page for additional information on what each post type has for meta options (this is in addition to the options below).

  • Posts – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Books – Post Options only
  • Clients – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Coupons – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Events – Post Options and Featured Media
  • FAQ – Post Options only
  • Jobs – Post Options only
  • Locations – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Movies – Post Options only
  • Music – Post Options only
  • News – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Portfolio – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Projects – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Quotes – Post Options only
  • Recipes – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Team – Post Options and Featured Media
  • Testimonials – Post Options only

See the settings below that are available for both the above mentioned Post Options and Featured Media meta options.

Post Options Metabox

The Post Options metabox controls a number of aspects on your page/post. You can control the layout, header, title, footer, sidebars, background, and any post/page specific code.

Header

Header Display Mode
Static - stays at the top of the page and not the viewport. When scrolled, the header may be scrolled out of view.
Fixed - keeps the header fixed to the top of the screen. When scrolled, the header will not move but will remain visible.
Show/Hide - hides the header when scrolling down. Show the header when the user scrolls up.
Shrink - shrinks the header and keeps it visible on the screen as the user scrolls.
Custom - like the show/hide option but you set your own custom CSS classes to apply instead of hiding and showing.
Header Template
Select the template that you want this page to use for the header. If you chose "Use Default", the default template will be used. This "Default Template" can be set in the Intensity theme options.
Secondary Header Template
Select the template that you want this page to use for the secondary header. If you chose "Use Default", the default template will be used. This "Default Template" can be set in the Intensity theme options.
Header Menu
Select the menu that you want this page to use. If you chose "Use Default", the default menu will be used. This "Default" menu can be set in the Intensity theme options.
Secondary Header Menu
Select the secondary header menu that you want this page to use. If you chose "Use Default", the default menu will be used. This "Default" menu can be set in the Intensity theme options.
Header Sidebar 1
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Header Sidebar 2
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Header Sidebar 3
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Header Sidebar 4
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Secondary Header Sidebar 1
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Secondary Header Sidebar 2
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Secondary Header Sidebar 3
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Secondary Header Sidebar 4
Set the Sidebar to be used.

Title

Show Main Title
Select whether you want the main title to show or not. This is the "Title" section, found just below the menu. If you chose "Use Default", this option is set in the Intensity theme options.
Title Template
Select the template that you want this page to use for the title. If you chose "Use Default", the default template will be used. This "Default Template" can be set in the Intensity theme options. The "title" will only be shown if the "Show Main Title" option on the Layout tab is set to "Show" or the default is to show the title.
Title Text
Set the text to be shown in the Title, the default will be to show the page/post title.
Title Sidebar 1
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Title Sidebar 2
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Title Sidebar 3
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Title Sidebar 4
Set the Sidebar to be used.

Body

Content Position
Select whether you want the content of your page to be behind the menu or below the menu. Your options are "Top, behind menu" or "Below menu".
Padding Top
Set this option to add a top padding (measured in pixels) to the main content area.
Padding Bottom
Set this option to add a bottom padding (measured in pixels) to the main content area.

Footer

Footer Template
Select the template that you want this page to use for the footer. If you chose "Use Default", the default template will be used. This "Default Template" can be set in the Intensity theme options.
Show Primary Footer
Select whether you want the primary footer to be shown on the page or not. Your options are "Use Default", "Show", or "Hide".
Show Secondary Footer
Select whether you want the secondary footer to be shown on the page or not. Your options are "Use Default", "Show", or "Hide".
Footer Menu
Select the footer menu that you want this page to use. If you chose "Use Default", the default menu will be used. This "Default" menu can be set in the Intensity theme options.
Footer Sidebar 1
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Footer Sidebar 2
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Footer Sidebar 3
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Footer Sidebar 4
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Secondary Footer Sidebar 1
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Secondary Footer Sidebar 2
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Secondary Footer Sidebar 3
Set the Sidebar to be used.
Secondary Footer Sidebar 4
Set the Sidebar to be used.

Sidebars

Layout
Select the layout for the sidebars that you want the page to use. Your options are "Use Default", "1 Column", "2 Column Left", "2 Column Right", "3 Column Middle", "3 Column Left", "3 Column Right".
Left
Set the sidebar that you want on the left.
Right
Set the sidebar that you want on the right.
Before Content
Set the sidebar that you want to show before the content.
After Content
Set the sidebar that you want to show after the content.

Background

Color
Select the color that you want to be used for the background of the page.
Image
If you want an image as the background of the page, select the image.
Image Mode
If you selected an image as the background, set the image mode for that image here. Your choices are "Full Screen", "Repeat", "Repeat Horizontally", "Repeat Vertically", or "No Repeat".

Comments

Show Comments
Select whether you want the page/post comments to show or not.
Template
Select the template that you want this page to use for the comments.

Extras

Show Preloader
Select whether you want the preloader to show or not during page load. If you chose "Use Default", this option is set in the Intensity theme options.
CSS Code
If you have page specific CSS, it can be placed here. You do not need to include style tags.
Closing </head> Code
Custom code to add before the closing </head> tag. It will be added as-is and should include any necessary script or html tags.
Closing </body> Code
Custom code to add before the closing </body> tag. It will be added as-is and should include any necessary script or html tags.

Featured Media Metabox

The Featured Media metabox allows you to set the featured media to be shown on the page and also how the media is shown.

Gallery

Featured Gallery
Click the "Add to gallery" button to view the media popup. Select the images that you want to be shown in the gallery. Hit the "Select" button once you have the image(s) selected. If you want to remove an image, hover over the image and click the "X".

Gallery Image Options

Image Type
Select the template that you want this page to use for the header. If you chose "Use Default", the default template will be used. This "Default Template" can be set in the Intensity theme options.
Shadow
Select the template that you want this page to use for the title. If you chose "Use Default", the default template will be used. This "Default Template" can be set in the Intensity theme options. The "title" will only be shown if the "Show Main Title" option on the Layout tab is set to "Show" or the default is to show the title.
Hover Effect Type
Select the template that you want this page to use for the footer. If you chose "Use Default", the default template will be used. This "Default Template" can be set in the Intensity theme options.
Subtle Hover Effect
Select whether you want the primary footer to be shown on the page or not. Your options are "Use Default", "Show", or "Hide".
Effeckt Hover Effect
Select whether you want the primary footer to be shown on the page or not. Your options are "Use Default", "Show", or "Hide".
Caman Effect

*Only visible for Image Type of "Caman".

Start Effect

*Only visible for Image Type of "Adipoli".

Hover Effect

*Only visible for Image Type of "Adipoli".

Splits

*Only visible for Image Type of "Picstrip".

Horizontal Gutter

*Only visible for Image Type of "Picstrip".

Vertical Gutter

*Only visible for Image Type of "Picstrip".

Audio

Audio URL
Enter the URL to the audio file.

Video

Type
Select the type of video. Your options are "WordPress", "Blip.tv", "College Humor", "Flickr", "FunnyOrDie.com", "Hulu", "Qik", "Revision3", "Screenr", "Ted", "Viddler", "Vimeo", "WordPress.tv", or "Youtube".
Video Size
Set the size of the video. Your options are "Auto", "Wide (16:9)", "Standard (4:3)", or "Square (1:1)".
Poster Image
Select an image to be used as the Poster Image. This image will displayed prior to the video starting.
MP4 Video
Select an MP4 video from your media library.
*Only visible for Type of "WordPress".
OGV Video
Select an OGV video from your media library.
*Only visible for Type of "WordPress".
WebM Video
Select an WebM video from your media library.
*Only visible for Type of "WordPress".
Video URL
Set the URL to the video.
*Visible for all Types aside from "WordPress".

Color

Color
Set the color that you want to be used in place of media.

Post Lists

This section gives you the ability to control how post lists are shown for all the various post types and their archive pages as well.

General

Post List Location
Change to control the settings per location. When done, make sure to save the changes. The settings below this dropdown will apply to the post list location that is chosen.

List

Template
This option allows you to select a template for the meta data. There are a number of templates included with Intensity, but you can also create your own. See Creating Content > Templates for more information.
Posts Per Page
Set the number of posts to show per page.
Template Content
Select what type of content you want to be shown in the template. If you choose “Excerpt” or “Content”, you can set the “Excerpt/Content Length” to limit how much is shown. If you choose “Full Post Content”, the entire post will be shown.
Excerpt/Content Length
Set the number of words to be shown in the template.
Order By
Select what you would like to order the list by (typical setting would be “Post ID”)
Order
Select how you would like to order the post list (typical setting would be “Descending”)
Masonry
Set this to “On” if you want a Masonry layout, “Off” if you do not want a Masonry layout, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
In finite Scroll
Set this to “On” if you want Infinite Scroll, “Off” if you do not want Infinite Scroll, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Social Sharing Buttons
Set this to “On” if you want to show the social sharing buttons, “Off” if you do not want to show the social sharing buttons, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Filter
Set this to “On” if you want to show the filter, “Off” if you do not want to show the filter, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Author Image
Set this to “On” if you want to show the author image, “Off” if you do not want to show the author image, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Read More
Set this to “On” if you want to show the Read More button/link, “Off” if you do not want to show the Read More button/link, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).

Meta Data

Meta Data
Set this to “On” if you want to show the meta data, “Off” if you do not want to show the meta data, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Template
This option allows you to select a template for the meta data. There are a number of templates included with Intensity, but you can also create your own. See Creating Content > Templates for more information.
Date
Set this to “On” if you want to show the date, “Off” if you do not want to show the date, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Author
Set this to “On” if you want to show the author, “Off” if you do not want to show the author, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Categories
Set this to “On” if you want to show the categories, “Off” if you do not want to show the categories, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Tags
Set this to “On” if you want to show the tags, “Off” if you do not want to show the tags, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Comments
Set this to “On” if you want to show the comments, “Off” if you do not want to show the comments, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).

Animation

Type
Add an animation to the blog list.
Trigger
Select the trigger that will initiate the animation (scroll, hover, click, or delay).
Delay
Set this option if you want to delay the animation. The amount is in milliseconds.

Image

Images
Set this to “On” if you want to show images, “Off” if you do not want to show images, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Show Missing Image
Set this to “On” if you want to show the missing image, “Off” if you do not want to show the missing image, or “Default” if you want to use the setting stored for this option in the “Default Settings” (this is the option “Default Settings” in the “Post List Location” dropdown).
Border Radius
Set a value for the border radius of the image (50% will make the image a circle if the image is square).
%, em, px – examples: 25% or 10em or 20px

Performance

Performance and Site Optimization

If your site is not performing as fast as you’d like, there could be a few different issues. Our live demo is a representation of how fast your site should be. Results will vary depending on the items below. This post will outline the common issues that can slow your site down and the ways that you can correct these common issues.

Important Note Before Getting Started: While you are building and developing your site, it’s advised to turn off caching. This is especially important if you are working with our support team. It’s possible to implement a change, and not have it take place because a cached version of the page or various resources are loading instead of the latest version.

Plugins – Plugin management is a very crucial piece of making sure that your site continues to run smoothly. You have to make sure that you keep your plugins up-to-date, but even that isn’t enough to guarantee peak performance. Each plugin can hinder the performance of your site. The more plugins you have, the slower your site may perform. It is best to keep your plugin list down to only the plugins that you are using. If you have plugins that are not activated and you don’t use them, go ahead and remove them as well. Anything that you can do to cut down the amount of space used and the potential conflicts between your theme and/or plugins, the better off you will be.

Images/Content – Image compression is a crucial part of making your site load fast, but most people forget it and then are left wondering why their site loading speed is very slow. Images are one of the biggest part of your website. An image heavy site can still be quick if you watch out for some of the following:

First of all always try to use JPEG or GIF images rather than PNG images since they are smaller in size. A lot of people upload their big images and WordPress will crop them in all the different thumbnail sizes and you will insert the image with the proper thumbnail size in the post and then people think it’s all set. This is not the case. If you upload a big, uncompressed image, WordPress will crop that large image, which will make images that are still uncompressed. It is best to compress your images first, then upload them to WordPress, so that all of the cropped images will be compressed and optimized.

There are different ways on how to compress images. Below are a couple of services and WordPress plugins you can use to optimize your images for decreased loading times.

  • WP Smush Pro is a cloud based image optimizing plugin, that works on a API based system, that allows you with a few clicks to send your images for optimizing and also includes lossless compression with its Super Smush option.
  • Kraken.io is another cloud based image optimization service, the main difference being, they not only have a WordPress plugin you can use, but you can also optimize images directly on their website, rather than using the plugin.
  • Ewww Image Optimizer is another cloud based image optiomization plugin, that also allows you to optimize and compress images to decrease load times.

If you are creating images in Photoshop a common thing that people do wrong is save the images without using the option “Save for Web & Devices”. This is very crucial since you can set the compression and quality rate and other things which will lead to a smaller image size. Other image editing programs can do the same so always look in the documentation for image compression.

Server/Hosting – Sometimes slow speed can be the result of your hosting service. Some hosting services use shared hosting which can have an effect on speed. This is a very broad topic but the general idea is that some hosts are better than others. Here are a couple that we suggest looking into if you are experiencing slow speed time from your host.

  • DreamHost has an easy 1-click WordPress install that makes it dead simple to set up a new site. DreamHost is a Los Angeles based hosting provider that has been hosting sites since 1997.
  • Bluehost comes highly recommended within the blogging world. It also has an easy 1-click WordPress install. Bluehost is one of the top 20 hosting companies and host over 2 millions websites.
  • WP Engine provides best-in-class customer service on top of innovation-driven technology. They have over 30,000 customers in 120 countries. WP Engine makes managed WordPress hosting simple, scalable, and secure.

* Disclosure: the three links provided above are affiliate links. They won’t cost you anything additional and, if you use them and decide to purchase, we will earn a small commission.

Disable Features/Shortcodes You Are Not Using – The Intense plugin makes up a large part of the Intensity theme. You can go into the Intense admin options (Settings->Intense from the WordPress menu) and turn off shortcodes and/or custom post types that you are not using or do not plan to use. Doing this will eliminate the CSS and JS from being loaded. Preventing the CSS and JS from loading for these items will help speed up your page load times. One thing to point out, Intense does a good job of only loading what is needed for each page, but there is a cached CSS file that is stored that includes CSS for a number of the shortcodes. If the active shortcodes are changed from the Intense admin options, the cached CSS file is rebuilt. This cached file should also help to speed up your page load times because you are using one file rather than a bunch of separate files.

Use A Caching Plugin Like W3 Total Cache (W3TC) – W3 Total Cache is a plugin that will make your website run smoothly. It will minify JS, CSS, and HTML. It also is integrated with CDN networks (more on this below) and many other tools for site performance. We use W3 Total Cache to speed up all of our sites.

With all of that said, we highly recommend using the W3TC plugin to optimize your site’s speed. All premium themes should be using a cache plugin and W3TC is the best one to use.

Consider Using gZIP Compression – gZIP compression is bundling (zipping) pages on a web server before the page is sent to the visitor. This saves bandwidth and therefore increases the loading speed of the page significantly. The visitors’ web browser then automatically unzips the pages. This compressing and unzipping only takes a fraction of a second.

The W3 Total Cache plugin offers gZIP compression as an option, so if you are using the W3 Total Cache plugin, you can easily enable the gZIP option. If you would prefer to control gZIP on your own, without the use of the W3 Total Cache plugin, you can easily accomplish this by adding just a few lines of code to your .htaccess file. The easiest way to enable the gZIP compression for your images, CSS and JS files is to add these lines to your .htaccess file in the root WordPress folder:

## ENABLE GZIP COMPRESSION ##
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
## ENABLE GZIP COMPRESSION ##
Consider Using A Content Delivery Network (CDN) – Content delivery networks (CDN) are server networks that clone your site on all of their location nodes. This means that when your visitors request your site, it will be served by the closest server location, rather than the main datacenter of your hosting provider. For more information on that matter, check out these two very popular CDN’s and decide for yourself which will work best for you.

  • Cloudflare: We use Cloudflare on our theme and plugin demo sites. It works great, integrates nicely with W3 Total Cache, and best of all it’s free.
  • MaxCDN: MaxCDN is a great option and has very reasonable pricing for the services they provide.

Search

This section gives you the ability to set the post types that will be returned in the search results and also the icon that will be used (default is a magnifying glass).

General

Search Results Post Types
The type of posts to show in the search results
Mark all of the post types that you want to show in the search results.
Icon
Set the icon to be used for the search. This icon is shown next to the menu in many of the Intensity header templates.
Select an Icon Source, then the Icon Type will be populated.

Shortcodes

With tons of shortcodes to choose from, Intense WordPress Site Builder allows you to quickly create beautiful pages. Since each shortcode comes with many options, it is simple to make the shortcodes fit the look of your website. Intense enables you to build modern layouts like the pros with little effort.

Check out the image to the right to see all of the available shortcodes with Intense.

*Click the above image to see a larger version.

What Is A Shortcode?

“A shortcode is a WordPress-specific code that lets you do nifty things with very little effort. Shortcodes can embed files or create objects that would normally require lots of complicated, ugly code in just one line. Shortcode = shortcut.” – WordPress.com

“Shortcodes in WordPress are little bits of code that allow you to do various things with little effort. They were introduced in WordPress 2.5, and the reason to introduce them was to allow people to execute code inside WordPress posts, pages, and widgets without writing any code directly. This allows you to embed files or create objects that would normally require a lot of code in just one single line.” – wpbeginner.com

How To Use A Shortcode?

A shortcode is wrapped in brackets ([]). Most shortcodes have an opening and a closing shortcode. The opening shortcode will have the brackets surrounding it. The closing shortcode will have the brackets, but will also have a “/” in it as the first character inside of the brackets. Here is an example button shortcode.
shortcode:
[intense_button]Button[/intense_button]
result:
Button
The above shortcode has the opening shortcode, [intense_button], and the closing shortcode, [/intense_button]. The text “Button” in the middle is the text on the button.

Shortcodes will typically have additional options available that allow the user to tailor the result to their liking. If we use the example above and we want to change the size and color of the button and add an icon, the shortcode might look like the following.

shortcode:
[intense_button size=”large” color=”success” icon=”heart”]Button[/intense_button]
result:
Button

Example Shortcodes

//Here is an example of an Animated shortcode that uses an Image shortcode
[intense_animated type=”fadeIn” trigger=”delay” delay=”1500″]
[intense_image imageid=”9739″ size=”square75″ /]
[/intense_animated]
//Here are a few examples of Button shortcodes
[intense_button gradient=”1″ border_radius=”2″ color=”muted”]Gradient[/intense_button]
[intense_button size=”large” color=”success” icon=”heart”]Icon Left[/intense_button]
[intense_button size=”large” color=”primary” border_radius=”5″]Radius 5px[/intense_button]
//Here is an example of an Alert shortcode
[intense_alert]
This is a standard alert.
[/intense_alert]

Installing WordPress

Intensity requires a working version of WordPress – which can be installed in multiple ways. Check with your hosting provider to make sure you meet the minimum requirements. Often hosting providers will have tools that make installing WordPress a matter of just a few clicks. Check with your hosting company to see if this is an option available to you. If you are looking for hosting, check out our list of recommended hosting companies.

If you need help installing WordPress, there are step-by-step instructions found within the WordPress Codex.

The following video created by Woo Themes walks through the installation process.

Requirements

The Intensity theme is made to work with WordPress 3.5 or newer, PHP 5.6 or newer, and MySQL 5 or newer. However, we recommend you follow the requirements listed for WordPress.

PHP Configuration

Many issues can be caused by PHP configuration settings that are too low. Issues such as: having problems uploading or installing files, experiencing a white screen when trying to access your site, mysteriously losing menu items when editing large menus, etc. can all be related to PHP configuration settings.

Recommended Settings
max_execution_time180
memory_limit128M
post_max_size32M
upload_max_filesize32M

If you are unsure how to change these settings yourself, your hosting company can help. You can see what your current settings are by using the following plugin:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-php-info/