Many of us run our own WordPress blogs but still want to customize the look of our WordPress web site. However, getting into WordPress customization seems a daunting and scary task.
In this tutorial, I will show you how you can easily customize WordPress using a method known as “creating a Child Theme“.
(more…)
First, my apologies for not writing for so long. There has been so much happening and so many cool things out there now.
We especially enjoy finding new features that anyone can implement. Even someone without any coding knowledge what-so-ever.
With the new releases of WordPress, it is now extremely easy to customize the background of your WordPress theme, for self hosted installations.
From your Admin Dashboard, click on the Appearance button on the left and then click Editor.
Locate the file called functions.php in the list on the right and click the file name.
In the editor window, scroll down to the bottom of the file just before the last “?>” and type in the following text:
add_custom_background();
Now click the save button at the bottom of the page.
If you now click on the Appearance button on the left again, you should now see a choice for Backgrounds appear in the list. If you click on this, you will be able to replace the current background with an image or any color you choose.
You can also control the way images repeat and their alignment.
So easy isn’t it?
If you use a hosted WordPress.Com blog, short codes have been added to simplify many of the common tasks a blogger needs to deal with. Previously, we dealt with How to Add a Photo Gallery for self hosted blogs. In today’s entry, we will show you how easy it is to add a simple Contact form to your WordPress.Com blog.
(more…)
Sometime during the night while I was sleeping, WordPress released an update – WordPress 3.0. I have spent some of the morning messing around with it and the new features.
My consensus – Refreshing!
Among some of my first impressions are is a more simple looking administration area, which seems to load quicker and with less overhead on my servers.
I have also looked at the new theme that is installed with the update and I am really eager to dive into it further to understand how the new version will enhance the user experience.
More to come as we continue to put the new version through it’s paces.
The computer screen no longer holds the exclusive position for viewing web content. In recent years, more and more people are viewing your content on mobile devices. The iPhone has gained much attention in the press and is a popular mobile device used across the globe. So shouldn’t we begin to think about these visitors when designing our sites?
One group that has already put much thought into this topic are the folks at Brave New Code. They have developed a WordPress plug-in called WPTouch that makes formatting your content for the iPhone extremely easy. We use this plug-in on our site and have been very pleased with the results.
WPtouch automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-like experience when viewed from an iPhone or iPod touch. It comes complete with ajax & effects, and all the standard WordPress blog features: search, login, categories, tags, archives, photos & more. WPtouch also allows for near-complete customization through your WordPress admin.
As the Admin, you get to define which content and pages from your blog are visible to iPhone or iTouch users. You can even assign individual bookmarking icons to each of these pages. The theme operates completely separate from your theme as viewed on a computer.
But if your users would rather see your computer based theme instead of the iPhone enhanced theme, there is an option in the footer on WPtouch for your users to easily switch between the WPtouch view and your site’s regular appearance. It’s that easy. The plug-in adds a little snippet of code which will be shown only to iPhone/iPod touch users and give them the ability to switch between the two views easily.
If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, have a look at our site and tell us what you think. We would very much like to hear your comments on this plug-in.
UPDATE 5-Jan-2009: WordPress has opened up a section of their site dedicated to this application (http://iphone.wordpress.org). The application works on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. It works with WordPress.com hosted blog as well as self hosted blogs using version 2.5.1 or higher.
There are some very nice, professional applications coming out for the iPhone these days. It seems that most major players are looking to port their application to the iPhone platform.
The folks over at WordPress are no exception, and they have been hard at work getting the latest release of the popular blogging software ready for the iPhone.
If you would like to be a part of the community that is testing WordPress version 1.2 for the iPhone, head on over to the WordPress for iPhone website. From here you can download the latest version, join the community, and provide feedback on the functionality and features you would like next.
Have fun!
Recently, someone posted a question on one of the forums asking if there was a way to make a particular blog post sticky, or always the first post displayed on the home page of the blog.
I know of a way to edit the theme files to add static content, but that is the extent of my knowledge. So I got to thinking, there must be other ways to add static content … and perhaps I had missed something with this “sticky post” issue. So I set out to find some alternative methods for adding static content to a WordPress blog.
(more…)
Recently, one of my friends took on the task of customizing a WordPress theme. He started with one of the themes from DIY Themes and began the formidable task of tailoring it to his tastes. It has been challenging to say the least, but he is making progress.
So it is with my dear friend in mind that I post this next tool, which I feel is of tremendous value to anyone considering developing their own Word Press theme.
WordPress Developer’s Toolbox | Developer’s Toolbox | Smashing Magazine.
The folks at Smashing Magazine always have informative posts, but this entry far exceeds my expectations as far a providing value. This post contains basic guidelines all the way up to snippets of code that can be included, so it caters to all levels of expertise.
We hope this post is as much value to you as it has been to us, and our dear friend Martin.
