Whenever you’ve entered identical content in more than one place in your WordPress Web site, have you wished there was a better way? Well, there is. In fact, there’s a plugin for that: the amr shortcode any widget WordPress plugin. This has become a standard plugin for all of the sites I build. Read this post to find out why and how it’s used.
Techniques
Short How-To articles, similar to Case Studies but on a smaller scale.
Dynamic Linear Gradients for Background Images in Genesis
Many Genesis child themes natively implement what I call dynamic linear gradients over background images in homepage sections. The effect is that as the visitor scrolls down the home page, the background image gradually changes appearance, typically getting increasingly darker. This blog post shows you one way to implement dynamic linear gradients over background images in Genesis themes that don’t natively support the effect.
Dive Into WordPress Custom Post Types – Part 3
Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. In this post in my series on custom post types, I take a step back to discuss the larger issue of custom content – of which the custom post type is, of course, the foundational component.
Add Dynamic Table of Contents to a Series of WordPress Posts
When I’m writing a series of posts on a subject — such as a multi-part tutorial — I like to include a table of contents for that series of posts. I think this helps readers navigate the content. I’ve looked for a plugin that performs this function, without success. This post describes my own home-grown solution.
Help Your Blog Readers Find What They’re Looking For with the Search & Filter Plugin
This article shows how to use a simple, lightweight plugin — one I installed long ago, deactivated because I hadn’t followed directections, and forgot about — to filter blog posts and make it easier for you Web visitors to find what they’re looking for in your blog. After all, making our visitors’ experiences better is what it’s all about.
Dive Into WordPress Custom Post Types – Part 2
Custom post types and custom fields are powerful WordPress features that can initially seem intimidating. This is the second in a series of blog posts describing when, why, and how to use them.
Dive Into WordPress Custom Post Types – Part 1
Custom post types and custom fields are powerful WordPress features that can initially seem intimidating. This is the first in a series of blog posts describing when, why, and how to use them.
Why, When, and How to use sprintf and printf
This article is for php coders who are familiar with the sprintf (and printf) functions but who haven’t yet figured out why, when, and how they should use them. Until recently, I was one of them. Although I’ve been coding in php since 2001, I could count on one hand the number of times I’ve […]
Use Custom Fields to Hide Stale Posts
Custom fields in WordPress (meta-data) can be extremely handy for controlling how you display your blog posts. In this article, I describe how I used custom fields — together with modifying the WordPress loop for the site’s front page — to solve a not uncommon problem: When blog posts about events from the far past show up in the “Recent Posts” section of a site’s home page, visitors might react negatively. It’s a little like letting newspapers pile up in your driveway when you’re on vacation: people might think you’re lazy or not home. Deleting such posts isn’t the answer.
Are Your iPhone Photos Upside-Down or Sideways?
Are Your iPhone Photos Upside-Down or Sideways? If so, I have a solution. (I even have a partial explanation. Emphasis on “partial”.)