WordPress is easy to use, but making something easy to use usually means you have to leave out features or reduce control. Editing text can be very frustrating with the native text editing built into WordPress.
Adding TinyMCE advanced editor, and two additional plugins, one for tables and one for shortcodes, will make editing easier.
NextGen Sidebar Widget Spacing
The NextGen Gallery is probably the most used gallery for WordPress sites.
There's a great sidebar widget for showing thumbnails from galleries on the pages. It comes with a very basic styling, but there are templates easily accessible for creating the look you want.
The default style jams the thumbnails together, and to make a pleasing look, you need to add some spacing.
Wordpress Post and Page Screen Options
One of our students noticed that his Add a New Post area looked different that our tutorial. For example, he had no excerpt or custom fields on the page and asked why his layout was different. The answer is that as of WordPress 3.1, some screen options on the Post and Page areas are hidden by default and need to be enabled.
This tutorial will show you step-by-step how to enabled them using Screen Options.
How to Exclude a Page from the Pages Widget in Wordpress
One of our students asked us how to remove a link from a left menu. In his case the link was coming from the Pages Widget, so we created this tutorial for him.
This tutorial will walk you through step by step how to exclude a page from the Pages Widget in Wordpress
Use W3 Total Cache to Speed Up Your WordPress Site
Speed is everything these days. People are browsing faster and have a shorter attention span. Time is literally money:
- Microsoft showed that when pages slowed by 1 second, ad clicks per user decreased by 1.5%.
- Amazon showed that when pages slowed by 1 tenth of a secon, sales decreased by 1%.
One great solution to make your WordPress sites run more quickly is the W3 Total Cache plugin. Here's how to use it:
Test Your Site
Before we speed up our site, let's test how fast it's running now. You can do that by visiting http://gtmetrix.com. In the image above I'm testing a plain WordPress install and it scored 87% and 93% on the two tests. Don't be surprised if your site is substantially slower after adding themes, plug-ins and widgets.
All in One SEO Pack Tutorial
This video and tutorial will show you how to use the All in One SEO Pack, perhaps the most popular plugin for optimizing your WordPress site.
How to Create a Frontpage Slideshow in Wordpress
This tutorial will walk you through step by step how to create a slideshow for the frontpage of your Wordpress site. We're going to use a plugin called (very logically) Frontpage Slideshow. Here's how to set it up correctly:
Install
First, go to the admin area of your WordPress site, click Plugins, then Add New and search for Frontpage Slideshow. Once you've found it, click Install now:
Restore a Wordpress Backup Using Automatic Wordpress Backup
Things are not quite right with your site. You have tried troubleshooting the issue for the last four hours and you are getting frustrated. Then you remember that you have been making daily backups of your site. The question is, "How do I restore my site from the backup?" This tutorial will take your through the steps!
This tutorial assumes you are using Automatic Wordpress Backup Plugin and that you have a backup ready to go. For instructions on how to create a back up please see the How to Automatically Backup Wordpress tutorial.
Access Automatic Wordpress Backup
In your administrator section, go to Plugins >> Automatic Wordpress Backup >> Settings.
Restore
Scroll down and go to the Restore from a backup tab.
Select the backup you wish to use and configure appropriately.
Restore from backup when finished.
Select OK if you are sure you want to run the restore. A manual backup will be created prior to running the restore in case you wanted to revert back.
Once you click ok, it will run the restore and then refresh once completed. Give it time to complete the restore; the larger the backup file the more time it will take.
That's it! You have just restored your site!
How to Automatically Backup Wordpress
Backup! Backup! Backup! There are few things more frustrating than having to redo an entire site from scratch after a major issue occurs with the site, whether that be an unidentifiable error, a hacked site, etc. If you have a backup in place, you will greatly reduce your work and keep your sanity.
This tutorial will walk you through how to automatically backup your wordpress site on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule by using the Automatic Wordpress Backup Plugin and Amazon S3. Let's get started!
Install Automatic Wordpress Backup Plugin
In your administrator section go to Plugins >> Add New.
In the search field type in Automatic Wordpress Backup.
Click Search.
Find Automatic Wordpress Backup. Make sure it is the right plugin by checking in the Description that the author is Dan Coulter.
Install Now.
Select OK.
Activate the Automatic Wordpress Backup Plugin
Select Activate Plugin.
Configure Access Keys
Click on Settings.
We need to get this information from our Amazon Web Services (AWS) Account.
If you do not have an account, you can register here (Please read all the terms and conditions):
http://aws.amazon.com/s3/
Or you can sign up for their free version here (Please read all the terms and conditions):
http://aws.amazon.com/free/
**Be sure to register and confirm your S3 account. If you get any errors in Wordpress that you do not have any account, it means that you have not completed all the steps for registration, which includes confirmation.
Log into your AWS account (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/). Scroll down to the Access Credentials section. Copy the Access Key.
Go back to your Wordpress site and paste the Access Key in the AWS Access Key field.
Go back to your AWS account. Click on Show under the Secret Access Key area then copy the Secret Access Key.
Go back to your Wordpress site and paste the Secret Access Key in the AWS Access Key field.
Choose Your Level of Gratitude and Save
Choose how you wish to support the developer(s).
Select Save Changes.
Create Bucket and Configure
Every object stored in Amazon S3 is contained within a bucket. A bucket must be unique, thus to ensure that it is unique you can name it yoursite.com-backup. Enter Bucket.
Configure appropriately.
Save Changes and Backup Now.
Check Your Backup
Click Refresh Now.
Your Manual Backup is completed and everything is setup for automatic backups as per your configuration!
That is all there is to it! Easy as 1-2-3!
Post by Email to Your WordPress Blog
By default WordPress allows you to write posts on your WordPress blog simply by sending an email.
However, as the video below makes clear, that default feature is fairly limited.
In this tutorial we'll show you how to set up your blog so that creating your posts by email is both fun and easy. The solution is the Postie plugin.
How to Move a WordPress Site
This tutorial will show you how to move a WordPress site from one folder to another.
In our example we're going to move the WP site from a folder called /blog/ and place it in the root of our site. That means that instead of accessing the site from http://example.com/blog/ we can now go directly to http://example.com.
Managing Your WordPress Multisites
In Part 1 of our WordPress Multisites tutorial we showed you how to enable multisites for your WordPress installation.
Here in Part 2 we're going to show you how to build your network, managing users, themes and plugins. By the end of this tutorial your users will be able to freely create and manage their own blogs:
WordPress Pagebreaks and How to Use Them
This tutorial will show you how to split a long WordPress post or page into several sections. People will click 1, 2, 3 to go to the first, second or third page respectively.
Open Up A Post or Page
In order to split a post or page, we need to edit it directly. Go ahead and open up the post or page and then clck HTML in the top right corner.
Insert the Pagebreak Code
Insert this code into the article anywhere you want a pagebreak:
Save the post or page and visit the front of your site. You should that pagination has now been created at the bottom of the article.
How to Install WordPress Locally on a P.C.
This tutorial will show you how to install WordPress locally on your P.C..
We're going to use WAMP for this task. WAMP stands for "Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP" which are the different elements that allow you to run WordPress on your computer.
Here's how you do it:
Video on How to Install WordPress Locally on a P.C.
Step 1: Install WAMP
Download WAMP to your computer.- Run through the WAMP installation process.
- In your taskbar, down the by the date in the bottom-right hand corner of your screen, look for the WAMP icon. Click on that icon.
- You should see a popup. Click "Start All Services" and then click "Localhost."
- Hopefully you'll see a white screen with the Wampserver logo in the top-left corner.
Step 2: Download WordPress
Go to WordPress.org and click on the blue button saying "Download WordPress 3.0.x".- The file you download should have a name like wordpress-3.0.1.zip
Step 3: Move WordPress to WAMP
- Click on the WAMP icon in your taskbar again and now click "www directory". This will take you to the folder where WAMP stores its websites.
- Move your WordPress folder from Step 2 into this directory.
- Extract the WordPress folder.
- It will be confusing to keep accessing the website through a folder called /wordpress-3.0.1/ so rename the folder to something simple such as /wordpress/
Step 4: Set up our database
- Click on the WAMP icon in your taskbar again and now click "phpMyAdmin". This will take you to the software where WordPress's databases are managed.
- Find the field labelled "Create new database" and enter "wordpress". Click "Create".
- Hopefully you'll see the name "wordpress" appear in the left column.
Step 5: Install WordPress
In your browser, visit this address: http://localhost/wordpress. You'll see the the WordPress installation screen as below:
Installation Step 1
On the first screen, simply click "Create a Configuration File".
Installation Step 2
On the second screen, simply click "Let's Go!".
Installation Step 3
Here you will need to enter the database information:
- Host Name: Localhost
- Username: root
- Password: [leave this blank]
- Database: wordpress
Installation Step 4
Simply click "Run the install".
Installation Step 5
Enter the name of your site plus the password and email you'd like to use.
Installation Step 6
You should now have a shiny new installation of WordPress on your P.C. where you can develop your website securely in your local environment.
Using Rokbox in Wordpress
Rokbox is a popular plugin made by Rockettheme for Joomla. It allows you to display images inside a stylish pop-up. You can see the Joomla version of this tutorial by clicking here.
However, there is also a WordPress version available and here's how to use it:
Download Rokbox and Upload to Your Site
Click here to download the Rokbox plugin for WordPress. You'll then need to extract the folder onto your desktop. Upload it to the /wp-content/plugins/ folder on your site
Activate Rokbox
In your WordPress site admin area, go to the Plugins and click "Activate" next to RokBox Gallery
Add an Image to a Post
Go to one of your WordPress posts and click the "Add an image" button. Insert an image into your post. It end result should look like it does below:
View the HTML
Click the "HTML" tab in the top-right of your post.
Insert the RokBox Code
Insert rel="rokbox" into the HTML. The best place to do this is right after the opening
Finding and Installing Wordpress Themes
This tutorial will show you how to find, install and activate free themes for your WordPress site.
Video on Installing WordPress Themes
Go to the Themes Area
In the admin area of your Wordpress website, click on the "Appearance" tab and then click on "Themes".
Go the the Install Themes Area
Click "Install Themes" in the top of the themes area.
Choose a Keyword or Set of Features
One way to search for a theme is to enter a keyword and click "Search".
Alternatively you can choose the features you'd like and click "Find Themes". Be careful not to check too many boxes or you'll end up with few results when you search.
Theme Search Results
WordPress will return all the themes that match your search. Click on either "Install" if you know you want the theme or click "Preview" to see what it will look like. We're going to click on "Install" next to "Desk Mess Mirrored"
Install the Theme
You'll see a screenshot of the theme and a few details. Click "Install Now" to complete the installation or "Cancel" to go back.
Installation Complete
You'll hopefully get a message saying "Successfully installed the theme [THEME NAME]". Click on "Activate" to make the theme live.
Current Theme
You should now see your theme under the "Current Theme" heading. Voila! Your theme will now be live on your site.
Using the Flutter Plugin for Wordpress
Flutter is a Wordpress plugin that allows you to move beyond simple posts and pages in Wordpress. You can create different types of pages with different types of content. In this example we're going to emulate IMDB.com and list movies together with details about the movie.
Install Flutter
Go to Plugins >> Add New and search for "Flutter". Click "Install" on the right hand side of the page, click "Install" again and then "Activate Plugin".
Browse to Flutter
Flutter adds two areas to your Wordpress admin screen. Under "Settings" you'll find "Flutter" which is the main configuration for the plugin. There will also be a whole new area called "Flutter" which is where you will add content.
Create a Write Panel
Click on "Write Panels" and then "Create Write Panel". You can choose different options for your panel. For example, to simplify things for your users you can unpublish custom fields, password, excerpt and other features that are confusing for beginners. Click "Finish" when you're done.
Add Fields to Your New Write Panel
If you'd like to you can group your fields into different areas. For Movies, you might have a group of fields called "People" and inside that fields called "Director", "Cinematographer" and so on. You might also have a group of fields called "Details" and inside that fields called "Release Date", "Genre" and so on. We're going to set that up and click on "Create a Group".
Name Your Group
Create Fields
Enter the Field Details
Flutter will offer you all sorts of options for the field. A "Textbox" is a simple one-line text field but you can also allow people to write in a larger area (Multiline textbox) multiple choices (Checkbox List, Radiobutton List) or even to upload files or images (useful in example to upload movies posters for example). Choose your options then click "Continue" and "Finish".
Add More Fields
See if you can go ahead and create extra fields and one extra group so that your "Movies" Write Panel looks like the image above.
Go and Start Writing
You'll see that Flutter has added a new option called "Movies" at the top left, underneath "Posts". Click "New" to start writing.
Enter Information Into Your Fields
The post page will look just as it does normally with just one exception ... your Flutter fields will show at the bottom of the page. View your post on the front of your site and your fields should be visible.
Hiding a Wordpress Site from Search Engines
This tutorial shows an easy way to work on a Wordpress site without taking it live. There is a setting that makes the search engines ignore the site until you are ready. Be careful to turn this back on when you're ready to launch. I've seen some big sites for big companies launch with this enabled ... everyone was sitting around wondering why they had no traffic.
Login to Your Wordpress Site
Go to Settings >> Privacy
Finally set Blog Visibility to "I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors" and your site will be hidden from Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Importing RSS Feeds Into Wordpress Posts
This tutorial will show you how to take an RSS feed and import it into your Wordpress site. Each item on the RSS feed will become a separate Wordpress post. We use this technique for a couple purposes:
- Distributing our content to other Wordpress sites.
- Importing blogs and news on a particular topic from other sites. This way people can read them all in one place.
We're going to use a plugin called FeedWordPress.
Installing and Configuring FeedWordPress
Step 1: Go to the FeedWordPress page on Wordpress.org and download the file.- Step 2: Extract the files into a folder on your desktop. The folder will be called, unsurprisingly "feedwordpress"
- Step 3: Login to your site's files via FTP and navigate to /wp-content/plugins/.
- Step 4: Upload the "feedwordpress" folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
- Step 5: Go to wp-admin >> Plugins and click "Activate" under "FeedWordPress".
- Step 6: Once you've enabled it, you'll see a new tab on the sidebar called "Syndication". Click the first link called "Syndication". You'll see a screen like below:
- Step 7: Enter your RSS feed into the box called "Add new source" and click "Syndicate"
- Step 8: FeedWordPress will check the feed and if it's valid, you can click "Use this Feed" to import the posts.
Importing the RSS Feeds
Now that you're set up, there are two ways to import feeds:
- Manually: If you'd like to manually import feeds, go the "Syndication" link, check the feeds and click "Update Checked".
- Automatically: If you'd like to manually import feeds, go the "Feed and Updates" link and FeedWordPress will show you how to give you instructions to set-up a cron job.
How to Change the Logo on Any Wordpress Theme
- Step 1: Go and download the Firefox browser, if you haven't done so yet: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html. Firefox is much better than Internet Explorer or Safari for working on websites.
- Step 2: Start Firefox so that you're browing the web with it. We're now going to install an extra toolbar for Firefox. It is called the "Web Developer" toolbar. Visit this page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60
- Step 3: Click "Add to Firefox" and follow the instructions, including restarting Firefox.
- Step 4: The next time you open Firefox, you will see a list of links that starts with "Disable", "Cookies", "CSS" and ends in "Options":
Step 5: Browse to the website where you want to change the logo. We're going to use http://wordpress.org for this example.- Step 6: In the toolbar, click on "Images" which is the 5th link from the left. Then click "View Image Information" from the dropdown.
- Step 7: You will now see a list of all the images on the site.
- Step 8: Scroll down until you see the logo. You will see two pieces of information about it: Location ( http://s.wordpress.org/style/images/wordpress-logo.png ) and Size ( Width = 301 pixels, Height = 52 pixels ).
- Step 9: You need to make a new logo that is the same width and height as the old.
- Step 10: Use your favorite file manager to upload the new logo to the location you found in Step 8. It is better to rename rather than delete the old logo. You could call it logo-backup.png for example.