CategoryTechniques (WP)

April 8, 2013 — Moving WordPress is a task that many people find daunting. The advice on the Codex, while comprehensive, gives you a myriad of options and doesn’t describe the process simply and in one place. Read more…

April 4, 2013 — In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create the Tabber widget, which is very useful for when multiple widgets need to fit in a sidebar. It saves space and streamlines the appearance and functionality of your WordPress-powered website. Read more…

March 20, 2013 — Recently I shared with you some advice from the WordPress community to beginners. But what about if starting out is already a dim and distant memory? What if you’re already so immersed in the world of WordPress that you dream of trac and bore your partner with talk of the latest thing you’ve achieved with custom post types? Read more…

March 13, 2013 — At the recent WordCamp Edinburgh, I took part in a panel discussion about WordPress theme development and the options available to developers when building themes. The overriding conclusion from the session was that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer and that the best method depends on the needs of the website and the capabilities of the developer. Read more…

March 5, 2013 — In case you missed it, WordPress release 3.4 included a very exciting new development - the theme customizer. This allows users to tweak theme settings using a WYSIWYG interface and customise a theme so it includes the colours, fonts, text and pretty much anything else they want. Read more…

February 21, 2013 — There is so much to learn about WordPress theme development. The Internet is home to hundreds of articles about building WordPress themes, to countless theme frameworks that will help you get started, and to endless WordPress themes, some of which are beautiful and professional but not a few of which are (to be honest) a bit crappy. Read more…

February 8, 2013 — There has quite probably never been a better time to be a premium theme user. While a huge increase in the supply of quality premium themes hasn’t particularly driven down prices, it has promoted a huge push for innovation, best practices and quality design. Unfortunately, there’s one crucial thing which rarely gets quite so much attention as the must have responsive design: after-sales support. Read more…

January 14, 2013 — If you’ve been around WordPress for a while you know how difficult it used to be to create post lists based on complex criteria while also conforming to WordPress standards. Over the course of a few years the platform has come a long way. By utilising the power of the WP_Query class, we can lists posts in any way we want. Read more…

December 11, 2012 — The shortcode ability of WordPress is extremely underrated. It enables the end user to create intricate elements with a few keystrokes while also modularizing editing tasks. In a new theme we’re developing, I decided to look into adding widgets anywhere with shortcodes and it turns out that it isn’t that difficult. Read more…

December 5, 2012 — “First, let’s set a few things straight: becoming a top WordPress [developer professional] is hard work — very hard work. It’s going to take a lot of time, energy and determination. If you’re looking for an easy checklist or some “fast pass” to the top, you’re going to waste your time. Being one of the best is hard, and statistically speaking, the odds are stacked against you.” Read more…