Whenever I speak at conferences, attend meetups, or even just causally mention WordPress in conversation, there's one question that comes up in nearly every conversation I have: What WordPress plugins do you recommend? That list is constantly in flux - a new plugin will be developed that replaces an old one, or an old one will stop working or be depreciated. Nonetheless, this list…
We've all been there: We're editing the WordPress theme file, setting a new function and *BAM*: We view the site and it's nothing but a sea of white pixels. There's no messages, no errors, nothing to indicate what you've done wrong. And it's frustrating: sure, removing the change would fix the problem, but I (as I'm sure you agree) would rather know why it's not…
WordPress 3.8 came out just a few days ago, and I jumped at the chance to install it on as many of my blogs as I could manage. This was one of the most anticipated updates in years - and with good reason. It was a complete overhaul of the admin interface and added quite a bit of new features. So, does WordPress 3.8…
A good favicon (the little icon next to your URL in the address bar) can mean the difference between a boring bookmark, or standing out in a bookmark list. It's also something most people don't think about, simply because it's such a small part of the overall presence of a site. Here's the thing, though: having a favicon means that there's a logo of yours…
One of the most useful features WordPress has is the ability to create custom image sizes from uploads. This takes the guesswork out of design, as it allows me to specify exactly the dimensions I need for my image. For a long time, WordPress had the ability to switch between a "soft crop", which basically resizes the images without any actual editing, and "hard…
At New Media Expo this past week I mentioned in my session that FeedBurner was my go-to solution for syndicating content to email (and for providing a fantastic way for people to subscribe to your feed via their own service). After the session, I was approached in discussion by someone with some news. Google is shutting down FeedBurner. "I haven't heard that," I mentioned.…
For the past few days, I've been in beautiful Las Vegas for the 2013 New Media Expo. You may know this event previously as "BlogWorld", but this year NMX took Vegas by storm. It backed up to #CES, and there was a lot of overlap with events and some attendees sticking around to attend both. Since I'm currently stuck at the airport after a…
[caption id="attachment_2409" align="alignleft" width="201"] Thanks to @wpbeginner for taking this photo - and for the amazing shirt ;)[/caption] If you know me, you know that New Media Expo (formerly BlogWorld) is my absolute favorite event to attend during the year. I average about six conferences a year (between the various WordCamps, PodCamps, and other camps), but there's none that I'd rather attend. I'll be…
I wrote a post a while back stating that the iOS app for WordPress was... lackluster, at best. That was nearly a year-and-a-half ago, and it's nice to see that the app has come a long way. I downloaded it to test it recently, and I was happily surprised with what I found: [gallery link="file"] Taking a page from the Facebook App's playbook has…
Edited 01/14/14 to work with WordPress 3.8 A few months ago I modified a really cool WordPress template and started using it for my own clients. As part of the overhaul, I realized that there was no really good way (included) to turn a WordPress unordered list into a menu that would work on a mobile device. I tried a few different solutions, but…