Seattle Website Designer - Kool Kat Web Designs

While my skills in php/mySql are sufficient enough to create #WordPress themes and modify plugins, I know they could use some refinement. Having received a month free trial at Lynda.com. I have been following along with the course ”
PHP with MySQL Beyond the Basics” and have learned new tips and tricks – especially object-oriented approaches. The only downside to the training is that you do not get course files unless you are a premium subscriber at a cost of $375.00 per year! While I fully understand the concept of paying for both content and training, it would be very nice to be able to get the course files as a monthly subscriber. Couldn’t Lynda.com just charge a bit more per month? This seems very reasonable to me since I really would not need a full-year subscription.

Trying out some fun fonts for headers on my website. I am using Typekit which is very easy to use – just go through the setup and select some fonts! I’ve just signed up for the free fonts so I don’t know what is available with a paid subscription but it is interesting trying it out. I have selected Inconsolata for my first try at this.

Now that I am using #WordPress 2.9.1, I thought I would try to embed a youtube video. When I tried, I only got a link – nothing embedded. I have the correct “Attempt to automatically embed all plain text URLs” in the media settings checked. So, I naturally tried a Google search to see if I could resolve the issue. What I found was that many others had experienced the same thing!

So, does #WordPress 2.9.1 support embedded video or not?

I attended a FREE class on how to more effectively use Linkedin at the my profile could use a little work.
Thanks SVC!

I finally have my #WordPress comments working as planned – with avatars and threads!

Having tried and then given up working a .mobi site, I decided to try WordPress Mobile Pack. So far, its working quite well although I see I need a few for tweaks and optimizations.

In order to augment my use of menus in #WordPress, I have been using the Page Lists Plus plugin. One of its features is to allow the anchor tag to be removed from the current page. This works fine except when the current page is the posts page. Since the plugin looks for the post ID ($post->ID), what gets returned is the id of the first post on the page and not the actual posts page! The solution to check and see if your current post is a page or a post. If its a post, then get the page ID for the posts:

if ($post->post_type == 'post') {
$currID = get_option('page_for_posts');
}
else {
$currID = $post->ID;
}

I know it seems simple but it took me awhile to figure it out.

I have been experimenting with #WordPress – learning how to create child themes and using “add_filter ” and “add_action” functions. I started with the thematic theme to see if I could take its very generic appearance and change it around. Although it did not bring my experiment to a complete theme creation, I now know how to proceed on any project requiring child themes.

It always is difficult for me to update older sites. I usually just want to rip the code out and start over. However, my clients usually just want their changes or updates implemented and not a re-do. So, I ignore the code I don’t like and just keep going.