Turn Addresses in Your WordPress Blog into Google Maps Links

by Tom Ewer July 26^th, 2012 2 Responses

Let’s face it – as the Internet has become more and more ubiquitous, we have become lazier.

Web usability has got to a stage where we expect everything instantly. We type a search query into Google, and more often than not, the answer we were looking for is presented to us within a second or two.

There’s no point bemoaning our heightened expectations – as web developers, we must simply do our best to create websites that are intuitive, and deliver exactly what it is that the target audience is looking for. We must fulfill expectations.

The Dynamic Web

Opinion

What Do You Love About WordPress?

by Tom Ewer July 25^th, 2012 7 Responses

So – I’ve been a bit “ranty” lately.

It started with a simple question: “Is There a Proliferation of Subversive Plugins on WordPress.org?” And if the 6Scan plugin mentioned in that post wasn’t enough, I then stumbled across CodeGuard – a “free” plugin available on WordPress.org that doesn’t actually offer any free functionality. You have to sign up for a paid plan in order to make any use of it.

Not a happy bunny.
Moving On…
However, the above has little to do with WordPress, per se.

Plugins

Should WordPress.org Host Premium Subscription-Based Plugins?

by Tom Ewer July 24^th, 2012 20 Responses

You may have spotted my little rant the other day regarding the apparent proliferation of subversive plugins on WordPress.org. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the 6Scan Backup plugin, which is essentially an advertisement for the same company’s premium security product.

What came as a surprise was the comment from a representative of 6Scan on that very post, in which he admitted “messaging issues”, and claimed that the plugin was a “work in progress”. Fair play to the chap for making himself known, but I’m not convinced.

Plugins

Plugin Developers: How to Grab WordPress.org Information for Your Site

by Tom Ewer July 20^th, 2012 4 Responses

Life as a plugin developer can be hard.

Not only do you actually have to develop plugins, if you’re doing your job right you have to provide all of the necessary documentation. You should probably have a dedicated page on your website for your plugin, filled with lots of useful information relating to its usage and such. Yep – even if all of that information is already on WordPress.org, nestled intuitively within the various tabs such as “Installation” and “FAQ”.

Plugin Developers: How to Grab WordPress.org Information for Your Site

Plugins

Boost Your Site’s Load Time with the Lazy Load Plugin!

by Tom Ewer July 19^th, 2012 4 Responses

There’s something about the phrase “lazy loading”. It somehow seems a bit suggestive. Or perhaps that says far more about me and my Freudian ways than it does the phrase itself.

Boost Your Site's Load Time with the Lazy Load Plugin!

Plugins

Censor Words on Your WordPress Site with Filtration

by Tom Ewer July 18^th, 2012 3 Responses

Sometimes, certain language is just plain uncalled for.

Whilst I’m all for free speech and such, it is fair to say that some people on the internet are inclined to use foul and inappropriate language – often when it is especially uncalled for.

If you run a WordPress site that has a reputation to uphold – a reputation that might be damaged by uncouth language - Filtration could be right up your alley.

Banish Bad Language
Filtration is a simple yet effective censorship tool for your blog. To demonstrate its abilities, here’s a before and after screenshot of a delightful fudge post:

Censor Words on Your WordPress Site with Filtration

Miscellaneous

Quick WordPress Tip: Remove Unwanted Divs with Two Quick Keystrokes

by Tom Ewer July 17^th, 2012 2 Responses

WordPress’ visual editor comes complete with plenty of eccentricities – some distracting, some plain irritating.

But don’t worry – the purpose of this brief post is not to lay hate down on TinyMCE – instead, I want to offer up a quick and easy shortcut fix for a common issue that used to drive me around the bend.

You may wondering what the aforementioned common issue is. Here is a screenshot:

As you can see, the paragraph after the numbered list seems to have lost its bottom margin. When you switch views to the HTML editor, you can see why:

Plugins

Boost Blog Post Tweets by 25%+ with Easy Tweet Embed

by Tom Ewer July 16^th, 2012 4 Responses

They said I couldn’t do it.

They told me I was a writer – not a programmer. I couldn’t even dream of having a plugin hosted on the WordPress.org Plugins Directory.

But they didn’t know of the fire that burned inside me – an intense desire to become a published plugin developer.

Boost Blog Post Tweets by 25%+ with Easy Tweet Embed

Plugins

How to Link to Scheduled Internal Posts in WordPress

by Tom Ewer July 13^th, 2012 Leave a comment

Well I’m feeling rather spoilt at the moment.

Yesterday I was like a kid in a sweet shop with Better Internal Link Search, and today I’ve got a plugin for you that offers even more extended functionality for WordPress’ pretty terrible internal link search feature.

And this is a real exclusive folks – at the time of writing, this plugin had been on the WordPress.org directory for precisely 17 minutes, with just one download (and that was mine). How’s that for a scoop?

Internal Linking for Scheduled Posts

How to Link to Scheduled Internal Posts in WordPress