Tag Archives: Wordpress

Wordpress

WordPress: How to Add Search Box to Top of Blog Header

4 Comments

This little tip goes hand in hand with another article I wrote titled: WordPress Creating a Custom Social Top Bar for your Blog

Essentially, there comes a time when you would like a better search box on your site (better than the default WordPress one). I have been using the “Google Custom Search WordPress Plugin” for years now, and found it to be ALOT more efficient in finding stuff on my sites.. Best of all, you have some flexibility to move the things around without having to worry so much about PHP coding.

Now the page for some of the coding you will need can be found here
http://littlehandytips.com/plugins/google-custom-search/

Thought to keep things simple, I’m going to give you code and tips on how to get started, after which you can modify to your own needs. The code example I’ve provided uses a simple table HTML code, thus also adding it to the top of your site (above the header) Continue reading WordPress: How to Add Search Box to Top of Blog Header →

Social Media, Wordpress

WordPress: Creating a Custom Social Top Bar for your Blog


I had a client who needed a custom made top bar for his blog that included social icons and branding. Now there is a WordPress plugin which will do the trick at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-topbar/  Though it requires PAYMENT to fully utilize it. Rather than worrying about buying licenses I pulled together my own version that doesn’t require any extra plguins, or alot of hard coding. (Plus I can customize it better to my own specifications

The following works just using basic html and a few custom graphics
(the following examples are presented in 3 basic forms)

1- Open your “header.php” file and place the following code beneath yourtag

See below (the first coding is just a basic top bar you can add your own link to) Continue reading WordPress: Creating a Custom Social Top Bar for your Blog →

Technical Aids, Wordpress

WordPress: Move “Author Archive” Bio to Bottom of page?


01- Open up the file “author.php”

02- locate the code
(looks like this or similar)

<?php
// If a user has filled out their description, show a bio on their entries.
if ( get_the_author_meta( ‘description’ ) ) : ?>
<div id=”entry-author-info”>
 <div id=”author-avatar”>
  <?php echo get_avatar( get_the_author_meta( ‘user_email’ ), apply_filters( ‘twentyten_author_bio_avatar_size’, 60 ) ); ?>
 </div><!– #author-avatar –>
 <div id=”author-description”>
  <h2><?php printf( __( ‘About %s’, ‘twentyten’ ), get_the_author() ); ?></h2>
  <?php the_author_meta( ‘description’ ); ?>
 </div><!– #author-description –>
</div><!– #entry-author-info –>
<?php endif; ?>

03 – cut and paste right BENEATH CODE Continue reading WordPress: Move “Author Archive” Bio to Bottom of page? →

Inbound Updates, Technical Aids, Wordpress

WordPress: How to add a “Grab My Code” button area to Sidebar?

This has often been a question asked especially in regards to WordPress Blogs. I found this great site, that takes care of the whole coding process for you. Once complete paste this code into one of your “text” widgets in your sidebar

http://www.mycoolrealm.com/sandbox/gbgen/

Example code used for client http://mommasays.net/  (below)
The code I generated has been listed below (in case the site listed above is no longer active)

<div align=”center” style=”padding: 5px;”><img src=”http://mommasays.net/images/mommasays-button.png”  title=”MommaSays.net” alt=”MommaSays.net” /></div><textarea style=”background:#f0f0f0;border:solid 1px #999999; color: #777777; font-size: 90%; height:45px; margin:auto; text-align: left; padding: 2px 0 2px 5px; display: block;  width: 90%;”>&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;>&lt;a href=&quot;http://mommasays.net&quot; title=&quot;MommaSays.net&quot; target=”_blank”&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://mommasays.net/images/mommasays-button.png&quot; alt=&quot;MommaSays.net&quot; style=&quot;border:none;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div></textarea> Continue reading WordPress: How to add a “Grab My Code” button area to Sidebar? →

Wordpress

WordPress: The perfect “front page slider” – easy home page posts slideshow

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A while back I was dinking around with various front page sliders. For WordPress there are maybe about 10 noted. Though for my needs, I wanted something quick, something easy and one that actually looks pretty decent. I installed a few of which some worked and some didn’t. My search seemed to be complete with the inclusion of “Recent Posts Slider”

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/recent-posts-slider/

To make things easy for ya, I’ve included MY recommended settings. I’ve also included a screen shot (click for larger view) for those who like to just see everything visually.

The section that says “Category IDs” is used for keeping certain categories OUT of the slider.
(NOTE the use of a negative number) Continue reading WordPress: The perfect “front page slider” – easy home page posts slideshow →

Wordpress

WordPress: How to Remove the Header from a Theme?

Sometimes you might find that you need to remove the header (top banner) portion from a WordPress theme. It may be for a certain look or even to include your own coded header.
To take that top portion out of your theme is actually pretty easy…and you can do so without deleting the code.

01– Open your theme’s file “header.php”

02– Locate this piece of code in your “header.php”  file.

<img src=”<?php header_image(); ?>” width=”<?php echo HEADER_IMAGE_WIDTH; ?>” height=”<?php echo HEADER_IMAGE_HEIGHT; ?>” alt=”” />

03– Now to disable it, just comment that whole section out. Continue reading WordPress: How to Remove the Header from a Theme? →

Wordpress

WordPress: Plugins – Upgrades that don’t work Solution

How to undo a plugin Upgrade

Often WordPress updates its core file, along with it you might get notifications of your plugins that need upgraded.
Though what I have found is that plugin upgrades are not always correct, or even always the version that worked for you best. This could be due to a number of things, compatibility, themes…..take your pick.

Did you know that plugins on the WordPress plugin directory save old versions?

Easy enough if you upgrade a plugin that doesn’t work, you can go back tot he original page and download its previous version

(now you’ll have to uninstall the new version completely as well)
(Make sure to write down any settings that you might have to reset)

01- Go to the WordPress plugin directory Continue reading WordPress: Plugins – Upgrades that don’t work Solution →