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Make Life Easy WP Plugins

Product Reviews, Social Media, Web Design, Web Development, WordPress

If you’re a web designer or blogger, you know that WordPress (WP) has quickly become one of the fastest growing, most popular content management systems (CMS) around. It’s extremely quick to install as well as easy to navigate and master. And they are consistently evolving across all platforms with simple-to-use themes as well as free updates and plugins that are only a few clicks away via the dashboard Most of us WP users and web designers purchase a theme with majority of the bells & whistles we think we’ll need. But sometimes the theme falls short, you need your website to have certain functionality that you could not have foreseen needing or you need to add functionality at the behest of your client. So this is where plugins plug in-filling in the gap between wishing and less limitations.

In the last year, I’ve begun having more fun in the dashboard and realize that I’ve been missing out on all the cool plugins that make building/editing a site more efficient as well as functional. Some are tried and true while others are indeed new. So here’s my list of my favorite WordPress plugins to date.

All-in-One SEO Pack – All in One SEO Pack Pro v2.1 improves on the most popular WordPress SEO plugin. Not only can you set site-wide defaults in WordPress as well as customize the search engine settings for each individual WordPress post, page and custom post type but now you can manage exactly how search engines crawl each page or post. All in One SEO Pack Pro even gives you complete control over your social meta or OpenGraph meta so you can control what appears on your favorite social media sites.

Custom Link Widget – A Simple, straight-forward plugin that lets you insert links as the widget. Just insert your link, name it and it will convert it to a hyperlink automatically.

Image Widget – A simple image widget that uses the native WordPress media manager to add image widgets to your site. It automatically resizes and aligns your image, allows you to link the image and even allows you to override your theme template!

Post Types Order – You can custom order the posts without making any php file changes or publish date resetting. Simply install plugin, drag & drop.

Widget Logic – This widget gives you extra control field called “Widget logic” that lets you control the pages that the widget will appear on.

Ultimate TinyMCE – A chock full kitchen sink of editorial/functional options.

WP Touch – This plugin reformats your website to a mobile site for easy navigation & shortcuts on Apple iPhone / iPod touch, Google Android, Blackberry Storm and Torch, Palm Pre and other touchscreen smartphones.

Acurax Social Media Widget – This so ridiculously simple plugin lets you define the icon style & add multiple social media linked icons to your Twitter,Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube,RSS Feed,Linkedin, and Google+.

TweetMeme Retweet Button – adds a button which easily lets you retweet your blog posts.

So there you have it – just a few ways to make WordPress work better for you.

I’d love to hear your faves – which are some of your favorite plugins?

How To: Add A Menu To Your WordPress Theme

All Posts, How to, Web Development, WordPress

Have you ever installed a new WordPress theme that didn’t have native support for creating and selecting custom menu (navigation bar). Now before you jump in be sure to either do a backup of your files, or as you get to the Functions.php and Header.php files copy the original code to a text editor before you modify it. Once you’ve done these preventative “CYA” measures follow these steps below:

From your Dashboard menu, go to Appearance > Edit and add the code below to the theme’s functions.php file: (in some cases I’ve seen this called “Theme Options” just above where it says “functions.php”. This is the same thing.)

You can add this code below towards the bottom of your page code so that you can easily find it later should you need to reference it.

add_theme_support( ‘menus’ );

(you may need to add this on the next line if you get to the end and your menu doesn’t show up:

add_action( ‘init’, ‘register_my_menus’ );

function register_my_menus() {
register_nav_menus(
array(
‘menu-1’ => __( ‘Menu 1’ ),
)
);
}

User your browser’s Find feature and search for this code in your theme’s Header.php file:

<?php wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&depth=1’); ?>

Highlight this string of code and replace it with this code below:

<?php wp_nav_menu( array( ‘sort_column’ => ‘menu_order’, ‘container_class’ => ‘menu-header’ ) ); ?>

Lastly click on Appearance then Menus and you should be able to create a custom menu.

What’s On Your Website Menu?

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Getting creative on websites can sometimes feel constrained due to traditional layouts and verbiage, and most certainly when it comes to navigation bar and menus. Many of us think that we need to have the standard, cookie-cutter menu navigation bars that have become the “norm” for almost all websites. You know the type:

~Home~ ~Our Services (or Our Products)~ ~About Us~ ~Contact Us~

Most are similar in wording and format. I’m not saying that there is anything WRONG with this per se but if you can, know that outside of conventional thinking and web design, you can get creative without compromising easy navigation of your site.

Websites are certainly your worldwide face but even the prettiest of girls can use a little makeup. Sometimes that’s demure or other times an unexpected shocking red lipstick drives home a certain affect. So can your website. Don’t be afraid to try and incorporate some artistic menu design ideas. I had a ball researching some pretty interesting and witty design elements for menu navigations.

I thought this was a great use of the industry-driven design even with the typical wording. Another idea would have been to use the bricks themselves as the navigation bar.

You don’t see many vertical layouts for navigation bars so this really stood out to me. I bet it does the same for the current and prospective clients too!

Most of us would enjoy seeing a fun and innovative menu layout. This one made me comment out loud when I saw it “oh, that’s different”!

Don’t be afraid to use representative artwork and images either with or in-lieu of typical or generic menu names. It gives a personalized look to customary naming conventions.

When to keep it standard vs. using Atypical menu choices

I would say this is probably governed by the industry you’re in. If you are let’s say a law firm, then maybe you wouldn’t use the layout above but creative wording can be your breakout of the blue suit moment. Don’t be afraid to use your thesaurus here as long as you don’t compromise the ease of use and appropriate industry jargon. Example: I’m a recent law school graduate looking to work at “JP Law Firm” and upon reviewing their website, I see a menu item titled “The Brief” (which is a legal term for a written document presented in court arguing why the party to the case should prevail). It would not be a tough leap to guess they were using that instead of “About Us”. It’s a witty play on words which can be a little amusing and personally, I’d be impressed by the break away. Not everything needs to be starched and buttoned up. So with this said: