Categories and tags are significant organizational features for your WordPress site. Using them enhances the ability of users and search engines to find your content. Once people find your content, categories and tags help them further discover related material on your site. In this post, we'll dive deeper into their similarities and differences. Taxonomies That Add Structure Categories and tags are default WordPress taxonomies that add structure to a WordPress site. Taxonomies are … [Read more...] about Benefits of Using WordPress Categories and Tags
Web Design
Learning Opportunities in Web Redesign
In this web redesign project, the client requested that I update their site with a fresh, new look and a parallax scroll effect on the home page. Parallax creates a 3D viewer experience. The use of movement gives the illusion of depth and space. As this would be my first parallax design, I relished the opportunity to learn more about it. Brainstorming Phase Brainstorming for me is a process of taking notes and drawing thumbnails while researching. For this redesign, I spent several hours … [Read more...] about Learning Opportunities in Web Redesign
How and When to Use the Gutenberg Group Block
After I became comfortable with Gutenberg (WordPress editor), I started looking for ways to take my skills to the next level. The Gutenberg Group block is a powerful tool for placing several blocks together in a single container. In this article, I discuss how and when to use the Group block. How to Use the Gutenberg Group Block 1. Individual Blocks Into Group Block The simplest way to begin is by using individual blocks as needed. Let's say you have a Heading block followed by 3 … [Read more...] about How and When to Use the Gutenberg Group Block
WordPress Maintenance – The Essentials
Immunization In this post, I describe the series of essential tasks that I include in maintaining my clients' sites. I perform these tasks routinely at the end of each month. It's really important to keep your WordPress site updated so that it runs smoothly and is protected from hackers. WordPress software, themes, and plugins are in a constant state of change: new features are added; bugs are fixed; security holes are plugged. Without regular updating, your site becomes vulnerable to hackers … [Read more...] about WordPress Maintenance – The Essentials
Connecting Domains to Separate Web Hosting
Two requirements for any website are domain name registration and web hosting. Most web host providers offer both services. You can keep them together at the same company or separate them. There are benefits and disadvantages to both approaches and you'll find all kinds of arguments favoring one over the other. This post addresses how to connect the domain to the website when the domain name is registered at a different provider than the web hosting. There's a mix of what my clients do. So, … [Read more...] about Connecting Domains to Separate Web Hosting
How to Use the Modula Custom Grid Gallery
Modula is a fantastic WordPress plugin for creating galleries. It has loads of options in the Settings section, which makes it very flexible. I especially like the Custom Grid gallery type because of its modular nature: the images can be all the same sizes or a mix of sizes. This guide will show you how to (1) create a new gallery, (2) configure it for a custom grid, (3) add images to it and (4) display the gallery on a page or post. (1) Getting Started: Create a New Gallery (2) … [Read more...] about How to Use the Modula Custom Grid Gallery
Cropping Thumbnails in WordPress
WordPress Image Defaults When you upload an image to WordPress, it goes into your Media Library. Then, WordPress generates 3 copies of it at default sizes: thumbnail (150x150 pixels square), medium (300x300 pixels maximum), and large (1024x1024 pixels maximum). Your theme settings may vary or include other sizes in addition to these defaults. The thumbnails, used in in the blog archive list and image galleries (among other things), automatically cut off parts of the original image. Sometimes … [Read more...] about Cropping Thumbnails in WordPress
Beginner’s Guide to Gutenberg Blocks
WordPress replaced the classic editor a few years ago with the Gutenberg block editor. I encourage you to start using it! The original classic editor behaved similarly to a word-processing program: the words and images got placed inside one, long, continuous edit field. With Gutenberg, each type of content has its own block: heads, paragraphs, images, quotes, lists, etc. It's a more modular system, very flexible and easy to style. In this tutorial, I'll introduce you to the basic Gutenberg … [Read more...] about Beginner’s Guide to Gutenberg Blocks