A sticky footer is a footer that sticks to the bottom of the browser window regardless of the length of the page's content. If the footer isn't sticky, it will appear too high on short pages, which doesn't look good. The best instructions I've found for creating a sticky footer for WordPress are found in […]
Google’s search results are generally quite good by default, but customizing the results can make them even better. Google provides several options for doing this, which appear along the left side of the search results page. These work best if you’re signed into a Google account. Type of content The top group of options filters […]
The Antispam Bee plugin is my favorite free anti-spam plugin for WordPress. I've used it for years on several sites, and it's extremely effective. It integrates right into the default commenting system in WordPress. It doesn't work with Jetpack Comments or forms (Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, etc.). Why not use Akismet? It's excellent and free […]
Note added June 18, 2020: When this post was originally written, TLS/SSL certificates could be expensive and difficult to install. Fortunately, things have changed for the better over the last few years. Many web hosts will give you a free Let's Encrypt certificate, and they make it easy to install. Another thing that has changed is […]
Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this visual book, Dan Cedarholm and Ethan Marcotte demonstrate 3 principles of “handcrafted CSS” through several specific examples. The examples feature border-radius, RGBA, modular floats, fluid grids, typography, and jQuery. The examples won’t age well, but the concepts certainly […]
Introducing HTML5 by Bruce Lawson My rating: 3 of 5 stars An entertaining introduction to HTML5 with real-world examples. Bruce Lawson and Remy Sharp have a creatively funny writing style, and I laughed at many of their code samples. The book covers several topics: structure, text, forms, video and audio, canvas, data storage, offline, drag […]
CSS: The Definitive Guide by Eric A. Meyer My rating: 4 of 5 stars “Definitive Guide” is a fairly accurate title for this 3rd edition of Eric Meyer's CSS textbook; it’s a deep dive of sometimes eye-glazing detail. It’s quite technical in its explanations of the math and calculations that CSS performs. There are CSS […]
I've been changing the permalink structure for WordPress sites to simply postname, and you can do the same! I'll show you how to generate the redirects you need. In the past, I've configured WordPress to use the permalink structure Day and Name, which formats the URLs for posts as /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/. Although I knew that a […]
WP101 has many high-quality WordPress training videos in their WP101 tutorial series. These are just a few of the topics covered: The Dashboard Creating a New Post Using Categories and Tags Creating and Editing Pages Add Photos and Images Managing Comments Adding Widgets
The Web Design Business Kit 2.0 by Brendon Sinclair My rating: 5 of 5 stars This SitePoint kit is packed with actionable advice and recommendations for web design and development businesses. The author draws on 10 years of firsthand experience plus tips from other successful web professionals. It’s a well-organized, easy read with summaries and […]
I refreshed my branding for 2012 because I converted OptimWise from an IT services business to a web design business. The branding refresh included a new logo and color scheme, so I redesigned my web design business site, OptimWise.com. Besides branding, the other impetus for the redesign was to use responsive web design, so the […]
I redesigned OptimWise.com to feature a new color scheme and a responsive design that adapts to fit your screen size, so it works on smartphones, tablets, and traditional computers. My friend Todd Karsemeyer of DESiGNTEK Graphics created the new logo which represents the Web and optimization, and hints at the letters "O" and "W" for […]
