From the category archives:

WordPress

HousingWire.com Redesign

by Rizwan on February 23, 2010

HousingWire.com redesign. Launched January 1, 2010.

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Review of the visitphilly.com by Happy Cog

by Rizwan on February 22, 2010

Website: http://www.visitphilly.com/ (beta)

Designed by Happy Cog

Home Page

What they did good:
Simple, clean and colorful. That is how I would describe the redesign of the visitphilly.com website. I really like the vivid images that are used on the background as they are colorful and grab my attention. Many designers are afraid of taking up a lot of space before the main content but the designers at Happy Cog showed a great example of crushing that myth and doing it in style.

To improve:
The Featured Listings on the home page look great but the images and the titles of the sections should also be clickable. Right now the only way to get to that article is to click on the small More link.

Great Job by everyone at Happy Cog

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REO Expo 2010 Website

by Rizwan on February 21, 2010

Just finished the website for REO Expo 2010 using WordPress.

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Vote now! Which Permalink structure is best for SEO?

by Rizwan on September 8, 2009

I have read differing views on which permalink structure is best for SEO. I would like to know what you think and why? Please vote now and comment if necessary. Thanks

Which Permalink structure is best for SEO?

View Results

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Excluding Cateogries in WordPress

by Rizwan on September 2, 2009

There will be times when you need to not show a category on a certain page. You can either code this manually or use a plugin. Here are some options:

Manually Excluding a Category
Step 1: Go to your WordPress Dashboard
Step 2: Expand the Posts dropdown from the left sidebar
Step 3: Click on the Categories link
Step 4: Click the Category you want to exclude
Step 4: In you browser address bar you will see a url that contains your Category ID. It looks something like this:

 <br/>http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/categories.php?action=edit&cat_ID=5<br/>

The Category ID is 5 at the end of the url (cat_ID=5).
Step 5: Open the Functions.php file for your Theme
Step 6: Past the following code before the closing PHP tage ?> and make sure you change -xx in the code below to your category id 

function exclude_category($query) {
if ( $query->is_home ) {
$query->set('cat', '-xx');
}
return $query;
}
add_filter('pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category');

Try it out. I will be updating this post with other examples of excluding categories and plugins you can use.

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Update WordPress Manually

by Rizwan on August 24, 2009

Everytime I try to update WordPress from the WP Dashboard I keep getting the message that it is downloading the update. The update never gets downloaded though. So I decided to update WP manually. Don’t be afraid to try this out. As long as you have backed up your files and your database you can always revert back without any problems.

Here are the steps:

  1. Backup your database and all your files
  2. Backup, backup and backup. Back it all up. (Lesson learned the hard way)
  3. Did I mention backup?
  4. Login to your WordPress Admin Panel and deactivate all your plugins
  5. Download the latest WordPress version to your desktop
  6. Upload all files except
    1. wp-content
    2. wp-content/languages (If you are using custom language files)
  7. Navigate to http://www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php and follow the instructions.
  8. Login to your WP administration panel and reactivate all your plugins one by one and keep checking your site for any issues. This way you will know if a plugin is compatible with WP version you have updated to.

That wasn’t too hard was it? Now you can enjoy the latest release of WordPress.

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Renumbering ArtBoards in Illustrator

by Rizwan on August 23, 2009

Recently I designed some wireframes for a site I am building. The wireframes were designed using Adobe Illustrator. Using the Artboard Tool I was able to layout all the pages I needed to build. The wireframes consisted of 12 pages. After the wireframes were complete I realized that I needed to add another page between page 3 and 4. Currently if you add a new page using the Artboard Tool it will only add a new page at the end,  so I ended up with a page 13. After browsing a few forums I ended up at the Adobe Illustrator Google Groups forum. There Jean-Claude Tremblay explained this solution:

img_artboards

Here is the solution:

  1. Use the Rectangle tool to draw rectangle that cover the artboard size of all of your artboard except the one that you want to be the first. Using smart guide it will snap to the artboard. It’s IMPORTANT to draw them in the order you want your artboard to be re-order.
  2. Now using the Artboard tool, delete all artboard except the one you did not draw a rectangle over.
  3. Select all the rectangles from step 1. and choose Object > Convert to Artboards

Works like a charm. Try it out for yourself it is a great time-saver.

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