Just over two years ago, I created a site called Shaped Pixels where I designed and released various styles of WordPress themes—both free and premium versions alike. I can easily say that it’s been interesting and rewarding to continue being part of the WordPress community as the overall market is continuously progressing to better things. I know this because 26% of the internet uses WordPress!
I did something I never thought I would do
You might have noticed that the Shaped Pixels website looks a little different…OK, a lot different! Not only did I change the site visually, I also did something I never thought I would do which was to change from using the Joomla content management system (CMS) to WordPress! I am guessing most didn’t know I was running my site on Joomla, but that is a story for another time.
Using the Custom CSS Editor in WordPress
Something new is coming to WordPress 4.7 that is due to be released in just over a month from the writing of this article. It’s something that is making many people shrug with puzzlement and a question of…why are they doing this? Trust me, it even makes me wonder what is wrong with the priorities of the core WordPress development team. Sure there’s going to be several new things in 4.7, but why this…
Get free WordPress themes with full support
As some people may already know, each WordPress theme I design has a free version that is often designated with the added term “Lite” which represents the theme as being free and basic or limited features. The “Lite” versions give the end-user the option of using it for their website, or as a testing stage before purchasing the pro version…or any other premium WordPress themes I offer.
Using WordPress as a website without a blog
Something interesting happened today when I was on Twitter. I came across a tweet from WPTavern which posted an article introducing a new plugin that disabled most of the blogging features of WordPress. Technically it doesn’t remove them from WordPress, but rather it hides them from the website administrator (you). I read the post and immediately went to download this plugin because I wanted to try it out on a new installation of WordPress. So why does this interest me? Keep reading…
How to make a static front page in WordPress
When someone who is new to WordPress, they will discover a lot of interesting things that they were not aware can be done, or even things that cannot be done. But this article is not about what “cannot be done”, it’s going to focus on a very common problem that many ask a certain question, albeit in different forms, “How can I have my front page not show blog posts?” The answer often eludes many because it’s not really on their mind when they first install WordPress.
Things you should know before upgrading your free theme with a pro version
One of the frustrating things about using free themes from the wordpress.org directory is that upgrading to a pro version means that you will have a 99% chance you will have to make notes of all your customizer settings. How WordPress checks for updates for plugins and themes from the wordpress.org website repository means you need to be aware of a few things, but hopefully I can help with the process with the least amount of work.
Read More… “Things you should know before upgrading your free theme with a pro version”
What are em and rem font sizes?
Ever wonder what 1em or even a 1rem means when you are looking at your WordPress theme’s stylesheet and thinking what the hell is that? Normally when we look at font sizes, many people often think of pixels (px) as a unit of size. In the past, this was the standard…until we started evolving into accessibility. So what I will do here is give a simplified description of the differences between em, rem, %, and px, but I will try not to get too technical to descibe it.
Why bundling plugins in themes is a bad idea
You are probably reading the above title and thinking what is wrong with that? Getting a theme with built-in plugins or getting a bundle of installable plugins is great because you feel like you are getting more features and value for the money you pay for the theme you just purchased. I agree it’s nice to get a bunch of stuff included with your theme, but lets consider why it’s not always a good thing.