Since it is almost 2011, people are asking me to change the copyright date at the bottom of their WordPress blog.

You can, however, do this automatically by using a piece of code that displays the current year. Once this is added to your template, you don’t need to manually update it again.

This will display the current year.

<?php echo date(“Y”); ?>

At the bottom of this site, I have the following.

Copyright © 2008 – 2010 (Anti) Social Development All rights reserved

The following code is used.

Copyright © 2008 – <?php echo date(“Y”); ?> <?php bloginfo(‘name’); ?> All rights reserved

This is copyright, the code for the copyright symbol, the year I started the site, the current year, the name of the site, and All rights reserved.

If you add that little piece of code to your template – this is usually the footer file – you don’t have to worry about changing the date manually again.

photo credit: Horia Varlan

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

How to Update the Copyright Date on your WordPress Blog Automatically

I am a huge fan of the Studiopress themes for WordPress and while I don’t use them on my this site, I use them on a number of client sites and on my Mary Shelley site and new Watch Doctor Who project.

Now through next Tuesday November 30th everything all Studiopress is 25% off. Every theme and even the Pro Plus All-Theme package. If you were thinking about buying Genesis and a child theme or even every theme, now is the time to do it.

To get 25% off use the discount code BLACK.

All Studiopress discount codes will be invalid after next Tuesday so this really is the time to buy. I purchased the Pro Plus All-Theme package quite some time ago and couldn’t be happier. The themes are excellent, you get access to new releases and the support is some of the best out there. I don’t think I’ve ever had a question that I couldn’t find an answer to on the support forums.

Here is a small sample of the Studiopress themes.

AgentPress	Church
Lexicon	Lifestyle

Don’t forget – the discount code to use at checkout is BLACK.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Studiopress links are affiliate links. If I didn’t like them, I wouldn’t recommend them. ;-)

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

All Studiopress Themes for WordPress 25% off

Recently I was asked how to add the Facebook Like feature to a WordPress.com blog.

Since I write about the WordPress. org or self-hosted version, I had to look this up. My work with WordPress.com is mostly with moving people to self-hosted WordPress.

Since plugins can’t be added to WordPress.com blogs and the templates can’t be modified, I honestly didn’t think I was going to find a solution for this. (Well, some extras can be purchased but I’m not going to get into the intricacies of WordPress.com in this article.)

But, I did.

1. Go to Get Social Live
2. Add the post title and the url to the post in the first two fields. Unfortunately, this will need to be added on a post by post basis. It can’t be added to the overall site.
3. Select Facebook Like
4. Click on the Get Social Button
5. The code you need will show up and you can copy and paste it into your post.

   

When you click on the Like Button in your post, you will be take to a social live page that looks like the following.

You will then need to click Like again on this page, to actually like the post and have it posted to your Facebook wall.

So, while this is a clunky solution for WordPress.com users, I suppose it’s better than nothing. And based on my tests, it will work on self hosted WordPress sites too. I’m assuming it would work on any type of site.

Do you know of any different or better ways to add Facebook like to WordPress.com sites?

Note: The photo doesn’t really have anything to do with this post other than that it’s my “new” bike and I really “like” it ;-)

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

How to Add Facebook Like on WordPress.com Blogs

Many navigation bars in WordPress are created dynamically with this piece of code
<?php wp_list_pages();?>

Since it is created dynamically, people often wonder how to exclude certain pages from the navigation. I have a lot more pages than I want listed there and I need a way to remove them.

Here I’m going to list three ways that you can do that. One is a code solution and the other two require the use of a plugin.

I have always attempted to use a code rather than a plugin solution but when there are a lot of pages to exclude or when the site is being created for a client, it may be best to use a plugin. Right now, I have so many pages excluded through the code that it may be easier for me to switch to a plugin in order to manage it. Especially since I have a navigation menu at the top and at the bottom of the page.

Code

Way back I wrote an article about how to exclude pages from the WordPress navigation bar manually. Instead of repeating that information, I have linked to the article. Nothing has changed and the exclude code still works perfectly.

Exclude Pages Plugin

The Exclude Pages Plugin adds a checkbox to the Edit page screen that says “include this page in menus”. When the plugin is installed the checkbox is checked by default. If you want to exclude the page, simply uncheck that checkbox.

pageMash Plugin

The pageMash plugin is the one that I prefer to install on client sites because it has additional functionality. In addition to hiding pages from the navigation bar, this plugin also provides a drag and drop interface that can be used to manage the order in which the pages appear on the navigation bar. It also provides a quick way to edit and rename the pages. Once installed, pageMash will be under the Pages menu.

Do you exclude pages from your navigation bar? Do you use any of these methods? Or do you use a different plugin that you like better?

photo credit: duncan (Wow! No tiaras with an apostrophe and an incorrect spelling of jewelry – gotta love it.)

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

3 Ways to Exclude Pages from the WordPress Navigation Bar

Facebook wants us to like things rather than fan or share them. I’m not, like, really liking, this change, like, you know? It makes me think of people who use like every three words they say and about passing notes in junior high. “Chris – do you think Billy likes me? Can you ask him? But don’t tell him I wanted to know.”

So, we can now add like buttons to our website. What’s cool about it is that it will show the little avatars of the people who liked your article and will post on their wall and newstream that they liked the article (if their settings allow for that).

There are two ways to add the like button in WordPress.

Code

The code method is the first way. I would add the following to the bottom of my post in the single post page. It’s usually single.php under Appearance > Editor

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=
<?php the_permalink(); ?>&layout=standard&show_faces=true
&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no"
frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none;
overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:px"></iframe>

You can change some of the variables such as the width, change scrolling to yet, add a border, etc. Note that the url being shared is

<?php the_permalink(); ?>

That is so it pulls the specific WordPress post that is being liked. Make sure that the code added is still within the loop on the single.php page. I would put it below

<?php the_excerpt(); ?>

or 

<?php the_content(); ?>

I have tried putting it at the top of the post but even when I set the height on the code, it pushes the beginning of the post down too far. It’s almost like (no pun intended) that it’s making room for the hoards of Facebook users who are going to be liking your post. If you’ve found workaround for this please let me know.

If you want to read more about this code or play with the fancy code generator it is available on the Facebook Developer’s Like Button Page.

Plugin

You can also install the WordPress plugin called Facebook Like Button. It basically does what the code above does but there was one thing I didn’t like about it. It adds the like code everywhere and not just to posts. I might want someone to like my Services page but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have a like button on my contact page. It is, however, super easy to set up. Just be sure to select the iframe option in the plugin settings.

So there you have it – two ways to add the Facebook like button to your WordPress site. Hope you liked it.

photo credit: found_drama

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

2 Ways to Like Add Facebook Like to Your WordPress Site

One of the new features in WordPress 2.9+ was support for the Post Thumbnail feature. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work by default and the function and code need to be added to the theme so that the feature is available. Once it is available, however, it is really super useful.

If you aren’t comfortable editing your template files, find someone who will do this for you. Some newer themes have this functionality already built in.

1. Add the following code to your functions.php file

   <?php if ( function_exists( 'add_theme_support' ) )
   add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' ); ?>
   

   I recommend making a copy of the file before editing it – I’ve messed up my functions file plenty of times ;-)

2. You will now see the Post Thumbnail box on your Edit/Add New post screen. It will be on the bottom right column.
   
3. Click on Set thumbnail and you can upload an image the way that you normally do. Instead of clicking on the Insert Into Post button, click on the Use as Thumbnail link and then Save.
   
   The image will be displayed in the Post Thumbnail box.
   
4. You now have a Post Thumbnail image but it doesn’t show up on your site. The code needs to be added to the template file where you want it displayed.
   The code is

   <?php the_post_thumbnail(); ?>
   

5. Currently I use the Thumbnails for Excerpts plugin to display a thumbnail image in my archives. I plan on adding the post thumbnail code and using the post thumbnail rather than being dependent on the plugin. I would add the code next to the code that displays the excerpt. Of course, since I have over 400 posts this will be quite an undertaking.

As I mentioned this will should already be available on newer themes. If you are using an older theme and want to use this feature, you will need to add the code manually.

photo credit: red twolips

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

How to Add the Post Thumbnail Feature to your WordPress Installation

Sometimes when we do a lot of customizations to our WordPress themes we can forget that they are there and then have trouble with something and be stumped as to what the problem is.

I did this recently with one of my scheduled posts and an excluded category.

Here’s what happened.

The problem

I always schedule my articles to post at 12:01am on the day that I want to publish it. Since 99% of the time I am asleep at that time, I check on the article when I get up in the morning. I got up and the article wasn’t on the front page of my site. I went into the admin area and saw that the article had published. I was confused – how it can be published but also be invisible. Also, I had just gotten up. I am a morning person but I don’t wake up completely alert and do need some caffeine to kick in before I am fully functional.

The Troubleshooting Thought Process

My next thought was that since there were code examples in the article maybe something in the code was keeping the article from displaying. In the back of my mind, however, I knew I was grasping for a solution because it had displayed fine in the preview while working on it and a code error would have shown up at that time. I removed all of the content from the article except for the first paragraph and it still didn’t show up. So, it wasn’t the code but I needed to eliminate that being the cause of the problem.

Still stumped, I decided to walk away from the computer for a couple of minutes. I’ve learned over the years that stepping away from a problem really does help in solving it rather that stubbornly beating my head against it.

And then it came to me. Check which categories the article was listed in. And sure enough I had placed the article in a couple of articles and one of them was one that I excluded from showing up anywhere except on my portfolio page (and since I recently changed the portfolio to use pages rather than posts I didn’t even need to be excluding or even using that category anymore).

So, in trying to be all fancy pants with my code, excluding categories, displaying items in one location and not in others, I kept a published post from showing up anywhere on my site. And when I was writing the article I completely forgot that I didn’t want to use that particular category because it would keep the post from showing up on the front page, archives, rss feed,etc. I removed the category from the post and it immediately displayed on the front page and throughout the site.

And you?

Have you ever had any of your customizations trip you up? Have you forgotten about them and how they work? I suppose I could list mine somewhere but until the other day, I never had a problem remembering them.

photo credit: metz79

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Don’t Let Your WordPress Customizations Get the Best of You

This week I have WordPress, Twitter, Morgan Freeman, coconuts and much much more.

• How to move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org – A comprehensive tutorial on moving from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. The tutorial includes two screencasts.
• How to Fully Secure Your WordPress Blog WordPress security is important and is a popular topic. Here is a security guide from someone who learned things the hard way.
• Do it Yourself: 12 WordPress Solutions Without Using Plugins – 12 Ways to implement common WordPress features, such as related posts, without using plugins.
• 5 Creative Ways to Use Your Twitter Favorites – I don’t really use the favorites feature on Twitter but this list of ways to use them almost makes me wish that I did.
• Bizarre Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Shelters – A really interesting article about octopus and coconut shells.
• Instant Chewbacca – I do a terrible Chewbacca impression. This site can help me practice.
• The Morgan Freeman Chain of Command Morgan Freeman has been in a lot of films and has had a lot of great roles. This is a funny chart creating a chain of command out of them.
• Nutshell Mail – This is a way to manage your social networks through email. If you are really busy, one email digest can notify you about updates on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace; new followers, birthdays, news stream, direct messages, replies, etc. I haven’t tried this but it seems like a great way to manage all of this information.
• A clever kitten
  
• Pug vs. Laser
  

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

(Anti) Social Lists 12/27/09

In my previous article I discussed how more information could be added to the images in the NextGEN Gallery by using the NextGEN Custom Fields plugin.

I installed and activated the plugin, created a new custom field, and showed the code that was used to display the new field with the images.

What I still need to discuss is where the code should go in the NextGEN Gallery template file and how to link to individual posts or pages. So, here we go.

1. We do not want the images to use a javascript or lightbox effect when they are clicked on. Go to Gallery > Options > Effects > Set Javascript Thumbnail Effect to ‘None’
   
2. Install the NextGEN Custom Fields plugin, if you haven’t done so already.
3. Create a new custom field for images.
4. In the custom field put a link to one of your pages, posts, or another site. I made mine a link to a the specific page for each item in my portfolio.
5. Go to Plugins > Editor > Switch to NextGEN Gallery in the Drop down Box > and click on nextgen-gallery/view/gallery.php It is near the bottom of the lists.
6. Make a copy of this file before you start it.
7. Starting at Line 41 (in my copy) is the following block of code:
   

   <div class="ngg-gallery-thumbnail" >
   <a href="<?php echo $image->imageURL ?>"
   title="<?php echo $image->description ?>"
   <?php echo $image-<thumbcode ?> >
   
   <img title="<?php echo $image->alttext ?>"
   alt="<?php echo $image->alttext ?>" src="<?php echo $image->
   thumbnailURL ?>"
   <?php echo $image-<size ?> />
   
   			</a>
   		</div>
   

8. I changed the code to the following so that the image was linked to the page I designated in the new custom field and so that the description was linked to the same page.
   

   <div class="ngg-gallery-thumbnail" >
   <a href="<?php echo $image->ngg_custom_fields["Link"]; ?>"
   title="<?php echo $image->description ?>"
   <?php echo $image->thumbcode ?>  >
   <img title="<?php echo $image->alttext ?>"
   alt="<?php echo $image->alttext ?>" src="<?php echo $image->
   thumbnailURL ?>"
   <?php echo $image->size ?> /></a>
   
   <a href="<?php echo $image->ngg_custom_fields["Link"]; ?>">
   <?php echo $image->alttext ?>
   		</div>
   

   Basically, you are replacing imageURL with ngg_custom_fields["Link"] so the image links to the URL in your custom field.

9. Keep in mind that ["Link"] will be the name of whatever you named your custom field.
10. I also added the last line that links the alttext or description of the image to the same page.
11. Since you are editing a template file, the changes will be lost if you don’t save them before upgrading the plugin. This is a bit of a hack but it is a way to link images in the NextGEN Gallery to individual posts or pages.

Here are some of the images in my portfolio, which demonstrates how this works.

green LA girl

Green and Clean Mom

Socialize Mobilize

G Citizen

Note: This information came from the WordPress support forums and the plugin developer. I used the information to do this write-up.

photo credit: mugley

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

How to Link NextGEN Gallery Images to an Individual Page or Post in WordPress

I incorrectly assumed that it was common knowledge to not paste content from Microsoft Word directly into the WordPress Visual editor but I encounter problems related to this issue so frequently that I thought I should do a quick write-up about the issue.

When you copy and paste content from Microsoft Word, it attempts to preserve the formatting and adds sorts of “ugly” formatting code into the WordPress editor. Frequently this results in the page not displaying properly in Internet Explorer. (It amuses me to no end that Microsoft’s web browser can’t deal with it’s Word Processor formatting code. For some reason Firefox is able to work around it.) So, someone will come to me and tell me that the formatting on the page is messed up or that the sidebar is in the wrong location. It isn’t actually a layout or WordPress code issue but rather that formatting code from Microsoft Word is affecting the layout.

When you use the Visual Editor you won’t see the formatting code. You can, however, determine if this is the problem by switching to the html editor or viewing the source code in the web browser. If you see code that looks like the following, then you can be confident that the Microsoft Word formatting is the cause of the problem.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Some text here.</span>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Some more text here. </span>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">And some more.  </span>

The class and styles that start with Mso giveaway that the content was pasted directly from Microsoft Word. If that class and span information is removed, the formatting problem is corrected.

So, what do you do if you have a lot of content in Word that you want to post on your WordPress site?

1. Use the paste from Word button the toolbar. You need to click on the Kitchen Sink button to see it.
   
2. Paste the Word content into a text editor like Notepad and then copy and paste it into WordPress.

Have you ever run into this type of formatting problem? Personally I haven’t because I don’t use Microsoft Office and I don’t use the Visual Editor but I encounter this issue almost weekly.

photo credit: SierraBlair

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Don’t Paste Content from Microsoft Word into the WordPress Visual Editor