Sweet Boutique Design - Web and Graphic Design Studio » WordPress

Upgrade to WordPress 2.9.2

Stephanie — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:18:01 +0000

There’s another WP upgrade to 2.9.2. The problem is with logged in users, they can peek at trashed posts belonging to other authors. If you have untrusted users signed up on your blog and sensitive posts in the trash, you should upgrade to 2.9.2. Or you can upgrade in your blog administration by clicking on Tools->Upgrade to upgrade.

Summer Waiting List

Stephanie — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:32:58 +0000

There are currently no openings for any custom design work until late August 2009. You may submit a request for a custom design project by July 1, 2009 for it to be considered for late August and Fall scheduling.

7 Useful WordPress Plugins

Stephanie — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:41:14 +0000

Here are 7 great plugins from WordPress that can add some cool features and extra customization to your WordPress site. Some are easy to use and some are more advanced.

WP – Choose Thumb – This is a cool plugin that allows you to add a thumbnail to any post or archive page by adding a simple line of code to your index file. You do however, need to go back in to all of your posts and select the the thumbnail you would like to show as your thumbnail. That can be time consuming. If you’ve already uploaded an image in your post, it won’t show unless it’s selected. Other than that, I like the styling of it. I like this better than the Thumbnail Excerpts plugin.

Exclude Pages – Great plugin because it shows a check box in all of your pages to allow you to easily exclude any page from any listings in your page navigation menus.

Custom Excerpts – Do you use the template tag in your theme? Did you ever notice all formatting is stripped out? Custom Excerpts allows you to set a custom excerpt text, length, and to choose HTML tags to allow. This is a very easy way to format your code without messing with the core files. Finally, your links will show in an excerpt. The only problem I’ve come across it when using the code. It strips out the automatic permalink that can say “Click Here to Read More” (or whatever you call your link).

All in One SEO Pack – I still like this plugin. I’ve used it on almost every WP site I’ve developed. It gives you a place in each page and post to insert a Meta title, keywords and description.

NextGEN Gallery – One of the best gallery plugins I’ve used. It’s an easy way to show multiple image albums in one place. See my portfolio for an example. Make sure you edit your thumbnail in each gallery though or depending on your image size, your thumbnails could look bad. All in all, I’d say this plugin is worth it if you need an easy way to keep track of images or photos to display on your blog.

WP-Simpleviewer – This plugin lets you add SimpleViewer Flash galleries to your posts and pages. If you want a Flash gallery without the hassle of constantly changing an XML file, this is a great plugin. You can update your settings right in your WP admin. You still need to upload your images via FTP and understand how to change your folders permissions settings in the directory and sub-directory. I would say this is for more advanced users. But, if you can’t find the “how to’s” for this plugin, Click here for the support forum.

TinyMCE Advanced – I find this plugin very useful. Especially with how WordPress automatically strips formatting in posts and pages.

Shepherd of The Lakes Lutheran School

Stephanie — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:03:00 +0000

I really enjoyed working on this project for Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran School. They needed a website to promote their school, offer information on the staff, school events and contact forms.

Client: Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran School, Brighton MI.

Project: Custom header including photography, custom website design, customized css, custom graphics, website maintenance and setup, custom forms, Google apps, SEO, Flash video.

Platform: WordPress

Launch Site: http://sotlschool.com

Mint and Chocolate WP Theme

Stephanie — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:02:14 +0000

Now available is Mint and Chocolate WordPress theme.

Theme Features

XHTML and CSS W3C compliance
Browsers (IE6, IE7, FF, Safari, Opera, Chrome) compatible
Works in current versions of WordPress up to 2.7
840px fixed width, left column widgetized sidebar
Header graphic personalized with blog name
2 Custom links on the header pointing to your home page and another page of choice
Post date images
Free upload of this theme to your themes folder

New Boutique WordPress Themes

Stephanie — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:28:18 +0000

I’ve been working on some new WordPress Themes that match templates I have available to order in my shop. Due to time restraints, I only have 2 available right now.

My WordPress Themes feature:

XHTML and CSS W3C compliance
Browsers (IE6, IE7, FF, Safari, Opera, Chrome) compatible
Works in current versions of WordPress up to 2.7
Custom (original) graphics and headers
Personalization of header with your blog or business name

Check out what I have available so far. I also provide free ftp upload of a purchased theme!

View Some of My Work

Stephanie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:18:11 +0000

I’m in the process of updating my portfolio and I can’t seem to find the time to get it all together and back on my site. So, if you’re interested in seeing a few of the sites I’ve done, feel free to check them out.

Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran School – http://sotlschool.com/
HCH Class of 1989 – http://hchclassof1989.com/
Girly Bird Designs – http://girlybirddesigns.com/
Chicks With Kidz – http://chickswithkidz.com/
Bubble Bees – http://bubblebeesparties.com/
Jason Loyd Memorial – http://www.jasonloyd.com/
NoteWorthy Paper - http://noteworthypaper.com/

Some of the best online tools

Stephanie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:03:44 +0000

Here are a few links to some of the best online tools and resources I’ve found on the Web. They’re actually useful!

Google Analytics – http://www.google.com/analytics/

A free tool for web designers. It’s a remotely hosted traffic statistics system that’s easy to install on any page of your website.

htaccess Tools – http://www.htaccesstools.com/

This site has different generators to create .htaccess files for blocking IPs, hotlink protection and more. For those who don’t know what an .htaccess files is, they’re invisible text documents that configure Apache web servers.

Browsershots – http://browsershots.org/

Check browser compatibility, cross platform browser test your site. If you use the free version, don’t count on getting all of your requested screenshots in a short period of time and your limited to how many times you can que the system. It’s worth it to pay $29.95 per month for priority processing if you’re a designer.

COLOURlovers – http://www.colourlovers.com/

This is still one of my favorites. Colour lovers influences and monitors color trends by rating, commenting and sharing palettes, and patterns. One of my favorite features is the ability to download the Adobe Illustrator swatch of the palette I make. The only drawback is it’s only 5 colors. But it’s still easy to add new colors to my swatch once in AI.

WordPress Codex - http://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page

Everything you need to know about using and installing WordPress. You also find information on working with WordPress, design and layout, advanced techniques, developer documentation and more. It’s the essential bible for anyone developing a WordPress site.