Let Alex Vasquez Help You Decide Whether to Use a WordPress Framework, Parent Theme or Starter Theme

I wasn't able to WordCamp Orange County in 2013, but if I had, I would have enjoyed checking out this cool talk in person. The presenter, Alex Vasquez, does a good job explaining the differences and similarities between frameworks, parent/child themes, and starter themes. His slide deck has some awesome illustrations.

How to Change the Length of Excerpts in WordPress

Simple little function here for the next time you need to control how many characters the_excerpt tag shows. function custom_excerpt_length( $length ) { return 20; } add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'custom_excerpt_length', 999 ); Just add the code above into the functions.php file. You can read more about this on the Codex.

How to Display the Author Avatar Photo in a WordPress Template

You would think there is a simpler way to directly call the avatar photo of author for a post in a template, but you can do so with this little trick 🙂 <?php echo get_avatar( get_the_author_email(), '100' ); ?> You can replace 100 with the size in pixels you want the image to display. This … Continue reading How to Display the Author Avatar Photo in a WordPress Template →

How to Embed a Shortcode from a Plugin Directly into a Template File

I recently came across a great shortcode that I wanted to embed directly into a template, rather than use as a shortcode from within the admin area. If you ever need to do this you can use the do_shortcode function, and pass any necessary parameters as you would need. <?php echo do_shortcode('[shortcode with="parameters"]'); ?>

Check Out My Live Workshop on Making a WordPress Theme with the ZURB Foundation CSS Framework!

Thanks to some encouragement from one of our Treehouse students, Anthony Hind as well as our awesome video team at Treehouse, I was able to do a live workshop this week on how to build a basic WordPress theme with the Foundation Framework from ZURB. You can find the workshop here on Treehouse. If you're … Continue reading Check Out My Live Workshop on Making a WordPress Theme with the ZURB Foundation CSS Framework! →

Learn WP from Static HTML to Custom Theme

Rock on to the folks at WP Tuts for staying up to date on publishing WordPress theme tutorials! Here is the latest in their series: Creating a WordPress Theme From Static HTML: Preparing the Markup Creating a WordPress Theme From Static HTML: Creating Template Files Creating a WordPress Theme From Static HTML: Uploading Your Theme … Continue reading Learn WP from Static HTML to Custom Theme →

Cool Video of the .Ultimatum WordPress Design Suite Plugin

Since hearing Brett Bumeter speak at WordCamp Raleigh on the topic, I have a regained interest in drag and drop theme builders. Here is a pretty nerdy/fun video demo of the Ultimatum WordPress theme, which offers a full suite of options.

If You Need to Get Tags for a WordPress Post, use wp_get_post_terms

On a recent blog project, I had to output the tags for an post. I kept thinking the function would be like the_tags or something like that, but tags are referred to as "terms" in this case apparently. So, use this function: wp_get_post_terms()

DevPress’s WordPress Admin Theme

DevPress came out with a custom admin skin that looks something like this: I was reading Jeffo's thoughts on the theme over on WP Tavern and would have to agree on a few points: It's designed for a full screen view Not sure about the color scheme You cannot read the docs (I was … Continue reading DevPress’s WordPress Admin Theme →