Many of the plugins available are free. You sometimes get what you pay for but often you get the sweetest gem that does exactly the simple task you need. Plugins you have to pay for are called “Premium Plugins”, just like the themes you pay for are “Premium Themes”. When working on client based projects. These are excellent because you can get your client to pay for them!

WHERE TO START

Go to the source. WordPress.org has a “Plugin Directory“. It is here they state:

Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. In the directory you can find, download, rate, and comment on all the best plugins the WordPress community has to offer.

It has plugins added by their creators with information about what they do, when they were published, who published them, how to install, how many times they were downloaded and update version archive. I am not a huge fan of their method of organization, it is basic, which I appreciate, but finding the ones related are sometimes difficult. You can search by “tags” on the plugin by the creator/publisher.

HOW TO ACQUIRE

With WP 3.0 you have the ability to search/download/install through the WP dashboard, this is hit and miss using the server we are on now. I recommend doing it the old-fashioned way, like this:

1. Find the plugin from the directory that you want
2. Download it to your computer
3. Log into your server folder through FTP
4. Open: wp-content>plugins
5. Unzip your plugin and copy files into the plugins folder

HOW TO ACTIVATE USE

Once you have finished uploading. Navigate through your WP Dashboard to the Plugins tab. All the plugins are listed and will appear as “Deactivate(d)” and in a gray box. When you “Activate” it, the activity you are looking for will be available but you should refer to the plugin’s creators website or if there is a forum about it, to learn how to use it.

***IMPORTANT***

• DEBRIS – If you are not sure how a plugin performs, it may effect the database. So, if you don’t want to use it and remove it. It will leave debris in your database. This can cause future issues.
• CONFLICTS SIMILAR – If you are testing similar plugins for similar tasks, one must be deactivated before the other is activated to be sure it does not cross each other out.
• CONFLICTS RANDOM - Sometimes a plugin can impede or crash another plugin. Sometimes it only happens to you or a few. Be sure to pay attention to the performance of your site. DO NOT JUST TURN ON A TON OF PLUGINS AT ONE TIME. Always take a test run through your site and look for things that may be broken.

HOW DO YOU FIX A BROKEN PLUGIN

Sometimes there are patches of code floating around. Many times the creator quickly corrects it. Other times, the creator lets it sit until they can get to it. (What do you expect for free?)

Once you learn a bit about PHP, you are dangerous enough to look at the code in the plugin and possibly can hack your way through it to make a plugin work better or serve your very specific purpose

PLUGINS YOU NEED

NEVER TO GO WITHOUT

I have a few that I recommend never to leave off because of their usefulness. Some are here to cover your behind, others are here because they are stupid simple and work for you just by downloading/installing/activating.

ASKIMET (view)
This is developed by the same folks who work on WordPress. It is to stop/slow down SPAM to your comments. This comes with WP but you need to register to receive an “API KEY” to make it active. Don’t even think about it, just take the time to do it.

WP-DBmanager (view)
You MUST back up your database often. Especially, if you are adding content daily. Another reason is anytime a new version of WP is available, it asks you to update your database. There is always a slim chance that your DB may get funky. Having a backup is crucial if you have to re-install the previous version to get running again. I have never had it happen but I have read stories about it happening.

This is a video that talks about how it works. Make sure you watch it. WP-DBmanager Video

W3 SUPER CACHE (view)
DO NOT ACTIVATE THIS UNTIL YOU ARE DONE BUILDING YOUR SITE. It will be very helpful in increasing the performance of your website. If you activate it early, it creates NIGHTMARE-ISH situations. Trust me. Wait until you are done and be happy

GOOGLE XML SITEMAP (view)
This is one of those, install and activate and let it go plugins. This plugin creates .XML documents that are viewable by “web bots” from search engines. It will help you get better search results.

ALL-IN-ONE-SEO (view)
This is a good one for helping you with Search Engine Optimization. You should know about this for future client projects. It is an upsell. Now it will help you get your pages with search engines.

OTHER PLUGINS WE WILL USE

With our goal being a portfolio, I recommend these plugins to help make you successful.

NEXTGEN GALLERY (view)
This, in my opinion, is the best photo gallery manager. It has a very robust functionality to organize, size, manage photos. It also helps you think of how you can use this tool for creating artist/designer portfolio.

NextGEN Gallery is a full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a slideshow option. Before I started writing the plugin I studied all the existing image and gallery plugins for WordPress. Some of them are really good and well designed, but the gap I filled was a simple administration system at the back end which can also handle multiple galleries.

There are other premium plugins compatible with this to add interesting effects. Like this: MONOSLIDESHOW

CFORMS (view)
I have found this to be the best form plugin on the web. It is free but can only be found on the Authors website. cforms is a powerful and feature rich form plugin for WordPress, offering convenient deployment of multiple Ajax driven contact forms throughout your blog or even on the same page.

***IMPORTANT***
I don’t know if this will work on the UNCG Server. It will create a form but may not send email.

OTHER MENTIONABLE PLUGINS

I have used a few of these and liked what they do:

BROKEN LINK CHECKER (view)
This plugin will monitor your blog looking for broken links and let you know if any are found.

ADDTOANY: Share/Bookmark/Email Button (view)
Help people share, bookmark, and email your posts & pages using any service, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, Digg and many more.

SHARE DADDY (view)
hare your posts with Twitter, Facebook, and a host of other services. You can configure services to appear as icons, text, or both. Some services have additional options to display smart buttons, such as Twitter, which will update the number of times the post has been shared.

GOOGLE ANALYTICATOR (view)
Google Analyticator adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google Analytics logging on any WordPress blog. This eliminates the need to edit your template code to begin logging. Google Analyticator also includes several widgets for displaying Analytics data in the admin and on your blog.

You have had a brief introduction to what a theme is in wordpress. The next step is getting the theme loaded into your server folder and activate it. First, you must choose a theme. A great place to start is in the WordPress Codex: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/.

Here is how you get a theme and install it:

1. Find a theme and download the .ZIP file
2. Unzip folder
3. Login into your server with an FTP application (like fetch)
4. Click through to the “Themes” folder. Following this path: wp-content>theme
5. Copy your unzipped folder into the theme folder.
6. Once finished copying. Log into your wordpress dashboard
7. navigate to Appearance>Themes
8. Select them and choose activate.
9. Poof – your theme is working when you preview the website

WIDGETS

Most, if not all, themes have one sidebar used in the theme. You have pre-programmed functions that tie into WordPress core programming to make little things happen. Those little things are “Widgets”. The ones present are “default”. Others can be added manually or automatically when you install certain plugins.

If you want to add multiple columns or include widget functions in the footer of the page can be done with secondary widget areas. The theme will need updated. This includes adding html, css and php. Here is a forum post describing the technical process. http://www.netbuilders.org/wordpress/how-add-widget-footer-22483.html

Referring to our course website. I have added Search, Categories, Recent Posts and Text widgets. These are in the primary widget area. This area is added by default in the TwentyTen theme.

To apply the available widget:

1. drag the title to the right “primary widget area”
2. Change the title if necessary
3. Save
4. Repeat with different widget
5. Drag to change order (this is brilliant)

BACKGROUND

Some themes (like twentyten) have the option to use the WP dashboard to change the background color and/or background image. Navigate to: Appearance>Background.

All this can also be manually changed by altering the themes “style.css” file. Any changes to the “style.css” and any images used for the background must be uploaded to the themes folder through FTP.

DOWNLOAD THIS TWENTYTEN THEME FOLDER.
It will be used to demo how to change your themes “style.css” file.

HEADER

It is important to have your banner sized to fit our banner location. WP will give you the option to crop but it is not recommended.

The twentyten them requires a banner the size of: 940px wide X 198px height. Here is my image to attach. How to add images to your theme manually
The following is the PHP to add to your them to make a unique image appear on your page. It requires:

1. make an image TO SIZE that you want it to appear. JPG at 72 dpi that is RGB is recommended.
2. Upload it to your themes images folder: wp-content>theme>twentyten>images
3. Add this PHP code to your theme in the proper location: <img src=”<?php echo bloginfo(‘template_url’); ?>/images/545_banner.jpg” alt=”" border=”0″ />
4. Save theme .php file
5. upload with FTP to theme folder
6. Preview site. Image will appear.

The code in <?php ?> is php. This part echo bloginfo(‘template_url’); is programmed somewhere in all your wordpress installation files and says. Use the URL that the theme is in. In this case our would be: http://digitalart.uncg.edu/545/wordpress/wp-content/themes/twentyten/.

It automatically places that info each time you use it. Saving lots of time and allows you to move things around or use the theme on different websites.

Many WP sites have a “sidebar”. This is a column that has secondary content which is useful in finding more specific or new content. Another is the “footer”. Found always at the bottom of the page and provides opportunities to navigate.

PAGES vs. POSTS

In your short time of working with WP you have experienced pages of content. One example on our course website is the “Calendar Outline” link in the main navigation. It is a page that was present at the beginning. It is core content to the course that will not change in any mass percentage. A few things may change but never to be removed or forgotten. This is a classic example of a “Page”. Found in the main navigation.

Each week you have been adding your own content to the website. Your content is valuable, but yet not core to the course. Your addition to the site is in page form but is referred to as a “Post”. Not often found in the navigation but commonly located from links in the sidebar.

CATEGORY vs. TAGS

Every time you added your Post to the website database it is stuck in a “bucket” to collect similar things. This “bucket” is called a “Category”.

I found this on WordPress.com, which does a good job at explaining what the differences are:

Categories allowed for a broad grouping of post topics, but when you wanted to describe a post in more specific terms, more categories were required. That led to very long category lists inside the blog and very long lists in Categories Widgets.

So we now have tags, too.

Tags are similar to categories, but they are generally used to describe your post in more detail.

To drive the concept home a little better, there is this video:

CATEGORIES IN NAVIGATION BAR?

Certainly! Here is an example of how it can apply to your project.

If you want to upload a photo every day and you want people to see all your photos. Create a Category for “photographs”. Each time you add a photo. Make a new post and select “photographs” category. It will appear automatically with the rest of your photographs.

This is a rough explanation of the concept. One example I have created is on MYDARNDEST website. Each time I add a project to a category, for instance, a Poster would go into my “print design” category. This saves me from manually editing my navigation each time to make the site grow.

How did I get them to appear in a grid?
Using an plugin called Customizable Post Listings, I was able alter the PHP and create a function to pull an image, title, excerpt and link on this page. An advanced technique but something that can be hacked to make work. If you don’t have the patience to manipulate the code, please don’t over-commit to this process.

I have included my code here: Custom Post List
The function I wrote is between lines 701 -> 714. Use with care.

MENU BAR

Using an updated WP theme like “Twentyten” it has php code that allows you to build a navigation bar(s) in your website. Allowing you to arrange order and rename page titles from the dashboard.

Using our course website as the example, you are familiar with the pages, posts, categories found on the website.
Here is how you make a menu:

1. Create A Menu Name
2. Choose Theme Location and choose new menu name.
3. Add Pages, Categories or Custom Links
4. Save Menu
5. View website and see results.

By dragging the bars around in the menu edit region, you can order navigation and subset (aka Nest) navigational elements from the primary menu items.

Categories you choose to add to the navigation will show according to the theme file called category.php. This file has code to show entire posts with titles. They can be broken up by using a “break” when editing the post. Here is an example of a website that uses the technique of including categories in the main navigation bar. Storyline Public Relations. This is project that I finished 2 weeks ago for a friend and colleague, Kristine Thompson. Under the “Blog” item in the navigation are titles of Kristine’s clients that she includes news that corresponds. Each client name is a category. This technique made created what may have been an incredibly labor based process to make happen quickly.

CSS MENUS

Conveniently, all the CSS is created to make the navigation appear in the Menu Bar. Including Secondary and Tertiary links. This programming spawned from this: SUCKERFISH DROWDOWN published in 2003 on A LIST APART by Patrick Griffiths of HTML dog.

It uses CSS to redefine HTML lists <ul><li> tags. The best way to learn how this works is to deconstruct a menu that works. I use this resource as a base to make sure my code is going to work in menus I create. http://cssmenumaker.com/

This takes a little time to wrap your head around but is a brilliant way of adding beautiful horizontal or vertical navigation bars to your web site using HTML and CSS. Please practice this, it’s good for you.

This “IS” the process you must use. I am not one for rules but this one I stand by. A few years ago a guy named Jesse James Garrett decided it was necessary for everyone planning a website to use the same “language” and “process”. He wrote a brilliant book that easily informs how a group can communicate these essential parts to beginning and building an interactive project.

I highly recommend you read this book if you decide to stick with web design as a career. Anyone who wants to hire you that is good, will be following this process or something darn close to it. The Elements of User Experience

He created a visual info graphic displaying the concepts of the book:
And then the stripped down version:
I suggest you start by downloading this PDF and digest these concepts. It will only help you in understanding how to work with interactive media… and not miss anything because you … forgot. Remember this: Paper wins. If you have it written down and drawn out, you can use it as your checklist and have great success.

Also, it is a great way of communicating with your client. It spells out your projects scope and you build what is in it. A CONTRACT! Who knew it could be so helpful. Yes, it prevents what we call “Scope Creep”.

Every time I see Jesse, I thank him for his gift of intellectual property to the industry.

You have come out tonight to celebrate this new design resource, not only for those in Rochester, but for all of us in the Upstate of New York. The magic of a letterpress has brought out a community of like-minded individuals. Yes, you are part of this community. This is something the members of AIGA Upstate New York are actively encouraging; an Upstate New York Design community.

There is a lack of communication among design professionals in upstate New York, which has lead to a weak community. We need to realize that the path to improving this situation does not involve competition or provincialism. It is not about pitting Rochester against Syracuse, or Buffalo against Albany. We need to open up our networks and start sharing our knowledge and experiences more.

There is an abundance of talented creatives across this state; they do not all live and work in New York City! These individuals and agencies are doing great design in their many far-flung locations; but often it goes unrecognized by the wider design community. Our organization, AIGA, is committed to championing accomplishments of our members and other design professionals in the Upstate New York Design Community. AIGA is “THE” professional organization for designers. We are your peers.

You are all welcome to join the other 22,000 AIGA members and expand your networks beyond local circles. Looking for reasons why you should become an AIGA member? Check out the project becauseofaiga.com, where you can see over 150 stories from individuals who believe in our organization.

AIGA, the professional association for design, believes that professional designers should be compensated fairly for the value of their work and should negotiate the ownership or use rights of their intellectual and creative property through an engagement with clients.

This is a topic that continually rears its ugly head in the Graphic Design Industry. It is something that I had to explain to my students when teaching and to clients now owning my own business. Work is work. One expects to get paid for it. There is no carrot on the end of the stick sweet enough to make someone sacrifice billable time for the potential of getting paid.

There are fine lines of what is Spec Work. For instance, competitions can be spec work. They can also be genuine competitions with substantial rewards. Another area of challenge is writing proposals for a project. This consumes a great deal of time and expertise, the majority of the time it is not paid work. It gets extremely hairy when “Ideas” are included. A proposed idea for a project is unpaid creative work. Bending the definition of what “Spec Work” really is and if those in the industry can truly not participate in it.

Not only because I am President of the Upstate New York Chapter of AIGA do I not support the AIGA position on Spec Work, but most as a small business owner who is trying to earn a living wage for my skills in design. Read AIGA’s Position.

I was fortunate to attend the 2009 AIGA Leadership Retreat in Portland, Oregon at the beginning of June 2009. Sean Adams, Past-President of the organization presented his defense and AIGA’s position on the topic. I had my camera rolling and captured his eloquent explanation.

Yes. I do not do spec work. You should not ask anyone, including students and young designers to participate in this poor business practice.

In the 6 years of working with Matt, we have evolved from a static HTML web site to a dynamic web site using WordPress to manage the content. I did not want to use another CMS or use a separate domain or sub-domain for the store. There are only a few shopping cart plug-ins for wordpress. The one I settled on was “e-Commerce Plugin” by Instinct. The reason is I have been following this one for over a year. It seemed to be the only one out there that was being developed. Now there is competition but this one seemed to have the strongest following and most community development.

The plug-in is free, but there are a few important add-ons that make life a bit easier. Known as Gold Cart items. The most important one I purchased is the “Grid View”. This formats added products into a title, thumbnail and price. Example of the: GRID VIEW. Knowing a bit about CSS, I was able to tweak the style sheets to look integrated with the design of the rest of the web site. Now, the shopping cart is seamless with the rest of the web site.

Instinct is based in New Zealand, but there is a guy in Texas who works closely with them to provide support here in the States. His name is Shane Sanderson and he has his own business called S-Tastic Design. He also started a wordpress help site called “WordPress Me“. The web site is growing with content and Shane knows what he is doing. I wish him luck.

If you are a small business/entrepreneur and would like a web site that you can manage and do simple ecommerce yourself, please contact me with your request. I am always looking for a unique challenge to work with start-ups that have a great product and don’t know where to start.

Again, I was invited to do the presentation on web design for artists. This time it was a class of artists/designers/crafters/photographers at Rochester Institute of Technology taught by Debra Ruzinsky.

There is a huge demand for student artists to create web sites. Many times I get requests to design and build these sites but you could imagine. Students do not have the money to pay me to do it. This lecture gives them an arial view of what options they can choose to get themselves published on the web.

If you know anyone looking for a motivational speaker who can present to artists about making their own web site. Give me a shout.

It was great to wake up and know, we are taking part in American History.

Then you also have a project between the New York Times and AIGA.
POLLING PLACE PHOTO PROJECT