Tools for Web Development

As a web developer, I use many tools to wrangle websites and designs on a daily basis.  Photoshop is a godsend when doing mockups but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Here are some other tools that help me with different aspects of the design and implementation process. Themes for WordPress Quite often, a client comes to me already having found a theme to modify for WordPress.  I will take that theme and customize it to their specifications. ... Read More

How to backup WordPress completely

If your content matters to you, especially content on your WordPress site, then please take a few moments to back it up.  It’s much like your backup of your hard drive.  You wouldn’t pass on that, don’t pass on this. Work it into your morning routine. You’ll need complete backups in order to restore with confidence.  How do you do this? First, backup your content by exporting it from WordPress.  Like so. It really does... Read More

Tip: Don’t Use MS Word to Compose Blog Posts for WordPress

If you’re blogging on the WordPress platform, composing your posts in MS Word, copying and pasting them to the Add New Post window, this carries over encoding that makes your post look funky sometimes when you hit publish. To avoid this, use something like BBEdit, TextEdit (included on Macs), or another notepad type of software.  I know some folks use blog editors like Ecto as well.  This works too. If you have composed posts in MS Word in... Read More

A small trick to save you time when moving your WordPress blog (and backup advice!)

Sometimes your hosting just doesn’t live up to your needs and/or expectations.  I’ve experienced downtime and the accidental deletion of my database tables myself. Eventually if the host is really bad, you reach the point where enough is enough. Maybe because of GoDaddy’s Super Bowl ads or the Network Solutions deal to switch was too sweet to pass up after the controversy.  Either way, you’re ready to make the move, but reading... Read More