Keep it Simple
I was forwarded this video from a friend who works in marketing. The idea is that the ‘stop sign’ hasn’t been created yet and an agency is hired to develop it. It’s really a fun video that anyone in a design field can get a kick out of. Sometimes clients can overcomplicate a simple idea that is otherwise a perfect idea! Sometimes designers can overcomplicate a design. So it definitely works both ways!
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
Removing index.php In EE
With using Expression Engine your pages default to using a index.php on all of your pages which is quite annoying. So rather than being able to tell people to visit your contact page by going to yoursite.com/contact you have to send them to yoursite.com/index.php/contact. Honestly, it’s not a huge deal breaker; however, it’s ideal to not have the index.php on every page. I tried a couple ways to eliminate the index.php. The first way was by using a plugin for Expression Engine that is supposed to write the necessary information on your .htaccess file. However, when I went to use the plugin it basically took my site offline. So I had to just delete the .htaccess file. I’m sure that the plugin does work but maybe something with my hosting wasn’t connecting properly. After trying that a few times I pretty much gave up.
Pepsi Rebrands, So Why Can’t You?
I’m sure that most of us have realized that Pepsi has rebranded and a lot of people don’t like it and a lot of people do. Honestly, when I first saw it I really didn’t like it. I thought it was a silly version of the latest version of the Pepsi logo. Over the years that Pepsi has been in business they have rebranded multiple times. The same goes for their direct competitor Coca-Cola. But back to the topic at hand… I really didn’t like the new logo when I first saw it.
However, the more I’ve seen it I’ve taken some more time to think about it. I actually do like it. I think it does have a modern look to it which I think the old logo wasn’t sporting. Looking at the product packaging I really do like the solid colors. Maybe it’s like hearing a song that you don’t like over and over again until you start to like it but I really think that the rebranding of Pepsi is a good move forward.
Using WordPress Custom Fields
Using WordPress Custom Fields is actually much easier than one would think. I went to use it a while back for a project and didn’t really have time to work with it so I passed it by. But recently I needed it and was surprised at how easy it is to use it! With one little line of code in your template you can use Custom Fields in WordPress.
When you’re in WordPress and you want to add a Custom Field to a blog entry all you need to do is scroll down to where it shows the Custom Field options. We’ll use the standard Mood: Happy example as used on the WordPress website. In the ‘Name’ box we’ll type Mood and in the Key or Value option we type Happy. After you save your post and try and view the live version you will see that it has had no effect on your post! Hmm… referencing the little line of code that we mentioned above, that’s what we need!
Getting Twitter Badge Code to Validate
So I’ve just recently started using Twitter. I figured that I better hop on the train before it completely pulls away! Also, I figured that in the future that I would have clients that would want to integrate Twitter into their sites. So if you take a look at toward the bottom right of our site you’ll see our little Twitter feed. Well you should see our Twitter feed. I’ve been noticing on our site as well as other sites that Twitter doesn’t always show up due to their server. So many people are using Twitter now so sometimes it gets slow.
Anyway, so basically the easiest way to start putting up your feed onto your site is to go to www.twitter.com/badges and log in (if you don’t have a Twitter account you’ll want to set one up quick first, of course). Then it gives you the option to pick a MySpace, Blogger, etc. default image. Of course those are not the links that we want, so at the very bottom of that page you’ll see an ‘other’ option. Clicking that option it will bring you to another set of options and the one we want to pick is the last option which uses HTML/Javascript.
