Tag Archive for Best

How to build a Custom WordPress Site 3

by  • May 17, 2012

Customizing WordPress Child Theme In this tutorial we will create Custom Post Types and add variables and functionality to them. Also we will add some styling for more user-friendly display in the dashboard. Having set up our basic Child Theme structure we will now proceed with the customization. But before that we will do some basic WP configuration and go through the settings. You may be used to building WordPress based sites and therefore you may have some habits in as much as settings and configuration are concerned. Some basic WP Settings Here is what I do in the dashboard: 1. Trash and permanently delete the Hello World Post. 2. Delete the default Links. 3. Set Permalinks to: /%category%/%postname%/ 4. Under Settings General enter Blog Name and Tagline; for the purpose of this exercise I use  as a Title: WordPress TTP and as a Tagline: Tips, Themes and Plugins 5. Add some content to test content display by importing an RSS feed using a plugin such as Feedwordpress. I pulled into a new category called Blog the feed from my author-blog at: http://yorgonestoridis.com/feed Custom Posts and Child Theme We have set up a basic child theme for the purpose of [...]

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How to Optimize your Impact on Social and Mobile Networks

by  • March 20, 2012

Ycademy: Facebook, WP and the Mobile Web Ycademy Online Seminar This month’s Ycademy Online Seminar will take place on March 24 and 25, starting at 1 pm London (GMT) time and ending at 21 pm London time on both days. Some of our developers have asked for a program covering Social Networks, namely Facebook and the Mobile Web and how to take advantage of them to distribute, promote and gain high visibility with own content.   The Seminar will cover the following areas: 1. Facebook and other Social Networks Strategies for Individuals Strategies for Businesses Strategy for Brands As you may know, Facebook will change  the rules of the game on March 31, when the new FB pages will be released (again!). In fact the new FB page format will be similar to the timeline format and a few important changes will be of utmost importance to businesses and promoters. New Facebook Cover Photo and Profile Image Larger, Highlighted and Pinned Posts Company Milestones New Applications Facebook Offers FB Insights, Admin Panel and Messaging Facebook Advertizing If some of the above topics do not have a meaning for you, never mind: we will deal with them and make sure you [...]

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Ycademy Online Seminar Photo Publishing with Evo for WordPress

by  • February 19, 2012

Semiomantics EVO Developer Theme 2 years ago, about at the same time of the year, we have built Evo, an Action script driven Flash photo and portfolio website. This time we will make use of HTML5, CSS3 and Java Script to customize Semiomantics EVO, a Semiomantics development for Developers.    Semiomantics Evo Flash is not anymore a smart option for development for as long as Apple mobile devices are as popular as they are and for as long as mobile Apple devices will not display Flash. Therefore we have been looking for an alternative to produce smashing and eye-catching sites based on HTML5. Of course the good old Evo Flash driven sites still look great. As a lot of work has been put into them we will try to use namely all the edited images and footage in the new EVO version.  Semiomantics EVO Version 2012 The biggest changes are: EVO is now powered by WordPress EVO does not use any Flash but is a responsive HTML5, CSS3 and Java script theme. The new EVO assembles the ultimate in WordPress design and features for modern media display. Ideal for photographers, EVO features not less than 6 different Gallery Types. Galleries [...]

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The 1001 Faces of Semiomantics XO

by  • January 30, 2012

XO for WordPress is a responsive, flexible and highly customizable Theme for high performance and excellence in publishing. Developed by Semiomantics since 2007, the XO is mainly used for custom High End sites. A DIY version is available since 2011 at http://semiomantics.com. News are published to Facebook at http://facebook.com/semiomantics.

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Facebook Strategy with WordPress

by  • November 21, 2011

10 Steps to Implement your Facebook Strategy with WordPress Implementing your Facebook Strategy will be at the center of the November Ycademy Seminar. This hands-on Seminar and Workshop will stretch over two days and build with participants an eye-ball-twisting Facebook presence. See the seminar schedule at the bottom of the post. The Seminar is designed for WordPress Developers and WP users who are looking for high productivity and customized publishing and marketing solutions. 11 Efficient Facebook Strategies This topic deals with efficient strategies which will efficiently improve your Facebook presence. 7 Ways to jeopardize your Facebook success for sure Surfing through Facebook we notice some common errors well intended people commit when building their Facebook presence. We will discuss these issues and show you how to eliminate them from your personal or business Facebook. 4 Important Facebook features to focus on While content is king, there are different ways of making it accessible to visitors. We will discuss the recent changes Facebook has implemented and show you where the focus should be in order to improve your visibility, traffic and business or network expansion on Facebook. Facebook Privacy and Accessibility settings Function of your strategy we will define and optimize [...]

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How to Style the WordPress Menu

by  • July 27, 2011

WP Custom Menu with Rollover Effect This tutorial is based on a recent Custom Photo Blog Theme Development for WordPress on the base of Semiomantics XO. The Solutions apply to most any clean WordPress theme whereas some of the style sheet syntax may vary from theme to theme. The WP Photo Theme – XO Photo The Goal of the exercise was to build a site which will display on mobile platforms as well without the use of WPTouch Pro for example and which offers the possibility to navigate without zooming on mobile phones. This gave us the opportunity to style the Main Navigation (horizontal menu on top of the site. As we are on a photo site we thought about using Menu tabs with images and rollover effects which can be achieved either with sprites or as individual images. We opted for a solution without sprites in this case considering that the difference will not be material on this site. The screenshot shows the rollover effect as it has been taken while the mouse was hovering over the CONTACT tab. The Menu Normal View and the Hover View show the same picture, whereas we put a transparent black layer (85% [...]

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How to Publish Digital Photos

by  • July 22, 2011

Digital Photography and WordPress “How to Edit and Publish Digital Photos” is the focus of the Ycademy Online Seminar in July. 1. How to Edit Digital Photos Taking photos has become a relatively easy and cheap task with the proliferation of accessible digital cameras and mobile devices, such as smart-phones and tablets. Of course the quality of the pictures varies in function of the quality of the camera and the skill of the photographer. Some of the shortcomings can be compensated by improving skills and post editing. The Seminar will deal with editing digital photos using namely Photoshop and OnOne Professional Photo Tools. … after some basic editing … … for web and devices with reduced JPEG quality. Editingand post editing have a lot to do with the purpose of the image as well as on the destination platform. We will look into different options and detail specific requirements for the mobile web. OnOne Professional Photo Editing Tools The above sample shows that editing makes the image heavier! The more filters, masks and brushes we apply the more Kb we ad and the slower the image will load once on the site. Here it is getting interesting: the above image counts [...]

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WordPress on Facebook

by  • June 25, 2011

WordPress for Facebook Seminar Welcome to the WordPress for Facebook Seminar! This seminar is about Social Media Marketing and Communication involving WordPress, namely the Semiomantics XO Framework and Facebook. During the next two days we will elaborate and implement strategies to automate publication and communication across platforms with a special focus on the mobile web. WordPress on Facebook Why would you want to combine WordPress with Facebook? The main reason is to remain in control of your content, its presentation and the way it streams to and from Facebook. Also, a self-hosted WordPress provides you with better content management features and automation tools than Facebook. If you are a Facebook freak, you can even spend the rest of your life within Facebook and publish at the same time through WordPress Semiomantics XO right from within Facebook. Our pre-seminar sessions demonstrated how to embed your XO on a Facebook Canvas page, from where you have complete access to your WP installation, dashboard and editing and publishing tools. If you don’t want to spend any time in Facebook, then you just need to implement Social Media Marketing and Publishing Strategies as lined out in the YORGOO Publishing Model and your Facebook antenna [...]

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