#changed font point from 11 to 12 and we gained 4 pages let's go | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mutantdatingproblems · 7 years ago

Text

We Got Tagged

Hey everyone, we got tagged by @localmutantlesbian in this mutant ask thing so here we go (as always Z will be using bolded font and Vex will use italics and if we’re both saying it it’ll be both bolded and in italics, just so ya know who’s who in our answers if ya don’t wanna read our names every time). Here we go!

1. What’s your codename/mutant name?

Z: I can’t decide honestly, I’ve considered something simple like “Shifter” and crazy shit like “Dragon Queen” but they’ve all been shot down so far either by me or by Prof.X or one of the other Profs or my friends for being lame

V: This is a question I hate because I totally would’ve gone with like “Multiple Girl” but Multiple Man has that and they won’t let me pick something in a dead or nerd language (even though I think it’d be super cool) so I also don’t have one. We don;t go into the field much yet though so it doesn’t really matter yet.

2. Age?

Z: 19 going on 20, birthday is in May

V: Same except my birthday is in June

3. Gender and pronouns?

Z: Genderfluid with a current lean towards nonbinary so they/them or she/her or he/him all work for me, I don’t really care

V: Genderqueer, They/Them or She/Her please

4. What is your mutation(s)?

Z: Shapeshifting and mild hydrokinesis and is ADHD a mutation? Cause I swear it gives me superpowers

V: Creating multiples of myself and enhanced strength, speed, and senses. And yeah ADHD should definitely count as a power.

5. Are you a member of any mutant group (X-Men, The Mutant Underground, The Brotherhood of Mutants, Morlocks, etc)?

Z: X-Men in training at Xavier's (But I have friends in The Brotherhood)

V: Ditto

6. Got any physical mutations?

Z: Yeah, although mine are mostly by choice seeing as I’m a shapeshifter. I’m fond of my claws and fangs and tails and scales and horns and freaky eyes for everyday use

V: Nope, not really.

7. When did your powers manifest?

Z: Around 13

V: 12 and a half

8. What is your favourite thing about your powers?

Z: Everything. I love my powers, I love that I can be anything and do anything if I put my mind to it. It makes me who I am honestly, I don’t know who I’d be without my powers. Hell I’d probably have killed myself if my powers hadn’t manifested when they did I hated myself so much back then. Of course being at Xavier’s and meeting V and my other friends helped too. But yeah I love my powers and how they make me feel.

V: Ditto honestly, my powers help me learn so much and so much faster than I used to be able to, the focus I gain from my clones alone is a life saver when I have to do anything I find boring (which is a lot because Inattentive ADHD sucks royally). The enhanced senses and stuff are pretty awesome too, nothing better than losing your favorite pen under a couch and being able to lift the couch over your head ta get it back. I wouldn’t trade my powers for anything in the world.

9. Biggest pet peeve related to being a mutant?

Z: Assholes being assholes to us, assholes who only approve of human-passing mutants who think we should be grateful they even tolerate that much, not being able to find good shapeshifter friendly clothing that still looks cool and comes in plus sizes, and uppity fuckwad mutants who judge others on powers or looks or anything else because god dammit we need to stick together and support each other. I could go on because I have a lot but I won’t or this’ll take forever.

V: The asshole issues that Z pointed out but also when my powers go outta control cause I lose my cool or something and I have ta calm down ta find control again and it’s really hard, or when I sneeze cause of allergies and I accidentally sneeze a clone out...it’s embarrassing. Also accidentally hurting people with my enhanced strength....I hate that too

10. Ever been to space or another dimension?

Z: Yeah by accident.....it involved tequila....lots of tequila....

V: Nope

11. Do you wear a costume (BE HONEST)

Z: Sorta? I have ta make a lot of my own clothes cause of my physical mutations and shapeshifting so sometimes they come out looking very costumey and I am fond of leather which doesn’t help. I guess my battle gear counts? Loose black cargo pants (need all the pockets for gadgets and snacks cause shapeshifting requires a fuckton of calories and effort), black tank top (lightweight body armor actually but designed ta look like a tank top), arm warmers (again armor, they cover from my wrists to halfway up my upper arm, they’re also black). black leather fingerless gloves, combat boots (with knives hidden in the toes, also black except I change the laces all the time cause I like making them funky colors and designs), and a black leather weapons belt that holds at least one stun gun, two daggers/medium sized knives, and in some cases a sword because I like it. All of it’s like....well for lack of a better term...enchanted ta survive my shifts (including into dragon form) so it doesn’t rip or tear or anything. Apparently when I shift it kinda just disappears into a pocket dimension and then reappears on me when I shift back...I dunno how it works, ask Scarlet Witch she hooked me up. And by the way the weapons are because sometimes if I’m too drained ta shift I gotta go hand-to hand.

V: Yeah kinda, it’s my battle gear too. Navy cargo pants (I keep extra snacks for Z), black t-shirt, black wrist guards, black boots with purple laces and skulls and stuff painted on them, purple weapons belt holding a stun gun, throwing knives (like a frick ton, I also store more in my pants), more knives of varying sizes, smoke bombs (great for sneak attacks, just throw to confuse enemy and then attack from all sides with clones. I have flash bombs too), and a couple different versions of brass knuckles, and then I wear opaque black sunglasses too because I like them. Oh and yes my shirt is body armor like Z’s is of course, and my boots are steel toe.

12. Are you a minority in another way (race, gender, disability, etc)?

Z: Genderfluid Panromantic Demisexual who’s got mad depression, anxiety, ADHD, and fainting spells and I’m Polyamorous

V: Genderqueer, Queer in general, demisexual and polyamorous also with severe anxiety as well as dsycalculia and ADHD

13. Coolest power you’ve seen?

Z: I love Storm’s powers, but Scarlet Witch is pretty cool too

V: I concur with Storm but I’m also fond of Z’s powers cause watching your friend turn into a dragion is really cool

14. Favourite mutant artist?

Z: Dunno

V: Ditto

15. How would your friends describe you?

Z: Loud, proud, queer as fuck, angry, musical, a water baby, a literal and metaphorical dragon, bad influence, pun queen, kind of insane, kinky, and V’s shoulder devil/inner crazy bitch.

V: Quiet, secretly vindictive, punk af, dorky, wordy, easily distracted, helpful, accidental group therapist, mom friend, and Z’s conscience/shoulder angel.

16. Enhanced/powered person you most want to meet?

Z: Deadpool, I always miss him when he visits and it sucks

V: Spiderman......I just think he seem really cool

17. Feelings about mutant registration?

Z: No, just no. That’s how they end up rounding us up and killing us all. If it’s an operation run by us mutants ourselves as a way to work together and support each other and offer aid to mutants and help mutant youth who’ve been kicked out of their homes and stuff like that then sure. But not some government list of us all, fuck no.

V: Yeah ditto on that.

18. #MutantandProud or #WeWantACure?

Z&V: #MutantandProud

Z&V: Again unless it’s something regulated by mutants for mutants, no. Because it should be a mutants choice whether or not they want their powers because some people get royally screwed and end up with powers they hate because they are dangerous or something like that. It shouldn’t be something the government or anyone else can decide, it should always be the mutants individual choice.

19. How did you choose your codename?

Z: Don’t have one yet but when I do choose it’ll probably be like...by throwing darts at a bunch of names I like or a coin flip or something

V: Don’t have one yet, I’ll tell you how I chose it when I figure one out.

20. OPTIONAL: what caused your powers to manifest?

Z: Got mad, grew talons and fangs and scales cause I was reading about mythological creatures earlier, was not pretty. It happened when I was alone though so that was a plus. (I was mad because of a text from my boyfriend at the time). The hydrokinesis thing I figured out after I got to Xavier’s...was outside in the courtyard....got catcalled by some asshole student....wished I could dump water on his head....fountain water flew up and over and dumped gallons on his head....it was awesome.

V: I sneezed at the dinner table and three clones shot out of me....the strength and speed stuff I figured out at school in gym class when suddenly I was kicking ass at track and field after always sucking at it my whole life....The senses I figured out when I could hear waaaayyyyy too much noise everywhere and everything smelled waaayyy too strong and suddenly I could see without my glasses (yeah I used ta have and need glasses, I don’t anymore but if I did they’d be cats-eye style like a vintage librarian because reasons).

Tagging: We’re not really sure who ta tag so if you wanna do it then feel free ta do it and tag us!

(And thank you again to @localmutantlesbian for tagging us! We loved doing this!)

~Mod Z

~Mod Vex

P.S Wanna know more about us? Check out our previous “Meet the Mods” posts or check out our “Meet the Mods” page on the blog!

2 notes · View notes

myrtlecornish · 6 years ago

Text

Keep Up with Digital Technology & the Latest Web Design Trend with These 15 Top Tools and Resources

Advertise here via BSA

Keeping up with the latest design trends is a challenge. It’s always been that way. But these days, changes come more frequently. This is thanks to the rapid pace of digital design technological advancements.

If it weren’t for the tools that allow us to keep pace, it would probably be a hopeless situation. The problem is, you still have to find those tools. The fact that they’re constantly flooding the market doesn’t make it easy. Most web designers don’t have the time or inclination to test out every new tool that appears over the horizon.

We’ve found 15 we consider the tops in their respective classes, and we’d like to share our findings with you. One or two of these top tools and resources should help you keep pace. You can also deliver better products than you ever thought possible.

We’ll start with:

1. Elementor

Elementor is the industry’s best website builder. Simple, Powerful & Flexible. Now you can customize every detail without code. With over 2 million active installs and over 4,500 5-star reviews on WordPress, it is by far the most popular page editor out there. What Elementor does for you is to give you a solid website-building foundation on which you can create virtually anything, and do so without complications, limitations, or constraints thanks to its super-clean code.

Elementor works with any theme and with any plugin. As such it gives you virtually unlimited design flexibility. It won’t slow down your site – a characteristic of all too many page builders. And, it’s powerful drag and drop editor enables you to quickly create pages and websites without ever having to resort to code.

You can dig into Elementor’s library of super useful widgets to build pages from scratch, or if you prefer, start with one of the 100+ pre-designed Elementor templates.

You’ll find a few nice surprises as well; like the Pop Up Builder, the Advanced Forms feature, and Scroll and Hover animations.

In short, with Elementor you can create pages and websites easily and in ways you never could before.

2. AND CO from Fiverr

There are many software applications you can use for creating invoices, but few if any do as much of the work for you as AND CO from Fiverr. AND CO creates invoices for you automatically based on your project terms, contracts, and time tracking—all of which are available in the one app.

AND CO’s invoicing feature integrates perfectly with your project management workflow, enabling it to automatically create invoices when a project is completed or a milestone has been reached.

You’ll be alerted when clients view your invoices and when they’re paid, or when the system thinks it’s time for you to invoice again. Plus, you can set up an online ‘PayMe’ page to allow clients to pay you via credit card, ACH, and PayPal, and deposit the payments into your bank account. You can also set up recurring invoices so that clients who are on a subscription plan have their credit card charged automatically on a recurring basis.

AND CO is an invoicing software that lets you spend less time on invoicing and more time on doing the work you love.

3. Houzez

Its ease of use and wealth of popular features has made Houzez is a long-time favorite with realtors and real estate agencies. Features like listings options, advanced property search capabilities, and a property management system have given its users virtually anything and everything needed to go about their business.

Not quite ready to rest on their laurels, the Houzez team has added a host of new features making this specialty theme more powerful and flexible than ever. In addition to giving users the ability to display property listings in different formats, the listings can now be sorted and displayed in a variety of ways, and extra emphasis can be given to the presentation of featured listings.

Luxury home showings can also be scheduled, custom search fields can be added with the new Customs Fields Builder, different currencies can be used, and an Energy Class designation field has been added for EU properties.

4. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance WordPress Theme

TheGem has been featured on ThemeForest for a variety of reasons. In the opinion of many of its customers, and of Envato, this incredible website-building toolbox features the most beautiful and creative designs on the market. Page load and speed times are especially impressive, TheGem is 100% flexible, 100% easy to use, and provides 100% customer satisfaction.

When compared against the other premium themes, TheGems 5-star rating tops them all.

5. Amelia

Amelia provides service businesses love; especially those that rely heavily on booking appointments for their clients and customers. Amelia automates the entire process. Customers can make appointments 24/7. Amelia will match the appointments

with employee availability, manage cancellations or changes, and collect payments online.

This award-winning tool with its 4.8+star user rating creates happier clients and customers and allows businesses to use the time saved on other pursuits.

6. Uncode

With Uncode in your design toolbox it will take but a few short hours to build a breathtaking portfolio. All the functionality you need is there, and there’s no need for coding. Uncode’s showcase of user-created sites gives visual proof of what you will be able to accomplish.

This powerful, user-friendly theme is one of ThemeForest’s all-time best sellers having realized more than 50,000 sales to date.

7. Round Icons Bundle – 38,000 icons and illustrations

Purchase the Roundicon’s Bundle, and you’ll never have to search for a special icons or illustration again. For a one-time fee you can download the entire bundle consisting of more than 38,000 premium, royalty-free icons and illustrations, and add more as they are released.

The bundle comes with a commercial use license, and you can currently purchase it at a discount when you use coupon code “GETBIG”.

8. Logic Hop – Personalized Marketing for WordPress

The ability to serve targeted content to different audiences will flat-out improve your sales and marketing results; and that’s precisely what Logic Hop will enable you to do. Logic Hop makes personalizing your messages possible based on display ad and pay-per-click results, social media posts, geolocation, and actions visitors take on your site.

Install Logic Hop, and don’t be surprised if you’re soon enjoying a 200% increase in conversions.

9. Mobirise

Mobirise is an offline builder, so you have total control over building your site. It’s drag and drop only, making it easy to use. Its mobile friendly and lightning-fast thanks to Google AMP or Bootstrap 4. And, it’s free.

Mobirise comes with a large assortment of trendy and beautiful website blocks, templates, icons, and fonts. Over 1.5 million sites have been created using this website builder.

10. wpDataTables

This premier table and chart building plugin is easily the best in its class. wpDataTables can do more, with more data, and do it quicker than any other tool of its type on the market.

wpDataTables’ all-in-one platform for presenting website visitors with interactive tables and charts based on huge volumes of complex data has been put into practice by more than 21,000 active users who have rewarded it with a 4.7 average rating.

11. Savah App

With this all-in-one advanced prototyping, team collaboration, and workflow tool at your fingertips you can create perfect look and feel prototypes for user testing, prototypes for feedback at any stage of the project, or combine rapid prototyping with Savah App’s built-in design workflow and approval system to speed your project along.

Savah App’s visual feedback and collaboration features also points you in the direction of getting the best possible results when the project winds down. Check out the paid plans and discounts.

12. HelpJet

Not only have you had to answer the same question for the zillionth time, but each time your customer has had to wait for your answer. HelpJet takes care of the problem by giving you a tool to create a knowledge base your customers can access for instant answers to the most common questions – or any question/answer you feel would be an appropriate addition.

You’ll gain more satisfied customers while keeping the size of your customer support team small.

13. Goodie

Goodie is a platform that connects an end-user with a web developer, thereby avoiding costly middlemen and go-betweens. All that’s required of you is to provide the Goodie team with your design. They’ll get right to work coding your website and give you the exact estimation of your price.

This is the perfect approach or owners of small businesses, web designers, and anyone in need of a carefully and cleanly coded website.

14. 8b Website Builder

The 8b Website Builder is brand new (January launch), futuristic with a super-simple cool UI, and portable. You can create websites with it on your desktop at work or home or on a tablet or phone while on the go.

Thanks to Bootstrap4 or Google Amp your site will be crazy-fast, mobile friendly, and just a click away from a Google listing. Since 8b does not have a paid plan in place yet, this is your opportunity to try it out free of charge.

15. WhatFontIs.com

Plowing through 550,000 fonts trying to find one you really want to use, but you don’t know what it’s called, is something you won’t want to do. With WhatFontIs, you can put AI to work for you. Just submit an image of your newly-discovered font and you’ll get an answer in seconds.

If it isn’t in the database (extremely unlikely), WhatFontIs will provide one or more candidates that are as close as possible to the real thing.

Conclusion

You most likely won’t need all 15 of these top tools and resources. Just one might make your day. With more, you could find yourself graduating from creating websites that are award-winners. You can create websites that are fantastic that “awesome” would be an understatement.

Or, you might simply be delighted to own a tool or resource that makes life a little easier for you.

Sponsors

Professional Web Icons for Your Websites and Applications

This post comes from Digital Marketing Warrington

#digitalmarketingwarrington #onlinemarketingwarringtion #warringtonseocompany #searchengineoptimisat

0 notes

thekashmirwalla-blog · 6 years ago

Text

12 Distinctive Features of Online Newspaper Design

1. Black on White

The traditional printed newspaper is white or gray and the text is black. This color combo is perfect for our eyes. The contrast of colors facilitates the readability and that is why this color scheme is the most suitable for newspaper style websites, which are usually stuffed with much content. You can step aside from this classic color mix, but you should always keep in mind that contrast is a must. You can turn over the regular color choice making the background black and the typography white. But never use yellow on black, green on blue, pink on blue, etc. Try to read the website yourself, if your eyes feel well after, you can adopt the picked colors on your web project.

2. Minimal Graphics

The website with newspaper layout is clean, informative, structural and has graphic elements designed accurately and in a minimalist way. Graphic elements are:

· lines

· shapes

· colors

· typography

· textures.

To know more about Kashmir news read online newspaper.

3. Grid-based Design or Multi-column Layout

The newspaper website layout is the one with perfectly organized structure. These are content-rich websites that usually have this kind of design, and so structure comes to be the first. Grid or columns are the most useful types of content arrangement. It is true that “well-designed grid systems can make your designs not only more beautiful and legible but more usable” (Mark Boulton). The grid-based layout allows you to break the content into comprehensive blocks; thereby engage users to read your website not skim.

4. Headlines and Excerpts

Do you want to open each post and read it when you enter a website or blog with many texts? Headlines help us to differentiate interesting article from the secondary one. So, each content block needs to be entitled. Whether it is a small section on a grid or a full-height column, it should have a headline. The headline is to be of a bigger font, typed in bold or highlighted with a different color. This point is clear, I suggest.

Excerpts are short descriptions of the text articles. These are always done to raise readers’ interest and give them an understanding of the long text in a few sentences. This element is useful if you run a blog, online periodical, news website, etc.

To get information about the latest news in Kashmir read news from the online source.

5. Primary and Secondary Content

Draw a borderline between the parts of your content. Define what is the most important and which texts can wait to be read. For example, you can design your front page with a large header section for new posts (one or a couple). This is a featured area with large images and graphics. The other content will be smaller and based on grid fractions. This makes a strong focus on the latest arrival and helps to gain more social shares.

6. Intuitive and Consistent Navigation

The newspaper website layout is designed for content and this content must be easy-to-navigate. Consequently, the navigation menu is characterized by its simplicity and right position.

The best position is a top page area because this zone is the first to be mentioned and it always in the same place – just scroll up if you are at the bottom.

7. Categorization

Better use of categories is available within newspaper website layout the most. It refers to blogs particularly, and any other websites too. Most sites fail because they have content purely organized. Categories are necessary if you post frequently and on diverse topics (e.g. news websites).

Divide your content into categories and display them either on a sidebar or on the navigation menu bar.

To get the latest news of the Kashmir read the electronic newspaper.

8. Space for Advertisement

How are you going to make money before your website become popular? The advertisement is how many website owners make rather big profits. Ad banners have to be placed not just somewhere but this position has to be defined exactly. The right places are a sidebar, both left and right, Header or Footer. Promotion banners are often seen right in the middle of the text articles, but this point is controversial: it is good for you as a person who takes money for this, but these elements can also irritate your readership.

9. Functional Sidebar

The sidebar can feature not advertisements only, but content categories, recent content, search box, email newsletter bar, navigation, social sharing buttons, discounts/special offers, etc. The newspaper website layout is great to implement sidebar on because it would be just another column in the row.

There are a couple of ingredients of a successful sidebar design:

· size (height and weight);

· colors;

· fonts;

· placement.

10. White Space Maximization

So far as we are creating a multi-functional website with the impressive layout, we can’t but remember about white space. This is an essential component even for a digital newspaper style design. Let it be space between columns, empty sections from the sides or at the bottom. Users should have a chance to avert their eyes from the text wall and think over.

11. Frequent Content Updates

Newspaper website layout obliges you to work on your project constantly. The website with many columns and grid sections being empty will look awkwardly. You need to fill the website thoroughly, and keep with the tendency to upgrade the content regularly, make your publications frequent and change the featured content in the Header (or wherever you do it).

12. Social Sharing Encouraged

Blogs and news sites are the most common to use online newspaper style, and these websites can’t exist without social media integration. It’s the epoch of mass sharing, and social networks are where people spend much of their time. You should use cool follow and share buttons for each network: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.

#Kashmir News #latest news in kashmir #latest news of kashmir

0 notes

ntrending · 7 years ago

Text

24 hidden Android settings you should know about

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/24-hidden-android-settings-you-should-know-about/

24 hidden Android settings you should know about

Android phones come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, but within, they all run the same basic operating system. That Android code includes settings that let you tailor your smartphone to your needs. In this guide, we collected 24 lesser-known customizations for you to toy with.

Before we start, a quick caveat: Although the same Android code runs all of these phones, manufacturers often modify the operating system by slapping a software skin on top. Our instructions specifically apply to the current stock version Android, 8.0 Oreo, which you’ll find on Google’s latest Pixel phones. However if you own a phone that runs a different version of Android, you can still apply these settings—you just have to rummage around a little more to find them.

1. Increase font size

You don’t have to squint and strain your eyes when viewing Android screens: Open the Settings app and choose Display, followed by Font size, to make adjustments. Drag the pointer along the slider to make changes, and check the preview window to see what the end result will look like. Once you set the Android font size, most apps will apply it.

2. Make sure you can find your phone

Worried about losing your phone? To maximize your chances of recovering a missing device, make sure to activate Android’s built-in tracking system: Open Settings, go to Security & location, and tap Find My Device. After that, if you should misplace your phone, head to this page in any browser and log in to your Google account. You’ll be able to view your handset’s location on a map, among other options. For more details, check out our guide to finding a lost phone.

3. Tweak the Quick Settings panel

Drag two fingers down from the top of the screen, and you’ll open Android’s Quick Settings panel, which provides immediate access to settings such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and flashlight mode. These shortcuts are useful, but you can make them even handier by customizing which ones show up and the order in which they appear. Open the panel, tap the pen icon on the lower left, and you’ll be able to add shortcuts and drag the icons into a new arrangement.

4. Reduce data usage

Android includes a built-in system to limit how much data background apps can gobble up (at least when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi). This mode will affect different apps in various ways—for example, in a browser, images might not show up unless you tap on them. To switch on this handy feature, open Settings and pick Network & internet, then Data usage, then Data Saver.

5. Stop new apps from creating shortcuts

By default, when you install an app, it automatically appears as a shortcut on one of your phone’s home screens. This allows you to quickly launch a new app, but it can also clutter up your interface. To disable this default, perform a long press on any blank part of a home screen. When a menu pops up, choose Home Settings and turn off the Add icon to Home screen option. Note: This setting used to appear in the Play Store app, but in Android 8.0 Oreo, you can now access it from any home screen.

6. Rotate the home screens

Within an app, you can turn your phone to switch the view from portrait to landscape or vice versa. But the home screen doesn’t come with the same default—you have to turn this option on. Return to the Home Settings screen discussed in the previous tip. Here, you can choose whether or not the home screens rotate with the phone by turning Allow Homescreen rotation on or off. Note: You won’t be able to access this option (it will appear grayed out) if you’ve locked the orientation of your phone. To restore this ability, you must unlock your screen orientation: Open Settings, go to Display, and change the Auto-rotate screen option.

7. Project your phone on a bigger screen

Android now comes with built-in casting, so you can mirror the screen on any monitor or television equipped with a Chromecast device. Although many apps have their own Chromecast buttons, you can also project any screen or app from the Settings. Just go to Connected devices and select Cast.

8. Change app permissions

How much of your personal information can any individual app access? You can see exactly which permissions an app has been granted by going to Settings, tapping Apps & notifications, and picking an app (or hitting See all to view the full list). Then, to view and edit that app’s access, tap Permissions. For example, you might allow an app to access your contact list but not your location.

9. Control battery use

Android now optimizes apps so they won’t drain the battery as much. For example, your email app can still run in the background, checking for updates, but it does so less frequently. However, you can exempt certain apps if you want them to always run at full throttle. Open Settings and tap Battery, then the menu button on the top right, then Battery optimization. Next, hit the Not optimized link, then All apps. Finally, select an app and pick the Don’t optimize option.

10. Wake your phone with your voice

You don’t have to touch your phone to gain access to Google Assistant. You just need to adjust your settings. Open the Google app, tap the menu button (three horizontal lines on the bottom right), and then hit Settings followed by Voice. Choose Voice Match, and then the phrase “OK Google” will work at any time, even when your device is locked. In fact, you can use voice recognition to unlock your phone this way.

11. Free up more memory

If you’re running Android 7.0 Nougat or later, you can take advantage of Smart Storage. If your device is struggling for free space, this feature will automatically delete local copies of photos and videos that have safely been transferred to Google Photos. To enable it, open Settings, tap Storage, and turn on the Smart Storage toggle switch.

12. Adjust lock screen timing

Why bother reducing the time your phone takes to automatically lock the screen? Less down time makes it less likely someone will swipe your handset before it locks itself. This will also reduce battery drain, because the screen will stay lit for a shorter period. From Settings, head to Display, tap Advanced, and choose Sleep. Then you can pick a time-out period that works for you.

13. Customize notifications from specific contacts

To help you instantly identify who’s calling—and to decide whether or not to pick up—you can assign certain contacts unique ringtones. Your default ringtone will remain the same—change it in Settings, under Sound, via the Phone ringtone option. To change notification settings for individuals, launch the Contacts app, tap on a contact name, open the menu (three dots on the top right), and choose Set ringtone. Then you can select a specific sound from a list.

14. Change volume levels separately

You might not want to play your podcasts at the same volume as your ringtone. To adjust those separately, launch Settings and open the Sound menu. Here, you’ll find volume sliders for media, alarms, and ringtones. You can also access individual volume settings by pressing the physical volume button, which will make one slider appear on screen, and then tapping the down-pointing arrow to the right. This will open a drop-down menu where you can see all three volume sliders.

15. Unlock your phone in your car

Once you’re securely seated in your car, you might want your phone to unlock itself. This would let you open a map without entering a code, and would allow any passengers to put on your favorite tunes. Android can do this by recognizing your car stereo as a “trusted” Bluetooth device, one that proves you’re in possession of your phone. From Settings, head to Security & location, then Smart Lock, then Trusted device. Finally, work through the simple setup process, and then your phone will unlock when it’s in the presence of your car stereo.

16. Turn on Wi-Fi automatically

Keeping your Wi-Fi off while you’re out and about increases your phone’s security and preserves its battery. But in the presence of a strong, trusted Wi-Fi network, one that you’ve used in the past, Android 8.0 Oreo can automatically turn your phone’s Wi-Fi back on. From Settings, tap Network & Internet, then Wi-Fi, then Wi-Fi preferences. Finally, turn on the Turn on Wi-Fi automatically toggle switch.

17. Change notification priorities

Oreo also lets you prioritize different types of notifications from a given app. In Gmail, for example, you might choose to receive a noisy alert for important emails and a less obtrusive one for regular updates. Open Settings, tap Apps & notifications, and pick a specific app or tap See all to view a full list. Different apps will offer different categories of alerts, so choose App notifications to view them and configure different sounds for each.

18. Quickly switch between apps

Jumping immediately from app to app is not, strictly speaking, a setting—but it still makes a very useful shortcut. A single tap on the Overview button, which is the square icon in the navigation bar, brings up a view of all your open apps as tabs. However, if you double-tap on the button, you’ll immediately jump from your current app to the one you were previously using.

19. Change emoji mode

You can view emojis on the default Google keyboard for Android by tapping on the emoji button to the left of the space bar. But did you know you can pull up emojis with different skin colors or genders by pressing and holding on an individual icon? This works on most emojis depicting people or body parts, such as a thumbs up.

20. Show emergency information

If someone should discover your phone after you’ve been in an accident, having your key medical information show up on the lock screen could save your life. To do this, open Settings, choose Users & accounts, then tap Emergency information. You can provide details like allergies and organ donor status, as well as emergency contacts.

21. Move the cursor more delicately

Using only your clumsy fingers, you probably have a hard time highlighting specific sections of text. If you’re using the default Google keyboard, then this neat trick will make it easier to move the text cursor just one or two characters at a time. Launch any app where you can write and edit text, such as your SMS program, and tap in a text box to pull up the keyboard on screen. Then, instead of moving the cursor within the text box itself, place your finger on the space bar. Tap and drag left or right on the spacebar to move the text-editing cursor in the same direction.

22. Tweak the color range

A phone’s “color gamut” controls the range of colors that you see on screen—a wider gamut means colors will appear more vibrant, but also less natural. You can adjust the gamut in Settings by going to Display, choosing Colors, and choosing Natural, Boosted, or Saturated. Depending on the make and model of your phone, you may see different options listed here. Play around with them to find the color scheme that works best for you.

23. Snooze notifications

To clear a cluttered notification menu, you can drag individual alerts to the left, and they’ll disappear. But what if you want to clear those distractions now, but revisit them later, when you have time to deal with them properly? Snoozing notifications is a fantastically useful feature only available on phones that run Android 8.0 Oreo. Drag any notification to the right, and a clock icon will appear. Tap the clock, and you can choose to snooze the alert for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours. Once the time has expired, the notification reappears as if it’s come through for the first time.

24. Get help from Cortana

When it comes to various AI assistants, everyone has a favorite. If you prefer Microsoft’s digital helper to Google Assistant or Bixby, you can install Cortana for Android. You can even make it the default app that appears when you hold down the Home button: Open Settings, go to Apps & notifications, and then tap Advanced, Default apps, Assist & voice input, and Assist app.

Written By David Nield

#DIY

0 notes

makeitwithmike · 7 years ago

Text

20 Cool Tools for Creating Infographics

By Jillian Petrova

Imagine you are an infographic maker god who can take 1,000 words and help people digest that information in only a few seconds.

An infographic, put simply, is a creative way to take a “thousand words” and depict them using a picture. These days, readers are looking for quick access to brief information.

Website visitors love this unique form of presentation which is quickly gaining popularity, and in some cases, becoming the standard form of communication instead of page long, lengthy blog posts.

Infographics have emerged as one of the most popular forms of content marketing in contemporary digital media.

Why should you care about infographics and do I need an infographic maker?

We receive 5 times more information than in 1986 and are 80% more willing to read anything with colors. Infographics are great with colors.

45% more users will click on a link if it features an infographic.

They help us get valuable inbound links – Streetcouch does a great job of explaining the importance of creating infographics and sharing them on social media in a 5-step process (as a link-building strategy).

But readers are not the only ones with time constraints and an inclination towards quick and easy ways to consume information.

What if you, the infographic maker, are also short on time and need a simpler, quicker way to create beautiful infographics in an instant?

Forget about Photoshop and other time-consuming infographic maker alternatives.

Let’s take a look at how to create infographics with the best tools available online.

1. Visme.co

Visme is a super cool infographic maker that allows you to create interactive presentations, infographics, ad banners, animations, customer layouts, and more. It has an extensive library full of templates, shapes, icons, and objects to choose from.

It is a highly-recommended app by Coursework Spot, a service that offers academic research. If you’re not up for a bunch of changes, edits, additions, or subtractions, you may simply edit the text and hit publish. You can also directly insert data values to change the charts and graphs.

Another plus point is that it’s “specially priced” for teachers and students. Which means it is affordable for all of us online entrepreneurs as well. Their premium plan is only $16 a month.

But before you even pay a cent, Visme lets you take it for a test drive with their free account alternative.

Get your free account now.

2. Easel.ly

This infographic creator will help you put together a stunning image in just a few clicks.

First, you get to pick a template from a long list of cards, then a search bar and drop down menu on the side will allow you to filter the template results. For instance, you could search for a template that deals with geography (maps) or templates with a timeline format.

Once you’ve selected your template, you can add in more shapes, backgrounds, charts, objects and of course text to personalize the template and let it tell a story in your own way.

The basic version of this tool is offered for no cost, so you can start making free infographics in no time!

3. Visualize.me

Visualize.me focuses on letting users create “infographic resumes”. However, the template designs are not limited to that purpose alone.

Once you’ve signed in with your LinkedIn or email account, you can select from a range of beautiful themes, language maps, timelines, bubble charts, tree maps, pictograms, and other formats.

4. PiktoChart

Infographic maker like this one could kick graphic designers out of business before we know it, since PiktoChart markets itself as the tool that let’s “non designers create beautiful infographics in as little as 10 minutes.”

This may be a shocker – or maybe even a bit offensive – but it is true. Piktochart has over 400 fully customizable themes with retina-ready images, objects, graphs, and colors you can edit and adjust according to your preference.

It makes creating infographics a pleasurable experience.

5. Canva

One of the most uniquely and brilliantly designed websites, Canva aims to train both designers and non-designers to come up with cool and creative stuff.

Canva is an infographic maker that will start out with a brief tutorial to acquaint you with their program. Once you’re through with that, you can move on to creating your project whether it be a presentation, Facebook cover photo, business card, ad, poster, banner, or a retina-ready infographic.

6. Infogr.am

Infogram is all about making charts and infographics “the easy way”. So far over 2 million infographics have been created with this infographic maker and some have even been used by prestigious organizations including Euronews, University of Cambridge, and the Huffington Post.

Whether you are blogger, educationalist, brand ambassador, or an organization, you can make charts/infographics in three easy steps: pick a template, visualize the data, and publish.

7. Venngage

Venngage has everything you need to create free infographics and publish them on the spot. You can choose from hundreds of professional templates.

Infographics is not all you can make; reports, posters, promotions, and social media posts can also be created using Venngage, allowing you to tell your story “visually” with the help of charts, maps, icons, and visuals.

8. Dipity

With Dipity you can create digital timelines. If a timeline-based infographic is what you are after, you can use Dipity to do the job. Dipity aims to organize web content by date and time.

9. iCharts

iCharts is not your everyday infographic maker. It is a cloud-based visual analytics platform that allows users to create quick and easy visualizations for complex business information, data sets, or extensive research work. You can access and update your data in real time whenever you like since it is cloud native.

10. Geo Commons

Perhaps, you’re more interested in presenting maps instead of timelines. Geo Commons is perfect for geography-based infographics that must include a map of your choice.

Create feature-rich maps and share what you know!

11. Google Charts

Why not simply use Google charts? This is probably an infographic maker you are already familiar with and definitely one that requires little training or experience to learn.

Google Charts is a free solution with all kinds of charts, maps, bars, and statistical goodies to choose from. Google’s gallery is rich with variety.

12. InfoActive

Infoactive is a simple and flexible platform that allows you to create interactive infographics and other “data driven” stories. InfoActive lets you connect your data to the application and let automation do the rest for you.

13. Photo Infographic Gen Lite

If your infographic is based on the number, ways, or timing you take your photos, you can use this Android application to sum it up for you.

This is a very specific program with a very specific purpose, but if you’re a photographer looking forward to fulfilling that purpose, it will suit your needs.

14. Get About

Another infographic maker designed to cater to a specific purpose, Get About lets you create infographics that determine your social media activity.

For instance, Get About will let you track your Twitter terms, hashtags, and mentions. Also you can monitor your social activity with infographics that chart out how you connect and share with your network.

15. Creately

Creately is not only a diagramming tool, but also a tool that works for teams requiring real time collaboration. Creately will let you create and style smart shapes, diagrams, connectors, and more to gather information in one compact space.

Another interesting infographic maker choice for you to consider.

16. PhotoStats

This is an iPhone application dedicated to generating infographics on how, when and where you take photos. Similar to Photographic Gen Lite for Android, the application will reveal your photography habits in just a few clicks, and if you like, make it available to your friends.

17. Charts Bin

Charts Bin is a free online solution that allows you to create interactive maps. After a sign-up, create a map of your choice by inserting values or zooming in. If you like you can copy and paste the HTML code to your blog without having to go through a bunch of tricky steps to display it on your website.

18. Gliffy

Gliffy will transform your ideas into shapes by providing you with a variety of flow charts, UML diagrams, wireframes, network diagrams, org charts, and sitemaps.

Create digital visualizations by dragging and dropping shapes/lines/objects from the library and transforming words into graphs.

19. Wordle

Sometimes word clouds are all you need to explain a concept in just a few words. Wordle will let you create unique and interactive word clouds in a variety of fonts, layouts, color schemes and more.

20. Smile Widgets

Smile Widgets is an extremely simple website that allows users to create “free, open source data visualizations and web widgets”. The software will let you create exhibits, timelines, time-plots, and runways of your choice.

Wrap

So after all of that, what would I consider the best infographic software?

It’s definitely not a black and white decision. There are several infographic makers available that could service your needs and help you quickly and easily create great visuals in no time.

However if I was to pick ONE tool that stood out above the rest as the best fit for this audience – it would have to be Visme.

The reason I say that is because Visme is both designed and priced with the virtual entrepreneur in mind. You won’t get blindsided by an outrageous recurring fee, and the functionality of the tool rivals anything else available.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start creating more infographics right now!

Guest Author: An aspiring blogger, Jillian Petrova loves blogging a lot and in her leisure time she writes insightful posts on latest trends, education, marketing, etc.

The post 20 Cool Tools for Creating Infographics appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

The post 20 Cool Tools for Creating Infographics appeared first on Make It With Michael.

from 20 Cool Tools for Creating Infographics

#20 Cool Tools for Creating Infographics

0 notes

sheilalmartinia · 8 years ago

Text

55+ Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks

Ever wondered what WordPress tips, tricks, and hacks most popular WordPress sites are using? In this article, we will share some of the most wanted WordPress tips, tricks, and hacks that will help you use WordPress like a pro.

1. Use a Custom Homepage

By default, WordPress shows your latest posts on the homepage of your website. You can change that and use any page as your site’s homepage.

First you need to create a new page in WordPress, and you can name this page home. Next, you will need to create another page and let’s call this page blog as you will use it to display your blog posts.

Now go to Settings » Reading page in your WordPress admin and under ‘Front page displays’ option and switch to ‘A static page’. After that you will be able to select the pages you just created as your home and blog pages.

You can also create a custom homepage template to use for your home page. Simply create a new file on your computer using a plain text editor and add this code at the top of it.

<?php /* Template Name: Custom Homepage */ ?>

Save this file as custom-homepage.php on your desktop.

Next, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client and go to /wp-content/themes/your-current-theme/ folder. Now upload the file you created earlier to your theme folder.

Return back to the WordPress admin area and edit your home page. You will be able to select your custom homepage template under the page attributes metabox.

For more details see our guide on how to create a custom page template in WordPress.

Now this page will be completely empty and it will not show anything at all. You can use custom HTML/CSS and WordPress template tags to build your own page layout. You can also use a page builder plugin to easily create one using drag and drop tools.

2. Install Google Analytics in WordPress

Google Analytics is one of the must have tools for WordPress site owners. It allows you to see where your users are coming from and what they are doing on your website.

The best way to install Google Analytics is by using the MonsterInsights plugin. You can insert Google Analytics code into your theme files, but this code will disappear when you update or switch your theme.

For detailed instructions see our step by step guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

3. Password Protect WordPress Admin Directory

WordPress admin directory is where you perform all administrative tasks on your website. It is already password protected as users are required to enter username and password before they can access the admin area.

However by adding another layer of authentication, you can make it difficult for hackers to gain access to your WordPress site.

Here is how to enable password protection for your WordPress admin directory.

Login to cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account. Under the security section, you need to click on ‘Password Protect Directories’ icon.

Next, you will be asked to select the directories you want to protect. Select /wp-admin/ folder and next create a username and password.

That is it. Now when you try to access your wp-admin directory, you should see an authentication required box like this:

For alternate method and more detailed instructions see our guide on how to password protect your WordPress admin directory.

4. Show Images in Rows and Columns

By default, when you add multiple images to a WordPress post, they would appear right next to each other or on top of each other. This does not look very good because your users will have to scroll a lot to see all of them.

This can be solved by displaying thumbnail images in a grid layout. This gives your website a more compact look and improves user experience.

For complete step by step instructions, see our guide on how to display WordPress photos in rows and columns.

5. Allow users to Subscribe to Comments

Normally when users leave a comment on your website, they will have to manually visit the same article again to see if you or other users replied to comments.

Wouldn’t it be better if users were able to get email notifications about new comments on your posts? Here is how to add this feature to your website.

Simply install and activate the Subscribe to Comments Reloaded plugin. Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Subscribe to Comments to configure the plugin settings.

For detailed instructions see our guide on how to allow users to subscribe to comments in WordPress.

6. Limit login attempts

By default, a WordPress user can make unlimited number of attempts to login to a WordPress site. This allows anyone to try guessing your password until they get it right.

To control this, you need to install and activate the Login LockDown plugin. It allows you to set limits on the number of failed attempts a user can make to login.

For detailed setup instructions see our guide on how to limit login attempts in WordPress.

7. Display Excerpt (Post Summary) on Home and Archive Pages

You may have noticed that all popular blogs show article summary instead of full article on their home and archive pages. It makes those pages load faster, increases page views, and avoids duplicate content across your website.

For more on this topic, see our article on excerpt (summary) vs full posts in WordPress archive pages.

Many premium and free WordPress themes already use excerpts on home and archive pages. However, if your theme doesn’t display excerpts, then see our guide on how to display post excerpts in WordPress themes.

8. Add Custom Default Gravatar Image

WordPress uses Gravatar to display user profile photos in WordPress. If a user does not have a gravatar, then WordPress uses a default image which is called ‘Mystery Person’.

This default gravatar image will appear many times in your WordPress comments area simply because a lot of users do not have a gravatar image associated with their email address.

You can easily replace this default gravatar with your own custom default gravatar image.

First you will need to upload the image you want to use as your default gravatar image to your WordPress media library.

Next, you need to copy the image file URL.

Now you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

add_filter( 'avatar_defaults', 'wpb_new_gravatar' ); function wpb_new_gravatar ($avatar_defaults) { $myavatar = 'http://example.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/wpb-default-gravatar.png'; $avatar_defaults[$myavatar] = "Default Gravatar"; return $avatar_defaults; }

Don’t forget to replace $myavatar value with the URL of the custom gravatar image you uploaded earlier.

You can now visit Settings » Discussion page, and you will notice your custom default avatar added to default avatar choices.

For detailed instructions check out our tutorial on how to add change the default gravatar in WordPress.

9. Adding custom CSS to a WordPress Theme

As a WordPress site owner, sometimes you may need to add custom CSS to your site. CSS allows you to change the appearance of things on your WordPress site like colors, margins, font sizes, etc.

The easiest way to add custom CSS to any WordPress theme is by visiting the Appearance » Customize page in your WordPress admin. This will launch the WordPress theme customizer, and you will see your website’s preview in the right panel.

Now click on the ‘Additional CSS’ menu in the left panel to expand it.

You will see a plain text box where you can add your custom CSS. As soon as you add a valid CSS rule, you will be able to see it applied on your website’s live preview pane.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save & Publish’ button on the top when you are finished.

For alternate methods and more detailed instructions check out our beginner’s guide on how to add custom CSS in WordPress.

10. Using Inspect Element Tool to Customize WordPress

Adding custom CSS sounds great, but how do you know which CSS classes to edit? How do you debug it without actually having to write CSS?

Using Inspect Element tool, you can edit HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code for any webpage and see your changes live (only on your computer).

For a DIY website owner, these tools can help you preview how a site design would look without actually making the changes for everyone.

Simply point and right click on any element on a page, then select ‘Inspect’ from your browser’s menu.

This will split your browser window, and you will be able to see the HTML and CSS source code of the page.

Any changes you make here will be immediately visible on the page above. However, keep in mind that these changes are only happening in your browser and you are not actually editing the page.

This allows you to figure out what you need to edit and how. After that you can go ahead and change your actual theme files or custom CSS code.

For more on this topic, see our article on basics of Inspect element and customizing WordPress as DIY user.

11. Add a Facebook Thumbnail Image

Facebook can automatically pick up an image from your articles when they are shared by you or anyone else. Usually it picks the featured image of an article. However, sometimes it may pick a random image from the article that may not be suitable.

If you are using Yoast SEO plugin, then you can select a Facebook thumbnail image in Yoast SEO metabox on the post edit screen.

You can also select a Facebook thumbnail image for your homepage by visiting SEO » Social page.

If you are not using Yoast SEO plugin, then see our guide on how to fix Facebook incorrect thumbnail issue in WordPress.

12. Add Featured Image or Post Thumbnail to RSS Feed

WordPress RSS feeds shows a list of your most recent articles. If you are showing full articles in the feed, then all images inside will be displayed. However, it does not include the featured image or post thumbnail in the article.

To fix this, you can add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function rss_post_thumbnail($content) { global $post; if(has_post_thumbnail($post->ID)) { $content = '<p>' . get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID) . '</p>' . get_the_content(); } return $content; } add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'rss_post_thumbnail'); add_filter('the_content_feed', 'rss_post_thumbnail');

For more information, see our tutorial on how to add post thumbnail to RSS feeds in WordPress.

13. Show Excerpts in RSS Feed

By default, WordPress shows your full article in the RSS feed. This allows content scrapers to automatically fetch and steal your full articles. It also prevents your RSS feed subscribers from visiting your website.

To fix this, head over to Settings » Reading page and scroll down to ‘For each article in a feed, show’ option. Select summary and then click on the save changes button.

14. Use Shortcodes inside Text Widgets

Shortcodes allow you to easily add small functions into WordPress posts and pages. However, they do not work in the text widget.

To run shortcodes in your sidebar text widgets, you need to add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

add_filter('widget_text', 'do_shortcode');

You can also use the Shortcode Widget plugin, which adds a shortcode enabled text widget to your WordPress site.

For more information, take a look at our guide on how to add shortcodes in WordPress sidebar widgets.

15. Add Images in WordPress Sidebar

WordPress does not come with an easy way to just upload and display images in your sidebar (though it is expected to change soon in an upcoming version). At the moment if you want to add an image, then you need to add the HTML code for it.

First, you need to upload the image to your WordPress site using the media uploader and copy its URL.

Next, go to Appearance » Widgets page and add a text widget to your sidebar. Inside the text widget you will need to add the HTML in the following format.

You can now save your widget settings and preview your website.

For more details see our guide on how to add an image in WordPress sidebar widget.

16. Add Content to Articles in RSS Feeds

Want to manipulate your WordPress RSS feeds by adding content to your articles visible only for your RSS feed subscribers?

Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function wpbeginner_postrss($content) { if(is_feed()){ $content = 'This post was written by Syed Balkhi '.$content.'Check out WPBeginner'; } return $content; } add_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'wpbeginner_postrss'); add_filter('the_content', 'wpbeginner_postrss');

This code shows the text ‘This post was written by Syed Balkhi’ before an article and ‘Check out WPBeginner’ after the article.

For more ways to manipulate RSS feed content, see our guide on how to add content in your WordPress RSS feeds.

17. Delay Posts in RSS Feeds

Have you ever published an article accidentally before it was ready to go live? We have all been there. You can easily just unpublish the article and continue editing it.

However, RSS feed readers and email subscribers may already get it in their inbox. There is an easy fix to avoid this -delaying posts from appearing in your RSS feed.

Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function publish_later_on_feed($where) { global $wpdb; if ( is_feed() ) { // timestamp in WP-format $now = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // value for wait; + device $wait = '10'; // integer // http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_timestampdiff $device = 'MINUTE'; //MINUTE, HOUR, DAY, WEEK, MONTH, YEAR // add SQL-sytax to default $where $where .= " AND TIMESTAMPDIFF($device, $wpdb->posts.post_date_gmt, '$now') > $wait "; } return $where; } add_filter('posts_where', 'publish_later_on_feed');

This code delays your published posts from appearing in RSS feed for 10 minutes.

For more details see our article on how to delay posts from appearing in WordPress RSS feed.

18. Display Random Header Images in WordPress

Want to display random header images on your WordPress site? Most WordPress themes come with built-in support to display header image across your website. However, you can also upload multiple header images and allow your theme to randomly display a header image.

Head over to Appearance » Customize page and then click on the ‘Header’ Section to expand it. Now upload all the header images that you want to use and then click on the ‘Randomize header images’ button.

If you want to display select few images on different articles and pages, then check out our guide on how to add random header images to your WordPress site.

19. Add Image Icons to Links Navigation Menu

Do you want to display image icons next to links in your navigation menu? The easiest solution is to use the Menu Image plugin.

After installing the plugin, simply head over to Appearance » Menu, and you will see the option to add images with each item in your existing menu.

If for some reason, you don’t want to use a plugin and would rather do it manually, then follow the steps below:

First you need to visit Appearance » Menus page and then click on the Screen Options button at the top right corner of the screen.

This will bring down a menu where you need to check the box next to CSS classes option.

After that scroll down to your navigation menu and click on an item to expand it. You will see an option to add CSS classes. Enter a different CSS class for each menu item.

Don’t forget to click on the save menu button to store your changes.

Next, you need to upload the image icons to your WordPress site by visiting Media » Add Media page. After uploading the image files copy their URLs as you will need them in the next step.

Now you can add an image icon to your navigation menu by adding custom CSS. Here is a sample CSS that you can use as an starting point.

.homepage { background-image: url('http://www.example.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/home.png'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: left; padding-left: 5px; }

Don’t forget to replace image URL with your own image file URL.

20. Open Navigation Menu Link in New Window

Sometimes you may need to make a navigation menu link open in a new window. The problem is you do not see an option to do that when adding menu items.

Actually, the option is hidden to remove clutter from the screen. You will need to click on the screen options button at the top right corner of the screen and check the ‘link target’ option.

Next, you need to scroll down to the menu item that you want to open in a new window. Click on the menu item to expand it, and you will see the option to open link in a new tab.

Don’t forget to click on the save menu button to store your changes.

21. Add Full Screen Search Overlay in WordPress

If you click on the search icon at the top right corner of any page on WPBeginner, then you will notice a full screen search overlay appear. It improves search experience and makes it more engaging.

You can add this to your WordPress site as well. The easiest way to do this is by installing and activating the WordPress Full Screen Search Overlay plugin.

The plugin works out of the box and there are no settings for you to configure. Upon activation, it turns any default WordPress search form field into a full screen search overlay.

For more details, see our guide on how to add a full screen search overlay in WordPress.

22. Add a Sticky Floating Navigation Menu

A sticky floating navigation menu stays on top of the screen as a user scrolls down. Some WordPress themes have this feature as an option in their settings. If your theme doesn’t have this option, then you can try this method.

First, you need to install and activate the Sticky Menu (or Anything!) on Scroll plugin.

Upon activation, go to plugin’s settings page located under Settings » Sticky Menu (or Anything!). Add the CSS class of your navigation menu and save changes.

For detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to create a sticky floating navigation menu in WordPress.

23. Add multiple authors to a WordPress post

Do you want to credit multiple authors for an article on your website? By default, WordPress posts are assigned to a single author. However, if you often need to credit multiple authors, then there is an easier way to to do this.

You will need to install and activate the Co-Authors Plus plugin.

Now go ahead and edit the post or page where you want to credit multiple authors. On the post edit screen, you will notice the new ‘Authors’ box just below the post editor where you can credit multiple authors.

24. Add Categories to WordPress Pages

Want to add categories and tags to pages in WordPress? By default, they are only available for posts. Mainly, because pages are supposed to be static standalone content (see difference between posts and pages in WordPress).

If you want to add categories and tags, then simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

// add tag and category support to pages function tags_categories_support_all() { register_taxonomy_for_object_type('post_tag', 'page'); register_taxonomy_for_object_type('category', 'page'); } // ensure all tags and categories are included in queries function tags_categories_support_query($wp_query) { if ($wp_query->get('tag')) $wp_query->set('post_type', 'any'); if ($wp_query->get('category_name')) $wp_query->set('post_type', 'any'); } // tag and category hooks add_action('init', 'tags_categories_support_all'); add_action('pre_get_posts', 'tags_categories_support_query');

25. Create a Local WordPress Site on Your Computer

Many WordPress site owners and developers install WordPress on their computer. It allows you to develop a WordPress site locally, try plugins and themes, and learn WordPress basics.

We created detailed step by step instructions on how to install WordPress on your Windows computer or on Mac using MAMP.

26. Display Total Number of Comments in WordPress

Comments provide an easier way for users to engage with content on your website. Showing total number of comments can be used as social proof and encourage more users to participate in discussions.

The easiest way to do this is by installing the Simple Blog Stats plugin. Upon activation, you can add [sbs_apoproved] shortcode to any post or page to display total number of comments.

For a code method and more instructions see our article on how to display total number of comments in WordPress.

27. Show Total Number of Registered Users in WordPress

If you allow users to register on your WordPress site, then showing total number of registered users can encourage more users to signup.

The easiest way to do this is by installing the Simple Blog Stats plugin. Upon activation, you can add [sbs_users] shortcode to any post or page to display total number of registered users.

For more detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to show total number of registered users in WordPress.

28. Create New Image Sizes in WordPress

When you upload an image to your blog, WordPress automatically creates several copies of the image. Your WordPress theme and plugins can also add new image sizes.

To create new image sizes in WordPress, you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

add_image_size( 'sidebar-thumb', 120, 120, true ); // Hard Crop Mode add_image_size( 'homepage-thumb', 220, 180 ); // Soft Crop Mode add_image_size( 'singlepost-thumb', 590, 9999 ); // Unlimited Height Mode

This code adds three new image sizes. Don’t forget to change image size names and dimensions to your own requirements.

For more information, see our tutorial on how to create new image sizes in WordPress.

29. Add Category Icons in WordPress

Want to add category icons or images next to category names in WordPress? It makes your category archive pages look more engaging and improves user experience.

First you need to install and activate the Taxonomy Images plugin in WordPress. Upon activation, head over to Posts » Categories and click on the add button next to blank thumbnail icon for each category.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add taxonomy images (category icons) in WordPress.

30. Convert Categories to Tags or Vice versa

Often folks are not clear about how to properly use categories and tags in WordPress. Sometimes you may end up creating categories which should have been tags or vice versa.

It is easily fixable.

Head over to Tools » Import page and then install Categories and Tags Converter.

After installation, click on the run importer link to continue.

On the converter page, you can switch between categories to tags or tags to categories converter. Next, select the items you want to convert and then click on the convert button.

31. Bulk Move Posts Between Categories and Tags

Sometimes you may want to bulk move posts between categories and tags. Doing that one by one for each post can be time consuming.

Actually, there is a plugin for that. Simply install and activate the Bulk Move plugin. Upon activation, you need to go to Tools » Bulk Move to move your posts.

For more detailed instructions, visit our tutorial on how to bulk move posts to categories and tags in WordPress.

32. Display Last Updated Date of Your Posts

By default, most WordPress themes will show the date when an article was published. This is fine, and would work for most websites and blogs.

However, if you regularly update your old content, then you may want to show your users when an article was last updated. Otherwise you users wouldn’t notice that the article contains current information.

This can be achieved by adding the following code to

function wpb_last_updated_date( $content ) { $u_time = get_the_time('U'); $u_modified_time = get_the_modified_time('U'); if ($u_modified_time >= $u_time + 86400) { $updated_date = get_the_modified_time('F jS, Y'); $updated_time = get_the_modified_time('h:i a'); $custom_content .= '<p class="last-updated">Last updated on '. $updated_date . ' at '. $updated_time .'</p>'; } $custom_content .= $content; return $custom_content; } add_filter( 'the_content', 'wpb_last_updated_date' );

For more detailed instructions see our guide on how to display last updated date in WordPress.

33. How to Display Relative Dates in WordPress

Want to display relative dates like yesterday, 10 hours ago, or a week ago for your posts in WordPress? Relative dates give users a sense of how much time has passed since something was posted.

To add relative dates, you need to install and activate the Meks Time Ago plugin. Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » General page and scroll down to ‘Meks Time Ago Options’ section.

You can select when to use time ago and how to display it. Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

For more details, see our guide on how to display relative dates in WordPress.

34. Remove WordPress Version Number

By default WordPress adds the WordPress version in your website’s header. Some people think it’s a security liability to which our answer is to keep WordPress updated.

However if you want to remove the WordPress version number, simply add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function wpbeginner_remove_version() { return ''; } add_filter('the_generator', 'wpbeginner_remove_version');

For more information on this topic see our article on the right way to remove WordPress version number.

35. Update WordPress URLs when Not Able to Access WP-Admin

Sometimes when moving a WordPress site to new domain or due to a misconfiguration you may need to update WordPress URLs.

These URLs tell WordPress where to display your site and where WordPress core files are located. Incorrect settings can lock you out of WordPress admin area or redirect you to the old website.

The easiest way to update WordPress URLs is by adding this code to your current theme’s functions.php file.

update_option( 'siteurl', 'http://example.com' ); update_option( 'home', 'http://example.com' );

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name. Once you access your WordPress site go to Settings » General page and update the URLs there. After that you need to remove the code you added to the functions file.

If you also need to update URLs in your posts and pages, then see our guide on how to properly update URLs when moving your WordPress site.

36. Deactivate All Plugins when not able to access WP-admin

When troubleshooting WordPress errors, you will be often asked to deactivate all WordPress plugins. You can just go to Plugins page and deactivate all plugins. But what if you are locked out of your WordPress site?

Here is how you can easily deactivate plugins when locked out of admin area.

First connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client and go to /wp-content/ folder. Inside it, you will find the plugins folder.

Now you just need to rename the plugins folder to plugins.old and WordPress will automatically deactivate all plugins.

For alternate method and more information see our guide on how to deactivate all plugins when not able to access wp-admin.

37. Remove Default Image Links in WordPress

By default, when you upload images using the media uploader, WordPress asks you select how you would like to link to an image. If you don’t want to link to an image, then you can select None.

A better way to deal with this is by adding the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function wpb_imagelink_setup() { $image_set = get_option( 'image_default_link_type' ); if ($image_set !== 'none') { update_option('image_default_link_type', 'none'); } } add_action('admin_init', 'wpb_imagelink_setup', 10);

This code automatically sets default image linking option to none.

For more on this topic check out our guide on how to automatically remove default image link in WordPress.

38. Include Category in Post URLs

You may have noticed that many WordPress sites use category in their post URLs. This allows them to add more useful information into a URL which is good for user experience as well as SEO.

If you want to add category name into your WordPress post URLs, then head over to Settings » Permalinks page. Click on the custom structure and add /%category%/%postname%/ in the field next to it.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

To learn more on how WordPress will handle subcategories and multiple categories, see our guide on how to include category and subcategories in WordPress URLs.

39. Display Random Posts in WordPress

Want to display random posts in your WordPress sidebar? Random posts give your users a chance to discover articles that they would otherwise never get to see.

First, you need to install and activate the Advanced Random Posts Widget plugin. Upon activation, head over to Appearance » Widgets page and then add Random Posts widget to a sidebar.

For an alternate code method, see our guide on how to display random posts in WordPress.

40. Allow user registration on your WordPress Site

WordPress comes with a powerful user management system with different roles and capabilities. If you want to allow users to register on your site, here is how you would turn on that feature.

Head over to Settings » General page and click on the check box next to ‘membership’ option. Below that you need to choose the default role that will be assigned to new users, if you are unsure, then use subscriber.

For more details see our guide on how to allow user registration on your WordPress site.

41. Create a Custom User Registration Form in WordPress

When you open user registration on your site, users will be using the default WordPress registration form. You can replace it with a custom user registration form for an improved user experience.

First you will need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. You will need at least the Pro plan to get access to their user registration addon.

Upon activation, go to WPForms » Addons page to install and activate the user registration addon.

After that you need to create a new form by visiting WPForms » Add New page. This will launch the WPForms builder where you need to select the User Registration Form as your template.

After creating your form you need to click on the embed button to copy the embed code. Now you can add this code to any WordPress post or page to display your custom user registration form.

For more detailed instructions see our guide on how to create a custom user registration form in WordPress.

42. Exclude Specific Categories from RSS Feed

Sometimes you may need to exclude specific categories from your WordPress RSS feed. The easiest way to do that is by installing and activating the Ultimate Category Excluder plugin.

Upon activation, head over to Settings » Category Exclusion page to configure plugin settings.

Select the categories you want to exclude and then click on the save changes button to store your settings.

43. Change Excerpt Length in WordPress

The default WordPress excerpt length is often too short to describe a post’s summary. To change excerpt length you can add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

// Changing excerpt length function new_excerpt_length($length) { return 100; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'new_excerpt_length'); // Changing excerpt more function new_excerpt_more($more) { return '...'; } add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');

If you do not want to mess with code, then see our guide on how to customize WordPress excerpts (no coding required).

44. Display Dynamic Copyright Date in WordPress

To add a copyright date to your WordPress site’s footer, you can just edit the footer template in your theme and add a copyright notice. However, the year you use in the code will need to be manually updated next year.

Instead, you can use the following code to dynamically display the current year in your copyright notice.

For more advance solution, check out our article on how to add dynamic copyright date in WordPress.

45. How to Change a User Name in WordPress

WordPress allows you to easily change the name of a user, but you cannot change the username. There are two ways of doing this.

The easiest way is by using a plugin called Username Changer. After activating the plugin, go to Users » Username Changer page in your WordPress admin.

Select the username you want to change, and then enter the new username.

For alternate methods, see our article on how to change your WordPress username.

46. Allow Users to Like or Dislike Comments

Have you seen how many popular sites like YouTube allow users to like and dislike comments. This brings more user engagement to the discussion on your website.

First you need to install and activate the Comments Like Dislike plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Comments » Comments Like Dislike page to configure plugin settings.

For more details, see our guide on how to allow users to like or dislike comments in WordPress.

47. Duplicate a WordPress Post or Page

The manual way to do duplicate a post is by creating a new post or page and then copying the content from the old one. However, this wouldn’t copy the post settings like categories, featured image, tags, etc.

The more efficient way to do this is by using the Duplicate Post plugin. Simply install and activate the plugin and then go to Posts » All Posts page.

You will see the option to clone a post or create a new draft.

For more detailed instructions, see our article on how to easily duplicate posts and pages in WordPress with a single click.

48. Allow Users to Submit Posts to Your WordPress Site

Authors on your WordPress site can just login to their account and write posts. But what if you wanted your users to be able to submit posts directly without creating an account?

The best way to do this by creating a blog post submission form.

You will need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. You will need the pro version of the plugin to access the post submission addon.

Upon activation, go to WPForms » Addons page to download and activate the post submissions addon.

After that you can go to WPForms » Add New page and then select ‘Blog post submission form’ as your template.

Once you are done editing the form click on the embed button to copy the form embed code. Now you can paste this code in any WordPress post or page to display a blog post submission form.

Posts submitted by users will be stored in your WordPress posts as pending review. You can then review, edit and publish them.

For more detailed instructions, take a look at our guide on how to allow users to submit posts to your WordPress site.

49. Turn Off Comment Notification Emails in WordPress

WordPress automatically sends email notifications when someone leaves a comment or when a comment is awaiting moderation. This is exciting when you first start your blog, but it becomes very annoying after a short while.

The good news is that you can easily turn these notifications off. Visit the Settings » Discussion page on your WordPress admin and then scroll down to ‘Email Me Whenever’ section. Uncheck both options and then click on the save changes button.

50. Change Sender Name in Outgoing WordPress Emails

By default, when WordPress sends an email notification it uses ‘WordPress’ as the sender name. This looks a bit unprofessional and you may want to change it to a real person or your website title.

You can easily change that by adding this code to your theme’s functions file or a site-specific plugin.

// Function to change email address function wpb_sender_email( $original_email_address ) { return '[email protected]'; } // Function to change sender name function wpb_sender_name( $original_email_from ) { return 'Tim Smith'; } // Hooking up our functions to WordPress filters add_filter( 'wp_mail_from', 'wpb_sender_email' ); add_filter( 'wp_mail_from_name', 'wpb_sender_name' );

If you would rather do it using a plugin, then see our guide on how to change sender name in outgoing WordPress emails.

51. Changing the Author of a WordPress Post

Want to change the author of a WordPress post? By default, the option to change post author is hidden on the post edit screen.

You will need to edit the post where you want to change the author name and then click on Screen Options button at the top right corner of the screen. Check the box next to author option.

This will display the author meta box on the post edit screen where you can select a different author for the post.

For more details, check out our article on how to change the author of a post in WordPress.

52. Rearrange Post Edit Screen in WordPress

Sometimes you may feel that categories are located too far down on the post edit screen, or featured image box should be higher.

Many users don’t notice it for a while but all the boxes on the post edit screen are quite flexible. You can click to collapse them and even drag and drop them to arrange the post edit screen.

To learn more, see our tutorial on how to rearrange post edit screen in WordPress.

53. Change Number of Posts Shown on Blog Pages

By default, WordPress shows 10 posts on your blog pages and archives. You can change that to any number you want.

You will need to visit Settings » Reading page and then scroll down to ‘Blog pages show at most’ option. Enter the number of posts you want to display and then click on the save changes button.

54. Automatically Close Comments on Old Articles

Sometimes you would notice that some very old posts on your site start getting regular spam comments for no apparent reason. One way to deal with this is by closing comments on older articles.

WordPress allows you to automatically turn off comments on old articles. You need to visit Settings » Discussion page and then scroll down to ‘Other comment settings’ section.

To learn how to deal with spam comments, see these tips to combat comment spam in WordPress.

55. Split Long Posts into Pages

Want to split lengthy posts into pages so that users can easily navigate them without scrolling too much? WordPress makes it super easy, just add the follow code where you want to split a post into next page.

<!––nextpage––>

WordPress will add page break at this point and rest of the post will appear on the next page. You can add the same code again when you want to start another page, and so on.

For more detailed instructions see our guide on how to split WordPress posts into multiple pages.

That’s all for now.

We hope this article helped you find some new WordPress tips, tricks, and hacks. You may also want to see our ultimate guide to boost WordPress speed and performance.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 55+ Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks appeared first on WPBeginner.

from WPBeginner http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/55-most-wanted-wordpress-tips-tricks-and-hacks/

0 notes