Category: How To
How to Achieve Equal Letter Spacing and Maintain Multiple Spaces in HTML
HTML will condense multiple spaces into a single space unless you use one of a few techniques to specifically declare multiple spaces or declare that the text is pre-formatted. Here are 2 methods to preserve multiple spaces in HTML. Continue reading
How to Remove __MACOSX Directory from Zip Archive
This requires just a little bit of command line knowledge, but overall it’s pretty straight-forward
- Open Terminal.app
- Change your path to the directory where the zip file exists
- type
zip -d Archive.zip __MACOSX/\*and hit enter (assuming your file is named Archive.zip)
The __MACOSX folder should now be removed from the zip archive.
Note: if the path or filename contains spaces, be sure to escape the space with a ‘\’. Example: archive\ name.zip
How to Redirect Multiple Domains the SEO-Friendly Way
I just into a situation where I had to point multiple domains to the same website, but couldn’t do it the easy way. Typically, I would just log into the domain’s registrar account like GoDaddy, manage into that domain, and select ‘forward this domain’. But in this case, forwarding was not available through the domain’s registrar.
Currently I manage the hosting account through Web Host Manager, so here’s the steps for using WHM: Continue reading
Add Product to WordPress/WP-eCommerce Website
Here’s a quick tutorial on how to add and edit products using the WP-eCommerce Plugin on a WordPress site.
Fix GIF Thumbnails with Black Background in WordPress
I have a few website that I’ve designed in WordPress using a shopping cart plugin, and then trained the owner how to insert new products along with images of the products. After the client uploaded a hundred or so products we found that all the thumbnails WordPress automatically generated had black backgrounds. All of the client’s images were gifs. Here’s a quick fix: Continue reading
How to Properly Structure Web Content
Audience
This article is intended for people who use a content management system like WordPress to blog or create & maintain your website, but the overall concepts apply to all web design, regardless of what platform you use to create/manage your website.
Goals
- Create an ideal webpage structure for easy reading
- Maintain style consistency throughout entire site
- Help search engines understand what the web page is about
How to Unlock a Google Apps Account
The other day my Google Apps account randomly stopped working in my Mac Mail application. The ‘the password you entered is invalid’ error kept popping up, even though I knew it was correct. After some digging, I found that occasionally a Google Apps account might become locked for one reason or another. Unfortunately the problem and the fix wasn’t obvious, but I eventually found a solution.
To unlock your Google Apps account, go to: https://www.google.com/accounts/UnlockCaptcha?, fill out the Captcha, and your account should unlock.
Feel free to leave comments or possible reasons for why a Google Apps account might get locked.
WordPress Auto Update Problems
I always say “WordPress is a double-edged sword”. It’s pretty cool that you can get a website up and running so quickly, but there are so many problems that are a result of so many versions, incompatible plugins, and server configuration issues. I just finally solved one issue I’ve been having for quite a while – WordPress failing on an automatic update.
The fix that is quoted on so many blogs was to delete the wp-content/uploads folder and try again, which never worked for me. I then stumbled upon a blog which pointed me the right direction – change your server configuration to use proFTP instead of pureFTPd. I have a Storm on Demand account (Through Liquid Web) and was able to change this in WebHost Manager in under a minute. Violia! Now I’m able to do auto updates as intended!
Cudos to Darcy for figuring this one out! View source
MYSQL Query – Sort Alphabetical Exclude Articles (‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’)
I just ran across this query I had to construct a while ago which can be useful when trying to sort alphabetically, but some of the data contained the articles ‘a’, ‘an’, or ‘the’ which alphabetized the results incorrectly. This query could be useful in a number of situations – album titles, company names, movie titles, book titles, and more.
For example, ‘The Big Lebowski’ ought to appear in the B’s, but if you simply did this query, it will show up in the T’s.
SELECT `id`, `title` FROM `movies` ORDER BY `title`;
With a little MYSQL magic, we can sort alphabetically by title, ignoring any leading articles, while still preserving the full title.
SELECT `id`, `title` FROM `movies` ORDER BY TRIM(LEADING 'a ' FROM TRIM(LEADING 'an ' FROM TRIM(LEADING 'the ' FROM LOWER(`title`))));
Basically the ORDER portion of the query just trims off any instances of ‘a’, ‘an’ or ‘the’ (case insensitive) to get the desired order, but the column `movies` will still return the full, unaltered title.
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