I just noticed that the WordPress template hierarchy flowchart has been updated so I thought this might be a good time to share.

WordPress Templates fit together like the pieces of a puzzle to generate the web pages on your WordPress site. Some templates (the header and footer template files for example) are used on all the web pages, while others are used only under specific conditions.

This flowchart is a really handy reference while you are developing your theme.  If you’re not quite sure which template part takes precedence in a particular scenario, this bad boy will clear any confusion.

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If you’re like me, you still haven’t quite taken the dive into all out HTML5 markup. Don’t feel bad.

From what I’ve read, there still isn’t a whole lot of importance placed on the HTML5 markup itself.  Search engines and mobile devices don’t care if you use <div> tags in place of <section> or <article> tags, so why should you?

Here’s a little motivation. 

This bad-ass boilerplate by Divya Manian is jam-packed with so many goodies it’ll make your head spin.  I’ve used boilerplates for everything from grid-based designs to email templates and this one is worth taking note.

Check out the docs for more info too.

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I’m packin’ up my game and I’ma head out west where…. ok enough of that.  But seriously it’s time for a change, and I can’t think of a better way to do it.  I’m moving to Denver!

I am currently working for Raidious Digital Content Services (as Director, Platforms), and will continue to do so remotely.  Raidious is a lean web development shop with a focus on bearing the brunt of all things content.

Raidious is a content company. We make, manage, monitor, moderate and measure digital content on a real-time, distributed basis.

And I gotta tell you, I love working with these guys.

Dry your tears now.  I know you’re going to miss me but I’ll be back in Indy a few times a year to catch up with everybody.

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Miss Pivot - The approach made easy.

Miss Pivot is a company launched at Start-up Weekend and is one of the few from the NC event that is not only going strong, but growing strong.

The Indy launch party went swimmingly and had an excellent turn-out. There have been a couple other parties including a Valentines Day party which were all a blast.  And an amazing write-up in the Metromix Indianapolis by Ryan Checkeye.  Now it is time for Miss Pivot to hit in Ft. Wayne!

The Ft. Wayne launch party is happening on Friday, Feb. 26th 8pm at Early Birds, no cover.  The event is for singles and couples alike so stop by and get your party on!

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Ok sorry about the down time.  Not sure what happened but my sql database was just mangled.  Lost some data but I’ll try to recreate what I can.

And yay for the new theme, thanks WooThemes!

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If you’re like me, you would rather use the html editor over the wysiwyg editor in WordPress.  The interface is difficult to use and leaves much to be desired.  There are plug-ins you can install to try and remedy this, such as TinyMCE Advanced.  These help a bit, however the editor still feels buggy and cumbersome, especially for the novice user.

Enter Windows Live Writer, part of the Microsoft Live Essentials pack.

I’ve only started using it, in fact I’m writing this very post with it.  But the interface is very friendly and robust.  On top of making text formatting easier, Live Writer lets you insert and edit media on the fly, preview your post as it would look in your blog, edit source code, manage comments, and it supports plug-ins.  You can also manage the basics such as tags, categories, and publish date, etc.

The software supports other blogging platforms as well, but I’m a big WordPress proponent so I’m not going to get into that.

I’m going to start setting my web site clients up with this software.  Easier editing for them means less support from me and everybody is happier.

I’ll leave you with a few more screen shots from my experience.  Happy blogging!

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Most of the time when your CSS is solid, you’re not going to see too many layout discrepancies between modern browsers.  However if you have just one or two elements that are acting up in IE6 and/or IE7, here are a couple very useful tricks.

The underscore hack, and the star element hack:

.box {
   background: #00f; /* all browsers including Mac IE */
   *background: #f00; /* IE 7 and below */
   _background: #f60; /* IE 6 and below */
   padding: 7px;
   color: #fff;
}

An easy way to remember this is star for the higher version, underscore for the lower.

You can also use the backslash hack to target IE5 – but let’s face it, IE5 is crap.  Throw it away.

If you have more than just one or two rogue elements, consider using conditional comments (the if statement).

More on Ed Eliot’s blog, thanks Ed.

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Okay so this site has been up for a few weeks now, but since I just started my blog here, there aren’t too many entries in the portfolio section yet.  Time to remedy that.

Online Teaching Associates is the brain-child of Greg Kearsley, Ph.D. and Bob Blomeyer, Ph.D.  The two have combined careers including more than 50 years of experience designing, developing and building online learning environments, as well as conducting research about educational technology.

Bob Blomeyer is a tech-savvy teacher who had already set up a number of supporting resources for this business including Elgg, Wimba, Moodle, and a wiki.  Bob came to me with a simple problem:  The resources he had set up lacked congruency in design and were missing a portal or front page for ease of access.

What we decided to do was throw together a wordpress site with a pre-existing theme and tailor that to best match his vision of the site.  We went with the Revolution Office theme by Revolution2 because it is beautifully simplistic and was at the time free.

First thing on the list was a logo re-design.  What Bob had was good, but we wanted something sexier and easier to understand.

OTA Logo Before

OTA Logo After

Next was to tweak the images and CSS styles of our theme to match the soft blue tones Bob requested.  As well as reformatting some of the containers, and template copy layout to better suit our needs.

OTA Layout Before

OTA Layout After

Obviously there are a lot of changes that I’m not going to detail here. If you want, visit the site and compare it to the Revolution Office demo.  After those changes and a few plugins to make the WordPress admin act more like a CMS we are set to launch!

It’s been great working with Bob and since the project was such a huge success, he has decided to put me on retainer so that we can continue to work towards stylizing his other resources.

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The more I use it, the more I love it.  PockeTwit brings twitter to your Windows Mobile device without having to deal with text messages or a mobile web site.

The entire experience is smooth, natural, and efficient.  Via their site, “A screenshot doesn’t really do it justice, the kinetic list and side menus have to be experienced to understand.”  It’s really nice to see that not everyone has abandoned WinMo for iPhones or Android.

Of my favorite features are:

• Conversation view
• Map view
• Integrated searching
• Integrated url shortening
• Picture sharing
• Clickable @names, URLs, and #Hashtags
• Extensive alert settings

Check out their Google Code page for a full feature list and download links.

I’ve also ripped out the TweetDeck notification altert for use with PockeTwit.  Since PockeTwit uses the built-in windows notification system, you can easily set it to use this.  I don’t feel like converting to mp3 so you’ll just have to deal with a wav file.

TweetDeck Notification Alert

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Just finished out my second Startup Weekend.  Went down to North Carolina this time.  There were a ton of great ideas pitched and only four made the cut: Tweetasy (my group), Startup Junkyard, TribeTrader, and Piv-ot.

What a blast it was!  We got into the Chapel Hill area Thursday evening and stayed until Tuesday in the morn.  This was my first trip to NC and the place is friggin gorgeous.

Tweetasy is dubbed “miniature twitter literature”.  The idea is to write as complete a story as you can in 140 characters or less.  The site is integrated with twitter so you need an account with them to post anything.  Anybody can read the stories though.  In order to post a story, you simply tweet it through our interface or from anywhere else using the #asy hash tag.

My role in the project was front-end development and design.  Since time was short all we did was tweak out an existing WordPress theme and integrate it with our custom built application (you rock Brian Auton!). Right now the site is pretty basic, posting works as well as the feed.  There is also a rating system and filtering options to see how people are rating.  Future features will include in-depth stats, contests, printing options, and more.  Head on over and post a story!

Connect with the Tweetasy team on twitter!

• Adam
• Kevin
• Brian A
• Brian C (me!)
  
• Justis

Here are some great links if you want to check out more:

• http://startupweekend.com/
• http://trianglestartupweekend.com/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalpapercuts/3421506836/
• http://socialwayne.com/

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