I would love to say I wrote this handy bit of code myself but I did not. Much praise to for the skilled coder at brassblogs.

Now, the way to use this is to take the code listed below and add it to your functions file. Or, to make it easier, I’ve pasted the complete information into this text file.

function inherit_template() {
if (is_category()) {
$catid = get_query_var('cat');
if ( file_exists(TEMPLATEPATH .
'/category-' . $catid . '.php') ) {
include( TEMPLATEPATH . '/category-' .
$catid . '.php');
exit;
}

add_action('template_redirect',
'inherit_template', 1);


After you add that to your functions.php file, you simply need to make a template for EACH PARENT CATEGORY. The child categories will then use the template that their PARENT uses. YEA!

It’s very easy to make a category template. The simplest way is to take the existing archive.php file in your Wordpress theme and save it as category-ID.php where the ID is the NUMBER of the category. You can check this by going into your wp-admin, clicking on the category and reading the complete URL for the ID= (it will be at the end of the string).

So, if your category is #1, you will make category-1.php. You can style this page in any way you want; you can change link colors, text colors or even make it look completely different from the rest of your Wordpress blog – it’s completely up to you!

This will apply to all parent categories that you want to use a special template; simply find the category ID, create the page, name it category-XX.php (where XX is your category ID) and upload it to your theme folder. Or use the sample you can download here.

Again, credit goes to brassblogs.com! Thanks!

A great code around is shown below, courtesy of to Kyle Eslick and found on wprecipes. I’ve used it on some sites and I find it works great. ONE NOTE: if you want less than 10 comments, simply change the code to a lesser number.

php
  global $wpdb;
  $sql = "SELECT DISTINCT ID, post_title, post_password,
comment_ID, comment_post_ID, comment_author,comment_date_gmt,comment_approved,
comment_type,comment_author_url,
SUBSTRING(comment_content,1,30) AS com_excerpt
FROM
$wpdb->comments LEFT OUTER JOIN $wpdb->posts ON
 ($wpdb->comments.comment_post_ID = $wpdb->posts.ID)
 WHERE comment_approved = '1' AND comment_type = ''
AND post_password = ''
ORDER BY comment_date_gmt DESC LIMIT 10";

  $comments = $wpdb->get_results($sql);
  $output = $pre_HTML;
  $output .= "\n

";
  foreach ($comments as $comment) {
    $output .= "\n
".strip_tags($comment->comment_author) .":"
 . "ID)."#comment-" . $comment->comment_ID
. "" title="on ".$comment->post_title .
"">" . strip_tags($comment->com_excerpt)."

";
  }
  $output .= "\n


";
  $output .= $post_HTML;
  echo $output;

1. The maximum width requirement for fan pages is now 520px.
2. The boxes tag will be removed

How does this effect you, the Facebook user? If you have a page for your business, you will have to make changes to it. During the week of August 23rd, Facebook will automatically be implementing this change. That means that if you have a graphic page layout that is WIDER than the new width of 520 PX it will be truncated or rendered in such a way that it is basically useless.

Take this for example:

I think it's obvious that the owner of this fan page does NOT want it to look like this...

So, let everyone know – Facebook Fan Pages must now be 520PX wide and no wider – at least until Facebook decides to change again…

A new graphic was created for a Facebook Fan Page. (This isn’t the complete graphic, just a snippet until I get feedback from the client)

As you may or may not know, the graphics are created the same but to add the code to Facebook, you must use FBML (that will be another post). So, the graphic is completed – now I’m just waiting on approval!

Today, I had the usual struggle to dive back into work after a week off on the Washington Coast (like to see some pictures, click here). Once I got started, I got quite a bit accomplished.

Long-time client, Beartooth Kawasaki (www.beartoothkawasaki.com) needed the annual product updates done to their various websites. It takes a bit of time but it’s enjoyable because I have been doing it for many years.

Kawasaki Motorcycle website edits

Skills required on this particular job include an understanding and ability to code in PHP, as well as HTML and CSS, image manipulation and attention to detail.

Have a job like this? Contact me today to find out how I can help.

It’s a pretty simple process.

1. Add a line of code to functions.php

add_theme_support('post-thumbnails');

2. Define the size of the thumbnails – you have a couple options. You can hard crop it, which is what I have done in the example below (add ‘true’ to the end of the dimensions), or you can resize the box. Box resizing shrinks an image without distortion until it fits inside the “box” you’ve specified with your dimensions.

set_post_thumbnail_size( 100, 100, true ); // 100 pixels wide by 100 pixels tall, hard crop mode

Together this will look like:

3. Add the code to your template

That’s it! Now when you login to your wp-admin panel scroll down – on the right side under ‘Categories’:

Click on ’set thumbnail’ and you get this box:

Be sure to select ‘Use as thumbnail’ and then ’save’. Then close the window with the X on top right.

Here’s an example of it used on one of my sites:

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Password:

All graphics are custom made by me, Debbi Cunnington of Cimmeron Studios, LLC, with the exception of the vector devil, which was created elsewhere.

I’d love to have your feedback on the new blog design and I hope that your summer is wonderful!

It’s easy.

1. Locate the category ID number by going into the Link manager in Wordpress and hovering over the category name. That should show you the ID. If that doesn’t work, click on the category name and the ID is the number at the end of the URL.

2. Find the code that displays the bookmarks. It should look like this:

<?php wp_list_bookmarks(''); ?>

3. Edit that code to choose the Category ID that you want to display:

<?php wp_list_bookmarks(‘category=766′); ?>

That’s it!

You want to use something a little bit more attractive than the standard ‘SUBMIT’ button – even changing the text to ‘PUSH ME NOW’ isn’t as visually appealing as a nice graphic you’ve made to match the color and theme of your site. We all know graphics help make a website jump from OKAY to STUNNING! So, how do you do it?

It’s simple. Here’s the code:

<input type=”image” name=”cmdSubmit” alt=”Submit Form” src=”/images/submit.png” value=”Submit”>

Simply put that in place of your standard form submit code and you’re ready to go!