John Young contacted us via our shiny new Plugin Review form and asked for our thoughts on the best YouTube embedding plugin for WordPress out of Youtuber, Youtube Embedder, and WP YouTube Player. As this is a comparison request, I’m going to approach from less of a review angle, and more of a well . . . a comparison.
Fortunately, the subject of which YouTube plugin to use is relatively easy. YouTube embeds have been built-into WordPress for quite some time. All you need to do is paste the YouTube URL into your post and WordPress takes care of the rest. So the question is, “Which plugin gives you more than a standard embed?”
Right off the bat, I’m going to take Youtube Embedder out of the running. It hasn’t been updated in over a year, lists its compatibility as up to WordPress 2.9.2 only, and doesn’t do much more than allow […]
Original post by James Huff
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One of the greatest strengths of WordPress is the widget system. As long as a theme supports sidebars, it can use widgets which can be anything from a Twitter status update area to a static text box. The beauty of the system is that you can move content around without using any extravagant code. Thankfully, themes have really started to embrace the sidebar/widget system in 2010 by providing an ample amount of sidebars and in some cases, the opportunity to create as well as place sidebars where you want them. However, the default widget system in WordPress does not offer granularity out of the box. When a widget is placed within a sidebar, that widget will show up on every post/page that the sidebar is on. I’ve personally been waiting to see WordPress come up with their own system of being able to dictate when and where widgets will show […]
Original post by Jeff Chandler
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Did you know that Adobe Photoshop is 20 years old and Illustrator has been around over 24 years? I’ve been using Photoshop since version 5 and Illustrator since version 8. It is amazing to see how they are progressively improving and adding more features. Now with vector features and 3D tools, Photoshop is no longer just an image editing tool. The same goes with Illustrator, Bristle Brushes were added to simulate bitmap drawing. I’ve been using CS5 for several months so in this post, I’m going to share my thoughts on CS5.
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Original post by Nick La
Technorati Tags: blog, google
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to not only interview Chip Bennett regarding the new WordPress Theme Review team but I also had a chance to speak with Edward Caissie who is a member of the team. You can listen to the full interview and associated discussion on episode 106 of WordPress Weekly. However, one of the things that came out of that show was the need for community volunteers to help out in the reviewing process. After speaking with Edward, he accepted my request to write a guest blog post explaining how people can contribute to the theme review team.
The following was written by Edward Caissie, member of the newly established theme review team.
How do I get involved with the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT)?
It’s really rather simple. Just follow these steps below.
Subscribe to the Theme Review mailing list.
Make sure you have a WordPress.org username.
Send a message […]
Original post by Jeff Chandler
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Ever wonder if one headline would be better than another for a particular post? If so, you’ll now be able to test two different headlines per post using the newly released Headline Split Tester plugin developed by bhalliburton and peterbessman. The plugin is incredibly simple to use. Once installed, a new meta box is added to the post creation/editing page where you can enter an alternative headline.
As you can see via the screenshot, you’ll be able to view the total number of impressions the article has along with the number of clicks each headline has received. By default, the total number of impressions an article needs to have is 250 before a headline is chosen. This can be changed via the plugin options. In fact, it’s the only option this plugin has.
What’s cool about this particular plugin is that it was created by these two individuals over a […]
Original post by Jeff Chandler
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There are many ways to backup WordPress, but none as easy and thorough as VaultPress. VaultPress is one of the newest Automattic projects and is definitely a powerhouse in its field.
One of the many things that sets VaultPress apart from the rest is its set it and forget it ease of use. Simply install the VaultPress plugin and watch as it begins to analyze and backup your database, plugins, themes, and uploads. After the first backup is complete, VaultPress will update your backup whenever a change is made, even for something as trivial as adjusting a setting. The result is a series of up to the minute full backups ready to be restored as soon as you need them.
In contrast, iDrive is VaultPress’ closest competitor. Though iDrive’s service starts free, you’re only allotted 2GB before a paid upgrade is required, and the backups are only generated […]
Original post by James Huff
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The other day, I had asked plugin developers to dish out their wish list for the plugin repository. Olivier published a comment recommending a plugin called WATS or WordPress Advanced Ticketing System as a way of handling support on your own website.
After installation, users need to visit the Wats Options page within the Settings menu to configure the plugin. The top of the settings page has a donate button if you want to send a little coin to the plugin author which is not intrusive or bothersome. While configuring the plugin, you can click on each menu title to show detailed information about that settings group.
The only problems I met when configuring this plugin is the user interface. Like I mentioned above, you can click on the settings title to show a hidden message that gives more details for the settings group but it’s not obvious this can be […]
Original post by Jeff Chandler
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Surprisingly enough, based on the findings from my recent survey there are quite a bit of Fireworks users. Personally, I never used Fireworks. Photoshop is alway my first choice for designing—from image editing to designing mock-ups. But, did you know that Fireworks is way better than Photoshop in term of image compression? I’m not a software engineer, I can’t explain why Fireworks can compress better. But I can prove it to you by showing a series of experiments I did.
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Original post by Nick La
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Introducing a revolutionary analytic tool — Clixpy — it captures everything your visitors do on the site including: mouse movement, clicks, scrolling, and form inputs. For this review purpose, I tested it on IconDock and the results are impressive. Instantly, I can watch what my visitors did on the site. Clixpy is extremely useful to analyze the feedbacks on new sites and site updates. See it in action now.
Giveaway: Make a comment in this post (before Jun 12, 2009) for your chance to win a free “600 captures” promo code. I will be giving out 10 promo codes in total. (more…)
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Original post by Nick La
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First of all, I would to thank Porter Novelli, the PR firm representing Adobe in Canada, for offering a copy of Adobe CS4 to do this review. CS4 has been out for quite a while and I hope you have already upgraded because the new CS4 is all about maximizing your productivity and making your work easier. In this post, I’m going to write about my experience with using the new features of Photoshop and Illustrator. (more…)
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Original post by Nick La
Technorati Tags: blog, music, google
