How To Use The WordPress Gallery Shortcode

WordPress has an in-built image gallery feature which does not yet seem to be common knowledge even though it’s incredibly simple to use.

So let’s say you are writing a post that you want to include an image gallery in.

1)   Using the usual upload/insert image button, upload any images you want to include in the gallery BUT make sure to just click “Save All Changes” instead of “Insert Into Post.”

2)   If you want your gallery to have captions, make sure to fill in the Caption field when uploading your images.

3)   To display the images you just uploaded, simply use the shortcode:

 
Read More

WordPress 3.0 New Features – ‘Twenty Ten’ New Default Theme

WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” has now been officially released (as you may have noticed from the upgrade prompt at the top of your WP dashboard).

I’ll be doing a couple of posts about the new features – in this one I’ll be discussing the brand new default theme that you’ll find if you upgrade.

New Default Theme – Twenty Ten

WordPress - Twenty Ten Theme thumbnailTwenty Ten is the new default theme and it’s infinitely better than tired ole’ Kubrick. Twenty Ten serves as a demonstration of many of the new WP 3.0 features, making it much more functional and customizable right out of the box, but also making it a great framework on which to build child themes. Some of the new WordPress features aren’t obvious to the non-developer because they require adding some code in order to activate the features – Twenty Ten makes many of them visible to the ordinary user and provides a nice guideline for theme developers to understand and expand upon what’s now possible.  See the theme in action.

Here are some of the main new features that Twenty Ten demonstrates:

Read More

Notes and Resources from OC Wordcamp Marketing Presentation

This past weekend I gave a presentation at OC Wordcamp, discussing using a WordPress site for marketing your business, service or product.  As promised, here are the some of the key points, along with links and tools that were mentioned. If anything is missing, leave a comment!

When developing a strategy for your site, the first and most important question to ask is:

Who do you want to come to your site? Who is your target audience?

Thou shall not answer “everybody”!

Get specific since the answer will provide the basis for all aspects of your online marketing strategy.

For more on this topic, also read:
Recharge and Refine Your Marketing Strategy
What Is An Online Marketing Strategy?

Read More

Speaking at OC Wordcamp – WordPress for Marketing

I’ve been given the opportunity to speak this weekend at OC Wordcamp (thanks Brandon!) on the topic: WordPress for Marketing. I will be discussing ways to optimize your blog to market yourself, your business or service. I’ll  be covering things like:

  • Some plugins you can use to help make your site ‘sticky’
  • How to discover what people really want from your site
  • How to collect information from your visitors and develop your mailing list
  • Making sure your site effectively communicates your desired message
  • Find out what’s working and what could be more effective on your site
Read More

How To Choose A WordPress Theme – Design & Functionality Considerations

This post follows on from – How To Choose A WordPress Theme -Free, Premium or Custom

When choosing a theme you must consider design, layout and functionality.
When considering these, keep in mind the general type of theme you are looking for (see previous post). If you are looking for a free theme,  you need to find something as close to what you want as possible (or be savvy enough to tweak it yourself). If you are looking at Premium themes,  you may have some flexibility on colors and admin options. The closer your theme is to what you want to begin with, the less tinkering you will have to do. Determining what options the theme gives you will be important.

Remember as you are looking at themes that colors and fonts are easier to change (with a little CSS) than things like sidebar placement, and changing the layout/ structure, unless you’re comfortable with PHP.

Read More