Archives for the ‘Tutorials’
Favourite Links of the Week (#3)
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Freebies, Inspiration, Tutorials, iPhone, jQuery on 18 Jan
Time again for another round of fun and exciting links! If you have any you want featuring on next weeks roundup then let me know via Twitter (via @stugreenham).
Tutorial: Using CSS Shorthand in your Stylesheets
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Tutorials, Web Design on 14 Jan
Using CSS Shorthand is great for reducing the lines of code and preventing us typing lots of duplicate lines of code in our stylesheet's, but how many of us use it? I notice on a lot of developers stylesheets that they have multiple lines of code where only one is needed and I don't really understand why! I guess it's a personal preference, but here is how you can start coding CSS in shorthand.
Favourite Links of the Week (#2)
Posted in All Posts, Freebies, Inspiration, Photography, Tutorials, Web Design, jQuery on 10 Jan
Right guys, continuing on from last week, here are some of my favourite links that I have seen in the last 7 days! Some crackers here and if you agree then help me out with a cheeky Tweet, Bump or Digg! You will find all the sharing links at the bottom of the post page. Heres my #2 set of links....
Favourite Links of the Week (#1)
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Freebies, HTML, Inspiration, Photoshop, Tutorials, Web Design on 31 Dec
I am going to start a set of weekly posts that will show you my favourite links I have found, been sent or have used myself at some point. Please, if you have time to take a few minutes to help spread my posts using the share links at the bottom of the page I would be very greatful! Right heres my #1 set of links...
Tutorial: Clearing the <textarea> value onFocus
Posted in All Posts, HTML, Tutorials, Web Design on 09 Dec
Quick tip that will always come in handy when creating forms. More often then not you will see a textarea that initially has some text in, something like... 'Type your message here...'. On some websites, I have noticed that when you go to type in that same textarea you have to first remove the message before you start typing yours which I find very frustratings.
How To: Get Chrome on your Mac with Extensions
Posted in Browsers, Software, Tutorials on 09 Dec
Chrome officially rocks! right? I officially made the it my default web browser at work last week which is a big move for me as I have been a dedicated Firefoxian for several years. After Google added extension support to its browser I was hooked!
How To: Move WordPress to a new Domain!
Posted in Tutorials, Web Design, WordPress on 27 Nov
For about roughly a year now I have been considering moving away from selfconclusion.co.uk to either 1) a new funky domain name, or 2) blog.stugreenham.com and yesterday in a wild move I took the plunge! Luckily things all went smoothly (he say's) and so far I have not experienced any major issues...
Google Sync now supports Push Mail
Posted in News, Tutorials, iPhone on 23 Sep
Back in February I wrote a post about Google Sync and how you can sync your Google Calendar and Contacts to your iPhone wirelessly using the exchange feature on your iPhone. Well Google have now added support for push mail to their sync feature! In their blog post they write about their decision to add this.
Tutorial: Display your Latest Tweet on your Website using SimplePie
Posted in All Posts, Social Networking, Tutorials, Web Design on 13 Sep
Okay so if you read my blog you will know I have already posted a tutorial showing you how to add your latest tweet to your website. Well this is part 2, and in part 2 we look at how to add your tweets to your blog/website in a much better way, using SimplePie.
Posted in All Posts, Browsers, Hacks, Tutorials, Web Design on 27 Aug
If you tend to put a lot of PNG images on your websites like I do, then you will know how much of a pain IE6 is! IE6 can display PNG images but it doesn't play to well with transparent ones, in fact, the transparency won't work at all! To get around this I have been using the following css hack to display a GIF image in IE6...
Tutorial: Image hover/fade effect using jQuery
Posted in All Posts, Tutorials, Web Design on 16 Aug
I recently came across this cool about us page and instantly fell in love with the hover over effect they used on the images. Well anyways, I tought myself how to do this same effect and now I'm going to show you guys how to do it! It's very easy to do but very effective! Here is another cool site that has also used a similar effect and I'm sure you will agree it really makes the page stand out!
Tutorial: Display your Google Feedburner count on your Website
Posted in Tutorials, Web Design on 28 Jun
Following on from my tutorial that shows you how to display your latest Tweet on your website, I will now show you how to show of your Feedburner subscribers count in plain text on your website. Feedburner does already give you the option to display your count on your site using their 'chicklets' but these are widget like icons that aren't particularly customizable and for my site, they did not look right!
Tutorial: Display your Latest Tweet on your Website
Posted in Tutorials, Web Design on 13 Jun
You will have noticed that I display my latest Tweet in the header of my website (look up). Until recently I have been using the Twitter for WordPress plug-in, but I was experiencing problems and 9/10 times my page loaded I would get the error message instead on my Tweet! This became increasingly frustrating, as my site would get featured on someone else's blog and the screenshot would contain this error message.
Reverse Your Email with CSS and Prevent Spam
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Hacks, Tutorials, Web Design on 30 Apr
SPAM... Literally the most annoying word! When I used to work in IT Support, I would constantly get asked how to stop spam, and my reply would always be that you can't! There is only so much software you can install / filters you can set going before you realise, the spam eventually reaches you anyway, fact! It's just part or web life.
Finally.. A Sync between Google and iPhone
Posted in All Posts, Tutorials, iPhone on 10 Feb
Now this is something I have been patiently waiting for ages now! The option to Synchronize my Calendar data between my Google Account and my iPhone! Woop! Well here it is, be it only in beta mode at present, Google Sync.
Working with Custom Fields in WP
Posted in All Posts, Tutorials, Web Design, WordPress on 31 Dec
Every one who uses WordPress for there blog will have no doubt at some point noticed the section labelled 'Custom Fields'. Now be honest, how many of you use this feature on your Website? or how many of you at least understand what it does? The feature is infact very handy and with a few simple steps, it can really make your WP Theme stand out, but there are many who don't take advantage of it! Hopefully if your reading this you have some understanding of how WordPress works, and fingers crossed you are aware of the WP Loop that pulls your posts to display on your site. If you are not familier with the Loop then this page will be ...
Removing the Dotted Hyperlink Borders
Posted in All Posts, CSS, Hacks, Tutorials, Web Design on 12 Oct
I love Firefox, it is my favoured browser but there is one little thing that really frustrates me, especially from a designer point of view. You may, or may not have noticed that the browser adds a dotted border around hyperlinks that only become visible upon activating the link. For many this is probably not a problem as its not exactly causing any problems to anyone, but I don't like it.
Posted in All Posts, Freebies, Tutorials, Web Design, WordPress on 08 Sep
If you have read any of my previous posts about the mighty WordPress, then you might be able to work out I am a big fan! Very true indeed! Infact 99% of the sites I have done use it. When creating a design I won't build it into WordPress from the start, main reason is that I can concentrate fully on the HTML/CSS code and not have to worry about PHP loops, etc. Much simpler!
Community
7 Black and White Photoshop Conversion Techniques
Another great tutorial from Photo Tuts + showing 7 different method's of converting an image to black and white all done in Photoshop.
How To Use Curves in Photoshop
Good tutorial from Tutorial9 showing you how to use the curves tool. Something I've used many times but always good to brush up on your skills once in a while!
Great tool for any grid users out there. Break away from using the same grid each time and generate your own using this tool from Zurb that even provides you with the code to get you started!
600+ Photoshop Gradients to Download
Huuugge collection of gradients brought to you by Best Design Options!
Start BitTorrent downloads remotely with Dropbox
Great tutorial / tip showing how any mac users can use Dropbox to set torrents to automatically download remotely!
The Ultimate iPhone Setup for Web Designers (40+ Apps)
The perfect post for any Web Designing iPhone lovers! A huge list of some great apps which will help us all be that little bit more productive! Thanks Appstorm!
How To Write The Perfect Tweet
Interesting post from Twittercism looking at things we can do to help us write better Tweets. I'm guilty for a lot of these but a good article for anyone looking to use Twitter as a marketing tool.
130+ Stunning Examples of Macro Photography
Great article from Photo Tuts+ showcasing over 130 amazing close up Macro shots. Mainly insects here but still amazing to see so close up!
jQuery Resources for One-Page Portfolios
Another good post from Vandelay Design showing off some nice tools and tips for one page websites. I've just become a fan of the Smooth Anchors myself!
Really cool post by Nicolas Gallagher looking at pure CSS Speech bubbles with lots of cool examples here!
Showcase of Twitter Integration on Blogs
Cool showcase from Vandelay Design looking at various websites and how they have integrated Twitter. The post is from last year but some great examples non the less.
20 of the Best Typographical Portraits Found on the Web
Very cool post from Jared over at Design Juices showcasing 20 amazing typographical portraits! The Mr.T one is soo cool!
How to Shoot and Post-Process Professional HDR Photos in One Day
Interesting tutorial from Photo Tuts showing how to make HDR photos, from the point of taking the shot down to the editing process. Definately going to try this!
25 Mega Menus for Your Design Inspiration
Design Mag's article looks into 25 websites using the 'mega menu'. Great article and nice examples!
5 Ways to Instantly Write Better CSS
Great article from Nettuts+ looking at how we write our CSS code as well as various good practices and time saving tips. I particularly like the a-z css properties I think I am going to try it myself!
50 Awesome Animations made with CSS3
Great collection for anyone starting to look into CSS3 and more specifically, animations. Some very clever effects and worth a look!
8 Reasons You Might Not Be Getting Many Comments
Interesting read looking into possible reasons your blog might not be getting that many comments.
Best Practices for Hints and Validation in Web Forms
Great article from Six Revisions looking at many form styles and talking about good/bad practices with web forms and form validation techniques.
50+ sets of Latest Photoshop color gradients
Super resource of color gradients from Artatm! A great source for color inspiration as well for your next design project!
Whats the Best way to Promote your Latest Article?
Jared posted this great article looking at the best ways you can promote your latest content from your website. I was in need of an article when I was setting up the Design Woop article page so a good one for the bookmarks!
50 Captivating Slow Shutter Speed Photos
Photo Tuts+ posted this amazing set of photographs showcasing some real talent with slow shutter speeds! Great inspiration for a beginner photographer like myself!
70 iPhone Inspired Website Designs For Design Inspiration
Amazing list of iPhone App Websites from Theme Flash! Really enjoy looking through posts like this and if you own an iPhone like me then you will probably find some new apps too!
Showcase of Transparency in Web Design
Great showcase post from Vandelay Design who regularly provide us with treats like this. Today's showcase looks into the use of transparency in web design and there are some great examples!
Microsoft forced to offer Windows users choice of web browsers
Daily Mail article talking about how an investigation into Microsoft now means that they must offer alternative browsers upon Windows installation other then their horrible Internet Explorer.
Agencies, Labs, Studios, Media, Interactive and Creatives: The Many Names Of A Design Business
Cool post looking into popular name choices of Design Websites and how apart we really are from each other in terms of originality! Very interesting post.