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03 May 2021

New WordPress Plugin: Translate Words

Last week I had a theme customer who wanted to translate some words on their website. The changes they wanted to make were small, and so I wanted a simple plugin to make the changes.I knew that from a technical...
26 Mar 2021

Creating a Twitter Maze Bot

I recently had the idea to make a Twitter Emoji Maze bot, so I tweeted my idea and it was suggested I write a tutorial about how I made it. So I’m going to try to write the article as...
01 Mar 2021

Fixing Gutenberg Image Floats

Last week Keith Devon asked if anyone knew how to fix Gutenbergs floated image blocks. For some reason the floated image gets wrapped in a containing div.I’m not sure why this is done, but the code is right there cherry...
26 Nov 2020

Fathom Analytics: A Privacy First Analytics Solution

Over the past few years, online privacy has become a significant concern, with companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google being criticized for their tracking practices. The Cambridge Analytica scandal in particular has had a profound impact on people’s attitudes towards...
23 Aug 2020

Pixel Avatars; a Privacy first Gravatar replacement

Recently Justin Tadlock posted on the WP Tavern about the WordPress Privacy teams plans for local avatars in WordPress to improve privacy options in core WordPress.I’ve been thinking about making my own avatar system for years. I like doing creative...
14 Jun 2020

WP Cafe – Developing Themes with Gutenberg

Last week I took part in the first WP Cafe with Keith and Mark from Highrise Digital. The subject was Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor, and talking about the work we have done with it.Below is the video from the...
04 Jun 2020

Learning is hard, and so is React

This tweet from Kelly Vaughn caught my eye recently. It came a couple of days after another tweet from Brad Touesnard who said “I have run out of empathy for people whining about having to learn React”.I really sympathise with...
29 May 2020

Does WordPress Need a Grid System?

Justin, from WPTavern, has recently posted an article considering whether WordPress needs a grid system. As a designer, I am inclined to say yes.I have been using the Layout Grid plugin, that Justin mentions, for a couple of months now...
04 Oct 2019

It’s not all bad for WordPress themes – is it?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how themes, as we know them, are going to be ending, and then went on holiday. I wasn’t expecting such a big response but since then a lot of people have been...
22 Sep 2019

The End of WordPress Themes is in Sight

It’s been a long time coming.I currently earn a living selling WordPress themes. In a couple of years that won’t be the case. I might be earning something from themes, but themes as we know them will no-longer be made.In...
13 Sep 2019

Toolbelt – WordPress Privacy and Speed

Over the past few weeks, I have been developing a WordPress plugin called Toolbelt, which is designed to enhance your WordPress website with various helper modules. Inspired by Jetpack, Toolbelt is perfect for those who appreciate Jetpack’s features but prefer...
24 May 2019

Why do people use Medium (the online content publisher)?

I’ve tweeted my thoughts on Medium before: I’m not a fan! I work with WordPress but I like competition, and try to be objective, but Medium is not a good solution.Not a day goes by without someone tweeting a screenshot...
08 Apr 2019

WordCamp London 2019

This weekend I went to WordCamp London. I think it was my 5th WordCamp London and, as always, it was a really interesting weekend. I learnt a lot, and came away with a bunch of ideas for things to try...
06 Apr 2019

Remove Jetpack Social Links

I recently had a theme customer ask how to get rid of the Google plus link on their social menu.My recent themes use a social menu setup similar to the one found in the TwentyNineteen theme. This involves setting up...
20 Mar 2019

Tada: And now your website is faster!

This weekend I saw someone link Instant.Page – a small javascript library that prefetches links before you click on them. I’ve seen similar projects before that used Ajax to load the html and then substitute a container with the new...
16 Mar 2019

The WordPress Block Directory

There has recently been a proposal to introduce a new type of plugin into WordPress. One specifically for editor blocks.I find this an interesting concept, and I can definitely see some benefits, but there are also some downsides. For starters;...
01 Mar 2019

Open Source Sustainability

A lot of the internet is powered by open source technology. WordPress being a perfect example. This article looks at the practices behind open source development and considers just how sustainable it all is.One story looks at OpenSSL and how...
22 Feb 2019

Gutenberg Phase 2 and the Future of WordPress Themes

As someone who makes a living selling themes the recent outline for Phase 2 of Gutenberg is is an interesting article to read. I’ve been wondering about the long term future of themes for a while; and to be honest...
19 Feb 2019

Childish Arguments over Technology

When I was at school in the 90’s everyone argued about which was best, Nintendo or Sega? You had to be on one side or the other, there was no way you could like both.A few times recently this article...
15 Feb 2019

Thanks for the WordPress Make Blogs!

Recently WordPress has been changing how it’s built. Obviously we have had Gutenberg which was built on Github, which is so much nicer than Trac, but that’s not what I mean. The actual process, and a lot of the decisions,...

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