Archive for the ‘WordPress’ Category

New Theme Aetas Flower 1.0

Monday, August 10th, 2009
by Philip Hoyos

It finally happened. I have designed a new theme that is much faster than the last one. The last theme, my Aetas Grunge Theme, was my first attempt to design a theme, and though it worked out well carried beginners issues and other problems. My new Theme, Aetas Flower, does not carry as many issues though I still have a lot of work to do. (more…)

Optimizing

Monday, July 27th, 2009
by Philip Hoyos

After the recent update of WordPress 2.8 I have become aware that my site had an unreasonably long load time. In my search for the answer to my problem I look through various wordpress optimizing blogs, who recommended more or less the same

  • De-activate unused plugins
  • Reduce the number of HTTP requests
  • Use WP-Cache
  • Enable GZip with WP-Cache

I found a bunch of plugins that I did not really need, which reduced my load time a great deal. However, I found that I no longer had access to WP-cache and WP-Tweaks, which I had previously enabled. So I removed them from my server, and suddenly I went from a responds time 36 sec to below 10 sec! I Do not know if others experience the same kind of problems, but I thought I would be worth sharing.

The new design

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
by Philip Hoyos

Welcome to my blog =) This is my new theme designed for my blog Aetas. In the top right corner I displayed my logo. I created it using Illustrator and Photoshop. My menu in the top of the blog was created using the same method I have done a tutorial on. It is a menu that uses one image and CSS coding with background positioning. I have had to do quit a bit of research to create this look, however, I think it turn out very nicely. If you would like to know how I have created this look, then please don’t hesitate to ask. With enough responds and time I will create a tutorial. This new design offers a better reading experience for the user in my opinion.

I have not finalized it yet so changes will happen when I get around to make them. There might be a couple of errors around, and there are things I haven’t had the time to fix yet. But please feel free to comment on the design, and post any errors you might find. I hope you will like it.

HowTo: Create a horizontal menu using CSS and one image.

Friday, November 21st, 2008
by Philip Hoyos

Lets say you want to create a horizontal menu that uses images. And you want to have a hover/roll-over effect as well. You can do this using only one image and CSS. Here is how to do it.

You need the following:

  • One picture containing both normal state of menu link, and the hover state of the menu link.
  • Your stylesheet in WordPress, that would probably be style.css (located in your theme folder)
  • header.php, presuming that is where you want your menu to be (located in your theme folder)
I used a picture, which has the following dimensions height = 164px, width = 500px, like this:

In your style.css, create the following (more…)

Update: New date format

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
by Philip Hoyos

It might seem that I have not been active for a while. However, I am currently working on a new design which I will implement into the website whenever I have the time. 

Today I have implemented a new date format, which uses a background picture I created in Photoshop. If you would like to have a similar date format on you website please read on.

You need to be able to edit:
- Main Index Template -> index.php
- StyleSheet -> style.css

and have a date picture that you want to use. This picture should be uploaded to the same folder as where you keep your other theme pictures. I would recommend the picture to be either png, jpg or gif. Of course that depends on your theme.

At first you will have to create the following style in your style.css

/* Begin Date Format */

.dateblock{ text-align: center; width: 65px; font-family: Arial; float: left; display: inline; margin: 10px 10px 0 0; background: url(images/your-date-picture.png) no-repeat }

.day { font-size: 22px; position: relative; top: 0px; margin: 2px 0 0 0; }

.month { font-size: 10px; top: 0px; margin: 6px 0 0 0; }

.year { font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: 0px; margin: 7px 0 10px 0; }
}

/* End Date Format*/

Secondly you will have to edit your index.php. The line you need to locate looks like the following, in the default WordPress theme:

<small><?php the_time(‘F jS, Y’) ?> <!– by <?php the_author() ?> –></small>

This line needs to be changed into the following, if it should look like mine

<small><div class=”dateblock”><div class=”month”><?php the_time(‘F’) ?></div><div class=”day”><?php the_time(‘jS’) ?></div><div class=”year”><?php the_time(‘Y’) ?></div></div> <div class=”author”>by <?php the_author() ?></div></small>

There are a lot of other ways to display the_time format. But this is my setting. To see other variations or create your own. Go to http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.date.php

To make the date fit the your-date picture you will have to mess around with the top and margin settings until you are satisfied.

Good luck.