wordpress tips

Rollover images

Panos — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:05:41 +0000

If you have the Custom Design upgrade, then it's easy to create an image that changes into a different image (or a different version of the same image) when you hover over it. Continue reading »

Table coding for wordpress.com users

Panos — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:55:37 +0000

Tables are used to display content in rows and columns; that is, to display content as a grid of cells, with or without visible borders. This article is a detailed and up-to-date tutorial, designed specifically for wordpress.com users. Continue reading »

Widgets for wp.com blogs: 14 – jigsaw puzzles

Panos — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 03:32:32 +0000

On JigsawSite.com you can find many jigsaw puzzles, or turn your own images into such puzzles. You can play them on the site, but you can also insert them in your blog. Continue reading »

The customizer and other settings/options

Panos — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:04:29 +0000

What the tool does, what to do if it doesn't work, and why you should do it anyway.

Spoiler/hover content

Panos — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 01:55:04 +0000

Users sometimes ask how to create content that shows up only upon hover. If you have the Custom Design upgrade, this is easy. If you don’t have the upgrade, it’s very complicated but possible. Continue reading »

Guide to Mixfolio

Panos — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 14:38:46 +0000

A detailed guide to the Mixfolio theme - including how to use the gallery and image post formats (the feature that is hopelessly underdocumented in the official wordpress.com intro to the theme). Continue reading »

Where is the theme CSS and how do I edit it?

Panos — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:03:09 +0000

For users who've bought the Custom Design upgrade: Where is the CSS of the theme? Why is it hidden like this? How do I make CSS changes on wordpress.com?

Stats, wordpress way

Panos — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:50:27 +0000

The wordpress.com theme showcase site is a brilliant invention: it allows you to read about all the available themes, see them in action, and filter them or sort them in various ways. But when you sort them by popularity, strange things happen…

Disabling Infinite Scrolling

Panos — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 11:57:50 +0000

Up to a few months ago, all wordpress.com blogs displayed a specific number of posts on the main posts page: the default was ten posts, and you could freely change the number. But one fine morning Wordpress decided that you shouldn't have that right; theme by theme, they started adding the annoying feature called infinite scrolling. Continue reading »

Sidebar at the bottom and related layout issues

Panos — Sat, 19 May 2012 13:28:33 +0000

The main posts page of your blog is structured as a series of sections containing other sections, each one with its own layout and styling. Each section is defined by a pair of div tags: an opening one and a closing one. If a solitary div tag is accidentally introduced somewhere in a post or in a text widget, the structure of the page gets messed up from that point on. Continue reading »

Wordpress going to the dogs

Panos — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:06:37 +0000

If you had a problem with your wordpress.com blog, you could contact staff via the Support contact form. Up to about a year ago, support tickets would usually be answered within a day or two. With the steadily increasing number of wordpress.com blogs, this service gradually deteriorated. What would the logical step be? Hire more staff, I'd say. Well, welcome to wordpress 'logic'. Continue reading »

There we go again…

Panos — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:14:48 +0000

Matt, the founder of WordPress, has his own way of dealing with negative feedback and objections. Namely, he can't. The latest incident involves the newly introduced infinite scrolling feature. But first, some notable previous cases.

Inserting Calameo docs

Panos — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:41:07 +0000

You can insert Calameo docs, by turning the original embed code into the appropriate shortcode. (For more on this, see The gigya shortcode: inserting Flash. Also note that Calameo provide their own "Wordpress" shortcode, but that shortcode doesn't work.)

Athens By Night

Panos — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 03:49:12 +0000

Introduction to HTML for wordpress.com users

Panos — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:40:04 +0000

This article is for users who aren't familiar with HTML and inline CSS yet, and probably find them intimidating. I hope you'll find it encouraging to know that when I started blogging I knew absolutely nothing about them myself, and when I was first shown HTML and CSS I ran away in terror...

Inserting Picasa slideshows

Panos — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:17:00 +0000

If you have a Google account and create albums in Picasaweb, you can insert them as slideshows in your blog, by turning the original embed code into the appropriate shortcode (for more on this, see The gigya shortcode: inserting Flash).

Full-width header image in Imbalance 2

Panos — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:19:34 +0000

The newly added Imbalance 2 is an unusual and interesting theme. Its main posts page normally displays post excerpts in four columns. The header area of the theme is also unusual: instead of displaying a full-width image and a horizontal menu, it conforms to the four-column concept of the main page. You can change that via coding in a Text widget or if you have the Custom Design upgrade. Continue reading »

Inserting Webshots slideshows

Panos — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:35:16 +0000

You can insert your own or other users' Webshots slideshows, by turning the original embed code into the appropriate shortcode (for more on this, see The gigya shortcode – inserting Flash).

WordPress.com themes – from most to least popular (January 2012)

Panos — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:41:37 +0000

Stats: January 2, 2012. Compare with Dec. 2010 & Jan. 2011 ranking, July 2011 ranking.

Widgets for wp.com blogs: 13 – some games

Panos — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:05:12 +0000

Some users occasionally ask for games you can add to your blog. You can add any game if it's flash, by turning the embed code into the right shortcode. So here are a few. Happy holidays!