Just what the shopping cart developer ordered. That eye-catching corner label. Tell prospective customers about SALE, FREE, DOWNLOAD, or any other alert you can dream up. This layered, editable Photoshop CS5 file will fill the bill.
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One of my favorites weekend morning activities is fooling around in Photoshop. From time to time I find myself lured by one or more interesting effects. This time it was grungy, well worn (thought not worn out) hang tags. It actually started when I stumbled across a Photoshop tutorial on how to create a well worn ace of spades playing card. This tutorial is a popular and one can view results of the tutorials students in various locations on the web:
View Tutorial View Kevin Chu’s Result View Lara’s Result View My ResultWhere would the fun be if I didn’t provide my .psd. One never knows when something other than “SALE” might come in handy.
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Working on a shopping cart I decided to have a waaay cool out of stock sticker, instead of a boring text blurb. I looked through several of my favorite free photo sites but didn’t find anything suitable. I did find a neat graphic at istockphoto.com, but you know how they are now in kahoots with Getty Images.
This is a layered Photoshop (CS5) file. The full size image is 2000px wide. You can edit the text to have it read anything you like. If you use it, leave a comment and a link so I can see.
Who doesn’t need spare change from time to time. Starting right now you can mine your own coin with my Photoshop Bitcoin file. There are two designs to choose from, or edit my file and create your own coin design.
After having driven by it fifty times, I suddenly saw it! All I had to do was ‘look’. This abandoned ranch popped out in front of the fall foliage and with just the right lighting, lent itself well to HDR. I shot a couple HDR’s off my tripod, then as I was leaving I looked over my shoulder and seeing the expansive nature of the area, I setup anew and shot a seven frame 180 degree panorama.
The series of Boxelder Cabin images are available for free from my Pixaby account.
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In your WordPress theme folder, you will always find functions.php, the most useful theme file. The name says it all, this file adds functions to your WordPress website and goes a long way to making the cool stuff happen. Often unknown to many WordPress developers is the fact that this files functions can be moved to a WordPress plugin.
Today, theme developers cram all kinds of functions into the theme itself in an effort to woo customers. Whether it is a slider, social media icons and functions, Google analytics and or a spiffy wiz-bang contact form; what happens should one choose to swap out one theme for another. You lose all your hard work setting up those mods. Do yourself a favor. Instead of adding the code to your theme, or relying on the code that is in the theme, instead drop it in a plugin. Flashy Functionality plugin is just one solution. There are plenty available plugins on wordpress.org that will enable you to accomplish many things. Unfortunately, there are those that bring unneeded or unwanted bloat that your site can do without. With my Flashy Functionality plugin, you’ll only have to add it once and your functions will be preserved when you change the design of your website.
WordPress themes often have updates to keep them playing nicely with core wordpress files and server scripting. With the Flashy Functionality plugin, you can add your new functions into the plugin instead of touching your themes functions file. If you are a power user, chances are you will have a bevy of functions that you use over and over again. Edit the Flashy Functionality plugin to add your favorite and essential functions then upload and activate.
There are many functions that, in my opinion, every WordPress website needs. Here are the functions I’ve pre-loaded into my plugin:
The whole idea of a WordPress website is the client will be able to manage his or her own content. With my Helpful Info Dashboard Widget, I provide the new client with general information on managing a WordPress website, as well as links to great tutorial resources, stock image resources, and my email and phone number when it comes to support. I’ve even built in the ability for us developers to upload “how to” videos and provide them right on the dashboard.
Clear All | The WordPress page/post editor is a great tool to be sure, but don’t we all find those time when the content just won’t behave. I have found myself putting in hard returns, and line breaks in an effort to get content not to jumble together haphazardly; all to no avail. With this plugin, content editors can use the shortcode [ br ] (remove spaces for actual use) thereby forcing the next line of content to clear all other elements.
Private | Display secret message to editors by using my Private shortcode. Usage:
[ private ]Your secret message here. [ /private ] You can provide helpful hints and tips to content admins and editors that only they can see.
Security | There are many functions that can be utilized to protect your WordPress installation from hackers. Consider the functions “explain_less_login_issues”, “disable_file_edit” and or “no_generator”. Other ideas (though not included) are enabling the WordPress hidden admin feature, modify the login logo and image urls and hide WordPess update notifications from all but the admin users. There are plenty more you can use. Check the links at the bottom of this article to get you going.
Core Updates | Select how you want WordPress to perform updates. More Info»
Misc. | Add additional menu and or widget areas and more. You’ll have to download the plugin and look inside to see them all.
14 Key WordPress Functions to Jump-Start Theme Development
Fifteen Useful WordPress Functions You Probably Don’t Know
TOP TEN UNKNOWN WORDPRESS FUNCTIONS
25+ Extremely Useful Tricks for the WordPress Functions File – One of my favorites!
This plugin requires that you edit the plugin files themselves to turn features on and off. The files are well documented. Have fun.
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Former photographer, now WordPress aficionado and website developer - spending most days working feverishly, passionately and relentlessly from a Fort Collins, Colorado basement; occasionally accompanied by Jan Baby (the wife), Zac (eldest son), Max (humorous son) and or Molly the dog.Lunch is at noon, quitting time depends on whether or not I'm skipping out for a drop-in or stick & puck session; hockey eh?!Friendly to a fault, chatty and wannabe humorous, generally a helpful kinda guy. Poke Flash Buddy on Skype (flashhq) or send a message.
