Author Archives: Melissa

About Melissa

Web and print production artist
moveableTypeSq

Exporting Moveable Type Blog Posts with Tags

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This script (MtTaggedExport.php) creates a Moveable Type blog export file with tags added to the keywords field.The default MT export contains keywords and categories, but not tags. WP imports keywords as tags, so we’re going to put the MT tags into the keywords area. Everything else in the tagged export file should be exactly the same as the default export file (see notes for exceptions).

This script is for people who have been given an exported MT database but do not have admin access to the actual MT site. (If you have access to your MT installation, it is probably much easier to create custom export template [or “index template”] and do a little grep after. See this foliovision.com article and template example.)

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wordpress100

WordPress NYC Genius Bar Notes

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Genius Bar from 09.20.11 WordPress NYC Meetup

The formal presentation was “A beginners overview”. There was an introduction about the many ways you can interact with the WPNYC community. Then we split off to the Genius Bar.

I was expecting a bunch of self-dubbed geniuses to be discussing advanced WP topics. Instead, it was more like Apple’s Genius Bar, with about 15 people waiting to ask the geniuses their WP questions. Most of the people seemed to be designers. There were two developers (Steve Bruner, the organizer, and Kevin Cristiano) who were very patient and helpful. Most of the questions were regarding plugins. These are not direct quotes. And the plugin spellings might be wrong.

  1. “What video plugin should I use for .mov files? WP won’t let me upload anything larger than 8 MB and I’ve been converting them to .fla … I don’t want to use Youtube/Vimeo because of I want particular privacy/sharing options.”
    • Jw-player plugin is standard for video, uses HTML5, free/licensed version for business. Also, JPlayer & VideoJS are recommended.
    • For reducing the file size, someone recommended using an online file convertor. They said that Dreamhost provides one in the control panel.
    • Some debate as to where the file size limit is set (in WP or the host’s PHP settings).
    • Some debate as to whether YouTube has separate privacy settings for each video (it does).
  2. “My Google Analytics plugin doesn’t work.”
    • Try: Ultimate Google Analytics, Google Analyticator, Google Analytics for WP
    • You don’t actually need a plugin

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wordpress100

catch_that_image() Fix

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catch_that_image() is a PHP function for WordPress that displays the first image of a post, so that you can create a gallery from your latest posts. It works quite well until someone goes crazy and uses special characters in their image filename.

You could try to establish file naming conventions, or you could stop being a masochist & modify the function. All that needs to be changed is a .* to [^>]*.

Here is the complete catch_that_image() function with the fix (it goes in your functions.php file):

function catch_that_image() {
	 global $post, $posts;
	 $first_img = '';
	 ob_start();
	 ob_end_clean();
	 $output = preg_match_all('/<img.+src=[\'"]([^\'"]+)[\'"][^>]*>/i', $post->post_content, $matches);
	 $first_img = $matches [1] [0];

	 if(empty($first_img)){ //Defines a default image
		  $first_img = "/images/default.jpg";
	 }
	 return $first_img;
}

Call the function wherever you want in your theme files:

<?php echo catch_that_image() ?>

Easy!

Notes

adobe-cs4-64

Show All Menu Items in CS4

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So you want to get rid of this?

Why Adobe, WHY???Why Adobe, WHY???

Go to Edit > Menus… Then, in the first drop-down menu, select “Photoshop Defaults”.

menu
Another option is to switch out of the “Basics” workspace (you’ll see it all the way in the upper right corner).

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antiAi100

Anti-aliasing Text in Illustrator

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Let’s say you’re making a web banner ad in Illustrator. There’s a lot of small text (it’s an informative ad).

After much tweaking, everything looks amazing — legible even! You go to ‘Save for Web & Devices…’… and your carefully kerned text turns light and fuzzy and unreadable. You try sliding up the jpg quality, adding gif colors, and rubbing your eyes. But the type still looks off.

This is because Ai is rasterizing the text with its default anti-alias settings. You can change these settings to improve the appearance of type. Go to Effects > Rasterize, and you will be given three options for anti-aliasing in a drop-down menu: None, Art Optimized (Supersampling), and Type Optimized (Hinted).

Here’s how the different settings look at 100%:

antialias100

200%:

antialias200

After setting the effect, you can change the object’s anti-alias settings in the Appearance panel. (If you are the decisive sort, you can permanently rasterize the object by going to Object > Rasterize.)

And now your banner ads will be readable & beautiful again! Those people with ad blockers are truly missing out!

Notes