Hide Those Email Addresses from the Spammers! This post discusses two concepts: A: For viewer convenience, when you absolutely must have a ‘mailto:..’ email link visible on your website B: Remove all email addresses and use forms only A: email addresses on website, how to protect them? If your email address is visible on a website, then it…
Recently the DACS website was “hacked”. A rogue script was inserted into the header of the pages. Several steps were taken to sanitize the WordPress installation and this fixed the problem – temporarily. However, security is an ongoing battle, and new threats and hacks appear all the time. The security breach was detected by the…
Once you’ve decided to use WordPress to run your new website, and once you’ve gone through the “5 Minute Install”, what comes next? When you first login to your new WordPress admin area, you enter the default bare-bones set up, with the (this years) default theme. Is this going to work for you, or do…
WordPress uses “themes” to display the content of the database in a user-friendly and attractive interface in the browser. Deciding which theme to use may be determined by the site requirements, some themes have additional features that may be required – or not. Don’t use a theme with all the Bells & Whistles if you don’t need those…
After a winter hiatus, the DACS Web Design workshop/SIG started up again on April 19, 2016. At this meeting we focused on a website developed by Andy Woodruff for Sofia Chiarandini, a young musician with many talents. http://www.sofiachiarandini.com/. Andy presented a description of the steps he took to get the site up and running. Hosted on dreamhost.com,…
Every website has navigation links to access all the content and information presented within a site. What is the best way to plan a menu structure to be most efficient? Let’s take a look at ways to organize and design navigation priorities. WordPress offers easy navigation tools, and the theme will determine how menu(s) are…
What are WordPress “Categories” and “Tags“, how do they differ and how are they best used? Categories: In WordPress, posts should be organized into Pre-set Categories. Categories help sort similar posts together and keep a clear structure. Every post must belong to at least one category. By default, WordPress installs with a single category: “Uncategorized”. That is only…
Increasing the default security of WordPress has become essential. Several excellent security plugin’s are available but this one appears to offer a more robust system than others. *** BEFORE ACTIVATING ANY SECURITY PLUGIN, KNOW HOW TO DEACTIVATE IT IF ACCIDENTALLY LOCKED OUT!!*** WordPress plugin: “All in one WP Security and Firewall” by Tips & Tricks….
The DACS Web Design Workshop/SIG is coming up Tuesday night, May 19th, 7 – 9 pm at the DACS Resource Center, Ives Manor (lower level), 198 Main Street, Danbury. How does one “design” a website? Regarding the front-end graphical interface – what comes first, a unique design pulled from one’s imagination, or a search for…
There are several ways to backup a WordPress installation. Plugins can do the work, and run backups automatically according to a set schedule. Backups can be saved locally, or in a cloud server. Multiple versions of backups need to be stored, just in case a site gets corrupted and a backup is made before it’s…