Monday, December 26th, 2011
A colleague recently asked if it was possible to send messages from your Gmail account using a different email address. The answer is “Yes.” There are several reasons why you might want to do this, and its very easy to set up.
From within your Gmail account, go to Settings, then select the Accounts tab. Look for the section that says “Send mail as” and click on the link for “Add another email address you own”. When you do, a new window will open that asks you to enter the name and email address that you want to be able to send as, then click “Next Step”. You will then receive a message that says “Before you can send mail as < your new email address >, we need to verify that you own this email address. To perform the verification click “Send Verification”. We will then send an email to < your new email address > with instructions on how to verify your address.” Just click the “Send Verification” button and then go check your other email account. Copy the verification code from that message into the box or click on the link in the email, and you should be all set.
To use this other account when sending a message, just look for the drop down arrow at the end of the “From” field in your Compose Message screen. Select the email address that you want to send from and there you go.
I currently have 6 accounts that I manage and can send as from my Google Apps (GMail) account. Some of these are for my own business, while others are for volunteer positions and accounts for my clients’ businesses, for when I’m communicating on their behalf.
How many email address do you manage? Do you prefer to access them all in one place, or would you rather use separate programs/services to manage them, to keep them all separate and organized?
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
One of the questions that I see a lot from those new to WordPress is how to remove the comment form from a WordPress theme. Mostly because WordPress was originally developed as a blogging platform, most (if not all) WordPress themes include the comment form on both Page and Post templates. However, if you’re using WordPress as a CMS for your website, you most like don’t want to include the comment form on your Pages. Here’s how to remove the form from your Page template.
Warning: You will need to have access to the code (Appearance Editor) to make this modification. If you don’t have access to the code, or aren’t comfortable mucking around in it, stop now and contact your favorite WordPress developer (like me!).
Step One – Backup!
First things first – before you make any changes to your site, always make a full backup. Now, because you will be editing the theme files, you need to be sure that you are backing up the files for your WordPress website, and not just the database. BackupBuddy is a great plugin for this.
Step Two – Finding the right file(s)
Go to Appearance > Editor. The file that is opened by default is your CSS file. You’re not going to be making any changes to this file right now. Look at the template file list on the right side for page.php.
Click on the blue link that above it that says Page Template to open the page.php template in the editor screen.
(If you want to turn off comments on blog posts, you’ll need to open single.php)
Step Three – Finding the code…
If you’re not used to looking at HTML or PHP code, there’s going to be a whole bunch of stuff that looks like gibberish in this template. Don’t worry – you don’t really need to understand it all. You’re looking for some code that looks like this -
< ?php comments_template(); ?>
The easiest way to find it will probably be to use your browser’s find function (usually CTRL + F).
Once you find that, look around at the lines of code before it (and maybe after) for other things related to the comments. For instance, my theme uses this code to call the comments template on Posts:
< ?php comments_popup_link('No Comments', '1 Comment', '% Comments'); ?> // This shows how many comments there are on this Post/Page
Categories < ?php the_category(', ') ?>
Tags: < ?php the_tags(' ', ', ', ' '); ?>
You can follow any follow up comments to this entry through the < ?php comments_rss_link('RSS 2.0'); ?> feed.
< ?php comments_template(); ?> // This actually calls the comment form template.
Both the comments count line and the comments_template line of code should be removed to completely remove all traces of the comments from your template.
When you’re done, click the blue Update File button at the bottom of the page.
Step Four – Check Your Work
Now it’s time to go back to the Page or Post in question on your site, and see if you’ve done it correctly. Reload the page (usually F5 in your browser) and the comment form should be gone.
If you need help making this change to your WordPress theme, contact beyond the office today. We offer WordPress modification and customization services, and always make a backup of our clients’ site before we start working on them, so you can be sure that your site will be the way you want it.
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
I was speaking with someone today about how using a Content Management System (CMS) can help them have more control over their small business website and was surprised to learn that she wasn’t familiar with the term. This was interesting to me as I thought it was a fairly well known term and was also sort of self explanatory. Alas, I was wrong. So it occurs to me that some of you might not be clear on the concept either, and I wanted to help you out with that confusion.
According to Wikipedia, a Web Content Management System “allows non-technical users to make changes to a website with little training. A WCMS typically requires a systems administrator and/or a web developer to set up and add features, but it is primarily a website maintenance tool for non-technical staff.”
I usually explain it by saying that a CMS helps to keep the content and design separate, so business owners can feel comfortable maintaining and updating the content of their web site without worrying about messing up the design or layout of the site.
A Content Management System is a great thing for small businesses to have incorporated into their website because it gives them more control over their website content without having to engage or track down a web designer every time they want to make a small change to their site. Sure, you should have one around for when you need the extra help, but as a business owner or manager, you should also be able to update content or add specials and new services/products without incurring a bill each time.
WordPress is a very popular CMS, used on over 22% of all websites (that’s a LOT!). Much of the reason that WordPress has become so popular is due to its low learning curve, flexibility and stability. beyond the office helps business move their current website to the WordPress platform, or create a new website based on WordPress. We also offer one-on-one coaching and video based training for those that want to learn more about working with this great CMS.
