WordPress has a setting under the admin panel where blog owners can indicate how dates should be displayed for blog posts and comments made to the blog. The setting isn't very useful though when the date format is hard coded into the theme. Instead of making users edit the theme files, let's take advantage of the WordPress setting. Continue reading →

So many WordPress themes have the date format hard coded into the theme files. The problem is that some users will prefer to display the date in another way. Maybe the chosen format doesn't match their organization's style guidelines or maybe the format isn't grammatically correct. Changing a hard-coded date requires users to dig through file after file to modify every instance. Plus, if the theme developer releases an update, the user may need to do it all over again. To save users the hassle, why not let them decide how the dates are displayed. There is a setting in WordPress after all. Continue reading →

Did you know that spammers could bypass the WordPress comment moderation feature? If your blog is set to automatically post comments from visitors who have previously approved comments, you could be at risk. However, there is a quick fix to the issue. Continue reading →

There are a number of blogs out there which list dates incorrectly. It doesn't help that many of the templates built for popular blogging platforms like WordPress, display the dates incorrectly be default. If you maintain a blog, develop templates, or have ever typed out the date; please stop writing them as October 3rd, 2011. Continue reading →

Have you ever copied PHP code from a website tutorial, but no matter what you did you couldn't get it to work? Or maybe you're posting code on a WordPress blog and can't figure out why people are saying the code doesn't work? Well you're not alone. You may have been bitten by the curly quote bug in WordPress. Continue reading →

When installing WordPress there is one thing that always bothers me. If you look at your blog page after the installation process the tagline is set to "Just another WordPress site." I would imagine the WordPress developers didn't mean anything by it, but the message isn't very welcoming. Continue reading →

When setting up a WordPress blog, remember to double check the timezone setting. Last week I posted an article late in the evening on February 28, but was baffled to see the post was dated March 1. After a little investigation, it turns out that I never indicated my timezone. So my posts have been several hours off since the beginning. Continue reading →

Writing last week's post (Future Proofing Your Google Analytics Code for Tracking PDFs) introduced me to one of WordPress' major flaws. If you want to display code (HTML, PHP, etc.) in your post, there is a good chance that WordPress will mess it up.

For example, if there is a blank line in the code WordPress thinks you're starting a new paragraph and adds the paragraph tag once the post is saved. You may be able to avoid this by replacing the hard-return (Enter) with two soft-returns (Shift+Enter). But if you attempt to edit the post again, WordPress replaces the soft-returns with a hard-return causing the paragraph tag to come back.

The problem with the paragraph tag was that it broke my design. Looking at the screenshot below (Figure 1), all of the code is supposed to appear in a gray box.

Figure 1. Broken Design Caused Paragraph Tag

In Figure 1, you may have also noticed that WordPress replaced a reference to "8)" with the corresponding Emoticon (aka the "cool" smiley face). The easy way around this issue was to avoid leaving a space after the closing parenthesis.

Preventing WordPress from Changing Your Code

Thanks to a post by Josh Stauffer titled WordPress, stop changing my HTML code!, I was able to temporarily prevent WordPress from changing aspects of my code.

Before writing (or editing) a post that displays code like HTML, you need to disable the "Visual" editor in WordPress. To disable the editor:

• Log into the admin area for your WordPress blog
• Click "Users"
• Find your profile and click "Edit"
• Check the "Disable the visual editor when writing" option (See Figure 2)
• Click the "Update Profile" button
• Write/Edit your post

Figure 2. Disable Visual Editor Check Box

Then you just need to re-enable the visual editor for writing posts that don't need to display code. It's not an elegant solution, but it gets the job done.

Feedback

Do you have a different solution to prevent WordPress from changing code? Or maybe you want to share your WordPress struggles? If so, please enter them in the comments field below.

I'm still learning the ins and outs of WordPress, which is the web-based software used to develop this website. As I was digging around, I stumbled across the Error 404 page. If you are a website developer you're probably familiar with the Error 404 page. For those unfamiliar, this page is displayed when someone attempts to visit a page on a website that does not exist because it was renamed, moved, deleted, etc.

While reading the Error 404 page that came with my WordPress theme I noticed two problems. First the page doesn't match who I am. For example, I don't even know what the last bullet entry means "Relive the glory days of high school football and punt, but please do not strain your groin." Is it telling visitors to leave?

The bigger issue that I have with the Error 404 page is the cryptic explanation of what "404" means. I actually prefer to avoid using the error code altogether; why not label it "Page Not Found" or something along those lines.

So if you're creating a WordPress website or any type of website for that matter, don't forget the Error 404 page. It is the unsung hero for your website since its main purpose is to redirect visitors that may otherwise be lost.

Error 404 Screenshot (click to enlarge)

Related Resources

• 404 Error Pages, One More Time – a Smashing Magazine's article that provides dozens of Error 404 examples
• Creating an Error 404 Page – the WordPress Codex for creating and editing the Error 404 page

Feedback

If you use WordPress, has there been pages that you've been surprised by? Do you have any tips for developing Error 404 pages? If so, please enter them in the comments section below.