All Articles by Sangkrit

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4518 Articles

WordPress

How To Give Manual Handcrafted Excerpts To Posts In WordPress?

December 19, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Manual WordPress Excerpts are the hand-crafted summaries of your content that can be used in your theme. It is unlike to automatic excerpt or you can say teaser which is actually the part of your post used before more tag. Manual excerpts have some advantages over automatic excerpts and the biggest advantage is that here you get full control of explaining what is your post is all about and that becomes very useful specially in the search results.

Most WordPres themes provides you functionality of manual excerpts. By default Manual Excerpt meta box is hidden from Add New & Edit post pages. So if you want to give manual excerpts to your blog posts then first visit your admin area Dashboard -> Posts -> Add New page.

Now second step is to click ‘Screen Options’ present in the top right corner, just below the Howdy text. Now tick ‘Excerpt’ checkbox present in ‘Show on screen’ section.

That’s all. Close ‘Screen Options’ and scroll down, you will be seeing a new meta box for the excerpt is added. Use this metabox for writing manual excerpts for your posts.

WordPress

Redirecting Image Attachment Pages To Parent Posts In WordPress

December 18, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

A new page is created by WordPress for each file attachment (like images, videos, audio, PDFs etc) you have on your WordPress site. The feature is good for some but not for all site site owners. Sometimes accidentally bloggers link images to attachment pages and then they don’t like the layout and look of the attachment page. Here we are discussing how you can easily disable the image attachment pages in your WordPress site.

WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin users can do this by visiting Dashboard -> SEO -> Permalinks page and then under the Permalink Settings section, tick ‘Redirect attachment URL’s to parent post URL.’ and save the new settings.

Alternatively, you can disable image attachment pages and redirect them to their parent post pages using another plugin called Attachment Pages Redirect. Simply install and activate the plugin. After activation the plugin automatically starts its work and if in-case no parent post is found the the attachment page is directed to home.

BuddyPress, WordPress

Bump BuddyPresss Activity Streams To Top After New Comments

December 18, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Like in Facebook as soon any new comment is made, the activity automatically comes to top on the homepage of your friends. Here, we will be doing similar thing by making BuddyPress activity stream bump to top as soon any new comment reply is made.

Buddypress Bump Activity Streams To Top is a BuddyPress plugin by Gladwinput.com originally based on the OLD BuddyPress Activity Stream Bump to Top plugin which has been left unsupported. So what all you need to do is install, activate and forget Buddypress Bump Activity Streams To Top.

BuddyPress, WordPress

Integrating BuddyPress Pages & Profile With WordPress Menus

December 18, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

By default WordPress menus are not compatible with BuddyPress account menus but now you can add real menu items and make them go directly to Buddypress pages. You can add a profile dropdown with avatar, message counts, and more- fully customizable.

BP Direct Menus is an awesome plugin that completely integrates with the WordPress menu system so your theme’s menu menu styling is used.

It provides you awesome custom menu item type that lets you link to any page that requires the username as part of the url (example.com/members//messages).

The meta box in nav menu admin page

An example of a custom profile menu

The admin view of the above profile menu

Tons of tags can be used to customize the menu text: * User Info: username, firstname, lastname, displayname * BuddyPress counts: unreadmessagecount, friendcount, groupcount * BuddyPress counts that hide when zero: (unreadmessagecount), (friendcount), (groupcount) * BuddyPress/WordPress avatar: avatar, avatar-thumb, avatar-mini.

BuddyPress, WordPress

Easily Enable Facebook Style Notifications In BuddyPress

December 18, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

FB like notification for buddypress plugin simply updates notifications list and browser window title in BuddyPress powered network while user is away. Install and activate it. Upon activation the plugin repeatedly checks for new notifications for the logged-in user and if any new notification is found, it does 2 things:

1) Updates the browser window title( e.g: ‘members|mydomain.com’ becomes ‘(2) members|mydomain.com’ ) and blinks/switches repeatedly between the old and new title

2) Updates the notification menu: Adds new notification(if any) items to the list and updates the existing ones(if any). E.g: from ‘You have 1 new message’ to ‘You have 2 new messages’

BuddyPress, WordPress

Enable Facebook Style On Profile Private Messages In BuddyPress

December 16, 2013 Sangkrit 1 Comment

Like in Facebook, when you click ‘Message’ button present on the profile page, a pop-up appears from where you can message to the person without leaving his/her profile. Whereas by default in BuddyPress as soon you click ‘Message’ button you get redirected to your message compose box for creating and sending message to the person.

This tutorial explains you how you can easily replaces the functionality for Public Message and Private Message buttons on profile pages so that you can send messages without leaving the profile page.

BP Profile Message UX Free plugin lets you replace the functionality for those message buttons. Using this plugin you can make things go fast, you can stay on a profile page and send private or public messages to member.

This plugin uses default WordPress ‘thickbox’ code, so it is very difficult to style. In-case you need ability to style the overlay or adjust the javascript then checkout its premium version: http://www.philopress.com/products/buddymessageux/

WordPress

Randomly Change WordPress Admin With Various Colors Schemes

December 16, 2013 Sangkrit 2 Comments

From 3.8 update WordPress provides you six awesome admin area color schemes and now Admin Color Schemes plugin has also been updated so you get many extra color schemes for your WordPress dashboard. Now this tutorial is on new, light weight but very interesting free plugin called Color Schemes Roulette, the plugin is made for changing your admin colors in random and yes it is compatible with Admin Color Schemes plugin.

Continue reading Randomly Change WordPress Admin With Various Colors Schemes →

WordPress

Adding Some More Admin Area Color Schemes In WordPress

December 15, 2013 Sangkrit 2 Comments

Admin Color Schemes, the plugin that brings new extra color schemes in WordPress admin area dashboard has been updated for new 3.8 update of WordPress. Likewise now WordPress already provides you six different admin color schems, now you can add up some more simply by using this WordPress plugin.

Aubergine, by Kate Whitley & Kelly Dwan

Flat, by Mel Choyce

Vineyard, by Kate & Dave Whitley

All your awesome color choices

So first of all install and activate Admin Color Schemes plugin. Upon activation the plugin adds new color schemes which can be managed from same old user profile page using the color scheme selector radio buttons.

WordPress

Shortcode To Easily Embed Facebook Posts In WordPress

December 15, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Earlier we discussed about embedding any Facebook post on any website, weblog or simple HTML page. Just like YouTube, Twitter and Flickr etc, Facebook also provides you an embed code which can be copied from Facebook post drop down options itself, the code simply embeds that specific Facebook post with all its like and comments into your website.

Continue reading Shortcode To Easily Embed Facebook Posts In WordPress →

Web Services

App To Discover New Band With Free Music & Videos Everyday

December 14, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Bandofthedayapp.com, a free web service that delivers a new artist every single day with free full-play songs, videos, and more. It displays bands from a range of music genres and locations world-wide are carefully selected and arranged by a team of expert music geeks working for this free web service. They sift through the sludge to uncover the hidden gems and deliver them daily.

Continue reading App To Discover New Band With Free Music & Videos Everyday →

WordPress

Best Plugins For Uploading Avatars Locally In WordPress

December 13, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Unlike to Gravatar which works universally on all WordPress sites showing one common avatar by email address you can add avatars of your choice for your WordPress site authors, editors and subscribers etc. There are several good WordPress plugins that allows you to upload avatars locally on your blog right from the user profile page. Following are some free plugins ordered by their popularity and downloads.

Add Local Avatar

WP User Avatar

Simple Local Avatars

WordPress

How To Visually Modify Any WordPress Theme Colors?

December 13, 2013 Sangkrit 1 Comment

Theme Tweaker grabs all your existing theme colors and allows you to modify them either by typing the color codes or by using color picker. The plugin offers you another feature to change theme colors in bulk, like you can invert all colors, use grey scale, sepia style colors or you can generate random colors in a click etc.

Continue reading How To Visually Modify Any WordPress Theme Colors? →

GNU/Linux, Technology

How To Change Default Running Programs In Ubuntu?

December 13, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Many new Ubuntu users spend hours in look up for settings to change default Ubuntu programs. For example: Suppose you want to change default video player from ‘Movie Player’ to ‘VLC Player’. For setting up default running programs in Ubuntu 12.04, first thing you need to do is click the settings icon present on the top left corner and select ‘System Settings’ option.

Continue reading How To Change Default Running Programs In Ubuntu? →

Chromebook, GNU/Linux

Colorblendy: Instantly Multiply A Couple Of Colors Offline In Chrome

December 12, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Colorblendy is an offline Google Chrome extension which quickly installs in your Chrome browser and lets you mix two different colors and obtain the code of third color just like you do in Photoshop but here the app is made only for mixing up two different colors and nothing else.

To start simply add Colorblendy app in your Chrome. As soon it installs, the extension adds a new icon in Chrome’s App’s home. You just need to click that icon and Colorblendy opens up its page where you can very easily mix up colors both by codes or color picker.

Chromebook, GNU/Linux

Transform Your Google Chrome Home & New Tab Page With 3D Speed Dial Bookmarker

December 12, 2013 Sangkrit 1 Comment

Speed Dial [FVD] – 3D New Tab Page is a speedial app for Chrome that also syncs between your Chrome and Firebox browsers. The extension transforms Chrome’s New Tab with new FVD Speed Dial which is a beautiful bookmarking manager, you can add the URLs and it will automatically retrieve the thumbnails and beautifully organizes your bookmarks, with Custom backgrounds, custom dials, organized groups, and most visited websites. It transforms the Apps page into a sidebar which you can manually show or hide on new tab’s speed dial page.

The app is easy to use and configure. Simply add it in your Chrome browser and as soon you add it, it itself transforms everything and your get a whole new ‘New Tab’ page with faster web browsing experience. Note: Your Chrome might restart several times after this app is installed. If you also use Mozilla Firefox the you can install FVD Speed Dial with Full Online Syn and do online synchronization between Google Chrome & Firefox. Other than this you can change background color, image, use Widgets for FVD Speed Dial, Themes for FVD Speed Dial and more.

Chromebook, GNU/Linux

Best Google Chrome Extensions For Faster Web Browsing

December 12, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Session Manager: Sometimes bookmarks are not enough specially when you need a website or webpage exactly as you left like when you need back your half-written post/article with your account logged in. Here your can use Session Manager, a powerful Google Chrome extension. Add it in your Chrome browser and then for using it simply hit cardboard box icon next to chrome’s web address bar. Now Session Manager will ask you to Save the web page you’re running. All webpages you save are time stamped so that your can easily return to the version of your work in-progress at any time. All login screens and configuration menus are skipped and you get to your page exactly as you left it before. It sounds trivial, but for those of us that bounce between multiple web apps and interfaces. It is a big time-saver.

SearchPreview: All what this Google Chrome extension does is, it simply adds a thumbnail screenshot at the left side of all Google search results showing. The screenshot shows the snapshot of the website listed in your search results. It becomes more useful if you are finding the website you accessed before but did not bookmarked, the thumbnail of that website will help you jog your memory.

Stop Autoplay for YouTube: Its name makes everything pretty much clear. Yes, the extension stops YouTube videos from playing automatically. There are various other extensions that allows you to do same but we have chosen this extension because it is a bit different and straight forward. This extension not only stops autoplay but it still pre-buffers the YouTube video. This thing makes the extension more useful for the users with slow internet connection.

Send from Gmail: By default Ubuntu uses Thunderbird, Windows uses Outlook, it depends what operating system you are using.The extension is for Gmail users. After you add this extension in your Google Chrome browser it will open all email links on internet in your Gmail not on Thunderbird or Outlook etc and hence there is no need of copy-pasting email addresses between webpages and your Gmail compose box. Other than this, the extension also adds a button for creating email message when clicked, it uses the page title as the subject and selected webpage text and link address as the message.

AdBlock – Yes it block ads on web pages. The extension strips out most of the advertisements from majority of website and provides you a clean, faster web browsing experience with less data usage.

If you also know about any good Google Chrome extension that offers a better browsing experience then feel free to mention it in the following comments.

GNU/Linux, Technology

HackerTray: Bring Hacker News To Your Ubuntu Linux Menu Bar

December 9, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

HackerTray, a free Linux app programmed with Python2 (inspired from Hacker Bar) simply brings Hacker News to your Linux menu bar. It is yet not compatible with all Linux systems but works really nice with Ubuntu. Following screenshot explains everything pretty well about how it works on your Ubuntu desktop. So now we are starting with its installation and upgrade process etc.

How to install HackerTray?

Open your Linux Terminal and use the following commands to install:

sudo pip install hackertray
OR
sudo easy_install hackertray
OR
#Download Source and cd to it
sudo python setup.py install

Now you can run hackertray from anywhere. Other than this you can now add it to your OS dependent session autostart method.

If you are a Ubuntu user then you can access it from:

System > Preferences > Sessions
(OR)
System > Preferences > Startup Applications

Depending upon your Ubuntu Linux Version. Or simply put it in ~/.config/openbox/autostart if you are running OpenBox. Here you can see how the configuration should look like in Ubuntu and its derivatives.

How to upgrade HackerTray?

The latest stable version is always available on pip. You can check which version you have installed with pip freeze | grep hackertray.

To upgrade, run pip install -U hackertray.

In some cases (Ubuntu), you might need to clear the pip cache before upgrading:

sudo rm -rf /tmp/pip-build-root/hackertray

WordPress

Automatically Display Targeted Amazon Products Related To Your WordPress Site Content

December 9, 2013 Sangkrit 3 Comments

StickyZon Lite is an awesome WordPress plugin that lets you add Amazon products related to your blog posts content. With this new plugin you can add targeted products without touching or adding any code snippet. Its a quick set and forget plugin which automatically adds most popular Amazon products to your blog posts related to your post topic.

This way the similar products increases the chance for your visitors to go and take a look over your products and buy them from Amazon. You can make easy commissions without any work.

Features:

Easy 3 mintue setup
Automatically searches Amazon products based on post tags, categories or preset keywords
Automatically adds Amazon products at the end on of post contents
Completely blends with site layout and post content
No code modification or extra coding required

Getting Started: Install and activate StickyZon Lite plugin. Upon activation visit your admin area Dashboard -> Settings -> StickyZon Lite page and set Amazon Affiliate ID, API Key (Access Key ID), Secret Access Key and choose your Amazon Product Category using the drop down box.

Other than this you can Use Post Tags to search products, Use Post Categories to search products, Set Default search keywords, Add Widget Title, Edit Buy Now Link Text and Show sponsor link etc.

WordPress

WP Curtain: Hiding Your WordPress Site From General Public & Search Engines

December 9, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

WP Curtain is the new highly customizable WordPress plugin that lets you hide your website from general visitors and search engines like Google, Yahoo and all others. The plugin allows you to enable access for logged in users having a specified access level like Editor, they can can view website but all other visitors will get directed to a friendly error page showing a message or a beautiful countdown timer (FlipClock) or a log in section, its up to you. You can easily customize its settings.

Simply install and activate WP Curtain plugin. Upon activation visit your admin area Dashboard -> Plugins -> WP Curtain Settings page and here you can:

You can add Title, Heading and Description to show on the page where your visitors are directed.
You can enable or disable countdown timer. It shows when will your website be online by asking you to enter expected site’s online date, hours, minutes and seconds.
You can set enable or disable login box, You can add Redirect URL where your users will be sent here after login. Leave it empty to send them to the page that they tried to access. Finally the third sections lets you set minimum access level required to view your website.

WordPress

Easily Create Facebook Ads Right From WordPress Admin

December 8, 2013 Sangkrit Leave a comment

Facebook Ads Tool lets you create cool Facebook ads directly from your WordPress admin interface. It provides you an easy user-friendly interface and you can quickly start in seconds creating your own Facebook ads that drives new traffic and promote your web pages. You can know more about its awesome features on its download page at WordPress.org here.

To start simply install and activate Facebook Ads Tool and follow the given steps:

Step-1 Creating your Facebook Add

Upon activation visit your admin area Dashboard -> Facebook Ads Tool -> Create An Add page
Choose your Ad Destination, Type Headline and Ad Text, Upload image (It shows real time add preview) and click Next button

Step-3 Specify the people (audience) who will be shown your Ad. How old they are, what their interests are, etc.

Add countries you like targeting
Enter amount you like spending on this add
Set Start & End Date and then click Done button

Step-3 Time to enter your Billing Information

Enter your Full Name, Card Number, CSV Security Code, Expiry Date then click Submit button and follow the steps.

The plugin also activates Facebook Ads Dashboard (Dashboard ->Facebook Ads Tool -> Ads Dashboard) where you can keep track of your Facebook Ads, Clicks, Conversions and other useful information. Following screenshots will certainly make you better understand this useful tool that works from WordPress admin section: