WordPress How-To Videos

Quick how-to: Replace your default sidebar

Appearance > Custom Sidebars

1. Select your theme’s sidebar that you want to replace and

2. press Save Changes button.

3. A select box will appear to replace your theme sidebar by any other you have registered.

4. Press Update to see the changes.

Quick how-to: Create a new sidebar

1. Choose a name and description for your new sidebar and write it down

2. Save Changes and 3. The sidebar will appear in the list below.

4. You will see your new sidebar in the widgets page so fill it with widgets.

5. In the select box you will pick your new sidebar as a replacement. 6. Once selected Update the post.

Keep your site looking fresh with changing backgrounds!

Show a random background image every visitor session (using a cookie), page refresh, or timed slideshow interval. Choose between fixed full screen background, full width scrolling background, or classic non-scaled backgrounds. Supports background fade effects and optionally integrates with NextGen Gallery plugin. Replaces the built-in WordPress Background settings page.  This plugin is demonstrated on the “flyingaranch” sample notebook site.

When selecting images for use as a background, the sizing and resolution is important. Do not upsize an image, as it will pixelate.  Select an image that is 1340 x 1024 pixels (or larger and downsize to this size).

Makes having cool backgrounds easy.

Features!

• Randomly change the background images – once per visitor session (using a cookie), once per page refresh or continuously using a slideshow-like timer.
• Upload background images using the NextGen Gallery plugin
• 3 Layout options – “Better” “Classic” and “Developer” – with many options
• Optionally scales your background to fit the user’s exact monitor size.
• Allows for random backgrounds to repeat/tile
• Optionally fade in background dynamically using jQuery.
• Set the background color of the page.
• Passes W3C Validation.
• Internationalized

Technical Details When changing background image every visitor session, a temporary cookie is made so that the chosen background image remains the same for the entire visit of the user on your site. The next time they visit your site, and once the browser cookie has expired, a new image will be randomly chosen. This is usually every 6 hours, but may vary due to various reasons.

The plugin is optimized to not affect your page’s load time because it requires no extra style sheets or javascript files to be loaded. The only exception is that it will load jQuery if you choose to have a fading background or slideshow-like image changing, but chances are you are already using jQuery.

Layouts

Better Background, Fixed. Background remains the same as you scroll down the page. Scaled and centered to fill entire browser window. Easiest background to implement well.

Better Background, Scrolling. Background aligned to top of screen and moves out of view as you scroll down the page. Scaled to full browser width and custom height (default: full browser height). A graphical fade on the bottom of the background image or secondary background pattern is recommended.

Classic, Scrolling. More standards compliant using the body’s background tag. Does not scale the background to fit the page’s width, so make sure background is high enough resolution for widescreen monitors. Does not support fading in.

If you have found a plugin you’d like to use on your Horsepower Notebook site, please complete this form and submit to the webmaster. Plugins need to be vetted to assure compliance with networkwide site configurations and in most cases will be approved and installed for you.