How to Code an Awesome Categories Menu for Your WordPress Site

Published May 21st, 2012 in Tutorials, Web Development, WordPress - 2 Comments

Sometimes it’s good to ditch the default functions for components and create our own stuff. WordPress has great features for category listing but when it comes to customization we need to dig a little deeper on its functions.

Today we’ll see how to do an awesome categories menu, based on Pawel Kadysz’s awesome menu design.

We’ll see alternatives to WordPress wp_list_categories functions that allows full customization. Also we’ll see how to do it with clean CSS and a little jQuery for final touches to make it smoother.

So, are you ready to rock?

The Final Look

23 Design and Development Job Boards

Published May 2nd, 2012 in Design, Web Development - 8 Comments

With so many designers and developers competing for jobs, finding work can be a challenging task. Fortunately, designers and developers can benefit from being in an industry that has a number of quality niche-focused job boards.

While major job sites can still be a source of job leads, smaller and more focused job boards are often a better use of your time. Many companies have found that industry-specific job boards typically produce higher quality candidates, which has resulted in more job listings on these job boards.

In this post we’ll break down the leading job boards into a few different types or categories. First, we’ll show those that list mostly jobs for designers. Second, we’ll show those that list mostly development or programming jobs. Third, we’ll show those that have a good mixture of listings for both design and development.

Job Boards that Focus on Design:

If you are looking for a job in web or graphic design, here are a few job boards that tend to have job listings in these fields.

Krop

How to Turn Any Site Into a Responsive Site

Published April 30th, 2012 in Web Development - 13 Comments

I remember the time when our biggest worry was about making stuff work in IE6. And sometimes I think that it was far easier then. Now we have not only to worry about IE crazy stuff (though now it’s much better) but also with a lot of new browsers /OS combinations and also a lot of screen sizes.

We can’t deny the power of mobile design. Actually, research shows that in a few years mobile will overtake desktop browsing. But also, you can’t live in the future and need results now. Like, right now.

Here we’ll see a few ways to take your current site and turn it into a mobile friendly one, with little effort. We’ll see CSS basics, HTML optimization, WordPress and jQuery plugins and other cool stuff you should be aware of.

So, let’s rock!

What is this responsive thing, and why should I care?

25 Free and Premium jQuery Menu Scripts

Published April 18th, 2012 in Web Development - 3 Comments

If you are designing or developing websites chances are you are going to be using jQuery on many of your projects. Navigation menus are just one of the elements of a website that can be enhanced by jQuery, and there are a number of ready-made scripts that can be implemented into your work very quickly.

While you always have the option of coding a jQuery menu from scratch, sometimes there is a script already available that will help you to accomplish exactly what you need in a fraction of the time it would take to code from scratch.

In this post we’ll link to 25 different jQuery scripts that can be used in your own work. Some are free and some will cost a few dollars. (the free ones are listed first).

Free jQuery Menu Scripts:

Rocking and Rolling Rounded Menu with jQuery

Learn HTML5: HTML5 Tutorials and Guides

Published March 12th, 2012 in Web Development - 6 Comments

As the use of HTML5 continues to become more common, you may be looking for resources to help you learn more about it. In this post we have gathered a number of resources that teach various aspects of HTML5, including tutorials, explanations and guides. With the help of these resources you should be able to learn more (or just brush up on your knowledge) about the specific aspects of HTML5 that are of interest to most designers and developers.

Getting Started with HTML5:

Introduction to HTML5

20 of the Best jQuery Slideshow Plugins

Published January 30th, 2012 in Web Development - 7 Comments

jQuery sliders, slideshows, and galleries are extremely common on a variety of different types of websites. Portfolio sites, blogs, e-commerce sites, and about any type of site can make use of a jQuery slideshow. Fortunately, there are a number of great plugins already coded that make it easy to add a slideshow in a matter of minutes. Each one offers different features and has it’s own style. In this post we’ll showcase 20 jQuery plugins that you may want to use for adding a slideshow in your own projects.

Slides
Slides is a jQuery slideshow plugin built for simplicity.Features include captions, multiple slideshows, and more.

13 of the Best Hosted CMSs

Published January 18th, 2012 in Web Development - 22 Comments

Open-source content management systems like WordPress and Drupal get a lot of attention on design blogs, but they are not the only options when it comes to choosing a CMS. There are a number of hosted CMSs available that are popular with designers and their clients.

While the features vary form one hosted CMS to another, several of the primary benefits are common to all or most of them. Things like having the hosting included, the possibility for designing and developing sites very quickly, availability of pre-designed templates, and support tend to be listed among the benefits of choosing a hosted CMS.

Some hosted CMSs allow designers the opportunity for a private label, meaning that designers can brand the CMS as their own. In this case clients will see the designer’s branding rather than that of the company behind the CMS. In many of these cases the designer can also earn a commission on monthly hosting fees, which provides a nice stream of residual income for designers who use the CMS with a number of clients.

Here is a look at some of the best and most popular hosted content management systems.

LightCMS

25 Useful jQuery Tooltip Scripts

Published August 17th, 2011 in Tools, Web Development - 11 Comments

Tooltips can be a helpful way to provide information to visitors without creating clutter in a design. If you would like to add an attractive tooltip to your website it doesn’t have to be difficult. There are plenty of quality scripts available for use that will allow you to set up tooltips without coding it from scratch. In this post we’ll present 25 different jQuery tooltip scripts.

You may also be interested in:

• 25 jQuery Slider/Image Gallery Tutorials and Plugins
• 25 Excellent jQuery Sliders Tutorials and Plugins
• 25 jQuery Drop Down Menu Scripts
• 35 jQuery Animation Tutorials

Easiest Tooltip and Image Preview Using jQuery

Getting Started with E-Junkie for E-Commerce

Published March 10th, 2011 in Tutorials, Web Development - 14 Comments

Finding the right e-commerce system can be a time consuming and frustrating process. No e-commerce platform is ideal for every situation, but we have found E-Junkie to be very easy to set up and flexible enough to meet the needs of many websites and businesses. In this post we’ll go through the process of getting started with E-Junkie and setting up a product to sell. We’ll also show you how to manage the affiliate program included with E-Junkie and how to set up a coupon code that can be shared with your customers.

What is E-Junkie?

E-Junkie provides “buy now” and “add to cart” buttons and a shopping cart that will allow you to sell digital products or tangible goods. It does not include a content management system like many e-commerce solutions, rather, you can use E-Junkie with the CMS of your choice. This separates E-Junkie from a lot of open-source and hosted e-commerce systems, which may be a good or bad thing depending on your needs. It integrates with PayPal, Google Checkout, Authorize.net, ClickBank, and several other payment processors.

We started using E-Junkie a few months ago on Vandelay Premier, where we sell graphic design resources. In our case, we were specifically looking for an option that would allow us to sell digital products while still using WordPress as a CMS. While we looked at several different options, E-Junkie proved to be the best fit for us and it was quick and easy to set up.

A lot of online shops that sell digital products use E-Junkie because it does a great job of handling the secure delivery of digital files, and it has a number of additional features that some of the other “light” e-commerce solutions do not offer.

The cost of using E-Junkie will vary greatly from one user to another. The cost starts at $5 per month and that allows you to sell 10 different products and it gives you 50 MB of storage space if you’re selling digital products. Prices increase depending on the number of products and amount of disk space, although you can opt to host the files yourself in order to save money on the disk space. The lowest-priced plan that allows for self-storage of digital products costs $18 per month. There are no bandwidth costs and no transaction fees.

25 jQuery Drop Down Menu Scripts

Published September 20th, 2010 in Web Development - 30 Comments

Navigation is a critical aspect of any website. Many larger sites use drop down menus in effort to make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. In this post we will feature 25 scripts that you can use on your own sites for jQuery drop down menus.

Sexy Drop Down Menu with jQuery and CSS