This was working perfectly for me up until recently when I noticed an annoying problem. When I clicked on the html edit button or the image upload button I got a blank popup screen instead of the usual edit screen or image upload screen (see below).

Anyway, after much frustrating Google searching I came across a solution. The problem occurred because I had changed my site url from wallisarms.com to www.wallisarms.com (added the www) but my .htaccess file still read the site as wallisarms.com. Simply changing this to the latter (with the www) solved my problem.

If after you change the htaccess file the problem remains, try manually typing in the www before your site url and you log in again. Hope that helps someone!

One such problem I had was changing the sidebar on each page. So lets say I wanted a text widget on the ‘about us’ page sidebar but didnt want it to appear on any other page. I would need to hack into wordpress by creating another sidebar & calling it for that particular page.

That was until I discovered the widget logic plugin, a fantastic plugin that allows you to add different sidebar widgets on every page or remove them from certain pages. Enjoy!

Thank you.

Which is why I am in awe at these spectacular Photos of an Island off the coast of Nagasaki. It looks like something from a Terminator movie with its rubbled skyscrapers and huge rusting ruins. This is one place I would love to visit with my Canon 350d!

See more of these amazing photos here.

Take for example when editing or creating a new post or page and you have formatted your paragraphs nicely and you hit save. However when you view your post on your website the text is not formatting correctly. The most common ailment with this is spaces between paragraphs not working, even when <p> tags are included.

Which is how I came across this fantastic Wordpress Plugin that allows you to edit your post in raw HTML. You simply wrap the given plugin tags aroung your HTML within your post and away you go.

RawHTML will also add some new checkboxes to the “Edit” screen that will let you disable certain WP filters on a per-post basis. This way you can :

• Disable wptexturize (this filter creates smart quotes and other typographic characters).
• Disable automatic paragraph creation.
• Disable image smilies.
• Disable convert_chars (this filter converts ampersands to HTML entities and “fixes” some Unicode characters).

For most of my web design clients who require a CMS (Content Management System) for their website, I tend to use Wordpress. Mostly known for being one of the best Blogging platforms in existence it is also a superb CMS. It comes with literally thousands of plugins to pretty much accomplish anything you need for your website. Also it is very easily customised using CSS so I can start off with a blank canvas like the Whiteboard Template and apply my clients approved website design to it.

Also it is known as being very SEO (search engine optimisation) friendly which always helps. There are even plugins to help with SEO also. The best thing of all about Wordpress of course is that its absolutely free! I will continue to use Wordpress for small to medium sized websites or for those clients who are limited on budget and time.

Which brings me to the purpose of this post. I needed to learn a more advanced yet still easy to customise CMS application that could pretty much accomplish anything. I tried a few systems and finally came across the wonderful MODx. Its very easy to implement your xhtml/css designs into it and easy for the client to use once the site if live which is very important. MODx is also the first free PHP CMS to offer an API that fully supports Web 2.0 Ajax technology. Im currently using Modx to build the Wallis Arms website and I have to say its alot of fun to use also (as is Wordpress I might add).

So if your looking for an easy to learn, ridiculously flexible cms system then give Modx a try. If you dont like it then there’s plenty more out there!

Thing is web technology is advancing by the day and web design trends are right behind it. Web 2.0 design has brought about a whole new range of web design styles and trends. Nothing wrong with design trends, people follow them for a reason. Thing is things get a bit stale when every website looks the same!

Which brings me to webdesignledger.com who has listed the most used and abused web design trends of all time. Enjoy!

Much frustration followed with me trying to paint in large areas of the canvas or get any detailed editing done. Oddly I never bothered to Google the problem until I had just about pulled every hair from my head. As with most things, the answer is frustratingly simple – my Caps Lock was on. Yes, that was it. I smiled to myself at how simple it was, then frowned at my stupidity at not figuring it out. Ah well, like I said, you learn something new in Photoshop every week.

One of the biggest changes in the Web Design and Development industry is the advent of Open Source Content Management System in the use of building websites. These Applications have revolutionised the way we build all types of online media from e-commerce, blogs and forums to now giving us the ability to create our own Social Networking site (see Dolphin or Buddypress).

Of course with the massive amount of cms systems available to web designers and developers it does beg the questions “Which one should I learn?” or “Which is the best?”. Well that depends on a number of factors. They all have their pros and cons but at the end of the day it depends on what your needs are and which content management system you are suited to. What follow is a short list of the cms systems I have used and still use, depending on the job in hand. These are in no particular order but I hope it helps anyone starting out in the world of cms systems.

Wordpress

I use Wordpress for most of my cms websites as I find it extremely easy to use compared to a lot of other bloated systems with too many bells and whistles. It has a huge number of themes and plugins available online, most of them free to download. It also has great support and is easily customisable and extendable once you get your head around its structure and how it works. Downsides? Can get a bit frustrating with larger websites as it was built as a blogging system originally (which it is still a leader in). Still I find it fun to try and figure out creative ways of achieving something that other more complex cms’ can achieve more easily.

Modx

I recently started teaching myself this up and coming cms and things are looking very promising indeed. Its a proper content management system almost on par with the likes of Expression Engine. The thing I like about it, apart from looking great, is its easy templating and tagging system. It is also extremely flexible and almost any type of website can be created with it. Worth learning and trying out.

Expression Engine

This is one of the big guys. Similarities to modx although not free (there is a non-commercial version free to download). Good support and add-ons available. Haven’t had much experience with it myself but hearing great things about it. A fantastic choice if you don’t mind paying for the commercial version.

Joomla

This is a huge cms with one of the largest communities of any content management system. Again, easy enough to customise once you get your head around it but can seem a bit too bloated. It is also fairly difficult to learn initially. Has some nice extensions however, and plenty of them. Not a fan myself but is hugely popular which is obvious from its huge community of users.

I have also tried a few other cms systems, namely Magento which is one of the best Open Source e-commerce solutions out there but again difficult to learn. Once you get it though its invaluable to any web designer. Also if you fancy building a facebook-type social media site you might give BuddyPress a go. Its a plugin for Wordpress mu which is the multi-user version of Wordpress.

Anyway, best of luck with whatever cms you stick with!

Blog. I used to hate that word. And now here I am, attempting to write my first post. Actually when I say I hated the word it was probably because I didn’t fully understand what a blog was or why it was called a ‘Blog’ to begin with (if your not still not sure heres a quick rundown).

So what will I be posting about? I asked myself that question before I began this post but I guess the easiest answer is I will post about things I am interested in (and what I hope you will be interested in), namely Website Design and Development, Books, Films, Tutorials, Popular Science, Art etc. Oh and music of course.

Ive found countless answers to Googled questions on other Blogs on all sorts of topics, mostly to do with web design because thats what I do but also for Photoshop tricks and especially when it comes to Magento or Wordpress hacks, plugins etc. I would like to give some of this information back to help others starting out or looking for help.

I’ll consider it a diary of things Im onto. Hope you find it helpful in some way and feel free to comment on any posts.

Cheers!