9 Tricks and Tips to be a Better WordPress Developer
In less than a year, I have *developed* my own way of working and some sharing worthy knowledge, along a lame sense of humor. Part I of All the Best Tools, Tricks, and Resources to Inspire Aspiring Unicorns.
The Tricks
Dev of not, these are the behaviors that keep my attention and enthusiasm going…
1. Don’t be the Smartest Person (about everything) in the (chat) Room
This isn’t about avoiding competition, it’s about inciting collaboration. We all have different natural strengths and abilities, but it can be limiting if we don’t look for our peers’ input or if we don’t accept feedback. Aim to be really good at that one thing and build a team where everyone is as passionate about their own craft, so that everyone has a say. Diversity, y’all.
2. Stand up and Shooooout or Walk or Whatever
There’s bound to be moment when you’ve been working so much, you’re unlikely to concentrate as you should. So, do the dishes, read something non-code in the other room. As much as I love Buzzfeed, you need to change your environment and shake computers off for a while. Walk the dog, feed the cat, scream at the birds. Whatever works for you.
3. Log Off of Social Media
Remember what I told you about passwords? Having to enter the password for any account discourages me of entering at all. My mobile social media apps are Whatsapp -because my family is in Mexico-, Instagram -which I barely use because it’s like second Facebook, ugh-, and Twitter -three log-ins-. I don’t have any of those on my iPad. I’m logged off most of the time on my computers. I am in 7 slack channels, though, but they’re all filled with smart, wonderful, kind, impressive people. So that’s ok.
The Tips
Some of dev centric time wasting avoiders.
4. Oh, Sweet Incognito Child of Mine
I’ve been advised to refresh my cache more times than I can count. Clean my browser’s history. Try a hard reset. But that is not a good strategy for me because my passwords reside on an iPad document, a Maleficent journal, and random, unorganized screencaps. What do I do? I inspect and refresh my child themes in incognito mode.
5. Hexcodes are The Style Dot CSS’ Best Friends
That being said, Photoshop and I are not friends. Right now, I pay for a license I have minimal use for, and every time that pains me and I try to actually use it, it my loyal but school-aged computer suffers and I suffer with her. Enter our savior, Google, and a search for “hexcode from image web app”. The result was Get Colors from Image (BETA) and it didn’t disappoint… It is what it is, user friendly, no nonsense, fast. See it for yourself.
6. One Click Child Theme Plugin
The first time I tried to make a child time following a tutorial using css, I failed. I obviously questioned every online dev available, who in turn told me about child themes via php. I was not ready for that, so, I wrote to the parent theme developers who pointed me not only to a child ready repo, but to this plug in. It’s probably not as developer centric, but if you’re just learning or using WordPress for the first time, it’s a good way to stay safe.
7. Ninja Forms
One of those gems hidden in every Skillcrush blueprint, Ninja Forms’ recent update is just great. The interface, and their website, is as newbie dev and end user friendly as you can imagine. You don’t need to, but you can even add your own HTML, yet the forms themselves are highly customizable and reusable.
8. I’ve Been Looking So Long For a Pictures Plugin That I Can Tell You About Two
- BNE Gallery Extended: I’m not particularly fond of this plugin’s 3D carrousel, the masonry has a bit more potential for growing on me, however, I use the simplest of its options to make carousel slideshows. I tried at least 5 other plugins and this one didn’t crop my images, it had the most tweaks available, and when my client said “Can you make the images last longer on screen?”, it took me less than the 5 seconds they wanted every picture to last to comply.
- WP Responsive header image slider: Another one of those things that does what you expect it to do, just from the name. Web Designer & Developer Yeiny Garzón was asking in our skillcrush-alumni slack team for a very specific outcome: a carousel slide for 3 header images. She was kind enough to also let us know when she finally found the one. And this is it! It requires php skills, but it is accompanied with a bulletproof tutorial.
9. I Hosted With You Once Upon a Dream
Get it? Because, Dreamhost. I love my hosting provider so much. I can gush about them being also providers of the best customer service I have came across. That in itself is worth paying for, and starting under $10.00/mo, it’s perfectly acceptable. Shared hosting equals non content managed websites and WP installs to no end, perfect for when you’re just starting or if you expect low traffic. There’s also a specialty WP option (less than $20.00/mo). Add to it the punniest newsletter and that’s why Dreamhost is my go to hosting recommendation.
Have you tried some of these tips and tricks yourself? What are yours? Tell me in the comments!
