One of the most complained about features I’ve heard for the newer WordPress versions is the admin area. I actually liked that it looked different, because it was easier to look at. It just looks better.
I’ve checked out some WordPress admin themes before, but most of them seemed to be missing something, not working right, or just not that great looking. Just today I came across one that is just more appealing. Fluency Admin by Dean Robinson. It works with WordPress 2.6.
It’s not that I think the colors in the admin area are ugly, it’s that everything takes up so much space, when it all can fit into a smaller area.
This is what WordPress 2.6 Dashboard looks like:
Here is the Dashboard after:
A much needed improvement is the Other WordPress News box on the dashboard. It’s now a smaller list instead of these huge boxes for each post. Way too much space was wasted. In order to cut back on the space, I had to limit the boxes to showing only five, otherwise they got out of hand.
Write Post screen after:
Manage Posts screen after:
Sidebar after:
My favorite feature of Fluency Admin is that the sidebar stays put even while you scroll down the page. That was one annoyance about the menu that I had before. I’d have to scroll back up just to go to another screen.
You can check out more screenshots at Dean Robinson’s flickr page. If you want this awesome WordPress Admin theme, go download it!
I sometimes have a hard time deciding which wallpaper to use on my desktop, unless I know I want a specific color, then it’s pretty easy from there. Here is what my current desktop looks like now:
I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’re interested in customizing your own wallpaper, you can use WallpaperMaker. It doesn’t have a lot of choices, but it’s a good start!
Here’s a few wallpapers that I like from the sources above (clicking on them will take you to their page):
You may notice from most of the wallpapers I like, there is a lot of brown and green. I like my desktop more when either of those two colors are present. I have no idea why though!
As a lot of you may have noticed, I haven’t written a post in about a month. This is because I’ve been so busy! I apologize and will try to stay on top of things, if I can! (One way to help me out would be if you have a suggestion for a topic, please contact me and let me know.)
I was recently notified about FruitfulTime TaskManager at a perfect time and decided to give it a try because of how many tasks I needed to get done (on time). I figured this would be a great way to share my experience and opinions of this software with all of you and get a new post out at the same time!
FruitfulTime TaskManager actually looks better than a lot of other task management applications and allows you to easily see what your progress is for any tasks. It’s also small in size and performs very quickly. Another feature that has been tempting me to buy a new thumb drive is that it is portable as well. This means it can be installed on a thumb drive so you can take it wherever!
Being that I work on projects that also involve other people, it’s helpful to see who is assigned to what, so if you have a task that is dependent on another task which is assigned to someone else, you’ll know by viewing who it is assigned to and be able to contact that person regarding the status because of the Contact Manager built-in.
I do have a few annoyances/suggestions that I want to point out, that I hope could be considered in a future version:
Subtasks not grouped with tasks. Instead of separating the subtasks below the task listing, I would rather see a tree listing with the subtasks below each task, so I don’t have to click on a task just to see the subtask. This would save me time.
Deleting subtasks. Several times I have made the mistake of clicking on a subtask to delete, only to end up clicking on ‘Delete Task’, which shouldn’t appear when a subtask is selected. If the parent task was selected, then ‘Delete Task’ should appear. I just become confused when I’m so busy and not paying attention.
Setting task options, like Priority, Status, Progress, etc. When changing them, I have to triple-click! I wish I only had to single-click like I do for editing the name of the task, but would even settle for double-click. But triple-clicking is going a little too far and wastes time.
Setting the progress of a subtask does not automatically update its task. For example, if I set a subtask to 50% (say there is only one subtask), shouldn’t the task’s progress become 50%? I don’t really want to manually set it to 50%, because again, it takes time.
Features I really like:
Adding notes to tasks.
Adding references to any relevant websites or files. Very useful option for me especially since the company I work for has MANY websites that I need to be able to login for QA. A lot of the time, I also need to be able to review a document, so this can save me time from having to go back through lots of files to find the document I need.
Adding reminders. Reminders can be set to go off before the Start Date or the Due Date. For me, setting reminders before a Start Date is helpful, because sometimes I like to start projects early, rather than waiting until I actually need to start it.
Overall, I do like FruitfulTime TaskManager and will probably continue using it since I’m tired of Outlook 2007 running so slow on Vista because I have a lot of e-mails and tasks to add. I like how Outlook manages tasks, but when I have to wait forever for Outlook to load, it’s not worth my time.
If you would like to see a demo of FruitfulTime TaskManager in action, there is video on the website. Interested in trying out this wonderful (very affordable) application? Go download it!
I would really like to hear if anyone else has given FruitfulTime TaskManager a try, and what you think of it. Please leave a comment below.
After a client had made a request for a Flash header to not animate every time a new page is loaded, I needed to figure out how to do this. Not for this one request, but for any future requests. I have previously looked this up, but came up empty. It seemed there was one solution, but it really wasn’t the greatest, because when you return to the home page, the animation would play again.
I eventually came across a solution that had no comments from other people, so I didn’t really know if it would work. The person who provided the solution also provided a link to his/her website with it in action, so I was able to see that it worked.
This solution uses PHP sessions. It works by displaying the full Flash header only if never viewed during the current session. If it has already been viewed, it will display the second (non-animated) header until the session ends, which is on browser close. The next time the website is viewed in a new session, it will display the original animated header.
The first code you need to add is placed at the top, before any other code (DOCTYPE & HTML), in the header. This code checks to see if there are any views during the current session.
< ?php
session_start();
if (isset($_SESSION['views']))
$_SESSION['views']=$_SESSION['views']+1;
else
$_SESSION['views']=1;
?>
The next code is for displaying the Flash, just as you would normally, except it’s using PHP.
< ?php if ($_SESSION['views']>1) //if session views are more than one
echo "Flash embed code here";
else //if session view is one
echo "Flash embed code here";
?>
This code is just saying: If views are more than one, display the second (non-animated) header. If views are one, display the full animated header. It is really simple.
Make sure to remove the space that appears at the beginning of the PHP code: < ?php. Also, when adding the Flash embed code to be echoed, escape any quotes with a ‘\’ (without the single quotes).
I’ve been waiting for this moment. Okay, the moment isn’t here yet, but it’s very close! Spore is going to be released soon and is available for pre-ordering. Or you can wait to purchase it when it’s available on September 7, 2008. I really wouldn’t wait if I was you. Pre-order now before there’s a long wait! There will even be a Nintendo DS version someday!
If you haven’t heard of Spore, Spore allows you to create an entire universe and everything in it. Creatures you have created will interact with each other. Their lives are in your hands.
It feels like a cross between interaction of The Sims, object creation in Second Life and a bit of World of Warcraft on the side.
I actually first learned through one of her twitters that Spore Creator is available, also as a trial. I quickly went to download the huge file and installed it. I had so much fun creating a creature. I even had fun with him, in a kind of cruel way. Watch the video below to see what I mean. Explanation of what’s happening in the video below the video.
First, I named my creature Twotoe. I couldn’t think of anything very creative and since he has two toes on both feet, he became Twotoe! Meet Twotoe:
In the video: Twotoe notices a creature, shows some affection, notices another creature and seems to look a little disappointed with that one. He sees another one and shows some affection towards that one. The one he didn’t show affection to walks off looking sad. Then, the cruel joke I play on Twotoe begins (not intentionally). I make all three little creatures disappear. And he looks around wondering what just happened and then cries out.
If you have any videos of your Spore creatures, please share in the comments!
