WordPress is a very powerful blogging and CMS tool but as with all content management systems it needs tweaking to meet certain needs. Here are seven things you can do to get more out of WordPress with very little effort.
1. Use Page Templates for custom Page Layouts
In the root of your theme folder in your WordPress install is a file called page-custom.php. Duplicate this and name it something relevant then change template name. Although this has been commented out, WordPress uses this as the name of the of the template which you will select later.
<?php /* Template Name: About */ ?> <?php get_header(); ?> <?php get_footer(); ?>
Now place whatever code you want in between the header and footer tags. When editing a page you can now choose that page template to be used on that page.
Select a page template
2. Customise the Login Page
Simply locate the login.css file in the CSS folder in wp-admin and make any changes you see fit. For example replace the Wordpress logo with one of your own by editing the following code:
h1 a {
background: url(../images/logo-login.gif) no-repeat top center;
width: 326px;
height: 67px;
text-indent: -9999px;
overflow: hidden;
padding-bottom: 15px;
display: block;
}
Make sure you keep a backup of any changes you make as they’ll be overwritten when you upgrade.
3. Style Author Comments
Styling author comments is extremely easy as it has been a feature since version 2.7. Simply target the list item with a class of bypostauthor with the following code in your CSS:
li.bypostauthor { color: blue; }
4. Separate Comments and Trackbacks
By default, Wordpress display trackbacks in amongst comments. It looks messy and makes it hard for readers to follow the conversation.
Find this line in your comments.php file:
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
Place this code directly underneath:
<?php $comment_type = get_comment_type(); ?>
<?php if($comment_type == 'comment') { ?>
Now find the following line:
<?php endforeach; /* end for each comment */ ?>
Insert the following line directly above it:
<?php } else { $trackback = true; } /* End of is_comment statement */ ?>
This will display the comments all on their own. To display the trackbacks in their own section, locate this code:
<?php else : // this is displayed if there are no comments so far ?>
Paste the following above:
<?php if ($trackback == true) { ?>
<h3>Trackbacks</h3>
<ol>
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>
<?php $comment_type = get_comment_type(); ?>
<?php if($comment_type != 'comment') { ?>
<li><?php comment_author_link() ?></li>
<?php } ?>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ol>
<?php } ?>
Now the trackbacks will appear below the comments in the form of an unordered list.
Source:
http://www.problogdesign.com/how-to/separating-trackbacks-from-comments/
5. Implement Pagination
WordPress only includes links between the next and previous pages when displaying a list of posts such as on the home page. Download the WP-PageNavi plugin to add full pagination support.
The WP-PageNavi plugin is highly customisable.
6. Hide the Excerpt if left Blank
By default, if you have your theme set to display the excerpt and nothing is entered, WordPress will just display the full text instead. If you want don’t want anything displayed then simply place the following code wherever you want the excerpt to appear (or not)
<?php if(!empty($post->post_excerpt)) {the_excerpt(); } ?>
Source: Paul Boag on Twitter
7. Easier to Read, Meaningful URLs
Head into the permalink settings in the settings section of your WordPress admin area and change it from anything except Default and Month and name. The image below shows how Inspect Element has it setup showing the category first followed by the post title such as:
http://inspectelement.com/tutorials/animate-a-contact-us-slide-out-area-using-jquery/
Changing the permalink settings will ensure better URLs.
Not only will the make it easier to read for the user, it also makes it easier to understand for search engines to pick up resulting in better SEO. Make sure you change it!
This has been extremely helpul. Thanx!
If you aren’t comfortable with css, you can also replace the Wordpress logo by saving over it with an image of your own.
A good set of tips, a lot of which I people should be implementing automatically, separating track-backs and comments for instance.
Very useful. Thanks!
This is a great little resource, thanks very much!
What happens if you use the category/post-name style links and you happen to use the same category and post-name again at a later date? Probably a rare situation, but it could happen.
Good tips, and loving the typography on the headings and the contact form fields.
Cheers!
Thanks Luke and everyone, I’m glad you’re finding this useful.
Cool stuff but the only problem I have here is that some of these tricks are not permanent as they will be lost after upgrading your wordpress install.
I don’t like the suggestion of /%category%/%postname%/ because if you do some maintence and make new categories and move posts you lose your page age. I like /%postname%/ .
This gives you…
http://morechristlike.com/five-tips-for-more-browser-real-estate/
Thanks for the tips!
Great stuff. Really helps out a lot.
Useful, thanks; although I’ve an issue with #7: the Wordpress Codex says that “For performance reasons, it is not a good idea to start your permalink structure with the category, tag, author, or postname fields”. And then goes on to say something about imploding databases… maybe. (http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks).
I’ve noticed that a lot of popular sites start permalinks with ‘postname’ though, so I’m thinking it’s probably 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. However in the interest of keeping a holistic database, I’m going to stick to ‘month & name’, for now.
Excellent tips! Thank you very much!
Great tips…
Just wondering about the Style for Admin color change… Is there anything else I need to do other than add that CSS code? Mine is not working.
Thanks
Re: permalinks
Is it possible to change this w/o killing any past links? I’d like to switch to postname, but wouldn’t want people following old links to a post? to be given an error.
Nice little list. Thanks
Hi how I can use more than one type of page template for creating different templates for different types of pages?
Very detailed info, this really kicks S. Love it
Melissa: Install Redirection plugin and create 301 redirects from your old splugs to new.
Great List thank you very much…
Great Tips, I will use wordpress a lot so these tips will surely come in handy. Thank you