One Fused Life » Tips & Tutorials

WordPress Custom Post Type & Taxonomy Generators

Lasha — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 22:11:19 +0000

The launch of WordPress 3.0 skyrocketed the amount of tutorials available for creating Custom Post Types and Taxonomies. Anyone that has worked on highly-customized WordPress themes is familiar with the tedious process. Rest assured, the repetitiveness has been eased thanks to Themergency, a growing resource for WordPress plugins, tutorials and more.

View the Custom Post Type & Taxonomy generators!

Enormous credit must also be handed to Brad Williams, the creator of the Custom Post Type UI plugin, which has been around for quite some time. This plugin automatically takes care of the code without you having to copy and paste generated data into the functions.php file.

Happy theming!

Tutorial: Clear textbox with onClick & onBlur

Lasha — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:38:51 +0000

When somebody clicks a search box, you expect the default text to clear away. If they click away without typing anything, the default text should return. Typical behavior, right? Here's how it's done:

1	<input type="text" value="Search..." onclick="if(this.value=='Search...'){this.value=''}" onblur="if(this.value==''){this.value='Search...'}">

Steps + Explanation

Locate your standard input/search field
Insert the following into the input tag:
onclick="if(this.value=='Search...'){this.value=''}"
This is responsible for clearing textbox when someone clicks in it.
Insert the following into the input tag:
onblur="if(this.value==''){this.value='Search...'}"
This is responsible for resetting the default text if it was left blank.

So, with some super-basic JavaScript, you can achieve this tiny detail that makes a world of a difference in the world of Interaction Design. Note: Don't forget to change "Search..." to your own value!

Pro Tip: Custom WordPress URL Parameters

Lasha — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:41:10 +0000

Passing parameters in the URL within WordPress Page Template such as "website.com/page/?name=Lasha&version=214" is generally OK, but be aware! If you use a parameter such as "year" in the URL, it will overwrite WordPress' own "year" variable (if you have pretty URLs enabled) and throw a 404! How did I learn this?

I wrote some PHP code within a Page Template that retrieved data from a custom database by passing parameters through the URL, using the $_GET method. One of my parameters was "year=2010", and I kept getting 404s until I changed it to "fiscalyear" where it no longer interfered with the mod_rewrite rules.

I hope this saves you the headache it caused me when writing custom PHP code within WordPress!

Design Tip of the Day 04: Work in a new medium

Lasha — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:37:49 +0000

If you work only on the web, learn about print design and production. If you work only in print, learn the basics of web design & development. Expanding your skills will up your competitive level in a market that has become overly saturated with basic talent.

One cannot express how important it is to design for the web. The web has become an instant phenomenon that is being quickly taken over by the big dogs of the media world. Methods of content consumption based on the Internet are multiplying faster than any other form of media in the past.

First there was the Amazon Kindle, and now we have the Android-based Nook eBook reader. Rumors about Apple releasing a Tablet of their own are flying around like aimless torpedoes. If you were to ask me, Apple is definitely planning something, and it'll probably be a huge hit.

To put it simply, the world is changing very quickly. If we fail to keep up to date with what's happening, our jobs will leave us for someone else. Stay open minded and read a lot of design blogs. See what people are raving about so that you can contribute in your own way. Don't forget to collect inspiration along your journey.

PS. Print is not dead. As long as creativity isn't lost, it will continue to be a dominant form of media, regardless of the changes it goes through.

Design Tip of the Day 03: Collect Inspiration

Lasha — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:55:52 +0000

Design is something that lives off the thoughts and ideas we develop from a multitude of inspirational sources. These sources include but are not limited to nature, product design, print materials, motion special effects, and so forth.

Whether you're into web design, print design, or both, collecting and storing inspirational pieces of work are essential. Browser bookmarks can be used to save website links for future gazing, while print samples can be stored inside a folder/drawer for easy access.

Some may look at this as cheating and being unoriginal, but design it is all about forming new ideas from the things we like and the things that inspire us. Some of the most creative works out in the wild have clear representations of where the concept and visual execution ideas came from.

Bonus Tip: If you have a camera phone, use it to capture inspiration. It's fast, and easier to store than having a physical sample. Have a digital folder for storing all the snapshots.

Design Tip of the Day 01: Visit the book store!

Lasha — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:36:10 +0000

If you are an aspiring designer of any kind, you should know that a book store is one of the most valuable sources of inspiration, ideas, and knowledge. Of course, depending on your location, it may be hard to come by a shop with a good collection of design publications.

I pay a visit to my local Barnes & Noble store every week, spending a minimum of 1 hour on reading, learning, and broadening my creative outlook. There are magazines for Web Designers and Developers, Advanced Photoshop Users, and Photographers, all of which contain tutorials, interviews, tips, and so forth.

One may think "why visit a book store when I can browse the entire internet for creative inspiration?" Well, to put it simply, there is a lot of garbage out there on the internet. When you're reading trusted publications that have been in the business for years, you're more likely to gain valuable knowledge.

Helpful links: (continue reading...)

I hope you enjoy checking out (and bookmarking) these websites. This post is supposed to be about books, but digital sources are inevitable. Stay creative, stay inspired, keep designing.

I am interested to know what sources motivate and inspire you, so please share in the comments below! Thank you.

5 Easy Steps to be Green at Home

Lasha — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:33:18 +0000

If you're serious about going green, here are some easy steps you can take to make it happen. Yes, installing Fluorescent bulbs throughout the home and driving a hybrid can do a lot, but some of these you may not have thought of.

Hitting the right water temperature: Things like taking a shower, brushing your teeth, washing dishes, and so forth require a lot of water. Of course, we all love the soothing hot water as we bathe, but a nice warm temperature does just fine. Avoiding hot temperatures takes it easy on the boiler, which results in a smaller oil bill. This may not be the case for apartment dwellers, but taking it easy on the building's boiler can help on overall energy consumption (tell the neighbors!).
Sub-Tip: You jump in the shower and turn the hot and cold water knobs to steady flow. The temperature is too cold, so what do you do? Instead of ADDING more hot water, try lessening the amount of cool water flow. This will save water, and the amount of heat generated by the boiler.
Shut off and unplug: Done charging something? Unplug it. Not using computer speakers? Shut them off. Putting the computer to sleep? Shut it down. Don't charge something unless it needs charging. On top of that, keep chargers unplugged since they use up energy even though nothing is charging. Easy solution to most problems: A power strip/surge protect, something you should already have. Sleep/Stand-by mode still wastes energy, don't do it!
Saving those plastic bags! Whenever you get plastic bags, save them! You never know what you can use them for. Yes, they make great garbage bags but they're terrible for the environment. Instead, try BioBags! For things like groceries and general carry-around stuff, cloth bags work best. They can be found everywhere for cheap prices so don't go saying they're too much or they're hard to find.
Appliance Etiquette: Avoid paper towels for drying/cleaning things - Instead, use a cloth towel. Make sure you're using Energy Star compliant appliances; dishwasher, microwave, refrigerator, air conditioner, etc. If not, ensure future purchases to be efficient as possible. Saving the planet AND your energy bill is a great feeling! Specifics: 1) Shut off A/C when no one is home. 2) Lower fridge cooling levels by a notch or two when possible. 3) Replace all filters as directed by the manufacturer - dirty filters decrease efficiency and increase energy consumption.
Great Resources: Visit these websites for all the information about being green and environmentally friendly: Some of these are great blogs, organizations, retailers, and people who want to make a difference. Join in and have a blast!
- WeCanSolveIt.org
- Earth911.org
- GreenHomeGuide.com
- AutoBlogGreen.com
- Inhabitat.com
- GreenDaily.com
- EcoGeek.org
- Evo.com (Eco-friendly products, services, and information)
- MethodHome.com (Eco-friendly online store)

I hope you enjoy these websites as much as I do. Learning about all the different things that are being done is great! Dare I say it? Yes. Help fight the destruction of our planet!

Photoshop Tutorial: Fox News Logo

Lasha — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:40:55 +0000

Here is a tutorial showing how to recreate the world famous Fox News logo. A Google search for the Fox News logo gave poor results so I figured I'd show you how to make one yourself. The techniques in this tutorial can be applied to many other tasks throughout the suite of Adobe applications.

View the tutorial after the jump!

Before beginning, I should mention to you that you don't have to follow the directions exactly as written. The power of Photoshop is unveiled through experimenting and trying out different ways of doing things.

1) First I open a blank document with the following dimensions: Height of 175px and Width of 275px. You can name it whatever you want. In my case, it's fox5logo.psd.

2) I started by creating 3 different box shapes to set the foundation of the logo. Using the Rectangle Tool (Key: U), draw a light colored vertical rectangle in the middle (the biggest one). Once that's done, draw two more boxes in a darker color on top and on the bottom of the main rectangle.

Note: Make the box on the top a little bigger than the one on the bottom. We will fix larger text inside the box on the top.

3) Now select the layer for the top box. Go to the Blending Options of this layer by right clicking the layer and selecting Blending Options. Select the Gradient Overlay in the window that pops up and enter the following settings:

Colors used for gradient: The darker red is #a00404 and the lighter red in the middle is #e60000.

4) In this step, we will decorate the middle box with a gradient and an inner shadow. Go to the Blending Options menu of this layer and apply the following settings:

So far, you should have something like this: (If you don't, contact me for help!)

5) Now we will create the base which the big number "5" will rest on. Create a new blank layer on top of the middle box and name it "base". Select the Polygonal Lasso Tool (Key: L) and draw a shape that looks like this:

Fill the selection with a solid color (Edit > Fill... > Press OK). Then deselect the slection (Select > Deselect). Access the Blending Options of this layer and create a Gradient Overlay with the following options:

6) Now that we have the base of "5" completed, we can create the light beams in the background. To do so, create a new blank layer on top of the base layer and name is "light beams." Use the Polygonal Lasso tool (Key: L) to draw the two light beams on the left side of the logo, like this:

Note: Once you make the selections for the beams, fill them with white color.
Hint: In order to draw two separate shapes after another, hold down the SHIFT key after completing the first shape selection and you will see the Polygonal Lasso with a + sign to make additional selections.

Use a fairly large soft eraser (125px with 0 Hardness) to erase the upper portions of the beams in order to make it look like a fade. For intermediate users: If you're familiar with masking, apply a Quick Mask to this layer and use a large black soft brush (125px with 0 Hardness) to hide away the upper portion of the beams with a fade. Then drop the Opacity of the layer to around 25% or whatever looks right to you. This is what you should have so far:

Once you complete the beams on one side, duplicate the "light beams" layer and flip it horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontally). Then move the layer to the right side as if they were reflected, like this:

7) Now here comes the easy part; The text. You're going to need a very thick font for this. I used Verdana set in Bold and it worked like a charm. Use your visual judgment to create the text proportionate to what you see in the final result. NOTE: Make sure these text layers are created above all the other layers.

Now to make the text look fancy, we will apply a simple Drop Shadow and Gradient Overlay in the Blending Options with the follow settings:

Note: You're not limited to what settings you can apply to the text. Use your imagination and go crazy! (not too crazy, though.) Here's the result after playing around with the Blending Options. Nice and simple:

That's it! Simple as that.

If you have any questions or trouble with the tutorial, I invite you ask away in the comments section below. Chance are, you're not the only one with the problem. I'll be glad to help anyone! Thank you!

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Fox News and the Fox News logo is copyright to the respective owner(s). This tutorial was written solely for educational purposes and the enhancement of people's Photoshop skills.

How To Be a Better Client

Lasha — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:08:09 +0000

I recently read an article over at The Artistic Outlaw that reminded me what designers go through when freelancing. For those of you that are graphic designers out there, or provide some kind of a service, these 5 ways would come in pretty handy if they were actually honored by your clients. James made a valid point when he said that plenty of people write about becoming better at your job, but nobody writes about how clients can become better clients.

Wouldn't it be nice if the people that hired you actually let you do your job most of the time, and paid on time? Yes, it would.

Head on over and check out the article.

Building a strong network

Easy Steps to Public Speaking

Lasha — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:59:10 +0000

You can probably find a million other sources that'll tell you to "own the stage" and pretend like the presentation hall is your living room. The fact is that, it's not, and never will be. Yes, my approach to good public speaking is similar to others, but I aim to cover things that they don't - the things that don't get too much attention that are just as important.

Chances are, if you're looking to become a full time public speaker, you would be taking a few courses over at the local University. For those of you that want to learn to speak publicly for self improvement and to boost confidence in your speech, these tips may be for you... Continue reading after the jump.

First, the basics: Keeping track of time, making eye contact, having a backup plan for equipment failure, research and preparation, and rest. I'll cover these briefly as they are self-explanatory.

1) Of course, you want to keep track of time so that you don't go over your given time, or have to rush things because you spent too much time covering another topic.

2) Having a backup plan is always mandatory because you just can't ever trust technology to be 100% reliable. Things can go wrong and not function at the least expected and most inconvenient times.

3) Preparing your speech means doing research, organizing your ideas and thoughts appropriately, and knowing how to seamlessly flow from one topic to another. Having a structured presentation helps your audience stay on par with your ideas and what you are talking about.

4) Rest and proper nourishment are both very important for sustaining a functional self state. Making sure that you get enough rest and food before and on the day of the presentation is vital. All the preparing and rehearsing that goes on before the presentation, and the energy that's exerted on the day you present puts a toll on your body. Stay away from greasy food and the likes that may make you drowsy, as well as "quick energy" snacks as they're not exactly the most reliable source of nutriment

Now that we have these covered, on to the juicy stuff:

When giving a speech, emotional expression is one of the most important things to keep in mind. Nobody wants to sound like a monotone robot delivering a speech, and nobody wants to hear it either. When you take advantage of how things can be expressed, they can act as queues for your audience to know what's important, serious, or not so serious. People, a lot of times, get stuck during their speech because of the way they expressed something. This can either result in unexpected reactions from the audience, or the lack of. For this reason, it's a good idea to practice how you will be expressing specific points, rather than having to memorize everything word for word.

Having said that, my next point is speech memorization and how you rehearse. Practice being able to word ideas differently rather than having to memorize specific terms. This is a good general skill as it could come in handy in every-day conversations, as well as important presentations, etc. You may also want to consider adding and/or replacing words in a sentence for dramatization of some sort (ie. exaggeration, degradation, making things sound simple, dangerous, serious, etc...). When you aim to make your speech flexible, not only will you be comfortable, but you can easily get out of situations where you forget what you were supposed to say.

This also means that if your vocabulary isn't as robust as you'd like it to be, you should bring out that thesaurus and start memorizing. The key with memorizing new terms is to learn them and use them - something people don't do. Write practice letters, use them in conversations with family and friends, have words written down on a post-it note, etc. The best part about bettering your speech skills is picking your own brain and figuring out what methods of practice and learning work for you.

Errors are inevitable (for the most part) when you're delivering a speech. If you think that you've heard a perfect speech with no mistakes, you're probably wrong. The person who delivered the speech most likely had amazing cover-up skills and was able to mold his words in a way where it didn't seem likes an error.

Here's a thought. When you're hearing a speech and that person makes a little mistake, do you really get upset and angry at that person, or think negatively of their validity? I don't know about you, but I certainly don't. After having talked to quite a few people about this matter, I've come to the conclusion that audiences are more forgiving than you might think. When the person delivering the speech messes up, the more uncomfortable the audience gets. This is why you should never worry about making a fool of yourself.

Here are some quick ideas on how to stay relaxed and pick up your speech after making some type of an error. When you're in the middle of saying something and you realize you lost your train of thought, you can pause for a second and restate your thought again. This is more respectable than forcing yourself to continue rambling after its occurrence. Also, after stretching your last sentence and pulling through, you can reserve a few seconds by clearing your throat or sipping your water.

So that's pretty much all of it. I didn't plan to get into too much detail with the obvious aspects since it's basic knowledge, and because it has been said a million times before by other publications. I hope these tips come in handy at least a little bit. Remember, the audience are nothing but flesh and blood, just like yourself. Being afraid of making a fool of ourselves is a characteristic that has been embedded into our brains due to pop-culture and the standards of society where every one has to be a certain way. Ask yourself, are you victim?

5 Easy Steps to be Green at Home