It’s a running joke at my office that I have a childish affliction for Christmas. I start celebrating early and I celebrate hard. Christmas music, decorations, cookies, Christmas trees on my desktop, and nearly everything else you can imagine. People constantly ask me why I like Christmas so much and until recently, I didn’t have an explanation better than, “Because Christmas is awesome.”

The truth is that Christmas makes me happy because I hold it on such a pedestal. It’s the one time of year that I am guaranteed happiness. No one can take that away from me. Nothing can bring me down from the Christmas high. It is unstoppable, unbreakable, and all-around pure enjoyment.

I think the world needs more happiness. People are stressed to endless degrees, commonly caught off guard by disappointing news or possibly just bitter by nature. Being happy can take the stress away and brighten the eyes of those around you.

I think everyone should have one thing in their life to feel this way about. However arbitrary it may be, love it. Look forward to it each year. Celebrate it more than you ever have every before.

Be it Christmas, your birthday, your kids, a pet – or anything you can think of – cherish it. You will gain new perspective on how you can live your life. But in the end, you will be happier. That is what it’s all about.

I wrote an article on the new Facebook features rolled out in the last few weeks and posted it to my company blog – taxi.ca/blog. This update covers a number of new personal features across Facebook’s platform, but more importantly (from an advertiser’s perspective) are the changes that alter how brands interact with their fans.

Check out the article and leave your thoughts in the comments.

New Facebook Features Lead to More Social Brand Interaction

Welcome to my second WordPress tutorial. My hope is that these tutorials will provide my clients with basic knowledge of WordPress and allow them to better control their own website. In addition to them, these articles are for everyone who is new to managing a WordPress site.

This article will outline what it takes to create, edit and publish a WordPress post.

WordPress Requirements

I have made a few assumptions for this post. Your experience may differ from my explanations if you do not meet the following requirements:

• You are running WordPress version 3.2 or higher (previous versions will be similar, but with a different user interface)
• You are a site administrator (if your login account is just an author, a number of features will not be available)

You can click on each image for a larger view.

1. Navigate to your posts
   
   

   Your WordPress Dashboard

   From your Dashboard, click on Posts in the left-hand navigation. You will be directed to a page with a list of your posts. If you have not created any posts yet the page will appear empty.

2. Create a New Post
   
   

   Posts Sub Menu

   The Posts tab will be highlighted in the left-hand navigation and will reveal a submenu below it with four options:

   • All Posts
   • Add New
   • Categories
   • Post Tags

   To create a new post, click Add New in the submenu. There is also a small button beside the Posts page title labeled Add New that will perform the same function.

3. New Post Overview
   
   

   New Post Overview

   Now let’s go over this page a little. Click on the image above to view the full page. There are a few key areas:

   • Title –
     This is the first input field you will see. Replace “Enter Title Here” with the title of your article. Try and keep this short and as relevant to your article as possible. Using keywords from the article will help create a better SEO rank.
   • Permalink –
     Once you fill our your title the Permalink option will appear directly below it. This is what will show up in the browser’s address bar. By default, WordPress uses numbers and letters as the URL for your article, but you (or your web developer) can change this to use words from the title. Read this article on how to change your permalinks. I prefer the Month and Name setting. Similar to the title, a relevant permalink will aid in getting you a better SEO rank.
   • Text Editor (Visual) –
     The text editor is where you write the content for your post. There are two tabs at the top right of the editor: Visual and HTML. The Visual editor is the default and allows you to style your content with a simple Microsoft Word-like toolbar. If you don’t know what one of the icons does, hover over it with your mouse and a little description will popup.
     The one that gets the most questions is the Insert More Tag – it is located to the right of the two link icons. Clicking this will insert a “More” line. Some themes will ignore this, but others use it to split up your content. On this page, for example, there is a more tag before the title, WordPress Requirements. On this page it doesn’t show up or affect the post in any way. On the homepage, however, all of the information that is below that line will be hidden to keep your posts smaller and easier to scan through.
     The Show/Hide Kitchen Sink icon on the far right will unveil some advanced styling buttons to customize the look and feel of your post even further
   • Text Editor (HTML) –
     The screenshot above shows the HTML tab and its menu. If you have some HTML and CSS knowledge, this tab allows you to customize each post as much as you’d like. Try out the Fullscreen mode for distraction-free writing.
   • Extra Boxes –
     WordPress adds a few extra boxes below the text editor by default. Most of these options are only relevant if your theme takes advantage of them. My theme, for example, does not use the Excerpt or Custom Fields options, so any information I would put in there would not show up. The other boxes allow you to send notifications to other blogs that you mention them (Send Trackbacks), turn on/off comments on your post (Discussion) and change the post author.
   • Categories and Tags –
     Skipping over the Publish area for a second brings us to the categories box on the right side of the screen. Click Add New Category at the bottom of the box or select one that you have already made from the list. Your users will be able to browse an archive of posts based on the category it is in. You can put a post in as many categories as you would like.
     Post Tags act in a similar fashion. I tend to use keywords as post tags to help users that are searching my blog (if there is a search function). Users will also be able to click on a post tag and see other posts related to it.
     Take a look just below my social media buttons and click on a category or tag for an example.
   • Featured Image –
     Again, this feature is only useful if your WordPress theme uses it. Many themes use these featured images to display a picture on the homepage but not on the post’s page itself. If your theme does use it, click Set featured image and then select an image from your computer or URL. Once you do you are able to change a number of the image details. Don’t worry about the size of the photo – your theme will set it for you. Fill in the title, description and caption if you would like, then click Use as featured image. It is the text link beside the button, Insert into post. Close the window if it doesn’t do so by itself and you are all set.
   • Publish Your Post –
     The box at the top right of this page is essential to the whole process. Similar to sending an email, you are able to save a draft of the post for later. You can also preview your post and see it popup in a new window. If you’re using a blog with a number of people, you may want to set the status to Pending Review before you publish it.
     It will probably be rare for you to want to hide your post from people, but if you do want to add some secrecy to your post change the Visibility to Private (won’t show up on your blog but you can still visible if user goes to it via direct URL) or Password protected (user must have URL and password to view).
     If you want to release your post at a different time, change the Publish date to some time in the future. At that time the post will automatically become visible without any action needed by you.
     Finally, click Publish to set your post out into the world.
4. Edit a Published Post

   To edit a post you have already published, simple click on the Posts tab on the left-hand navigation, then on the title of the blog you want to edit when it shows up in your list. The interface will be nearly identical to how it did when you first created it, with an exception being the Save Draft and Preview buttons near the top right will have been replaced with a Preview Changes one.

   Clicking Preview Changes will popup a new window and allow you to view what the post will look like before officially updating it on your site. Once you’re happy with your changes, click the blue Publish button and your changes will be saved.

Next time…

You can now navigate the back end of your site plus create, edit and publish a post. In my next article I will outline how to add a page, publish it, and make changes. The steps are very similar to creating a post so feel free to give it a try already.

If you have any questions or are unclear or something, please let me know in the comments.

Welcome to my first WordPress tutorial. My hope is that these tutorials will provide my clients with basic knowledge of WordPress and allow them to better control their own website. In addition to them, these articles are for everyone who is new to managing a WordPress site.

I develop websites on WordPress for a number of reasons, one of which is its ease of use for my clients. This article will outline what you will see on your first visit to your new WordPress site – including your login screen, dashboard, navigation and finally your page and post lists.

Before we start

I have made a few assumptions for this post. Your experience may differ from my explanations if you do not meet the following requirements:

• You are running WordPress version 3.2 or higher (previous versions will be similar, but with a different user interface)
• You are a site administrator (if your login account is just an author, a number of features will not be available)

Now let’s get to it. First off is the login page.

You can click on each image for a larger view.

1. Login Page
   
   

   Your WordPress Login Page

   This is your login page. By default the address will be www.yourURL.com/wp-login. Yours may differ slightly based on the way your developer set things up. Note to developers: you can use a custom URL here by setting up a 301 redirect in your .htaccess file. Find out how.

   The default username is admin, but can be configured during the initial site setup. For security reasons, users are urged to change it to something other than admin. Once you log in you will be taken to your Dashboard.

2. WordPress Dashboard
   
   

   Your WordPress Dashboard

   The Dashboard is the first page you will see when you login as a site administrator. It gives you a brief overview of your site – some of the more important stats include:

   • Number of posts, pages, categories and comments
   • Site statistics (views, top posts, top searches)
   • Recent comments

   Clicking on the title bar of each section expands it to reveal more information. Since a number of the widgets are not relevant to my needs, I generally keep them hidden. Let’s explore a bit more on this page.

3. Navigation
   
   

   Your WordPress Menu

   The highlighted area above is how you will navigate through the back end of your site. Don’t worry if you see a slightly different list of options. Depending on your theme and the plugins that are installed, your list could be shorter or longer. For example, My Works and Contact are custom to my theme.

   The most used tabs for making site updates are Posts and Pages. It is likely that the Posts section is where you will go to update your blog or news feed (if your site has one). Pages tend to be static areas on your site such as an About or basic Contact page. Each is updated in a similar fashion, which I will touch on in another tutorial.

4. Pages
   
   

   Your List of Pages

   This list shows all of the pages on your site except your home page. By default, your home page content will be generated by the all of your Posts. This can be customized so that your posts show up on another page, but I will cover that later on.

   Hovering over each item in the list will reveal some actions you can take. You may edit, quick edit, trash or view your page. Clicking on the page title is the same as clicking on edit, while quick edit will let you make changes to the title, slug (shows up in the URL), date and a few other parameters without taking you off of that page.

5. Posts
   
   

   Your List of Posts

   Your list of posts is very similar to that of your pages, but adds in a column for the categories and tags. Hovering over each one allows you to quickly edit a post, while clicking on it will take you in to the full editor – just like the pages list.

   The largest difference is the submenu under Posts in your navigation. You can click on Categories or Post Tags to add some or customize existing ones. WordPress does a good job at explaining everything on those sub pages so I won’t go into detail here.

Next time…

You are now well on your way to learning how to manage the back-end of your site. In my next article I will outline how to create a post, make changes and publish it.

If you have any questions or are unclear or something, please let me know in the comments.

Good logos are simple and nothing is more simple than a geometric shape. Below are 25 of the most famous and most inspiring logos that make use of a square. Some of these logos use a stylized square as a graphical element, some use it as a simple square to enforce dominance.

The simplicity of these logos is what makes them memorable. If you come across any more that you think are exceptional, please link to them in the comments.

Take a look at 50 Excellent Circular Logos at Web Designer Depot, the inspiration for this post.

This post was originally posted on Word of the Web in 2009, a blog I no longer maintain.

A day after an impressive push by the NDP that wiped the Liberals out as the official opposition in Canada, Michael Ignatieff announced his resignation as the Liberal leader. Regardless of the reasons why, the churning question about an NDP-Liberal merger is beginning to escalate.

If such a merger were to happen in time for the next election, there is little doubt that current NDP leader Jack Layton would become the face of it. Here is a quick mockup of their new logo… although they may want to spend more than 5 minutes designing it and coming up with a new name.

It’s been just over a month since my move to Toronto so I thought I would give a little insight into my experiences of working at a large agency so far. After going to school and working in London for five years, landing a great job and moving to the big city within the span of about three weeks was exhausting.

I want to briefly go over the benefits of working at a small and large agency, and how I went about making the move.

Right out of school I landed a job at a small advertising agency in London, Ontario. My professor recommended me to the company before I had even started looking for work, which made my job hunt incredibly short. It was a great gig, and to do so little prep work made it all the better.

Perks of working at a small agency – less than 10 people

• You get to know everyone very well
• One-on-one time with the boss – daily
• Creative and technical input on the projects you work on
• Forced to have a well rounded set of skills (in a good way)
• Get a view of the process from start to finish

I’m extremely fortunate for having worked in a small agency for a year. As clichéd as it sounds, you really do become part of a unified team. Not only did I get to know everyone on a professional level, but I got to know them personally.

I originally thought that being the only ‘web-guy’ in a traditionally print-based agency would be a downside, but it forced me to learn things that I would not have had the chance to anywhere else. Clients would come to us with an idea and I would have to figure it out – there was no room for failure. StackOverflow helped me out immensely when I was stuck on a technical problem. If you’re a developer of pretty much any language, I highly recommend joining the site.

Perks of working at a large agency – 150+ people

• You get to work on the big name brands
• Creativity among so many advertising people is incredible
• Higher salary (generally)
• People to look up to
• Bigger projects and group collaboration

One month in and I’ve already worked with some awesome brands. I cannot stress enough how fulfilling it is to see the visits to a website skyrocket and receive great feedback on a campaign after being part of it. While small agencies can definitely have the same impact, they just don’t have the bodies to pull off such large projects all of the time. Before I finish a project now I’m already hearing rumblings of the next big thing and it’s invigorating.

I mentioned above that not having anyone to look up to as a developer can be tough yet rewarding, but having a handful of people to turn to in a moment of frustration is a blessing. There are about five people within earshot that I can count on to get me on the right track if I ever need some guidance – it’s like having my own personal StackOverflow community in house.

Final Words

After looking at the benefits of working at both small and large agencies it is up to you to decide where you will be happiest. I do, however, strongly recommend working at a smaller agency early on in your career. It will build your character and skill set at an important time of your development. Since you will likely be doing a variety of work at a smaller agency you may also figure out exactly what path you want to follow down the road. I was doing a lot of print design in combination with web development at the small agency, but the latter was where I knew I wanted to be.

This started to run a little long so I’m going to write a separate article about how I went about making the big move soon. If you have any questions about the differences or want to add to my list of benefits for either sized agency, please leave a comment below.

Have you ever wondered why the phrase, “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover” is so common? It’s because everyone does – and when it comes to web design, you should too.

If a website doesn’t care about its design, why would it put any more effort into its content? Think back to the last time you were blindly searching for something on Google and clicked on a few of the top hits. The majority of the time you are brought to a poorly designed website which makes finding what you want very difficult. When the information you are looking for is not the first thing you see on the page the issue becomes: Do you want to spend time scanning the cluttered page in hopes your answer is there?

Take a look at eHow.com as a great (albeit obvious) example of a site that gets you your information fast. Lets take a look how they do this:

1. Relevant information is at the top of the page
2. Limited adds/links to other sites
3. Numbered list for easy readability
4. Relatively clean design and layout

Say you were searching for javascript error handling. Compare your first impressions of Developer Shed compared to Eloquent JavaScript (the top two Google results).

Intrusive pop-up ad aside, the design and layout of the site would immediately push me to hit the back button in my browser. If you have read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink this may sound familiar. Before even looking extensively at the content I know this is a poor site, but let’s look a little closer at two big issues and find out why that is.

1. Ad Space – There are so many ads covering the screen that the information is completely lost – plus there is something about the unprofessional look of Google Ads that makes a site look cheap.
2. Cluttered – Looking at the page it is hard to determine what the important information is. Turns out the information you are most likely looking for is a few scrolls down in a very small font.

It is as though this site is purposely keeping you from finding the content you want. Eloquent JavaScript, the second result on Google, is about as straight forward a site as you can get. Obviously not every site can or should be like that, but as another cliché saying goes, content is king.

Bottom Line

Bottom line is that people do judge a book by its cover, and when it comes to websites maybe more than ever.