The general reason for using this effect to improve accessibility in that the user does not have to scroll all the way back to the top of the page to access the navigation bar. The code below illustrates how this is done:

$(function(){

   var menuOffset = $('#menu')[0].offsetTop; // replace #menu with the id or class of the target navigation

   $(document).bind('ready scroll',function(){
       var docScroll = $(document).scrollTop();

   if(docScroll >= menuOffset){
       $('#menu').addClass('fixed');
    } else {
       $('#menu').removeClass('fixed');
    }

   });

});

The code above will add a class to the target navigation, allowing you to set some custom css that is attached to the class:

#menu.fixed{
    background: #777;
    position:fixed;
    left:0;
    top:0;
    width:100%;
}

You can view the full demo on jsFiddle.

The lessons are split into four sections namely JavaScript 101, Javascript 102, Selectors 101 and Javascript 103. I was impressed with the timeline that gives clear indication into which videos to watch and in what order, expanding your knowledge in a logical and constructive format.

A massive opportunity at hand for anyone wanting to learn Javascript/jQuery development at their own pace,  introducing core topics that will train you effectively. So stop procrastinating and visit that link below.

Find out more at http://learn.appendto.com

(function() {
    $.fn.bgscroll = $.fn.bgScroll = function( options ) {

        if( !this.length ) return this;
        if( !options ) options = {};
        if( !window.scrollElements ) window.scrollElements = {};

        for( var i = 0; i < this.length; i++ ) {

            var allowedChars = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
            var randomId = '';
            for( var l = 0; l < 5; l++ ) randomId += allowedChars.charAt( Math.floor( Math.random() * allowedChars.length ) );

                this[ i ].current = 0;
                this[ i ].scrollSpeed = options.scrollSpeed ? options.scrollSpeed : 70;
                this[ i ].direction = options.direction ? options.direction : 'h';
                window.scrollElements[ randomId ] = this[ i ];

                eval( 'window[randomId]=function(){var axis=0;var e=window.scrollElements.' + randomId + ';e.current -= 1;if (e.direction == "h") axis = e.current + "px 0";else if (e.direction == "v") axis = "0 " + e.current + "px";else if (e.direction == "d") axis = e.current + "px " + e.current + "px";$( e ).css("background-position", axis);}' );

                setInterval( 'window.' + randomId + '()', options.scrollSpeed ? options.scrollSpeed : 70 );
            }

            return this;
        }
})(jQuery);

SOURCE: Queness
CREDIT: Steve at Web Developer Juice

This plugin gives you access to these properties:

scrollSpeed : speed of the movement
direction : the scroll orientation being either “v”, “h” or “d” (horizontally, vertically or diagonally)

Although this works perfectly,the scrolling works with negative pixel values only – in other words scrolling only heads towards the left of the browser screen.  I felt the need to tweak the script slightly so that the user could decide for the scrolling to head to the left, as well as the right.  Below is an alternative tweaking the original plugin slightly to allow scrolling to head either towards the right or the left, in effect expanding the capabilities of this nifty plugin.

(function() {
    $.fn.bgscroll = $.fn.bgScroll = function( options ) {

        if( !this.length ) return this;
        if( !options ) options = {};
        if( !window.scrollElements ) window.scrollElements = {};

        for( var i = 0; i < this.length; i++ ) {

            var allowedChars = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
            var randomId = '';
            for( var l = 0; l < 5; l++ ) randomId += allowedChars.charAt( Math.floor( Math.random() * allowedChars.length ) );

                this[ i ].current = 0;
                this[ i ].scrollSpeed = options.scrollSpeed ? options.scrollSpeed : 70;
                this[ i ].direction = options.direction ? options.direction : 'h';
                this[ i ].heading = options.heading ? options.heading : 'l';
                window.scrollElements[ randomId ] = this[ i ];

                eval( 'window[randomId]=function(){var axis=0;var e=window.scrollElements.' + randomId + ';
                       if (e.heading == "r") e.current += 1; else if(e.heading == "l") e.current -= 1;
                       if (e.direction == "h") axis = e.current + "px 0";else if (e.direction == "v") axis = "0 " + e.current + "px";else if (e.direction == "d") axis = e.current + "px " + e.current + "px";$( e ).css("background-position", axis);}' );

               setInterval( 'window.' + randomId + '()', options.scrollSpeed ? options.scrollSpeed : 70 );
            }

            return this;
        }
})(jQuery);

A ‘heading’ property is added to the already two that exist in this plugin.  This ‘heading’ property allows simply to gear the animation towards the left(“l”) or the right(“r”).  The below example shows how this is used:

$('#clouds').bgscroll({scrollSpeed:70 , direction:'h', heading: 'r'});
$('#aeroplane').bgscroll({scrollSpeed:10 , direction:'h', heading: 'l'});

And that’s it really!!  Hope this helps.

VIEW DEMO

The first thing I tried doing here was finding the ‘page_templates’ column in the database and use some form of SQL statement, thinking it was a column on its own.  A Google search led to the discovery that the ‘Page Template’ setting in the WordPress page edit screen is nothing more than a custom field dropdown box, able to be reached using the get_post_meta() function.

So you would detect the WordPress template using the function like this:

$current_page_template = get_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',true);

Source: Benedict Estraugh

The custom field key here is _wp_page_template and you can print this out easily using the usual echo statement.

Now to use this and manipulate child pages to use parent page templates, you have to check the current page template(above) and its parent page template using this code:

// Check current page and parent page template
$current_page_template = get_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',true);
$parent_page_template = get_post_meta($post->post_parent,'_wp_page_template',true);

Then we can use get_post_ancestors() to check whether the current page is a child page or has a parent page and then finish this with the update_post_meta() function which will allow us to change the previous value of our custom field key:

// Check if parent page exists and update the _wp_page_template key value

$parents = get_post_ancestors($post->ID);
if($parents){update_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',$parent_page_template,$current_page_template);}

Now lets combine this into a function called switch_page_template():

// switch_page_template() function

function switch_page_template(){
	global $post;
	$current_page_template = get_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',true);
        $parent_page_template = get_post_meta($post->post_parent,'_wp_page_template',true);
        $parents = get_post_ancestors($post->ID);
	if($parents){update_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',$parent_page_template,$current_page_template);}
}

Now we have our function in place and all we have to do here now is attach this function to the ‘save_post’ plugin hook using add_action():

add_action('save_post','switch_page_template');

Now simply paste this into your functions.php and that pretty much it fellas! Use the full code below:

// Manipulate Child Pages to Use Parent Page Templates Automatically
function switch_page_template(){
	global $post;
	$current_page_template = get_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',true);
        $parent_page_template = get_post_meta($post->post_parent,'_wp_page_template',true);
        $parents = get_post_ancestors($post->ID);
	if($parents){update_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',$parent_page_template,$current_page_template);}
}
add_action('save_post','switch_page_template');

So what do you think? Leave a comment below, thanks

UPDATE – 05/03/11

I’ve updated the code here to check if the post type of the document is a ‘page‘ as a ‘post‘ post type does not deal with page templates.  I’ve also made slight adjustments  to the $parents variable, which does a more precise check.

// Manipulate Child Pages to Use Parent Page Templates Automatically
function switch_page_template(){
	global $post;
        if(is_page()){// Checks if current post type is a page, rather than a post

	$current_page_template = get_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',true);
        $parent_page_template = get_post_meta($post->post_parent,'_wp_page_template',true);
        $parents = (is_page() && $post->post_parent==$post->ID) ? return true : return false;
	if($parents){update_post_meta($post->ID,'_wp_page_template',$parent_page_template,$current_page_template);

        }// End check for page
}
add_action('save_post','switch_page_template');

// Limit Post Title by amount of characters

function short_title($num) {

$limit = $num+1;

$title = str_split(get_the_title());

$length = count($title);

if ($length>=$num) {

$title = array_slice( $title, 0, $num);

$title = implode("",$title)."...";

echo $title;

} else {

the_title();

}

}

// Limit Post Content by Amount of Characters

function short_content($num) {

$limit = $num+1;

$content = str_split(get_the_content());

$length = count($content);

if ($length>=$num) {

$content = array_slice( $content, 0, $num);

$content = implode("",$content)."...";

echo '<p>'.$content.'</p>';

} else {

the_content();

}

}

<?php
// Limit title by 10 characters
short_title(10);

// Limit content by 20 characters</div>
short_content(20);

?>

include('social-media-share.php'); // assuming this file is in the same directory as your functions.php

Then in this new file, paste the code below:

<?php

// Social Media Buttons Class Object

class smbuttons

{

function gb_delicious() { // Delicious

echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://delicious-button.googlecode.com/files/jquery.delicious-button-1.0.min.js"></script>';

echo '<a class="delicious-button" href="http://delicious.com/save" data-button="{ url:\''. get_permalink($post->ID) .'\' ,title:\''. get_the_title($post->title) .'\'}">Save on Delicious</a>';

}

function gb_designbump() { // DesignBump

echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\">url_site='". get_permalink($post->ID) ."'; </script><script src=\"http://designbump.com/sites/all/modules/drigg_external/js/button.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>";

}

function gb_digg(){ // Digg

echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\">(function() {var s = document.createElement('SCRIPT'), s1 = document.getElementsByTagName('SCRIPT')[0]; s.type = 'text/javascript';

s.async = true; s.src = 'http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js'; s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); </script>";

echo '<a class="DiggThisButton DiggMedium" href="http://digg.com/submit?url='. get_permalink($post->ID) .'"></a>';

}

function gb_fbLike() { // Facebook Like

echo '<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href='. get_permalink($post->ID) .'&amp;layout=box_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=45&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=65" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:45px; height:65px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>';

}

function gb_fbShare() { // Facebook Share

echo "<script>var fbShare = { url: '". get_permalink($post->ID) ."', size: 'large', badge_text: 'C0C0C0', badge_color: '3b5998', google_analytics: 'true' }</script> <script src=\"http://widgets.fbshare.me/files/fbshare.js\"></script>";

}

function gb_buzz() { // Google Buzz

echo '<a title="Post to Google Buzz" class="google-buzz-button" href="http://www.google.com/buzz/post" data-message="'. get_the_title($post->title) .'" data-button-style="normal-count" data-locale="en_GB" data-url="'. get_permalink($post->ID) .'"></a> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/buzz/api/button.js"></script>';

}

function gb_retweet() { // Retweet Tweetmeme

echo "<script type=\"text/javascript\"> tweetmeme_source = 'graphicbeacon'; tweetmeme_service = 'bit.ly'; tweetmeme_url = '". get_permalink($post->ID) ."'; </script>";

echo '<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script>';

}

function gb_twitter() { // Retweet Twitter

echo '<a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-url="'. get_permalink($post->ID) .'" data-text="'. get_the_title($post->title) .'" data-count="vertical" data-via="graphicbeacon">Tweet</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>';

}

function gb_reddit() { // Reddit

echo '<script type="text/javascript">reddit_url = "'. get_permalink($post->ID) .'"; reddit_title = "'. get_the_title($post->title) .'"; reddit_newwindow=\'1\';</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://reddit.com/static/button/button2.js"></script>';

}

function gb_sphinn() { // Sphinn

echo '<script type="text/javascript">submit_url = "'. get_permalink($post->ID) .'";</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://sphinn.com/evb/buttons.php?b=lg"></script>';

}

function gb_stumbleupon() { // Stumbleupon

echo '<script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=5&r='. get_permalink($post->ID) .'"></script>';
}

}

?>

The code above contains the buttons for 11 Popular Social Media Networks namely Delicious, Designbump, Digg, Facebook Like, Facebook Share, Google Buzz, Retweet, Twitter, Reddit, Sphinn and Stumbleupon. To echo this our onto your blog, you need to firstly create a variable, holding your class object like this:

$smbuttons = new smbuttons();

Then simply use any of the lines below to echo out which button you want:

// Delicious

$smbuttons->delicious();

// Designbump

$smbuttons->gb_designbump();

// Digg

$smbuttons->gb_digg();

// Facebook Like

$smbuttons->gb_fbLike();

// Facebook Share

$smbuttons->gb_fbShare();

// Google Buzz

$smbuttons->gb_buzz();

// Retweet

$smbuttons->gb_retweet();

// Twitter Official

$smbuttons->gb_twitter();

// Reddit

$smbuttons->gb_reddit();

// Sphinn

$smbuttons->gb_sphinn();

To learn more about how to use WordPress, why not consider these solutions:

• Rockstar WordPress Designer by Collis Ta’eed and Harley Alexander
• Digging Into WordPress by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr
• Read a review about these two products

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and allows delivery of regularly changing web content, so you do not go looking for the content, but rather the content comes to you.  This video is the best analogy I’ve seen so far:

I’d also recommend Google Reader for managing your RSS feeds:

Now you just need to follow the video and click the RSS button on the sidebar (>>) and subscribe – simples!!!

Also sign up to my email newsletter to gain access to my Social Media Share plugin soon to be released, similar to the pretty share buttons at the left(which you’re looking at now) of this page.  It will have cool features and it will be customisable – so sign up today for FREE and stay tuned

This paragraph from Microsoft should sum up what this is about:

WebMatrix is everything you need to build Web sites using Windows. It includes IIS Developer Express (a development Web server), ASP.NET (a Web framework), and SQL Server Compact (an embedded database). It streamlines Web site development and makes it easy to start Web sites from popular open-source apps. The skills and code you develop with WebMatrix transition seamlessly to Visual Studio and SQL Server.

Microsoft WebMatrix Welcome Screen

Microsoft WebMatrix Site from Web Gallery Screen, where you are exposed
to a vast range of CMS systems to incorporate into your online brand.

It’s current release(Beta 2) aims to attract developers, students and the general curious individual who wants a small and nifty tool to build Web sites.  The program allows you to code, test and run websites, without the need to set up Web servers, databases, or studying the concepts.

Issues

Since Microsoft WebMatrix is in its beta release stages, a variety of problems and bugs are likely to occur. I have been using this program and the main issue most forums discuss is WebMatrix’s inability to provide a simpler way of deleting a website that you have created.  It seems that Microsoft forgot(as usual!) to incorporate this function onto the ‘My Sites’ screen and made it so that you will have to open the whole website before you can delete it.

Each site comes with a screen similar to this, allowing you to right click on
the site folder to be able to delete it. The bottom corner and middle expands
the section above and changes the screen as you click on the relevant tab.

Something to note here is that deleting a website, is just a remove operation and therefore, does NOT delete the physical older on your system, but rather, rely on you to do this manually by going to Documents > My Web Sites before you can delete the appropriate folder.

Deleting a folder first before opening the program will still show the folder on your ‘My Sites’ screen, and clicking on it will throw a nasty ‘Path does not exist’ error on your screen, which Microsoft’s workaround suggests you create a dummy folder of the same name, then access this from the ‘My Sites’ screen then right click+delete to remove the site.  Another forum suggests a bit of file hacking, whereby you will need to access the configuration file in Documents > IISExpress > config > applicationhost.config and look for the <sites> section and delete the relevant lines like the code below that do not exist.

I do love the fact that the program allows you to easily manage your database and SEO optimise your websites. The program also works well with its integrated FTP application and Code Editor.

Another issue I have is the fact that the CMS systems you add may be outdated, and therefore would require that you follow the CMS instructions for upgrading before you start working with it. An example of this is selecting WordPress from the ‘Site from Web Gallery’ Screen downloads an older version of WordPress from http://wordpress.org/wordpress-2.9.2-IIS.zip, which in other words WordPress 2.9.2, while the present WordPress installation at the time of this writing is 3.0.1.

Downloading and installing outdated CMS releases. You will need to log into your
WordPress admin and upgrade before building your site.

Summary

A nifty tool this is but not really impressed by the problems I’m discovering, including the occasional program crashes, but I guess its a drawback that comes with free beta programs.  On a good note though, I find Microsoft WebMatrix easier to work with and I’m believing that Microsoft will improve by fixing these silly errors and linking to the latest CMS installation files.

So is this the best the best Dreamweaver alternative? Well its not there yet, but it does have the best seamless integration with the Windows Operating System environment and its few click install of various CMS platforms makes this hard to let go.  I still recommend downloading and trying this out. Just so you know, Aptana Studio still rules in my opinion when it comes to preferred Dreamweaver alternatives.

You can learn more and download at http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/

How to Remove Menus in WordPress Dashboard

I wanted to build a static site for a client recently and was worried about certain menus in the admin panel distracting the client as they will not be using them on their static website.  Thankfully I found this snippet that allows you to remove these menus from the WordPress admin, in short, solved my issue:

function remove_menus() {
global $menu;
	$restricted = array(__('Dashboard'), __('Posts'), __('Media'), __('Links'), __('Pages'), __('Appearance'), __('Tools'), __('Users'), __('Settings'), __('Comments'), __('Plugins'));
	end ($menu);
	while (prev($menu)){
		$value = explode(' ',$menu[key($menu)][0]);
		if(in_array($value[0] != NULL?$value[0]:"" , $restricted)){unset($menu[key($menu)]);}
	}
}
add_action('admin_menu', 'remove_menus');

Source: Hungred, WP Recipes

How To Disable Image Caption in WordPress Post Editor

It has always been annoying to see poups when you hover over images in your WordPress blog. I wish they would just have an option in the Settings screen to disable them nasty popups that reveal the image filename. Anyway thanks to this snippet, we can still remove this totally:

add_filter('disable_captions', create_function('$a','return true;'));

Source: SEOdenver

Detect User From Google

Have you ever wondered how some websites know straight away that you found them through Google? Paste this snippet into your template files, coupled with some CSS and you could get something like this:

if (strpos($_SERVER[HTTP_REFERER], "google") == true) {
echo "Hello Google User!";
}

Source: Filip Stefansson | WPSnippets

Detect Browsers

WordPress has also made it simple for us to detect which browser people access your website on.  This snippet will add the relevant browser name as a class to your <body> tag for relevant styling:

add_filter('body_class','browser_body_class');
function browser_body_class($classes) {
	global $is_lynx, $is_gecko, $is_IE, $is_opera, $is_NS4, $is_safari, $is_chrome, $is_iphone;

	if($is_lynx) $classes[] = 'lynx';
	elseif($is_gecko) $classes[] = 'gecko';
	elseif($is_opera) $classes[] = 'opera';
	elseif($is_NS4) $classes[] = 'ns4';
	elseif($is_safari) $classes[] = 'safari';
	elseif($is_chrome) $classes[] = 'chrome';
	elseif($is_IE) $classes[] = 'ie';
	else $classes[] = 'unknown';

	if($is_iphone) $classes[] = 'iphone';
	return $classes;
}

Result:

<body class="home blog logged-in safari">

Source: Nathan Rice

How To Disable, Limit and Delete Remaining Post Revisions in WordPress and Reduce Database Size

Disabling WordPress’ Post Revision is as simple as pasting the below snippet into your wp-config.php file at the root of your WordPress Install. To limit the amount of revisions is as simple as replacing ‘false’ with a number of how many revisions you want created:

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false);

To delete remaining revisions in your database, simple run this command at the SQL tab of your phpMyAdmin page:

DELETE a,b,c
FROM wp_posts a
LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships b ON (a.ID = b.object_id)
LEFT JOIN wp_postmeta c ON (a.ID = c.post_id)
WHERE a.post_type = 'revision';

Source: WPBeginner, Ashfame

Edit WordPress’ ‘Help’ Dropdown Section

At the top right of your WordPress admin screen is a hanging tab with the option dropdown ‘Screen Options’ or ‘Help’ or both.  You can use this to insert custom information, where its for your client or donations or whoever you feel you wanna shout out to.

add_action('load-page-new.php','add_custom_help_page');
add_action('load-page.php','add_custom_help_page');

function add_custom_help_page() {
   //the contextual help filter
   add_filter('contextual_help','custom_page_help');
}

function custom_page_help($help) {
   //keep the existing help copy
   echo $help;
   //add some new copy
   echo "<h5>Custom Features</h5>";
   echo "<p>Content placed above the more divider will appear in column 1. Content placed below the divider will appear in column 2.</p>";
}

Source: Smashing Magazine

Add A Dashboard Widget

Display some information to whoever logs into the main screen.

<?php
function your_dashboard_widget() {
?>
<h3>Hello WordPress user!</h3>
<p>Fill this with HTML or PHP.</p>
<?php
};
function add_your_dashboard_widget() {
 wp_add_dashboard_widget( 'your_dashboard_widget', __( 'Widget Title!' ), 'your_dashboard_widget' );
}
add_action('wp_dashboard_setup', 'add_your_dashboard_widget' );
?>

Source: Filip Stefansson | WPSnippets

Disable Dashboard Widgets

Do the opposite of the above:

function remove_dashboard_widgets() {
 global $wp_meta_boxes;
 unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_plugins']);
 unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_recent_comments']);
 unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_primary']);
 unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_incoming_links']);
 unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_right_now']);
 unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_secondary']);
}
add_action('wp_dashboard_setup', 'remove_dashboard_widgets' );

Source: Filip Stefansson | WPSnippets

How to Add Custom Post Types to your Main WordPress RSS Feed

By default the WordPress RSS Feed works only for the ‘post‘ post type. Using this, you can add more:

function myfeed_request($qv) {
 if (isset($qv['feed']))
 $qv['post_type'] = get_post_types();
 return $qv;
}
add_filter('request', 'myfeed_request');

By default, this selects all the post types you have on your website. To be selective with this, use the code below and edit the array:

function myfeed_request($qv) {
 if (isset($qv['feed']) && !isset($qv['post_type']))
 $qv['post_type'] = array('post', 'story', 'books', 'movies');
 return $qv;
}
add_filter('request', 'myfeed_request');

Source: WPBeginner

Add a jQuery prettyPhoto functionality to WordPress’  gallery shortcode

The WordPress gallery shortcode does a good job in its ouput, except it does not allow you to specify any lighbox functionality except you have a plugin.  This simple technique by Utkarsh Kukreti adds a ‘rel’ attribute to the image link, allowing you to specify the lightbox effect you want, in this example the prettyPhoto jQuery lightbox clone is used:

add_filter( 'wp_get_attachment_link', 'gallery_prettyPhoto');

function gallery_prettyPhoto ($content) {

	// add checks if you want to add prettyPhoto on certain places (archives etc).

	return str_replace("<a", "<a rel='prettyPhoto'", $content);

}

In effect, a HTML attribute rel=”prettyPhoto” has been added here to activate the prettyPhoto jQuery lightbox clone.

Source: WPQuestions

The reason why I titled this as a ‘versus’ match is because I wanted to compare what the authors were offering and which one would be best, in my opinion, to have on your virtual bookshelf.

ROCKSTAR WORDPRESS DESIGNER (Collis Ta’eed & Harley Alexander)

So first up we have Rockstar WordPress Designer(fullname ‘How to be a Rockstar WordPress Designer’) by Collis Ta’eed & Harley Alexander.  The 2010 Revised Edition eBook aims to help you “learn step by step how to take a straight HTML website and power it with WordPress”.

This extract below from the website sums up what you are going to get from this eBook:

During the course of the book you’ll build THREE WordPress themes, a blog, a portfolio site and a general site with menus and submenus. Each theme demonstrates different aspects of WordPress theming and all three are packaged in with the book so you’ll have Photoshop, HTML, CSS and WordPress PHP files to refer to.

All they ask is that you have a solid understanding of HTML/CSS, and not necessarily PHP. How to be a Rockstar WordPress Designer is split into 9 chapters with just over 310 pages of content.  The early chapters will help you understand the general terms and concepts in WordPress, such as posts, categories, tags, permalinks etc… and the later chapters deal with building three themes and provides resources to Innovative Ways to Using WordPress to build Membership Directories, E-Commerce Store, Social Media Feed Aggregators, Musician/Band Website, Design Gallery, Review Sites and more.

To buy or not to buy?

It’s very true when they say people don’t buy products but people, because Collis Ta’eed is a well-known Web Guru and co-founder of the Envato Network.  Harley Alexander is also a young WordPress developer who co-authored this eBook.  Although Collis Ta’eed has a vast knowledge of the WordPress CMS Platform, I am quite disappointed in that the knowledge in this book is very limited in terms of actually learning WordPress.   I stumbled upon a previous copy aimed at the WordPress 2.7 version, but from looking at the FREE PDF Sample, seems not much has changed since the 2010 Revised Edition was released.

The information in the book seems to reflect a mashup of tutorials found on Nettuts and Psdtuts. In fact I could have sworn that the Photoshop tutorial in the eBook dealing with building the PSD files has been featured on Nettuts before already and its just a matter of finding this on their website.  There are even screencasts on Nettuts and CSS-Tricks and all over the web that will show you how to build and convert sites flowing in this fashion: PSD > HTML > WordPress.

It is very much for the beginner who has no knowledge whatsoever, for I don’t really see any experienced users benefitting from this, in my opinion.  The coding tutorials in this eBook are pretty much copy and paste snippets with little or no explanation -  just paste this in that file and that in this.  I don’t see a beginner turning into a ‘Rockstar WordPress Designer’ straight away with this, to be honest with you.

Aside from the negatives, you do get some pretty decent PSD/HTML/WordPress Theme files that will spice up your creativity in building web layouts as you explore these. The 2010 Revised Edition features a section on WordPress’ new navigation menu.  It works for the user who does not want to get down and dirty with hardcore coding. Can anyone confirm if the 2010 Revised Edition has any sections on enabling current WordPress features, like Post-Thumbnails, Custom Post Types, Multi-site? Only get this if you want specifically the themes they’re offering or if you want to build a WordPress Website as quickly as possible, without knowing fully what you’re doing.  You will be getting free updates so hopefully there will be notable improvements at the same rate as WordPress is improving.

DIGGING INTO WORDPRESS (Chris Coyier & Jeff Starr)

On the opposite shelf we have Digging into WordPress by Chris Coyier & Jeff Starr. The WordPress Version 3.0 Launch gives a comprehensive knowledge into the core WordPress System, with useful tips and tricks like “Keeping sites secure and optimized” and “Best practices for maintaining a healthy site”.  This summary explains what you learn in this eBook:

We go into depth about the anatomy of a WordPress theme. How they work, and how to write the code you need to do the things you want. This means real code that you can sink your teeth into, as well as copy and paste. Beyond theme building, we introduce many tricks your functions.php file can pull off and show you ways to increase performance and security through HTAccess.

I have not grabbed a copy yet of their eBook, although I have read their free PDF Sample, and must say that I was straightaway impressed with the content they were giving, compared to Rockstar WordPress Designer, $27 for the eBook is really a no-brainer!  The purchase comes with 12 huge, colour-coded Chapters, split into roughly 71 sections with over 420 pages of content.

Digging into WordPress is perfect for WordPress users in the beginner to intermediate range, but contains plenty of great information for the advanced user as well. If you have any level of experience working with web design or WordPress, this book is written to help you take WordPress to the next level.

To buy or not to buy?

This fully-fledged eBook with a Spiral Bound printed alternative, gives guaranteed knowledge with tips and tricks on improving the WordPress system.  Definitely worth purchasing because I think this does a better job at explaining the whats and hows within the WordPress Platform and the knowledge offered is long-term.  The website also boldly states that you will be getting free lifetime PDF updates so you don’t have to worry about purchasing an information product that will be outdated, assuring you that you are investing towards a timeless product. A brief overview of what you will learn are:

• How to get things set up right
• Building Themes and how they work
• The right way to create multiple loops
• Keeping Sites secure and optimized
• Using WordPress as a CMS
• Integrate things like Twitter and Delicious
• Customizing and Optimizing the WordPress Comments Area
• Best practices for maintaining a healthy site
• Making the most out of WordPress
• Plus tons more!

Chris Coyier & Jeff Starr are also giving three free themes with the purchase: All Ajax, Lines & Boxes and Plastique.  I must say that the themes look too plain and almost boring although emphasis has been placed on the functionality.  The themes do come across as highly accessible and easily customisable.

SUMMARY

Although both eBooks are well known and have sold lots of copies, Digging Into WordPress by Chris Coyier & Jeff Starr offer more meat for a cheaper price. How to be a Rockstar WordPress Designer offers better themes and helps you build three pretty website themes in little time.  I think some of the techniques in Rockstar WordPress Designer may be outdated for the recent releases and the title of the eBook might be misleading.  The last sections of the Rockstar WordPress Designer eBook is filled with links to plugins that will improve your WordPress install, information I think you can discover yourself through Google.

Both books do come with their benefits and flaws, so I’ll leave it up to you to purchase either or both. Just visit the links below or click on the images below.

How to be a Rockstar WordPress Designer

Digging Into WordPress

If you already have a copy of any of the eBooks or have something to say, feel free to drop a comment if your agree or disagree with any of the points made in my review.