I recently wanted to add some custom CSS to my child theme and discovered that I was missing the ‘Editor’ option under the Appearance tab WordPress admin side.

After a little reading I found a simple fix.

Simply check you wp-config.php and search for

define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true);

and change to

define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', false);

Voila!

I’ve recently been using a WordPress theme that’s brilliant for knocking together a website yet falls short when you want to create a simple light box style image gallery.

First of all, for the image gallery thumbnails to look uniform and pleasing to the eye on a page, the images must be cropped to an aspect ratio of 1:1 (square). Very tedious if you have a folder of 200 images like I did! Secondly, it is also required that I downsize the original, full size images to a respectable width, height and file size for the web.

After a brief search online, I found that it is very easy to create an action command in photoshop that will batch crop all 200 of my images to an aspect ratio of 1:1 in one foul swoop! I also found out that it is very easy to use a batch command that saves and optimises images for the web! Brilliant!

To batch crop my images:

1. Open one of the images in Photoshop
2. Create a new action and start recording!
3. Select the crop tool and draw a square around the area you want to crop
4. Simply click ‘stop’ in the actions panel
5. Close the document and go to File – Automate – Batch
6. Make sure that the action dropdown menu points to the action you just created
7. Choose the folder of images you would like to crop
8. Choose a destination where you would like to save you cropped images

To batch save images for the web:

1. Open one original, full size image
2. Create a new action and start recording!
3. Go to Image – Image Size and set the resolution to 72 (pixels/inch)
4. Set the desired pixel dimensions for your image
5. Click OK
6. Go to File – Save for web…
7. Select JPEG High as a preset
8. Click ‘save’
9. Close the image and select ‘no’ when Photoshop asks you if you would like to save your image again
10. Click ‘stop’ in the actions panel
11. Go to File – Automate – Batch
12. Make sure that the action dropdown menu points to the action you just created
13. Choose the folder of images you would like to crop
14. Choose a destination where you would like to save you cropped images

I recently purchased a new domain and hosting package with one.com and used their easy to use 1-click WordPress installation.

Everything was running smoothly until I attempted to login to my WordPress dashboard from another computer where I was confronted with the simple error message ‘blocked’ in the top left corner of my browser window.

After doing some research I found a simple piece of code to pop into my .htaccess file and voila!

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/
RewriteRule .* - [CO=wordpress_test_cookie:WP+Cookie+check:%{HTTP_HOST}:1440:/]

I now have access to my WordPress dashboard from another computer!