Morten Rand-Hendriksen's WordCamp Victoria presentation showcasing 10 easy theme hacks that can improve any WordPress site.

1. 10 THEME HACKS TO IMPROVE YOUR SITE Morten Rand-Hendriksen Creative Director, Pink & Yellow Media www.designisphilosophy.com Twitter: @mor10 HELLO,MY NAME IS MOR10people tend to spell it with an ‘o’, but that’s just plain wrong

2. Why does it matter? When people visit a site, they expect the site logo or header image to point back to the home page. That’s just the way it is. REPLACE TITLE WITH A LINKED IMAGE 1

3. Link Not link (Grrr)

4. <a href="<?php echo home_url( '/' ); ?>" title="<?phpget_bloginfo( 'name' ); ?>" rel="home" > … the image … </a> REPLACE TITLE WITH A LINKED IMAGE 1

5. REPLACE TITLE WITH A LINKED IMAGE 1

6. REPLACE TITLE WITH A LINKED IMAGE 1

8. REPLACE TITLE WITH A LINKED IMAGE 1

10. ENABLE WP 3 MENUS 2

11. Step 1: Add to functions.php: register_nav_menus( array( 'menuName' =>__('Menu Name'), ' primary' =>__('Primary Menu'), '2ndMenu' =>__('2nd Menu'), ) ); ENABLE WP 3 MENUS 2

12. Step 2a: Add to theme file: <?php wp_nav_menu(array( 'theme_location' => 'primary' )); ?> (targets name set in functions.php) ENABLE WP 3 MENUS 2

13. Step 2b: Add to theme file: <?php wp_nav_menu(array( 'name' => 'Menu Name' )); ?> (targets name as set in WP menu admin) ENABLE WP 3 MENUS 2

14. Menus don’t have to be boring! WordPress 3 menus allow you to add HTML to the Navigation Label. This can be exploited utilized. MENUSOUTSIDE THE BOX 3

21. MENUSOUTSIDE THE BOX 3

22. MENUSOUTSIDE THE BOX 3

23. MENUSOUTSIDE THE BOX 3

24. MENUSOUTSIDE THE BOX 3

25. MENUSOUTSIDE THE BOX 3

26. Background control from Admin You’ve seen it in TwentyTen … Changing background colour and even background images … But did you know you can add this function to any theme? WP 3 CUSTOM BACKGROUND 4

30. Add to functions.php: add_custom_background(); WP 3 CUSTOM BACKGROUND 4

34. Add to functions.php: add_custom_background(); WP 3 CUSTOM BACKGROUND 4

35. a.k.a Post Thumbnails The Featured Image (post thumbnail) function is so much more than just thumbnails. I propose a name change. FEATUREDIMAGES 5

36. Add to functions.php: add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' ); FEATUREDIMAGES 5

37. FEATUREDIMAGES 5

38. FEATUREDIMAGES 5

39. FEATUREDIMAGES 5

40. Add to template file: <?phpthe_post_thumbnail(); ?> Variations: the_post_thumbnail('thumbnail'); the_post_thumbnail('medium'); the_post_thumbnail('large'); the_post_thumbnail(array(nnn,nnn)); FEATUREDIMAGES 5

41. FEATUREDIMAGES 5

46. Give your pages some identity Custom Page Templates let you create different looks for different pages. In other words, it makes your site less boring. CUSTOMPAGETEMPLATE 6

47. Add to the top of template file: <?php /* Template Name: Whatever */ ?> CUSTOMPAGETEMPLATE 6

48. CUSTOMPAGETEMPLATE 6

49. CUSTOMPAGETEMPLATE 6

50. CUSTOMPAGETEMPLATE 6

55. Add some Information Architecture Custom Category Templates let you create different looks depending on what category index is displayed. Portfolio gallery anyone? CUSTOMCATEGORYTEMPLATE 7

56. Create a new file with the name: category-slug.php or category-ID.php CUSTOMCATEGORYTEMPLATE 7

57. CUSTOMCATEGORYTEMPLATE 7

58. CUSTOMCATEGORYTEMPLATE 7

59. CUSTOMCATEGORYTEMPLATE 7

60. Create a new file with the name: category-slug.php or category-ID.php CUSTOMCATEGORYTEMPLATE 7

64. Why use just one? Custom headers, sidebars and footers allow limitless variations. Who says your sidebar has to be the same throughout your site? CUSTOMHEADER,SIDEBARAND FOOTER 8

65. Header, sidebar and footer naming: header-custom.php sidebar-custom.php footer-custom.php Where 'custom' can be anything CUSTOMHEADER,SIDEBARAND FOOTER 8

66. To call from template files: <?phpget_header('custom'); ?> <?phpget_sidebar('custom'); ?> <?phpget_footer('custom'); ?> Where 'custom' is the suffix of the file CUSTOMHEADER,SIDEBARAND FOOTER 8

67. Who cares about next and previous? Provide links to related posts right inside your post – without a plugin. Keep ‘em coming back for more. BETTERCONTEXTLINKS 9

68. Seriously, who cares?

69. Create a query that pulls the two newest articles in the same category. Create a conditional statement that excludes the current post. Create another conditional statement that ensures there are actually two posts to display. Do all this within the post loop. Easy as 𝜋 BETTERCONTEXTLINKS 9

70. BETTERCONTEXTLINKS 9

71. Go to www.designisphilosophy.com Download related.php Place related.php in your theme folder Open single.php Paste the following line of code where you want the related posts to appear: <?phpget_template_part('related'); ?> BETTERCONTEXTLINKS 9

72. Actual related content!

74. Use your domain proactively Why send people to facebook.com/yourdomain when you can send them to yourdomain.com/facebook? Or Twitter, or Flickr, or anything BRANDYOURSOCIAL LINKS 10

75. Not a hack – a plugin Quick Page / Post Redirect Plugin by Don Fischer Get it from the WordPress plugin directory. BRANDYOURSOCIAL LINKS 10

76. BRANDYOURSOCIAL LINKS 10

77. Morten Rand-Hendriksen Creative Director, Pink & Yellow Media www.designisphilosophy.com @mor10 www.pinkandyellow.com designisphilosophy.com/facebook GETINTOUCH

78. Get in touch with me Morten Rand-Hendriksen Owner & Creative Director Pink & Yellow Media designisphilosophy.com pinkandyellow.com twitter.com/Mor10 morten@pinkandyellow.com