Cheesetoast

Responsive Web Design – A 3 Column Layout

Graham — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:58:48 +0000

Now that mobile browsing is expected to overtake desktop browsing within the next few years, web developers have to think about how their sites will appear on mobile devices. This post will talk about future-proofing websites with responsive design. I'll demonstrate an example of a 3 column front page design, complete with JQuery slideshow. Continue reading →

Automatically Post to Social Networking Sites From Your Blog

Graham — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:28:11 +0000

Use Twitterfeed to automatically update your social networking websites directly from your blog! Twitterfeed is a social media publishing tool that can handle multiple social networking accounts on your behalf! It keeps a close eye on your blog's RSS feed and posts new entries to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. It's easy to setup and you can create multiple feeds to different blog categories. Continue reading →

CSS3 Text Effects

Graham — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:53:15 +0000

Looking for ways to jazz up your website? With new CSS3 techniques it’s easy to add some nifty text effects that can make your site really stand out. What’s great about these effects is that they degrade gracefully; that is to say that, if a browser (in this case, Internet Explorer) does not support the new CSS rules, there is a satisfactory fallback. Check out the demo of some text-shadows in action. Continue reading →

SEO – Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

Graham — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:46:51 +0000

If you want to improve your search engine ranking, here are some tips for search engine optimization (SEO).

This article talks about how to write well written content, how interlinking can help with page rankings and, if you're using Wordpress, which plugins can help.

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Cheesetoast has Switched to WordPress

Graham — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 02:07:20 +0000

Cheesetoast has moved from Joomla over to WordPress! Having become more proficient with using WordPress I decided to make the switch. Joomla is a great CMS, but WordPress is just way more fun to play around with.

Writing HTML5 Forms

Graham — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:51:18 +0000

Although HTML5 is becoming more popular with coders, there are still those who are hesitant about adopting the latest markup for fear of the lack of support from older browsers. Luckily, there are some cool new HTML5 form attributes that degrade gracefully in older browsers (even IE6!).

This summary of some new attributes will discuss HTML5 autofocus field, placeholder text, form validation as well as new input types (email, numbers, URL, etc.).

Continue reading →

Recommended WordPress Plugins

Graham — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:09:34 +0000

A short list of Wordpress plugins that I would recommend. These plugins can help with SEO, improving download speeds, database backup and contact forms. Continue reading →

Comments Bubble on WordPress Titles

Graham — Thu, 12 May 2011 23:16:11 +0000

You may have seen a lot of blogs where the number of comments associated with a particular post is displayed subtly next to the post title. I'm going to quickly go through how this can be done with a Wordpress child theme without too much trouble. Continue reading →

WordPress: Frameworks and Child Themes

Graham — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 15:27:10 +0000

Wordpress is a great way to develop webpages, no doubt about it. It allows you to quickly and easily add content and with the introduction of widgets there is even more customization available for designers. But what if you want that to take it that step further and design your own theme? This article will talk about using a Wordpress framework (specifically the Thematic framework) to design a child theme. Continue reading →

Aesthetics and Usability

Graham — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 22:11:21 +0000

If a web page is made more attractive, does that make it easier to use? Usability and aesthetics have been the topic of much discussion with designers. The word 'aesthetics' can be defined as the study of beauty and artistic taste. Unlike usability, aesthetic appeal is not something which can be easily measured or quantified as it is largely based on personal preference. Beauty itself is a combination of shape, colour and form and can be interpreted in a variety of ways. People like to see attractive websites because they are visually stimulated by them. What researchers are trying to determine is if visual attractiveness aids the usability of a site or if it acts as a distraction. Continue reading →