I have updated my site with my new 76 digital remix theme for WordPress.

The new theme is built on a model I have created for a highly configurable, versatile set of premium themes which I will be releasing this summer. The premium themes will each come in three different versions – Editorial, Media and Ultimate (which combines the features of both editorial and media versions). The themes features will include:

I will also release a free 'light' version of the theme set, so watch this space!

This WordPress plugin allows you to display your post titles in any font, colour and size you want using Flash. It will also retain your original html styling of your titles and display that to users who don't have Flash installed. It is fully customisable via the Options tab in wordpress. It is search engine friendly and easy to implement.

Update:

Version 2.0 includes 2 basic changes.

1. The way the options are saved has been changed to address the problems some users were having with this.
2. More pre-installed fonts.

Example:

I am happy with my WordPress theme as it is, so I have set up this example page for you to see the Flash Titles in action: WP Flash Titles Example Page

Installation:

1. Upload the wp_flash_titles folder to your wp-content/plugins folder.
2. Activate the plugin from the Plugins page.

Usage:

1. Go to Options -> WP Flash Titles to choose your font, size and colour scheme for your titles.
2. You need to modify your template file slightly. First you need to locate the code that relates to the post title. This will typically be something like:
   <h3 class="storytitle" id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
   <a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark">
   <?php the_title(); ?>
   </a>
   </h3>
3. You then need to add two lines of code. First paste this line in directly before the page title code:
   <?php if(function_exists('wp_flash_titles')){wp_flash_titles($post->ID,'start')} ?>
4. Then this line directly after:
   <?php if(function_exists('wp_flash_titles')){wp_flash_titles($post->ID,'end')} ?>
5. To embed any font you want you must have Flash CS3. Open the source file 'wp_flash_title.fla' which is located in the 'Source' folder of the plugin. In flash simply change the font of the text area to any font you wish. Do a 'Save As' and then publish the swf. Once you have created the swf you must upload it to the folder: wp-content/plugins/wp_flash_titles/flash
   It will now appear in the list of fonts in the Options -> WP Flash Titles page!!

Download Plugin:

Q. How can I make an image or swf file load after a specified number of seconds?

A. Use the simple but effective flash_timer.swf file by Sam Burdge. Whoopeee!

Ever wanted a particular Flash movie or image to load up / start playing after the rest of your page has loaded, or after a set amount of time? This tutorial, and the support files provided with it will make it very easy indeed. The flash_timer.swf file will load a swf or image into your page after a number of seconds that you specify.

Example:

Check out this basic example to see a swf (called test.swf) load after a 10 second delay: Example 1
You can view the source code of the example to see how it works.

Usage:

1. Download the source files using the link below, and unzip the archive.
2. Embed the swf file 'flash_timer.swf' into your webpage. In my example I have used the swfObject method to embed the file, but you can use whichever method you prefer. For more information about this you can check this useful tutorial by Jeroen Wijering.
3. Set the height, width & background colour of the swf according to those of the file you want to load in.
4. Pass the two variables that the file requires to work: myswf – the file that will be loaded & mysecs – the number of seconds delay before the file is loaded. You can pass the variables in the url string, for example:

flash_timer.swf?myswf=my_movie.swf&mysecs=5

(This will load the movie 'my_movie.swf' after a 5 second delay.)

You can also pass the variables as flashvars, for example:

flashvars="myswf=example.jpg&mysecs=10"

(This will load the image 'example.jpg' after a 10 second delay.)

I hope you find this useful, if you do or if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this page (no emails please, I won't reply unless you are offering me hard cash!!). The flash_timer.swf file is only 1kb, so it will not effect the overall loading time of your page, it can be embedded at any height/width dimensions and works from flash player 7 upwards.

Download Source:

The download contains the all important flash_timer.swf plus a working example (index.html). The size of the zip is 6kb. Enjoy!!

This article is an extension / improvement upon another article I published on my site previously: Simple Javascript for Image Mouseovers. As I am always looking for improved methods, I was discussing the pitfalls of the javascript method with a friend (and occasional comment writer / contributor to my site) who pointed me in the direction of CSS and image sprites. This lead me to research the topic further, and I found two articles in particular which were incredibly useful:

Read on…

This WordPress plugin changes the default email address that all notifications sent from your blog are addressed from. The default address for all emails sent by your blog is currently wordpress@ yoursite.com.

I had seen some tutorials / forum entries previously where people suggested editing the core WordPress file 'pluggable.php' to overide this default. This method does work, however you would have to repeat the hack every time you upgrade to a new version of WordPress so it is not an ideal solution.

Faced with this problem for a site I was working on recently, I wrote this basic plugin which allows you to configure your own email address in the format: Your Name <yourname@yoursite.com>.

Installation:

1. Upload the file wp_change_default_email.php to your wp-content/plugins folder
2. Activate the plugin from the Plugins page in WordPress

Usage:

1. In the Plugins page in WordPress click the edit button next to the plugin in the list.
2. Scroll down until you see a note saying 'Configure it'
3. Enter your name and email as shown
4. If you don't enter a new address the default 'wordpress@' will remain

Download: