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wordpress news

Is it Still Worth The Money?

[ad_1] These days, it’s not easy to find high-quality, original WordPress themes. And sometimes, when you think you have found one, you quickly realize that the theme club you’re interested in joining or the theme framework you want to buy is hundreds of dollars. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Today we’re going to take an in-depth look at a WordPress theme shop called Elegant Themes. They offer a few exceptional premium themes and even some helpful plugins like Monarch and Bloom, which are designed to help website owners build beautiful, highly converting websites that generate a large following and lots of money. And to help you out, we’ve created a table of contents, just in case you want to skip ahead: So, let’s get started! What is Elegant Themes? Elegant Themes is a WordPress theme shop that’s highly recommended by some of the top WordPress enthusiasts and experts. Nick Roach, who started the theme club in his college apartment, has grown Elegant Themes exponentially over the past 11 years since its inception. Centered around the idea of community, rather than simply existing as a company, Elegant Themes is powered by a team of people from across the globe. In fact, WordPress experts from over 20 different countries come together to bring website owners the very best WordPress themes and plugins for an affordable price. And to top it off, they strive to provide nothing less than stellar customer support so site owners can achieve their dreams, no matter what they are. In the past, Elegant Themes offered WordPress site owners approximately 87 themes and a handful of plugins. However, in an attempt to provide the highest quality product to its customers, Elegant Themes has downsized and now only offers two premium themes – Divi and Extra – and three powerful plugins designed to help you grow your site –  Monarch, Bloom, and Divi Builder. On top of that, Elegant Themes maintains its popularity in the saturated WordPress theme and plugin marketplace because they’re not out to break your bank account. Offering both themes and all three plugins for the low price of $89/year, or an impressive one-time fee of $249 if you want “Lifetime Access” to everything Elegant Themes has to offer, this company continues to stay competitive. And just in case you’re wondering, there’s a generous 30-day money-back guarantee on all purchases. If you buy and decide you don’t like Elegant Themes’ themes or plugins, just request a refund – no questions asked. Sounds great, right? Well, we’ve got the inside scoop on Divi, Extra, Monarch, Bloom, and the Divi Builder so you can see for yourself. Check out our 10% off Elegant Themes Coupon if you’re ready to get started today! Theme Features Just like you’d expect from any reliable WordPress theme, Divi and Extra come packed with a set of standard features site owners can utilize with ease: General Settings: Change the color schemes and typography. In addition, control your layout, featured articles, social media icons, and more. The admin page gives you control over the basic functions and features of your theme. Navigation Settings: Set up and configure dropdown menus and links, exclude pages from the navigation bar, and more. Builder Settings: Enable and disable the Divi Builder for post, pages, projects, and other custom post types. Layout Settings: Set up and configure thumbnails, comments, and post-info sections for posts and pages. Ad Settings: Manage un-widgetized advertisements. Additionally, embed Google AdSense code onto your site. SEO Settings: Manage your SEO settings and rank higher in search results. Set SEO separately for your site’s homepage, single post pages, and index pages. Trust that both themes are compatible with popular SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All-In-One SEO Pack, too. Integration Tab: Add third-party scripts such as Google Analytics code or any other tracking code, that you’d normally add in header.php to track user behavior, conversions, sales, and more. Updates: Add your Elegant Themes API key so you can easily update your theme when a new version is available without skipping a beat. Themes: Divi and Extra 1. Divi Divi, first launched in 2013, is a multipurpose theme that is nothing short of amazing. It also happens to be the flagship theme of Elegant Themes and what helped propel it to success in such a short amount of time. With it, you can create any type of website you want. For example, you can start a WordPress blog, launch an eCommerce shop, and even manage an online business using this highly versatile theme. In fact, Divi is one of the best multipurpose themes in the market to date. Divi comes pre-packaged with its matching counterpart – Divi Builder. Divi Builder is a drag-and-drop page builder (more on this later) that offers you the chance to create a standout website without having any technical knowledge. You can drag-and-drop columns, rows, site elements, and exclusive Divi modules to make your own unique layouts – all without ever needing to look at our touch a single line of code. You can either do this via a backend wireframe editor (pictured below) or via a visual front-end editor where you can see your finished design while you’re building it: And to makes things really simple, Divi has included over 46 content modules for you to pick from to help you build each webpage on your site. For example, you can add a call to action button, number counter, image, video slider, testimonial, and so much more. Once you choose the right content module, you can then customize it to fit your needs. Change the typography, font size, colors, position, and more depending on the module you’re using. This gives you complete control over how your theme, and thus your website, looks. It also helps you prevent your site from looking like every other website on the internet. Here’s more of what you get with the Divi theme: Stunning hover effects that engage the user and

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Soft Skills in Software Are Important

[ad_1] The last point made in 10 hard-to-swallow truths they won’t tell you about software engineer job – in the article I’ve been discussing for the past few months – the author ends on a single point that has nothing to do with development or anything related to technology. You will profit more from good soft skills than from good technical skills. He summarizes the statement like this: Technical skills are the ones you can learn easily. … It’s just a matter of practice. On the other hand, soft skills are much harder to improve. … You must do things you are not comfortable with. This is something I think is absolutely worth talking about within our industry especially given we’re not just responsible for solving a given problem. We should be able to articulate the solution to our team or stakeholders, field questions from them, and garner and manage feedback from them to adjust or improve our work (or, in some cases, ourselves). Soft Skills in Software If you’ve read the original article, and/or are reading this, and/or are looking for ways to improve your soft skills as a developer working – or aspiring to work – in this industry, there’s a wide variety of things you can do to sharpen said skills. You don’t have to be scared to give a presentation. Remember, as stated: You must do things you are not comfortable with. Here’s a list of things I found helpful when working to sharpen my soft skills. Maybe at least one of these can help you: In college, I worked as a teacher’s assistant for three semesters during school. Early in my career, I would give presentations and lead discussions on learning new tools, technologies, or paradigms based on things I was reading. This was open to a handful of teams related to the work we were doing. I, and a handful of team members, would host meetups during which we’d given presentations and give practical examples for how to achieve certain things in building web applications, blogging, and so on. I attended as many local meetups as my schedule allowed and tried to participate in every discussion. For several years, I submitted – and gave – numerous presentations at WordCamps. During the same time, I would try to participate in any podcast on to which I was invited. I would participate or lead lunch-and-learns or general meetings over Zoom with those interested in a certain topic. And throughout my career, I’ve tried to regularly blog about the whole process. Though this isn’t directly related to interacting with others in a social setting, I still find it important because it helps you to formulate and articulate your thoughts and this directly feeds back into all of the above. I’m not making the case you should do all of these. And I’m not claiming any of these weren’t without their own difficulty. But they did pay dividends in a variety of ways and picking just one can go a long way. Finally, I find this important because I think people who tend to work in our industry are often more comfortable working remote, in isolation, or with headphones on, and would prefer for other people to handle general communication (outside of Slack, Twitter, or whatever). It doesn’t have to stay that way, though. When there are opportunities for engineers to contribute to communication with others with regard to the problem at hand, it can help the entire project. On Lack of Soft Skills In addition to talking about my own experience, there are two points in the article I’d like to address. On Arrogance and Attitude I have met a lot of folks who are good with technical skills but awful to work with. One of the things I thoroughly enjoy about the tech industry – starting as far back as being a student in college – is we are surrounded by incredibly bright people. It’s one of those things we can take for granted but if you foster friendships in the space, you can learn a lot about so many things from so many people. But not everyone in the space is as friendly or willing to share what they know. (I know the popular word for this is “gatekeeping” but I don’t think that’s relegated to this industry alone, so I digress.) Don’t be this dude, gatekeeping. Part of meeting bright people is some of them are very smart, they know it, and this can breed arrogance. And if one isn’t self-disciplined or, simply put, nice enough, they may be insufferable. The tech industry is larger than it’s ever been before. Unfortunately, this means that for however many people you meet that are smart and willing to help, there are those who are just the opposite. On Soft Skills and Elevation With good soft skills, people will like you more and you have a better chance of getting a raise or promotion. If you are technically gifted but hard to work with, your chances are slightly reduced. Starting with the final point first: I’m not the position to deal with hiring and firing, though I’ve been there before. In my limited experience, those who are difficult to work may still be solid engineers and do an excellent job at problem solving. Further, they may be extraordinarily gifted thus helping to further the product or service the business is offering. But if that’s not only their core competency but their primary disposition in working, there isn’t much they will offer beyond that. Additionally, they can negatively impact morale among colleagues. To that end, they will likely stay where they are. And that may be fine for them. My point isn’t that those with caustic personalities be kept down, but that the dynamic of a team should be optimized. You too can increase team morale and earn a pizza party. And that leads back to the first point: If a person has good soft skills in

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The New “Learn WordPress” Launches. Here’s What I Like About It

[ad_1] If you haven’t checked out Learn WordPress lately, it’s probably a good idea to do it today. This free educational hub has just had a serious glow-up, and I’m here to give you the scoop on why it’s worth your attention. 👋 What’s Learn WordPress, anyway? For those who might not know, Learn WordPress has been around since 2020, offering free lessons, tutorials, and other training material for anyone looking to level up their WordPress game. The platform was okay (I guess), but the design and content organization left a lot to be desired. A reminder of what the old design was: Fresh new look, better content organization and experience! Thanks to the hard work of the Training, Design, Marketing, and Meta teams of WordPress contributors 👏, we can all now witness the birth of the new Learn WordPress; and it’s looking quite sharp! It’s not just about good looks, though. The whole site feels more intuitive now. You know how frustrating it can be to hunt for the right resource on a cluttered website, and especially when we’re talking things like training materials, right? But what has happened here goes beyond simple redesign. The team also did a lot to improve the content offering and overall organization of the platform. Most notably, we now have: “Learning Pathways” Quite simply, those are your “getting started” points based on your current understanding of WordPress and where you want to go with it. In other words, instead of there being just a bunch of random courses, there’s now a better organization at the top level that makes it much easier to pick the material that’s best tailored to you. When you go to learn.wordpress.org, the first thing that jumps right at you is a nice section that lets you make one of two choices – there’s “Develop with WordPress” and “Start using WordPress.” This seems like a good top-level organization, since most people dealing with WordPress are either users or developers. Plus, the user pathway also creates other opportunities for how this platform can be used (more on that in a sec). The courses Entering either of these pathways shows you a couple of more options and the courses available (for now). Granted, not a huge choice as of now, but what’s there is already surprisingly useful (in my opinion, at least). To take a course, all you need is a WordPress.org account. And, of course, it’s all free. The learning platform itself is neatly organized – it’s basically a classic LMS website structure, but done really cleanly and accessibly. I was wondering what actually runs the LMS underneath, so I did some digging in the project’s GIT, to find out that it’s Sensei PRO. The lessons that are currently there have been put together nicely, with good editing, and highlighting the most important parts of the lesson. Or, to say it another way, even though the ones I checked are basic screen recordings with added commentary on top, they do deliver all the content very nicely. This makes me hopeful for the future of the project overall and the value it can bring to the community. All the lessons right now are technically hosted on YouTube, so I could just embed them here, but I choose not to do that – not to take away from the complete course experience you get with the platform. Practice yourself What’s also unique about this WordPress course is that it allows learners to practice on a private demo site, which is powered by, yes, you’ve guessed it, WordPress Playground. This one’s cool, since you can do all your learning and experimentation there, without having to deal with any “difficult WordPress setup” (although there have been people who installed WordPress on Raspberry Pi in the past – we know those people(!)). Plus, if need be, you can export your work at the end. License and potential The courses are also licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, which is a notable detail. I’m no lawyer, but that license allows you to “copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially” and “remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially,” which means that the courses there can serve as a foundation of your own work, plus you can use them to educate your users/clients/team/colleagues. Check it out! In the end, I encourage you to check out “Learn WordPress,” click around, get a feel for what’s there, and see how you might integrate the material into what you’re working on. Just to give you one example of what you could do; there’s a pathway called “Intermediate Theme Developer,” which goes through the current ins and outs of working on themes, including some newer developments in the WordPress platform. Many of the videos in the course were added as recently as two months ago. The WordPress team isn’t stopping here. They’re planning more pathways, including ones for designers and contributors. So if you don’t see exactly what you’re looking for yet, keep an eye out – it might be coming soon. As someone who’s been around the WordPress block a few times, I’m genuinely impressed with this update. It shows a real commitment to education and community support, which has always been at the heart of WordPress’ success! … Don’t forget to join our crash course on speeding up your WordPress site. Learn more below: Sources: Was this article helpful? No Thanks for your feedback! Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)! [ad_2] Source link

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A welcoming community that embraces authenticity – 本物らしさを受け入れる温かいコミュニティ

[ad_1] Here is Ben reading his own story aloud. この記事は日本語でも読む事が出来ます。 My interactions with tech growing up The first time I remember interacting with tech was on my parents’ Macintosh computer when I started primary school. I loved drawing with MacPaint and found it much cooler than my Etch A Sketch. Then, my parents got a Windows 95 computer and we were connected to the internet. My parents would check for important calls before unhooking the telephone to plug in the computer. When Google search came out, my family would sit around the screen, amazed at the “dozens” of search results. We even played a game to see whose name got the most results. I won by a long shot because my middle name Luke (Japanese: ルカ) appears in the word “digital camera” (デジタルカメラ). In junior high, I joined the table tennis club but quickly realized sports weren’t my thing. I switched to the computer club, where I edited my first video, learned about spreadsheets and word processors, and built my first website using a Japanese software called Homepage Builder. I started maintaining a website for my church, self-teaching myself about staging environments and FTP through help docs and online manuals. In senior high, I started looking at the HTML code produced by Homepage Builder. I realized I didn’t have to use the drag-and-drop editor to make edits and taught myself basic HTML and CSS. That’s when I created my first game, an HTML game where players clicked on doors to navigate a maze. I remember someone “hacked” my game by figuring out the URL logic and jumping to the goal. That was my introduction to cyber security and encryption. How information ethics opened my eyes to the diversity in the world In university, I studied information science, which pulled me deeper into the tech world. I continued to master’s and doctorate programs, and started teaching tech classes at three universities. I taught in both Japanese and English to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Subjects included programming basics (C, Java), informatics, and image processing. But my most favorite subject was information ethics, which highlighted how different cultures have varying ethical values in tech. For instance, some communities pirate software out of necessity, some share login credentials to bypass censorship, while other communities consider both these practices unethical. Teaching this course really opened my eyes to global diversity. It taught me the importance of open dialogue, empathetic listening, and creative thinking. How I met WordPress I first heard about WordPress in my university lab. A senior student returning from overseas said it was all the hype in the west, so we moved our lab’s website to WordPress. I didn’t fully understand what WordPress was then, but I decided to ride the hype and move my church websites to WordPress too. Since making the switch in 2014, WordPress has become my Content Management System (CMS) of choice. I tried a brief stint with Wix, but it just confirmed my loyalty to WordPress. And after joining Automattic, I discovered the community behind the software and my love for WordPress has grown even more. How I joined Automattic and the WordPress community At one point, I installed the VideoPress plugin on one of my sites and needed support with a subscription mix-up. The agent resolved my issue in one email and signed off as a “Happiness Engineer,” which made me smile. Years later, I saw a job opening for Happiness Engineers at Automattic and remembered that interaction. I volunteered on the WordPress.com support forums for a couple months building up my support skills before getting accepted into Automattic in 2019. Soon after joining, I learned that WordPress is more than just a CMS. It’s a community built on open-source principles. I didn’t wait long to attend my local WordPress Meetups later that year, and was amazed at the selflessness and dedication of the participants. At those Meetups, I learned the WordPress ecosystem extends beyond the community that creates it. WordPress is composed of the people who use it – the developers, designers, analysts, hobbyists, hosts, marketers, etc. It is a common bond that brings people together from different walks of life to a safe space of diversity and acceptance. It was the first time I had interacted with people quite like that. My journey in the WordPress Training Team In 2020, the pandemic canceled in-person events, but I had opportunities to be part of educational projects within Automattic. I coached Japanese support agents, created internal training materials, and developed a new onboarding program for new employees. These experiences rekindled my love for education. It was around that time that WordPress launched its educational site, Learn WordPress. I was selected for an internal position at Automattic to become a full time contributor to the Learn WordPress initiative, and joined the WordPress project’s Training Team in June 2022. I started in the team by understanding the team’s values, priorities, and challenges. Over the next six months, I worked on improving team processes and documentation. At the end of 2022, I was honored to be nominated as a team rep, since which I’ve led projects like migrating from Trello to GitHub and building an onboarding program. These efforts have increased team member engagement and activity, which in turn is contributing to traffic and engagement increases on the Learn WordPress site, too. WordPress – a safe space to be authentic Reflecting on my tech journey, the moments I felt most energized were when I contributed to creating a safe space of diversity and acceptance. Teaching information ethics laid the foundation, customer support as a Happiness Engineer let me practice this in 1:1 interactions, onboarding new employees allowed me to create these spaces for larger groups, and contributing to the WordPress Training Team extended this to a global community. These were moments when I felt most authentic. Building a safe space where one can be authentic isn’t a one-time project; it’s formed through humble and curious interactions. Every conversation

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Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Patched in WPML WordPress Plugin – WP Tavern

[ad_1] The popular WordPress Multilingual plugin, WPML, which is installed on over 1,000,000 websites, has patched a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability (CVE-2024-6386) that researchers have classified as “Critical,” with a CVSS score of 9.9. Users are strongly advised to update their websites to the patched version, WPML 4.6.13. Security researcher Mat Rollings (stealthcopter) discovered and reported the vulnerability through the Wordfence Bug Bounty program, earning a bounty of $1,639. Wordfence’s István Márton explained: “The WPML plugin for WordPress is vulnerable to Remote Code Execution in all versions up to, and including, 4.6.12 via Twig Server-Side Template Injection. This is due to missing input validation and sanitization on the render function. This makes it possible for authenticated attackers, with Contributor-level access and above, to execute code on the server.” Matt Rollings dubbed this vulnerability “a classic example of the dangers of improper input sanitization in templating engines” and has shared more technical details about this vulnerability on his blog.  In the past eight days, researchers have earned $21,037 as bounties for reporting three critical plugin vulnerabilities: GiveWP, LiteSpeed Cache, and WPML. [ad_2] Source link

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7 Best Live Chat Plugins for Your WordPress Website

[ad_1] At some point during the natural lifecycle of a company, cultivating customers takes priority. As such, your support services become a key battleground. Live chat plugins are one way to offer your customers practically instant access to your support team. They let users talk to either a real person there and then, or a smart ‘bot’ that redirects them to the right place. In this post, we’ll look at a number of live chat plugins, and offer some advice about which one would potentially suit you. Before that, let’s talk about why live chat is a great customer service channel. An Introduction to Live Chat (And Why You Should Implement It) For the uninitiated, live chat does what it says on the tin. In other words, a customer accesses your site – usually looking for support – and can connect with a representative through a button on the page: While live chat was initially ‘manned’ by a real person, gains in Artificial Intelligence (AI) means that tailored bots are more common now. This brings about a number of benefits: The initial heavy lifting when uncovering a user’s support needs can be handled in a routine way by sophisticated tech. Users are essentially self-solving their issue, which means you can treat aspects of the live chat experience as an extension of your knowledge base. You can ‘qualify’ the user for more advanced support. This lets you create dedicated ‘tracks’ and processes for your support chain, and makes them more efficient. Given these reasons, implementing live chat on your website is a great way to bring users through your support funnel in a refined way. How We Chose Our 7 Live Chat Plugins WordPress wouldn’t be the platform it is without plugins. While you can implement practically any functionality using them, this post will look at live chat specifically. To narrow down our list, we’ve used the following criteria: All plugins must have been updated within the last six months to work with a modern version of WordPress. Where recorded, a plugin must have a rating of at least 80% – for example, four stars on either WordPress.org or CodeCanyon. Finally, a plugin must have a relatively substantial number of active installs. For example, plugins hosted on WordPress.org usually need a minimum of 1,000 installs. Because of the above criteria, you’ll notice that popular solutions such as Zendesk Chat and Intercom aren’t included. In a nutshell, their WordPress plugins didn’t meet the standard we set, although the services themselves are stellar. Summarizing the 7 Top Live Chat Plugins for Your WordPress Website LiveChat. Busy support teams using a personal approach will love this plugin. Tidio Live Chat. Arguably the best all-around live chat plugin for WordPress. Sendinblue. If you’re already a user of Sendinblue’s other products, you’ll find this plugin ideal. Crisp Live Chat. If you have a complex product, Crisp will fit the bill. HubSpot Live Chat. HubSpot subscribers are likely going to use this live chat plugin, although it offers value for non-subscribers too. Olark. This plugin will be great for support team as part of a sales funnel. Tawk.to. A top plugin that offers myriad features completely free forever. 7 Top Live Chat Plugins for Your WordPress Website Without further ado, let’s take a look at the plugins. The seven here are in no particular order, although we encourage you to compare them all against your own requirements. 1. LiveChat First up, we have WordPress Live Chat Plugin by LiveChat – we’ll simply call it “LiveChat” here. The plugin has a number of esteemed customers, such as McDonalds, Adobe, and PayPal. As such, the live chat plugin is great for larger organizations. LiveChat also develops the WooCommerce Live Chat plugin for WordPress too, so they have a number of solutions regardless of your specific need. Under the hood, LiveChat offers a number of efficiency features, such as canned responses. You’re able to send personalized messages to users automatically, and also send them files through the chat window. However, the biggest plus point of LiveChat is also its greatest drawback. It’s an expansive live chat platform with practically everything you’ll need to support your customers. As such, it could be overkill for a smaller site. Overall, LiveChat is great for businesses with heavy support needs, especially if a personal approach to your support provision is important. Pricing: LiveChat starts at $16 per month, per agent. There are a number of tiers depending on your needs, although you could see costs quickly shoot into three-figures per month. 2. Tidio Live Chat Next up, Tidio is a company offering a well-supported live chat plugin with solid user feedback. It’s designed for WordPress site owners in mind, and also integrates email marketing services and a chatbot into the package. Installation is rapid, and once you’re ready, you’re able to set up multiple chat windows across different pages. The plugin supports nearly 200 languages out of the box, and offers a number of customization options to help you match Tidio’s chat windows to your branding. Because of the integrated email marketing, you’re able to follow up with users once they leave your website, turning your support channels into a sales funnel entry point. What’s more, there are a number of third-party integrations available. We’d argue that if you’re running a WordPress website, Tidio is going to be a front-runner for your live chat needs. It’s a modern solution, with a thoughtful feature set. What’s more, our research indicates it’s one of the more well-maintained plugins available. Pricing: Tidio offers a stacked free tier, which could be enough for many site owners. However, there are three other tiers that cater to different needs. Each one works out around $200–225 per year, which could become pricey if you’re looking for an all-in-one support solution. 3. Sendinblue Sendinblue is better known for its stellar email marketing services, although the live chat functionality more than pulls its weight. You’re able to leverage built-in design tools to

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Don’t Use Elaborate Task Management Systems

[ad_1] At this point in my career, I’ve been working remotely more than I have ever been in an office. I don’t ever want to have to return into an office unless it’s absolutely necessary. Part of working like this, though, is maintaining a sense of self-discipline for the backlog of tasks required for work and doing so in such a way that makes it easy for me to focus on what I’m working on, what’s next, and what’s in the backlog. (If you’re a developer and you’re reading this, then you’re probably thinking kanban and you’re not wrong – but what I’m getting at is slightly different). Before getting too much into the rest of the article, I do want to share that the majority of work I do right now is captured in Asana and organized by quarter. We have very little email and very little thrashing between emails, DMs, and other behavior commonly associated with the hyperactive hive mind. [The] hyperactive hive mind as a workflow centered on ongoing conversation fueled by unstructured and unscheduled messages delivered through digital communication tools, like email and instant messenger. Ezra Klein Interviews Cal Newport But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to take a little further to not only help my day-to-day (especially during periods of increased business) but also to help give visibility to other people with whom I work so they know where a given task stands in my queue. And don’t think this is me elevating my day-to-day any more important than yours. On the contrary. I’m sharing this to help give insight on what I’ve found that works so it may help you, too. Don’t Use Elaborate Task Management Systems I’ve used a variety of productivity apps and tools over the years, like Things (it was the first app I ever bought for the very first iPad!) and Trello (long before Atlassian bought them from Glitch, fka Fog Creek). I’ve also given a fair shake at a number of apps with which we’ve been inundated with the last decade and a half. But I’ve found it’s often the simplest approaches that can be just as effective, if not more so. In particular, I’ve settled on two lightweight methods that I find most useful for keeping track of my tasks, projects, and various todos – a simple text file and a Google Doc. A Basic Text File The first method I use is maintaining a plain text file on my desktop that I can quickly open and jot down notes, thoughts, links, quotes, and anything else related to the work I need to get done. What it’s like to type into a basic text editor. I usually have it open in an area of the screen or one of my virtual desktops so I can quickly capture the idea and the move back into what I was doing. The goal here to is get the information somewhere I can remember it later but to avoid the expensive cognitive load of context switching. This low-friction system allows me to capture ideas the moment they come to me, without having to fuss with a complex task management app. Ultimately, think of it like a digital scratch pad – I’ll dump in links to or quotes from Slack messages, email excerpts, random musings, and anything else that I want to reference or follow up on later. Then, during the last block of time in my workday, I can review the file, triage the items, and transform them into actual tasks, projects, more detailed notes, and so on. The Kanban Google Doc (For Lack of a Better Term) The second approach I rely on is keeping a living Google Doc that serves as a kanban board of sorts for my work. I divide the document into three clear sections: “In Progress,” “Up Next,” and “Backlog.” Under each of these headers, I list out my various tasks, projects, and responsibilities, along with any relevant details, links, or context. This simple, visual layout gives me a birds-eye view of everything I’ve got going on. There’s a difference in a bird’s eye view and eye-view of birds. It helps me stay focused on what I’m actively working on while also keeping an eye on what’s coming up next. And crucially, if I need to share let others see what I have going on, I can simply send them the link to the Google Doc to provide that transparency. Sometimes, this affords them the opportunity to find someone else to help or it helps set reasonable expectations on when the requested work will be completed. When Simplicity Matters I find these two methods valuable because they are so lightweight and low-friction. I don’t have to wrestle with complex task management software or try to shoehorn my workflow into a particular system. There are no software updates, system downtimes, or anything like that. In situations like this, I’m convinced simplicity wins almost every time. Instead, I can quickly jot things down, organize my thoughts, stay focused, and keep moving forward on whatever it is on which I’m currently working. We have too many notifications, alerts, red circles, and digital distractions that attempt to push themselves on to us. I’d rather silence all of those and then pull the work I need when I’m ready. Sometimes the simplest approaches are the most effective. By sticking to these two lightweight task tracking techniques, I’m able to maintain focus, reduce cognitive overhead, and ensure I’m making steady progress on the things that matter most. [ad_2] Source link

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An Essay From Japan, Interviews From Italy, Photos From Romania!

[ad_1] This week’s banner image is in memory of Jesse Petersen who left us on this date in 2017. Godspeed Jesse. Ben Evans had a love for teaching that he was able to leverage in the WordPress community when the pandemic hit. I had opportunities to be part of educational projects within Automattic. I coached Japanese support agents, created internal training materials, and developed a new onboarding program for new employees. These experiences rekindled my love for education. Ben’s essay is available on HeroPress.com. This week’s WPPhotos Info is called “Yellow helmet from bird-eye view“. This photo was taken by Hapiuc Robert on an iPhone 15, wide camera. In the photo is his daughter riding her bike. He used to be a professional photographer and he takes advantage of every opportunity to get a good photograph. The photo it’s an instant photo, he just takes out the phone, plane it above her and press the shutter button a couple of times.  His taught was that her helmet will look amazing a bird eye view, and it does! The photo was taken around the house on a gravel road. Read more of the story at WPhttps://wpphotos.info/yellow-helmet-from-bird-eye-view/Photos.info! The banner at the top of this post is a CC0 licensed photo by Ericka Barboza from the WordPress Photo Directory. That’s it for this week! If you’d like to get this post in your email every week, make sure you sign up! Related [ad_2] Source link

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Gutenberg 19.1 Introduces Plugin Template Registration API – WP Tavern

[ad_1] Gutenberg 19.1 has arrived, introducing the eagerly anticipated plugin template registration API and updates to image caption styles. This Gutenberg version will be later incorporated into WordPress 6.7. The highlight of this release is the plugin template registration API. It addresses a long-standing issue developers have faced with conflicts between plugins and themes, particularly when dealing with custom post types, taxonomies, or virtual pages. This new feature allows developers to register block templates directly within their plugins, providing fully customizable default content layouts. Till now, developers had to use multiple filters to register templates. By building on the Gutenberg block system, this update makes it easier for themes and users to adapt and personalize templates according to their design and functional needs. Justin Tadlock has published a detailed tutorial on this feature on the Developer Blog and will host a Developer Hours Session with Nick Diego on September 10, 2024. This release also tones down the intensity of the caption background, improving the image caption styles.  Other notable changes in this version include: Improved data view extensibility Better defaults for the zoom out view Added border support for core blocks Applied elevation scale to Modal, Popover, and Snackbar components. Fixed wp-config anchors to make wp-env compatible with WordPress versions older than 5.4. The community’s response has been enthusiastic, with feedback such as “Really like this feature”, “Great one, that I am looking for !” and “Literally the greatest news I’ve heard in years (and I had a baby last year)” [ad_2] Source link

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