Posts by Mr. Dif
Stop Tivo from Announcing Fast Forwarding and Other Stuff on the Screen
Why is Tivo announcing that you’re fast forwarding? Tivo is in Screen Reader Mode. Hold down the A button for 2 seconds to turn it off. Or hold it down for 2 seconds to turn it on and annoy your family members or roommates! Or your pets! My dog niece leaves the room when Tivo…
Read ArticleAdd a Full-Width Google Map to the Footer in Genesis
To add a Snazzy full-width Google map to the footer of the Genesis Digital Pro theme we’ll need to: 1) Prepare the Google map to fit in new section. 2) Add a new section above the footer widgets. and 3) Adjust the CSS to sit the map nicely against the footer. Ready to map it up?
Read ArticleRemove Projects Custom Post Type from Divi
Want to remove projects custom post type from Divi, the premiere theme from Elegant Themes? Sometimes a robust theme like Divi needs to be stripped down a bit. Yes, the Divi WordPress theme from Elegant Themes has a lot of functionality built in. Yes, that’s an understatement. And no, you don’t have to have it…
Read ArticleWordPress Relaunch Checklist before Migrating Staging to Live
You’ve been slaving away building the perfect new version of your client’s website. You’re building it on a staging site of course or better yet on your local machine. If it’s on WPEngine’s staging version, all you have to do to is go back to the live site, select the staging menu and select “Deploy site…
Read ArticleAdding Automatic Shopify Structured Data for Products
Adding structured data in the schema.org format for products is a best practice for search engine optimization in your Shopify store. And JSON-LD is now considered the recommended and preferred method for adding the structured data. Google provides a handy Structured Data Testing Tool to see how your microdata looks. And more good news is…
Read ArticleAdd an Automatically Updated Copyright Date to your Website
Out-of-date copyright dates are all over the internet. In a way it’s good. It lets you know that the site probably hasn’t been touched by the webmaster since the year shown in the footer. But for your own site you always want that copyright date to be current. Right? So skip the Rose bowl and…
Read Article7 Free Web Page Speed Tests
You feel the need. The need for speed. But how fast is your web page? You can look at your load time and a waterfall of your file requests with Chrome developer tools, in Safari or Firefox but that read out is limited to your own connection speed and sometimes your hosts file or cache…
Read ArticleAdjust Photoshop Scratch Disk Preferences on Launch
Sometimes with really really large files in Photoshop you need to add or adjust scratch disk space. On a Mac hold down the Option + Command keys and start Photoshop normally. You should see a dialog box pop-up with the option to select your primary and secondary scratch disks. Select your scratch disk memory preferences…
Read ArticleDomain Name Tools to Find the Right Website Name
Before you pick a website name there’s a few things to think about. Like how short could it be? Can you get away with an acronym? Some quick general rules for picking domain names: .com is preferred. Search engines and users will thank you for getting a .com domain. .net is “okay” but better suited…
Read ArticleEasy Way to Edit the Hosts File on a Mac
The hosts file allows you to override the IP address for a website provided by DNS servers. It’s easier to edit than it might seem and doesn’t require you to edit in terminal, which can be daunting. It’s particularly useful to test 3rd party SSL certificates at WP Engine before changing the actual DNS. Yes…
Read ArticleCorrectly Exporting the Database from a WordPress Site
There are a lot of options when it comes to exporting a WordPress database for a website to import on a new hosting provider. Here are the three methods to export I’ve used the most with the best success: #1 Export directly from phpMyAdmin I find this method to be less messy than using a plugin…
Read ArticleCreate a List of Files & Folder Contents Into a Text File
Save Folder Contents List into a Text File Easiest way to Create a List of Files & Folder Contents Into a Text File on a Mac is by first opening the folder in Terminal. Assuming you’ve setup this service it’s a lot easier than opening Terminal and then navigating to it. Once that is done simply type…
Read ArticleInstalling an Inexpensive SSL Certificate on MediaTemple’s GridServer
MediaTemple won’t give you support installing a 3rd Party SSL on their shared hosting GridServer product but it is straightforward and the savings can rack up over time if you compare their $75 a year charge for installing a certificate to adding one from NameCheap for as little as $9 a year. That’s right, save $66…
Read ArticleAccessing a SiteGround Staging Site by IP
You’ve come over to SiteGround from WPEngine and now you want to access a staging site before your DNS has propagated. No dice. This is easy in WPEngine since they set a subdomain on wpengine.com for every site but on SiteGround you need to have access to the DNS. If your site’s nameservers aren’t pointed…
Read ArticleOpen Multi Page Pdfs in Illustrator
This script worked wonders for me in Adobe Illustrator CS to open multi page pdfs in Illustrator with each page of the pdf ending up on it’s own artboard. I’ve also tested it and it works well on Illustrator CC to import multiple pages from a pdf into Illustrator as well. Here’s how to use…
Read ArticleSync WordPress Users from LIVE to Staging
Note from Editor: This article was written in 2016 about what is now in 2021, WPEngine’s legacy staging. The general process can still work with different site environments but databases need to be exported and imported rather than just copied. Side note: this process can also be used to update Gravity Forms forms and entries…
Read ArticleGet the Last Word in Google Sheets Cell or Excel Cell
Here’s what you need to retrieve the last word (or the first) in Google Sheets cells or using Excel if that’s your preference. Get the Last Word in Google Sheets =TRIM( RIGHT( SUBSTITUTE( A1 ; ” ” ; REPT( ” ” ; 100 ) ) ; 100 ) ) but if you might have any trailing…
Read ArticleHow to merge multiple CSV-files into one with Mac OS X Terminal.app
Found this csv merge tutorial and it works great to merge csv files on mac into one file. An explanation and quick piece of code that will help you to simply merge large numbers of .csv files (or for that matter: any kind of text files) into one. I used it to merge multiple .csv…
Read ArticleOpen a folder in Terminal from Finder
1. Set the preference. This screenshot is from El Capitan. 2. Right click on the folder at the bottom of the finder window or simply right click on a folder in the finder Boom. It opens in terminal.
Read ArticleSave 20% off your first payment with WP Engine
Save 20% off your first payment with WP Engine. Use code SPEEDUP. Expires 5/31/2016. Mr Dif edit: Save 20% off your first payment with WP Engine. Use coupon code SUMMERSAVINGS. Expires 8/31/2016. That hosting coupon is toast. This banner is still good for 20% off hosting at WPEngine: Updated on 6/12/2018 About WP Engine:…
Read ArticleMedia Temple Web Hosting Discount Code
Updated: 10/11/2016 This discount on Media Temple hosting is good through Dec 31, 2020
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