Allan Collins » Web Design

Internet Explorer is Now Error Free!

Allan Collins — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:00:19 +0000

Photo By: hashmil

Sure, it was hard to believe at first, but after some thorough testing Internet Explorer is no longer a “beast of burden”. It seems that finally, Microsoft developers have worked out the kinks to make this browser the most standards compliant web browser on the market today.

After having to create hacks for CSS on some websites just for Internet Explorer, I had my doubts that all of these issues relating to CSS could be resolved. To my surprise, IE manages to display every ounce of CSS flawlessly.

UPDATE: April Fools!

Five WordPress Security Tips

Allan Collins — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:00:15 +0000

Your website is one of your biggest assets. If your site’s security gets breached, you’re easily up a ship without a paddle. Imagine your WordPress powered website compromised and flooded with thousands of links to pornography… not a pretty picture. SO how do you prevent such a disaster from happening?

Here are five tips:

Kill the ‘admin’ account.
Create an administrator account in WP and delete the default ‘admin’ user. Since it’s common knowledge that the ‘admin’ user exists by default, wouldn’t it be a little bit easier to find the administrative password?
Replace your table prefixes.
SQL injection attacks happen every day. By default, WordPress adds a database table prefix of ‘wp-’. If you take off this prefix or change it, you are lower your risk for an injection attack.
Take out the version META tag.
Older versions of WordPress contain certain vulnerabilities that are avoided by an upgrade. With this META tag, you are broadcasting that you are an open target. Here’s a scenario: Let’s pretend that I’m a hacker and that I know a vurnerability for WP version 2.1. I can write an application that will scan hundreds of websites for the version META tag and get a list of sites running 2.1. It would be easy pickings from there, wouldn’t it?
Lockout bad login attempts.
A bruteforce hack is an attempt to guess the correct password using a list of common passwords. Download the Login LockDown plugin to lockout bad login attempts for a hour (by default).
Set the right permissions.
Folder permissions should be set to 755 and files should be set to 644. Try at all costs not set permissions at 777, which allows read/write access for all users. A cracker could put a malicious application in a folder set a 777.

And there you have it, five stellar tips to secure your WordPress site. To easily resolve some of these issues, download the WP Security Scan plugin.

Rounded Corners: The Easy Way

Allan Collins — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:00:50 +0000

Easily transform blog comments, spice up a layout or just look cool by doing it.

Thanks to the jQuery Corner plugin, you can create a rounded rectangle just like this one. Easy. Simple. SWEEET!

Download the js file, along with jQuery and then set which elements get rounded. That’s it.


This is content within a rounded rectangle.  Pretty painless huh?

How to Copy Content Into WordPress From Word

Allan Collins — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:00:36 +0000

It isn’t unusual for me to get a request to fix a WordPress site that doesn’t show some posts in Internet Explorer. After banging my head on my desk and cursing Microsoft, I get to work cleaning up these phantom blog posts. Upon looking at the code via the HTML tab on the WordPress editing screen, I could easily put the blame on the post’s author by copying and pasting directly from Microsoft Word.

Microsoft Word, when pasted, adds a lot of junk code, which is intended to keep formatting, but instead can seriously annihilate a website layout and prevent browsers (such as IE) from viewing sections by using conditional comments.

So how can you keep the formatting you have in your Word Document without screwing up your post?

Step One: Toggle the Second Menu Bar

It’s surprising how many people don’t know there is another menu bar with their WordPress WYSIWYG editor.

Step Two: Click on the Paste from Word Button

Step Three: Copy-and-Paste from Word into the Provided TextArea

Step Four: Click the Insert Button.

This simple feature will strip out all of the junk code that Microsoft Word adds and will format the text into HTML.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF THE ISSUE:

1. I opened up Word and added this text: “This is some text from Microsoft Word.”
2. I bolded and centered the text in Word.
3. I then copied and pasted into the Visual editor of WordPress.

Here’s the code this simple line of text created:

This is some text from Microsoft Word.

How to Create Buttons From Links

Allan Collins — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:24:28 +0000

Here’s a fun way to reinvent the button:

1. Let’s start with a simple anchor link:

Click Here

2. By adding elements into the anchor tag and styling them with CSS, you can create a nice button from this anchor tag.

DEMO:

jQuery(document).ready(function() {

	var linkText=jQuery(".coolbutton").html();
	jQuery(".coolbutton").html("" + linkText + "");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("color","#000000");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("text-decoration","none");
	jQuery(".coolbutton b").css("font-weight","normal");
	jQuery(".coolbutton b *").css("font-style","normal");
	jQuery(".coolbutton b").css("display","block");
	jQuery(".coolbutton b").css("width","80px");	
	jQuery(".coolbutton b").css("position","absolute");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("display","block");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("border","1px solid #707070");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("width","80px");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("height","20px");
	jQuery(".coolbutton b").css("text-align","center");
	jQuery(".coolbutton b").css("padding-top","2px");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("background","#d4d4d4");
	jQuery(".coolbutton span").css("display","block");
	jQuery(".coolbutton span").css("height","10px");
	jQuery(".coolbutton span").css("background","#ececec");
	jQuery(".coolbutton *").css("cursor","default");
	
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("-moz-border-radius","5px");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("-khtml-border-radius","5px");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("-webkit-border-radius","5px");
	jQuery(".coolbutton").css("border-radius","5px");	
	
	


	
	jQuery(".coolbutton").hover(function() {
		
		jQuery(this).css("border","1px solid #3c7fb1");
		jQuery(this).css("background","#bce5fc");
		jQuery(this).addClass("active");
		jQuery(".active span").css("background","#e6f5fd");
	},function() {
	jQuery(".active span").css("background","#ececec");
	jQuery(this).css("border","1px solid #707070");
	jQuery(this).css("background","#d4d4d4");
	jQuery(this).removeClass("active");
	});
	
	
	jQuery(".coolbutton").mousedown(function() {
		jQuery(this).css("border","1px solid #2c628b");
		jQuery(this).css("background","#86c6e8");
		jQuery(this).addClass("active");
		jQuery(".active span").css("background","#d8eefa");
		jQuery(".active b *").css("border","1px dotted #202020");
		jQuery(".active b *").css("padding-left","3px");
		
		
		
		jQuery(".coolbutton").mouseup(function() {
	jQuery(this).css("border","1px solid #3c7fb1");
		jQuery(this).css("background","#bce5fc");
		jQuery(this).addClass("active");
		jQuery(".active span").css("background","#e6f5fd");
	jQuery(".active b *").css("border","none");
		jQuery(".active b *").css("padding-left","0");
	});
	
	});
	
	jQuery(".coolbutton").click(function(){
	alert("Hello");
	return false;
	});
});