Dublicator

Psychic Readings Online

Psychic Readings Online by Delia O’Riordan celebrates its first anniversary online! We at the Semiomantics Team wish to congratulate the eminent psychic reader, who is well known under “Just Ask Delia”, for taking her offline business into the competitive Internet arena and building a professional reputation based on knowledge, decades of experience and – what counts most in this field of expertise: intuition!

If links are cut on a syndicating website, go here: http://psychic-delia.com and find the shop on the BLOG (navigation menu).

Psychic Readings Online

Psychic Readings Online started its journey exactly one year ago on the anniversary of founder and psychic expert Delia O’Riordan.

Quietly and far away from any noise and hype, this elegant website which offers a fabulous wealth of knowledge and information has carved its way into that apparently vague region “…between heaven and earth…” that may not be seen or sensed by most human beings, but where there is this fascinating ‘more’ of many things that we are all after yet may have difficulties to fathom.

Just Ask Delia

“Just Ask Delia” is for the serious, discreet searcher.

What do I mean?

If you are not on this quest yourself – which often but not only means investing into your own research studies, workshops, yoga, meditation and prayer to name a few – to find answers to the most important questions in your life and the way it’s enfolding – be it in the areas of career, love or destiny – , and your emotional stress is building and affecting your health and wellbeing, however, you don’t know where to turn to find – within the global haystack of  competing psychics, mediums, astrologers, specialists, channellers etc advertising their supernatural powers on the web – that professional, serious and extremely dedicated and precise psychic consultant that you may want to entrust with those haunting questions that so urgently need an answer – then… “Just Ask Delia”.

It’s fast, affordable and you will have your answers to work with – just click on the image below and check it out.

Book your Psychic Reading Today

What better proof than Psychic Delia clients returning after years, thrilled to finally find psychic reader Delia O’Riordan Online, and say how right her psychic guidance had been at the time, seen with hindsight after years… and booking a new consultation on the Psychic Delia Shop today?

What are you waiting for – CLICK HERE to find out more! Easy from your mobile phone…

 

 

How to use the Crop Tool on Google

In my previous article HERE I explained how to use the crop tool in the new Adobe Photoshop CS6. Here I do my daily SEO and monitoring to keep an eye on how my articles perform on Google Top 10.

 

How to use the Crop Tool on Google

On the above screenshot you see the performance of my above article on how to use the Crop Tool on Google – an amazing rank 1 on 349,000,000 search returns! That’s the power of a WP based Semiomantics XO Script set up properly and correctly edited and published. You must agree a smashing result… and this within less than 24 hours!

As we’re currently still busy with the Ycademy Seminar (June 2012), I can add another interesting fact about the Crop Tool: even after cropping, I can still move the image ‘below’ the ‘cropping frame’ to position things optimally. While I did not find cropping a difficult task in previous Photoshop versions, this definitely saves time and hence presents an excellent addition to the new Photoshop CS6.

 

 

How to learn HTML5 and CSS3

It’s one thing to follow a gifted teacher through live HTML5 and/or CSS3 demonstrations and lessons, clicking here and there on command with hardly a second to breathe never mind moving one’s thinking muscle  – and another to have a real good manual in hand on how to learn HTML5 and CSS3 independently and at our own time, where we can make those pauses after a fullstop and allow ourselves to think, connect and – in the best case – understand… before moving on.

 

Of course, in both cases complete comprehension of the complex matter is never guaranteed, however, we become part of the learning and development process and the new lingo and sometimes wildly abstract scriptlets start sickering in…preparing the terrain for that ‘aha!’ or deja vu experience sometime during our journey through what is structuring the groundwork for future web developments and better, modern web applications and setting new standards.

This process is not completed; HTML5 and CSS3 are definitely works in progress – and as students we are part of it!

 

How to learn HTML5 and CSS3

You may think that you know HTML inside-out and why on earth waste time on how to learn HTML5 and CSS3?

Getting a good Overview

Well, everything on the Internet is about change… and I believe in getting a good overview first. Very quickly we learn that amongst others:

Structural tags and attributes as well as presentational elements are no longer the same; many are deprecated today and we have to know which to use in order to have clean code and a website that works and is responsive.

On the other hand, CSS3 provides us with some astonishing styling elements that we could formerly only achieve with images we first created in programs like Photoshop, eg. drop shadows and elegant gradients.

Frames – frame, frameset, noframes – were known as a constant cause for errors and problems. Accordingly, they were dropped to improve usability and accessability that are so critical for interaction with readers and customers on our sites.

There is more, much more… and I will provide some insight as time allows. Surely, as dedicated website developers and designers we have our customers’ interest at heart and – especially with the rapid evolution of the mobile web – this means faster, better, easier and more user-friendly websites with high visibility on search engines as well as mobile devices – brief: better user experiences.

This is exactly why learning HTML5 and CSS3 is a must.

To be continued…

Web Design with Passion back on new PC

Finally, Web Design with Passion is back on a new PC…. actually a whole new OS on 64bit. What a journey… and this with powercuts and connectivity issues… all fun but we’re getting there!

We grow through our struggles… but inbetween I just imagine myself being that happy, fat and buzzing bumble bee in my garden floating from flower to flower and living in complete bliss!

Web Design with Passion back on new PC

To get Web Design with Passion back on a new PC meant and still means installing each and every program from scratch. Not that this isn’t an interesting and instructive exercise nor is it the first time I do this – but it’s time-consuming and often frustrating especially when there is such a huge list to do!

However, starting out from scratch has its merits that can be compared to the annual spring clean-out: unless you are an obsessive gatherer and collector, it’s a good time to get rid of everything that’s superfluous and not absolutely necessary and becoming lean and light with lots of potential to move forward with a new and speedy lightness of being and let the creative juices flow. I’m not quite there yet as too puzzled by some mysteries noone else knew an answer to so far – but here’s my first post ‘after the storm’ and it can only get better and faster!

YEBO GOGO – this is about being a student for life!

 

 

Image Borders, Padding, Captions  on XO Theme

Thumbnails on WordPress

There are two kinds of thumbnails produced on your XO site: the native WordPress thumbnails and the thumbnails generated by XO for the purpose of display throughout the theme where the WordPress thumbnails don’t fit.

WordPress Thumbnails

Thumbnail sizes are set in your dashboard under Settings > Media.  When we change the thumbs’ sizes, the change will apply only to new content. These thumbnails are used by default in the XO Basic Home Page Layout.

In order to modify thumbnails created previously to a change in WordPress settings, we use the “Regenerate Thumbnails” plugin; install from your dashboard and then just run it: this will create thumbnails corresponding to the new WP Media settings for all images in the library and galleries.

The Regenerate Thumbnails plugin will have no impact on syndicated posts unless you also pull in the images to your library when syndicating.

XO Theme Thumbnails

When we upload an image from our dashboard in XO, XO creates 12 thumbnails adapted to the needs of the site and stores them in the default uploads folder for faster loading. If we change the layout settings in XO advanced home page settings, or if we change thumbnail sizes under the layout settings, the previously created thumbnails may not fit anymore.

Using the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin will create a new set of thumbnails corresponding to the new settings. Syndicated content will not be altered by the plugin, unless you pull in the images while syndicating and store them in your library.

Styling Image Display in XO

Basically we are looking at two elements: the image and the caption.

Also XO allows for different styling of images

Yorgo Logo

inserted into a post and galleries or images and thumbs used in Custom Formats, such as Images and  Gallery Posts.

The example shows XO default style which sets borders with rounded corners, a background and some padding.

These settings can easily be modified with custom CSS, for example by adding and customizing a CSS3 property, such as some shadow:

.storycontent img{border:1px solid #666666;padding:5px;box-shadow: 0 0 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.9) inset;padding:10px;}
.storycontent img:hover {opacity:0.7;}

This example uses inset box-shadow and a hover effect decreasing opacity by 30%.

For box-shadow to work in IE, we use the PIE support:

box-shadow: 0 1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
-pie-box-shadow: 0 1px 1px #ccc;
behavior: url("http://typography.ycademy.net/wp-content/themes/typography/PIE.php");

The example pulls in the PIE script; as done in previous examples (on the menu) make sure that you load the PIE.php and PIE.htc files into your child theme and link to the absolute or relative URI with the behavior property.

Captions

Captions can be customized by modifying the following selectors, for example:

.wp-caption,.wp-caption p.wp-caption-text, .gallery-caption {text-align:center;background:none !important;font-size:14px;}

You could of course chose a font-family, display the text with a reduced, fixed width or pull the caption into the image using a semi-transparent background and a negative top-margin. The limit is … your imagination.

Gallery Thumbnails

To style Gallery Thumbnails just customize, for example:

.gallery-thumb img,
#maincontent .pformat img {
margin: 0;
padding: 10px;
border: 1px solid #333;
background: #eee;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-khtml-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
width: auto\9; /* IE 8 Hack */
}

Related posts:

1. Meta Tag Styling on WordPress
2. XO Theme Typography
3. The Image Caption Style

XO Theme for WordPress Styling

After each post, we display Tag, Category and RSS references. They are not part of the actual post; they are of a rather technical nature and may help visitors to find contextual content on the site. The SEO impact of publishing such Meta Information is discussable.

Styling the Author Name

Author Name Style on Semiomantics XO

We want to display the author’s name underneath the main title in small but remarkable fonts:

.post .meta, .hentry .meta,.post .meta a, .hentry .meta a { color:#111111;letter-spacing:5px; }

Note: we just use letter-spacing to gain visibility.

Font Styling on WordPress

WordPress Font Styling on XO by Semiomantics

Portraits of Africa 2012 on Google

Time again to monitor and check the performance of our new WP based Semiomantics XO 2012 Script on search engines.

Here’s a screenshot of yesterday’s post “Portraits of Africa 2012″ on Google – have a look! Positions 1, 2, 3 and 6 ahead of 10,800,000 search returns – YEBO GOGO!

 

 

Portraits of Africa 2012 on Google

When looking up “Portraits of Africa 2012″ on Google, I also checked how the images in my article were ranked – here’s the detail of the screenshot showing the Image of a “Young African Girl” on position one, followed by the Image of a “Young African Boy” on position 4… and a small ad I created ages ago peeking at us on position 2. All of them ahead of our South African presidents… just too funny! The young generation is on the move!

Portrait of Africa Images

It becomes even more intrigueing when we look up “Portrait of Africa Images” on Google and find these young faces of Africa featuring amongst some really classy photography! And again… the random positioning is just too weird… for those who read this and understand what I mean! Welcome to the future :)

Fact is, that with the increasing importance of images and media on the Internet – and with this for our website development – … and people preferring to look at something for quick grasping of the contents rather than reading long time-consuming – and even worse: thought-provoking -  texts… that the correct tagging and classification of photos and images becomes more important. Here as with any post what counts is to be found on Google – Google Top 10 that is. Noone else looks further…

Congratulations to our young friends who’ve made it to the top ranks and find themselves in interesting and attractive company! There will be more….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hakamela Conferencing

We are pleased to announce that the Conference Services website  “Hakamela Conferencing & Event Management” will soon be under construction on Semiomantics XO 2012.

 

Hakamela Conferencing

Hakamela Conferencing & Event Management will open its doors in Pretoria, South Africa. This high-demand Service Company  will be run by professional Conference Management Expert Lynn Sakuinje.

Web Design South Africa will be designing a simple, practical and user-friendly website that will target top 10 positions on Google under the relevant keywords and focuses on high visibility on the mobile web.

 

TOP SEO Performance on Semiomantics

Here’s today’s example of TOP SEO Performance on Semiomantics XO 2011 (soon to be updated to XO 2012):

Earlier today, I wrote a small article for Monkey Valley Resort on “Best Tapas in Cape Town” as that’s what Darren Byrne from Thorfynn’s Restaurant at Monkey Valley Resort wanted a photo of on a hot Saturday afternoon yesterday.

While his interest is that a maximum of people see the News and visit his restaurant, my goal as a web designer is to ensure the message I put out on the Monkey Valley Resort Website reaches Google Top 10 – meaning a maximum of traffic and visitors to the website. Here’s the resultrank 7 out of 709,000 search returns and climbing! Ammmazing – Ole!

TOP SEO Performance on Semiomantics

A day earlier, I prepared the brand-new menu en al for “Best Valentine’s Dinner Cape Town” on 14th February 2012 at Thorfynn’s Restaurant HERE and – lo and behold – captured position 5 within a few minutes… and -as I just tested – am holding it to this moment without further intervention or support – see the screenshot here (click on it to enlarge it):

Best Web Design South Africa on Semiomantics

And to end this post, the day before I followed a request by Monkey Valley Resort founder Judy Sole to promote ‘a bit more beach’ – and did a simple article “Visit Noordhoek Beach”. This post just shot up to spots 1 and 2 on Google Top 10 :

…and as I saw just now, after 2 days, it has captured even spot 3!

No doubt: Monkey Valley Resort has chosen simply the Best Web Design South Africa on Semiomantics – high SEO optimization, a captivating design and high functionality! Unbeatable and proven on a daily basis!

And as the Internet becomes increasingly sophisticated… quality counts!