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Attending this weekend 28/29 January 2 day seminar “Semiomantics XO with CSS3 and HTML5″ Click here to check out the details.

Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. Visit the original article at http://yorgonestoridis.com/yorgo-nestoridis-development/semiomantics/thesis-tutorial-feature-box.

Thesis Tutorial Rotating Contextual Banner in Feature Box

This Thesis Tutorial shows step by step how to add rotating banners to the Feature Box. The Feature Box has a drop down menu from where you can choose the position of the banner. In function of that choice you will then edit the images (size).

The Thesis Feature Box in Action

The below image illustrates the result you will achieve by following this tutorial:

As you see my choice was to add the  rotating banners in full width underneath the menu. The Header Banner is above the menu. Using a large size banner, I decreased the size of the header banner. On the right side you see the Multimedia Box underneath the rotating banners.

My Banner size is 960 pixels x 278 pixels.

Semomantics Thesis Author Blog

Semiomantics Author Blogs have all scripts built in and you can skip the following steps which are market with a *.

Get the Dynamic Content Gallery Plugin *

From your dashboard under Plugins, select Add Plugin. Type into the search box “Dynamic Content Gallery” and install and activate the pugin.

Add the Function to Thesis *

Edit custom-functions.php from your Custom File Editor and add the following code:

//-------------------featured content--------------
function featcc() {
if (is_home()){
global $post;
if( function_exists( 'dynamic_content_gallery' ) ) :
dynamic_content_gallery();
endif;
}
}
add_action('thesis_hook_feature_box', 'featcc');

With this code we hook the Dynamic Content Gallery to the Thesis feature box for display. Also, the feature box displays on the home page only, as on the other pages we use the Top Carousel.

Configure the Dynamic Content Gallery Plugin

You may choose another configuration. As an example I just copy here what my set-up looks like. Edit the Dynamic Content Gallery from your Dashboard under “Settings”:

1. Image Management

I select Full URL to keep absolute flexibility about the image source; this could be an external link to an image server. In fact I just load my images to the main image folder in the domain root.

2. Gallery Method

To keep the image and gallery management simple, I created a new category called Featured Main. All posts which will have a featured banner, will also be added to that category. Therefore I select here “One Category”.

Scroll further down and you will find more options:

As you see, I selected the Featured Main Category and I choose to display 4 posts.

3. Descriptions

For reasons of laziness I keep the setting on Auto and display 100 signs. In fact, my posts are usually structured in a way that the automatic excerpt has some meaning…:-).

4. Gallery CSS

Just a copy of my settings:

5. Javascript Options

I select jQuery and I show the carousel with the banner (it’s the drop-down overlay on top right of the banner which displays thumbnails of the banners). You may give that tab a more interesting name than Featured Articles, for example: Must Read. Note that I deselect the left and right arrows which serve to scroll the banners; I just think they are not necessary and ugly.

6. Load Scripts

As we display the banners on the home page only, I select Home Page to load the script only where needed.

7. Tools

I don’t display Error Messages and enable the editing box in the page and post editor as follows:

You will now be able to add banners from your WordPress editor to your post or to overwrite some of the configuration settings.

8. Load some Banners

I just headed over to Photoshop and made a few banners which I uploaded to my main image folder:

As I have configured to display 4 banners, the above four will do the trick.

9. Attach the banners to some key posts

Now  I select 4 key posts from my blog and edit them:

I add the Featured Main category to all of them and then I add the corresponding banner image link to each post and update the post:

10. Time to enable the Feature Box

In your Design Options toggle Feature Box and select the position:

I select Full width above content and sidebars. The home page selector is not active as we have overwritten the function in custom-functions.php.Also the Display Options are not built into Thesis yet, however if you wish to style the box, do the last step below:

11. Style your Feature Box

If you would like to get rid of the light gray background and the borders or style the box differently all together, just add the following few lines to your custom.css from the Custom File Editor:

/*----------------Feature Box-------------- */
.custom #feature_box { background: #ffffff; border-style: solid; border-color: #fff; }

I have set it all to white here, but you may modify and adapt to taste and amend this CSS code as needed.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

This page is wiki editable click here to edit this page.

Related posts:

1. Thesis Tutorial Header Banner Rotator
2. Thesis Tutorial Author Box
3. Create a Header Widget in Thesis
4. Semiomantics Thesis Interpretation
5. Create a Widget below the Multimedia Box in Thesis

Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. Visit the original article at http://yorgonestoridis.com/yorgo-nestoridis/wordpress-menu-problem.

WordPress 3 Menu Limits

When editing the new custom menu feature in WordPress 3 you may notice that you cannot add an unlimited number of items for display. On our Semiomantics Author Blogs we were limited to 16 items when Bianca commented about the issue.

The limit is in fact imposed from server side: if Suhosin or similar is installed on the server then there may be a maximum limit of posted variables. It would then need an increase of suhosin.post.max_vars and suhosin.request.max_vars. We have increased these values to 300 which solved the problem.

If you ever run into a similar problem, just ask your host to make the above adjustments.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

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2. Elegant WordPress
3. WordPress Seminar by Ycademy
4. WordPress for Authors Seminar
5. Firefox Crashes on WordPress

Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. Visit the original article at http://yorgonestoridis.com/yorgo-nestoridis-development/semiomantics/create-a-widget-below-the-multimedia-box-in-thesis.

How to Create A custom widget below the Multimedia Box

Using two sidebars on the right side underneath the Multimedia Box on Thesis, I felt that the sidebars were too narrow to place my Yorgo Music Live Stream Media Player. The ideal place would be just below the Multimedia Box spanning over the width of the two below sidebars. The purpose of the Media Player is to be able to listen to music of course, but then  also to stream recordings of YORGOO Calls or for separate sound streaming accompanying tutorials for those who prefer listening to reading. In short, it’s an experimental feature designed for media oriented customers.

Create the custom Widget in Thesis

The procedure is similar to creating a header ad widget described in an earlier post.

1. Create the widget and hook it to the desired Thesis hook
2. Populate the widget with the media player (you can of course load anything you wish)

Create the Widget below the Multimedia Box

Paste the below code into your custom-functions.php file from your WordPress dashboard (Custom file Editor in the Theme menu):

//-------------Create After Multimedia Box Widget------------
register_sidebars(1,
    array(
        'name' => 'After MultimediaBox',
        'before_widget' => '<li class="widget %2$s" id="%1$s">',
        'after_widget' => '</li>',
        'before_title' => '<h3>',
        'after_title' => '</h3>'
    )
);
function after_multimediabox() { ?>
	<div id="after_multimediabox" class="sidebar">
		<ul class="sidebar_list">
			<?php if (!function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('After MultimediaBox') ){	?>
						<li class="widget"><h3><?php _e('After MultimediaBox', 'thesis'); ?></h3>Edit the widget content from your WP Widgets panel under Appearance :-).</li><?php } ?>
		</ul>
	</div>
<?php }
add_action('thesis_hook_after_multimedia_box', 'after_multimediabox', '1');

Add Style to your Custom Widget

The widget will automatically pick up your default or custom styles.

Populate your Widget

Now, just head over to your Widget panel under Appearance in your WordPress Dashboard and you will find your new Widget area ready for use. Pull in a Text or any other widget and populate your sidebar below the Multimedia Box.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

This page is wiki editable click here to edit this page.

Related posts:

1. Create a Header Widget in Thesis
2. Semiomantics Thesis Interpretation
3. How to Customize WordPress 2
4. Create your First Flash Document
5. How to Create an Ad for Sneakers

Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. Visit the original article at http://yorgonestoridis.com/yorgo-nestoridis-development/semiomantics/create-a-header-widget-in-thesis.

Thesis Header Widget

If you would like to display content, for example an advertising banner, in your header area, you may want to create a new widget. Creating Custom Widgets is a simple affair in Thesis as you need just to register a sidebar and hook the widget to the thesis hook where you would like to display your content.

Create a Custom Widget in Thesis

1. Create the Custom Header Widget by pasting the following code into your custom-functions.php:

//-------------Create Header Widget------------
register_sidebars(1,
    array(
        'name' => 'Header Widget',
        'before_widget' => '<li class="widget %2$s" id="%1$s">',
        'after_widget' => '</li>',
        'before_title' => '<h3>',
        'after_title' => '</h3>'
    )
);
function header_widget() { ?>
	<div id="header_widget_1" class="sidebar">
		<ul class="sidebar_list">
			<?php if (!function_exists('dynamic_sidebar') || !dynamic_sidebar('Header Widget') ){	?>
						<li class="widget"><h3><?php _e('Header Widget', 'thesis'); ?></h3>Edit the widget content from your WP Widgets panel under Appearance :-).</li><?php } ?>
		</ul>
	</div>
<?php }
add_action('thesis_hook_header', 'header_widget', '1');

2. Position your widget pasting the following to your custom.css:

/*--------Header Widget for a 468 px banner-------------- */
.custom .sidebar ul.sidebar_list {position: relative;}
.custom #header_widget_1 ul.sidebar_list li.widget {position: absolute; display: block; top:0px; left:524px; width:468px; }

The positioning will depend on the width of your theme and you may have to adjust the absolute position from the left (left:524px;)

3. Head over to the widget panel in your dashboard and you will find a brand new shiny widget area ready to be populated: add a text widget and punch in your banner code or any other content and check out the display on your site.

That’s it.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

This page is wiki editable click here to edit this page.

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1. Semiomantics Thesis Interpretation
2. How to Customize WordPress 2
3. Make Money with YORGOO Press Seminar
4. Create a Favicon with Photoshop
5. How to Create an Ad for Sneakers

Copyright © 2010 Bianca Gubalke. Visit the original article at http://biancagubalke.com/ycademy-seminars/header-web-design-for-thesis/.

Header Web Design for Thesis

When setting up a new website or blog and deciding on its look, we have to find a visual flow between its main parts within the wrapper: the header, the content area and the footer – always remembering that this is the framework for our future contents, meaning, that what needs to stand out will be our articles and posts: text and images or media.

As all Semiomantics Author owners will be setting up their brand-new WordPress Thesis Semiomantics Blogs at the Ycademy Seminar this coming weekend, it’s good to reflect on this issue – and nothing easier than to start with some Header Web Design for Thesis. The width is 960 pixels and the height is up to your own preference – 100, 120 or more pixels.

Best Header Web Design for WordPress Thesis

Of course, there is sort of an ‘automatic’ header on the Thesis (WordPress) Script crafted by Semiomantics  – however, why not give your imagination some wings and develop the Best Header Web Design for WordPress Thesis you can come up with for your Author Blog?

How to find the best Look for your Header Design

The way how to find the best look for your header design is by firstly creating one header you are quite happy with in Photoshop and then loading it up under Theme > Header Image in your Dashboard.

It’s very user-friendly: you just browse to where you saved it in your Author Blog Folder under ‘header’ (ideally) on your harddrive… then refresh your web page… and you will see the result.

As you are at it in Photoshop, make some different versions, playing with the colors and fonts within your harmonic range. Once you have another version, load it up. The first shot is by far not always the best we can come up with; so it’s a matter of taking the time for some experimenting and then comparing the results on the website or blog and establishing what we prefer.

Having several versions also allows us to change the look of our Blog from time to time – not a bad idea to have some diversity while remaining truthful to our style.

As you see, I did exactly that in the above examples – and time-permitting I will do more. It’s so simple and user-friendly in Thesis – just find ‘your way’ using your colors, fonts and pictures. I am so pleased with the professional photos that just seem to ‘happen’ now – finally! – and that will help everybody with their professional online look! More on that soon…

Ycademy Seminar

While access to the new WordPress Thesis Semiomantics Blogs is only possible as of tomorrow at the Ycademy Seminar as it needs tremendous handwork to set each Author Blog up, the above is a good tip for you to prepare your header and have it ready when you need it.

And as always: enjoy the journey… it’s a constant process that keepw us growing!

Author: Bianca Gubalke, Art, Media, Publishing. Co-Founder of YORGOO, YCADEMY and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Read more...

• World Expo 2010 Shanghai
• Documentation on Semiomantics Evolution
• The Semiomantics Evolution Blues
• Performance
• We Are The Semiomantics World

Copyright © 2010 Bianca Gubalke. Visit the original article at http://biancagubalke.com/semiomantics/bianca-gubalke-on-semiomantics-thesis/.

Bianca Gubalke on Semiomantics Thesis

Yesterday, I speculated that I might have taken the last screenshot of my ‘old’ yet spectacularly efficient Author Blog on Semiomantics XO, posting it HERE – today I am writing my first lines as Bianca Gubalke on Semiomantics Thesis!

May it climb to flaming heights! I just captured a wise fairy in my magic garden… leading the way to the top for the Semiomantics Team:

Bianca Gubalke on Semiomantics Thesis

What will change for my Author Blog “Bianca Gubalke” on Semiomantics Thesis?

It’s said that Thesis is powerful… that it has a ‘remarkably efficient HTML, CSS and PHP framework’, easy-to-use controls that allow us more fine-tuning and precision than ever before… and that our job as authors should be to “… just add killer content”.

That’s WordPress Thesis.

Add to this Semiomantics… and let’s see where this baby flies… I will check it right away after posting to see how efficient it is from its very beginning!

Ycademy Seminar October 2010

Congratulations to all authors and Ycademy Seminar October 2010 participants on Semiomantics XO who have opted to take off to new heights in their knowledge and skills in Website Development.

The brand-new Semiomantics Thesis Author Blog is currently being setup by hand by Internet wizzard Yorgo Nestoridis! Fasten seatbelts – this weekend will change your virtual reality!

Author: Bianca Gubalke, Art, Media, Publishing. Co-Founder of YORGOO, YCADEMY and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Read more...

• Fun with Web Graphics
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• Your biggest Capital Online
• Shanghai World Expo 2010 Swiss Pavilion
• Best Cape Town Event Venues

Copyright © 2010 Bianca Gubalke. Visit the original article at http://biancagubalke.com/semiomantics/before-the-new-semiomantics-author-blog/.

Before the New Semiomantics Author Blog

Just as I published “Noordhoek Garden before the Rains” a few minutes ago – and saw it go straight to Google Top 10 in fine Semiomantics style – this may just be the last post before the New Semiomantics Author Blog!

Click on the image to see it large… especially if you think something has changed! If you think so… and you see it… it is true!

Before the New Semiomantics Author Blog

Before the New Semiomantics Author Blog, I think back with gratitude to the awe-inspiring high performance we got literally used to if setting the Semiomantics XO Script up correctly and then publishing regularly according to the strict Website Publishing rules and codes we were taught over years in Ycademy Seminars and Workshops

Ycademy Seminar October 2010

After the Ycademy Seminar in September 2010, which focused on a totally new NewsCast – Online Newspaper – Blog, this month’s upcoming October Seminar (23 and 24 October 2010) will see all those who work on Semiomantics Author Blogs resurrect with something completely different… We are told “…it’s gonna be something else!”

And if the Greek Olymp predicts this kind of result… we know the Ycademy Seminar will rock… and so will our brand-new Author Blogs that we will all be setting up this coming weekend! New Blogs, new Servers, new YOU online!

I am pleased to see a large and fast reaction to this important event. Right you are: with the Internet changing that fast we need to adapt… and as Semiomantics claims the right to Excellence – we’ve gotta be good, attractive and – on Google Top 10 – and we will! I just wonder sometimes: what comes beyond Google?

Make sure you don’t miss this… there are only 3 Ycademy Seminars left and the year is over – again! So fasten seatbelts and attend as many pre-Seminar calls as you can … there’s always important information that may just fill a gap in our knowledge, answer a question we didn’t dare to ask… or we have a little bit more to pass on in our service to our customers.

See you at tonight’s call @ 9 pm London time!

Author: Bianca Gubalke, Art, Media, Publishing. Co-Founder of YORGOO, YCADEMY and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Read more...

• South Africa Newspapers
• Best Websites News
• Web Design on Facebook
• Media Marketing
• Web Content Writing for Web sites

Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. Visit the original article at http://yorgonestoridis.com/yorgo-nestoridis-development/semiomantics/semiomantics-author-blog-for-ycademy-pros.

Better than the best: Semiomantics Frame

The upcoming Ycademy seminar will constitute a Milestone in Ycademy’s Blogging history. A new era will commence starting next week-end in as much as our scripts are concerned as well as the professionalism of Ycademy Pro’s Editing and Publishing.

What’s the fuss all about?

With WordPress 3 designers take advantage of new features and users will be able to easily modify and tweak the behavior of the script, the look of the website and the surfing experience. At Semiomantics we have prepared for Ycademy pros the most incredible Webmaster Pack:

1. The bases of the new site is a framework which is tuned for optimized performance. This framework can be completed either just by Skins or Child Themes. In the future you will never need anything else than this one single framework to build the most smashing sites.

2. The Ycademy Seminar will deal with the new WordPress features as well as with all the possibilities we have to apply custom design to the websites. We finally will customize each participants Authority site.

3. The Ycademy Seminar is only the beginning of what may become a long journey for those interested in customization or in selling Semiomantics Authority Sites. In fact, the possibilities are limited to your imagination only. Subsequent to this Seminar we may add some special meetings for designers who would like to base a whole business just on the new Framework.

What about other WordPress Themes?

All Semiomantics Themes will also in the future do what they are known for: Performance.

The difference is just that the new Frameworks on WordPress 3 allow for more feature rich sites to improve the visitors experience. Also, many features which in the past were the reserved tasks of web designers, become accessible to the end user, in as much as the editing process has been expanded with variables allowing to intervene on lay-out, backgrounds, fonts and most any style element on an individual post or page base.

Also from a set-up and configuration point of view, Semiomantics makes it easy in as much as set-up and configuration will be taken care of by Semiomantics, assuring correct indexing and listing by Google and other Search Engines.

Designers who serve customers, may create static content as per user’s needs in the most personalized way, using for example static pages for impressive product presentations, splash pages or media portfolios.

In as much as I am aware of, the Semiomantics framework offers as before the only eCommerce solution based on WordPress with a fully optimized site structure where Blog and Commerce interact and interlace perfectly and perform at the same pace as our most popular arm, the Semiomantics XO.

Semiomantics will continue to update and service Semiomantics XO, NewsCast, Tabloid and the derivative products thereof. The YORGOO Blaster and the YORGOO Booster will be re-edited for the purpose of the new YORGOO Pro sites.

Why you should join the Seminar

Consider the Seminar as an annual must to keep your High Performance Engine in shape, updated and ready for future expansion. A website is first of all a tool you need to communicate online; it’s a tool you use to present and sell your services and products. There are a few billion web pages out there but only few make it to objective visibility; the others need paid advertising to grab at least some attention.

Meaningful monthly advertising budgets hit you way more than the maintenance of your authority site. The cost for custom websites has dramatically increased in recent years; the reason is in the rapidly evolving technology its increased complexity. Also, as the average speed of our lines increase, we can deliver much more and better content in less time which has increased customers’ demand for more interesting features on a website.

The impact of the development is huge: we need to build professional websites which can handle interactive functions and media alike. We also need to be able to host such sites and we need to be able to make such sites available at a reasonable price.

At Ycademy we are at the forefront of development seeking permanently the best available bases for future development. As we are not married with any particular developer, we work with the best at any given time to provide the best available products to Ycademy Pros.

The upcoming Seminar will take our WordPress related path to profitability to a new level and with it all participants knowledge, know-how and performance, which in the end of the day will make the day of our customers.

This page is wiki editable click here to edit this page.

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5. The Semiomantics Team News

Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. Visit the original article at http://yorgonestoridis.com/yorgo-nestoridis-development/ycademy/new-semiomantics-optimized-wp-newspaper.

Semiomantics Optimized Newspaper

Just a few screen-shots and links for the most recent Semiomantics Optimization of a bold WordPress Newspaper.

Top Section

The WordPress header is one of the most important elements of our Ycademy Times site. The first impression counts and while we work it (photo)graphically, quick access to information and navigation are the main focus.

More important, the invisible header code from where we guide bots through the site.

Secondary section

Focus is on 4 categories on the right, while the vertical accordion on the left may attract the eye as well with bold images. There is also space left for a news feed from an associated site.

A similar layout we find in the

Third section

but, this time we inverse the layout: the featured categories move to the left:
The interest of Semiomantics Optimized WP Newspaper’>

The interest of Semiomantics Optimized WP Newspaper

There are many WordPress newspaper themes out there and many of them are very attractive; however, most of them will never perform in any significant way on search engines. This is the third WordPress Newspaper script optimized by Semiomantics (the previous ones are YORGOO Press and NewsCast). Time will prove that this new site will perform as well as its sister scripts, simply because the important part for performance is the Semiomantics Optimization and the way Semiomantics signed sites communicate with bots.

The site which is tested by Ycademy for the first time since yesterday when it went live, is a nice alternative to other newspaper scripts namely for people who like editing since it offers many different ways to display content in an attractive way.

But that’s not all: personally I like it because it’s at the same time a lazy man’s solution in as much as it pulls in syndicated content in a smashing way (for redistribution). Images importad via feed are automatically thumbnailed here!

I am thinking of using this script as an author blog as well, since it offers the possibility to represent on the home page all the main categories of my site … in a bold way. Time permitting I will customize the site for the use as a personal site just to have a sample in my portfolio.

Performance

Of course you want to know about performance: that is not a matter of the theme or design, for as long as the code is clean. The Semiomantics Optimization is in charge for quick and efficient delivery to destination.

The Ycademy Times site has been set up yesterday at the same time when the sub-domain has been registered. Today the site flirts with Google Top 10 (no, I won’t tell you on which keyword this time, bust as you can see, it’s in very good company beating my main site :-)).

The interest is in the quick indexing and listing by Google, but that’s another story.

This page is wiki editable click here to edit this page.

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