In this episode I’ll explain how we can hide the Feedback Tab that the Jetpack plugin adds to the sidebar of the admin interface in WordPress.

This tab is part of the Contact Form feature, which sadly cannot be switched off with a single slider. We’ll have to delve into debug mode and do it “the hard way” – but fear not, there’s not code hacking involved, and I’ll be with you every step of the way.

In this episode I’ll show you how to hide and remove those (almost daily occurring) WordPress Update Notifications. I’ve built this functionality into a plugin I’ve written over 5 years ago called ZEN DASH. The plugin’s main purpose is to hide all kinds of clutter from the WordPress admin interface, such as unused tabs, dashboard widgets, footer attributions – and Update Notifications.

You can install the plugin by searching under Plugins – Add New, or download it from the official WordPress repository here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/zen-dash

The project is also on GitHub: https://github.com/versluis/Zen-Dash

In this episode I’ll show you how to install the Classic Editor plugin in WordPress 5.x. I’m also showing you how to upgrade to WordPress 5.0 and how to bring back the welcome screen that appears only once after the update.

From now on, Gutenberg will be the new post and page editing experience in WordPress by default. The Classic Editor is now a plugin that will be supported until 2021, so there’s ample time to get acquainted with Gutenberg in our own time.

If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.

In this video I’ll show you the multi-user capabilities of WordPress: how to create new users, and what capabilities the different user roles have over your WordPress site.

This feature comes in handy if you collaborate with other users: each user can create posts, but such users can be restricted from deleting other people’s posts, or change the layout and functionality of the website.

You can watch the full course on one convenient YouTube Playlist.

Enjoy!

In this episode I’ll explain how you can change the URLs for your posts and pages, as they appear in your web browser. By default, WordPress uses numeric links (such as domain.com?p=123) but those are not so easy on the eye.

We can change this to something like domain.com/awesome-post instead, and I’ll explain how to do it, as well as the implications of changing URLs retrospectively.

You can watch the full course on one convenient YouTube Playlist.

Enjoy!

In this episode I’ll show you how the MORE tag works. It’s a “break mark” you can use so that longer posts don’t take up too much space on your front page. I’m also explaining a related feature called the NEXTPAGE tag with which you can break even longer posts into individual pages.

You can watch the full course on one convenient YouTube Playlist.

Enjoy!

In this episode I’ll show you how you can organise your posts with tags and categories. You don’t have to use tags, but a post is always in a default category (called “uncategorized” by default, and I’ll show you how to change that too).

The full course is aimed at beginners and medium casuals alike. Whether you’ve been away from WordPress for a while, or if you’re a complete newbie, this is a very un-intimidating “getting started” guide.

You can watch the full course on one convenient YouTube Playlist.

Enjoy!

In this episode I’ll show you how to embed videos from YouTube and Vimeo into your posts and pages. This works with some magic called oEmbed, a technology that only requires the URL to the video, from which WordPress can determine the correct width for your theme and pull in the complicated code we once had to post.

This principle works for embedding other sources as well, for example images from Flickr, Tweets from Twitter and even Kickstarter campaigns.

The full course is aimed at beginners and medium casuals alike. Whether you’ve been away from WordPress for a while, or if you’re a complete newbie, this is a very un-intimidating “getting started” guide.

You can watch the full course on one convenient YouTube Playlist.

Enjoy!

In this episode I’ll show you how with images in WordPress.

I’ll explain how to upload them, how to embed them into your posts and pages, and what happens behind the scenes when you do that. We’ll also discuss Featured Images, the relationship between the “image” and “embed code”, and we’ll talk about the actual image sizes on the server.

The full course is aimed at beginners and medium casuals alike. Whether you’ve been away from WordPress for a while, or if you’re a complete newbie, this is a very un-intimidating “getting started” guide.

You can watch the full course on one convenient YouTube Playlist.

Enjoy!

In this episode I’ll show you how to use widgets. They usually materialise in a sidebar, but some themes have widgetized areas elsewhere, such as the bottom or the top of your site. I will also show you how to remove unwanted widgets. And while we’re at it, I will also explain what a sidebar is 🙂

The full course is aimed at beginners and medium casuals alike. Whether you’ve been away from WordPress for a while, or if you’re a complete newbie, this is a very un-intimidating “getting started” guide.

You can watch the full course on one convenient YouTube Playlist.

Enjoy!