Month: September 2021

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Worldwide WordPress Virtual 5K Set for October 1-30, 2021

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Automattic is organizing its 2nd annual Worldwide WordPress 5K during the month of October this year. Registration for the race is free and participants will have the opportunity to donate to a charity of their choice, with Automattic matching donations up to $50,000.

Just like the first Worldwide WP 5K that was held in 2015, the race will be virtual. Anyone is welcome to run, walk, bike, or swim the 5K any time between October 1-31. The requirements are fairly loose in that you can use any exercise app to track your run if you want. Participants are also encouraged to share a selfie, a screenshot of your route, and write a blog post that includes the #wwwp5k tag. Automattic will use the hashtag to include pictures on the official race site.

Throughout the pandemic, much of the social running industry has gone online and virtual races have become more common. Although they don’t carry the same energy as in-person races, virtual races help friends keep setting fitness goals and encourage each other through online challenges. Joining in the Worldwide WordPress 5K is a great way to connect with friends around the world for an offline challenge that benefits your health.

There is plenty of time to start training to reach a goal ahead of October and lots of resources available for running your first 5K. If all other motivations fail, maybe Wapuu can get you off the couch. The lack of in-person WordCamps has left some people hankering for new WordPress swag, and the 5K wapuu is ready to deliver. Participants can choose from a wide array of official gear, including hoodies, t-shirts, water bottles, tank tops, pins, socks, and more. Those who prefer not to run but still want to take part in the charitable event can give directly through the donation page.

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How to Use Social Media to Influence and Inspire Your Web Design Projects

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This post is originally published on Designmodo: How to Use Social Media to Influence and Inspire Your Web Design Projects

How to Use Social Media to Influence and Inspire Your Web Design Projects

In this day and age, many of us spend our lives swiping and scrolling through our socials. And, in addition to being a constant source of information and entertainment, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok and other social media sites can also provide …

For more information please contact Designmodo

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New Pinned Items UI

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In the olden days (like, a few weeks ago), the Pinned Items UI was much less capable. You could certainly pin things, and open up a menu to see a list of what you pinned, but there wasn’t any context. There was no visual preview to quickly identify them. There was no metadata like when it was created or updated.

We’ve updated the UI so now you’re Pinned Items always open up in a modal (it’s the same everywhere now) and you can flip between grid view:

And list view:

We’re hoping this will make it much more convenient to get to items you want to really quickly get back to from no matter where you are on CodePen.

The post New Pinned Items UI appeared first on CodePen Blog.

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How to Accept Multiple Currencies in WooCommerce

Set Up Woocommerce

How to Accept Multiple Currencies in WooCommerceAs an online store owner, you want to grow your customer base. One way to do that is to start selling globally. In fact, almost 93% of online retailers accept international payments and offer international commerce. For this, you will need to set up your online store to accept multiple currencies in WooCommerce. In this […]

The post How to Accept Multiple Currencies in WooCommerce appeared first on WPExplorer.

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If I work really hard on my Open Graph images, people will share my blog posts.

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Zach did that thing where each of his blog posts has a special URL with the design of social image card that is screenshat by a headless browser (like Puppeteer) and used as a true meta Open Graph image, meaning it’s displayed on Twitter, Facebook, iMessage, Slack, Discord, and whatever else supports that card look.

I like it. Even though I’ve got a pretty good solution cooking now (for WordPress), the templates aren’t controlled with HTML/CSS like I wish they were.

As bit of yang to the ying here, Jim has some thoughts on the not-so-great Aspects of Open Graph images:

I feel like they’ve been hijacked by auto-generated computer imagery serving as attention-grabbing filler more than supportive expression.

Jim Nielsen, “Quibbles With Social Share Imagery”

It’s kinda like… we can add Open Graph images, and we essentially get a totally free massive clickable target for hungry fingers, so we do add Open Graph images — even when that image is, well, boring. Just auto-generated computer barf of title text with branding. Jim’s post has examples.

I get where Jim is coming from, and I suppose I’m guilty to some degree. I feel like we’re a cut-above on CSS-Tricks though, if you’ll pardon a taste of defensiveness, because:

  1. We have a variety of templates to choose from to switch it up, like a quote design.
  2. We incorporate custom imagery into the final card, meaning most cards are somewhat visually unique.
  3. We don’t just brand the cards, we usually incorporate the author for a little extra high five for the person, rather than just our brand.

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

The post If I work really hard on my Open Graph images, people will share my blog posts. appeared first on CSS-Tricks. You can support CSS-Tricks by being an MVP Supporter.

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What I Wish I Knew About CSS When Starting Out As A Front-Ender

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Nathan Hardy shares when things “clicked”:

Reflecting back on this time, I think there are a few key concepts that were vital to things finally all making sense and fitting together. These were:

• The Box Model (e.g. box-sizing, height, width, margin, padding)
• Layout (e.g. display)
• Document Flow and Positioning (e.g. position, top, left, etc.)

I called this my ah-ha moment a few years back:

For me, it was a couple of concepts that felt like an unlocking of real power. It was a combination of these concepts that were my “Ah-ha!” moment.

• Every page element is a box.
• I can control the size and position of those boxes.
• I can give those boxes background images.

People shared their own as well. And again.

It’s really the deal.

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

The post What I Wish I Knew About CSS When Starting Out As A Front-Ender appeared first on CSS-Tricks. You can support CSS-Tricks by being an MVP Supporter.

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Some Typography Links VII

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  • SKWAR — Heydon Pickering made a hard-edged monospaced variable font. The axes are width and weight.
  • Twenty Bits I Learned About Making Fonts Book — Dan Cederholm has been making fonts, like Captain Edward and Ship Whistle and has turned his learnings into a book.
  • The perfect cross-platform serif and sans-serif font stacks — Daniel Aleksandersen has lots of details about pre-installed fonts across operating systems, like: Mac and iOS also come with Helvetica Neue preinstalled. It addresses some of Helvetica’s legibility issues … On Windows, you might find a more modern version of Arial called Arial Nova. Arial Nova makes much the same legibility improvements and compromises as Helvetica Neue.
  • Pairing fonts – 3 ways to find great typeface combinations — Oliver Schöndorfer says it’s an artistist decision so don’t be afraid to try stuff. But also, do you even need more than one? If so, have a reason. Repeat your font choices as often as you can, and only when something does not work in a given situation, add a new style.
  • Twitter thread about Really Sans — Riley Cran gets into optical sizing and how Really Sans […] is a sans serif typeface with two optical sizes. The small optical size works for text. The large optical size revives the tone of the 1970s headlines. I see Riley is using the pricing model based on # of employees rather than pageviews which I love.
  • Helvetica® Now Variable — I think having major fonts like Helvetica, that a lot of brands rely on, is the kind of thing that pushes the needle on variable fonts forward.
  • Fonts in the Twilight Zone — John Boardley looks at some rather unclassifiable fonts: Among my favorite kinds of typefaces are those that don’t fit neatly into predefined or existing categories; those that dip their toes into more than one genre, or take their cues from disparate historical periods.
  • Coding with Character — Doug Wilson looks at coding typefaces: If you spend all day looking at code, letters, and characters—why not make it fun? I’m down.

The post Some Typography Links VII appeared first on CSS-Tricks. You can support CSS-Tricks by being an MVP Supporter.

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How to Easily Optimize WordPress CSS Delivery (2 Methods)

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Would you like to optimize your WordPress CSS delivery?

CSS files control the visual formatting and style of your WordPress website. But if your CSS code isn’t delivered in an optimal way, then it could be slowing down your website.

In this article, we’ll show you two easy methods to optimize your WordPress CSS delivery.

How to Easily Optimize CSS Delivery in WordPress

How WordPress CSS Delivery Affects WordPress Performance

CSS files are used to define the visual appearance of your WordPress site. Your WordPress theme contains a CSS stylesheet file, and some of your plugins may also use CSS stylesheets.

CSS is necessary for modern websites, but it’s possible for CSS files to slow down your site’s speed and performance depending on how they’re set up.

Even a small delay in site speed creates a bad user experience and may affect your search rankings and conversions, resulting in less traffic and sales.

StrangeLoop study

One way that CSS files can slow your website is if they need to be loaded before the page can be displayed. That means your visitors will see a blank page until the CSS file has loaded. This is known as render-blocking CSS.

Another common reason CSS files can slow your website is when they contain more code than is needed to display the visible part of the current page. That extra code means that they will take longer to load.

The good news is, you can improve your WordPress site’s performance by optimizing the way the CSS code is delivered.

That’s done by identifying the minimum CSS code needed to display the first part of the current web page. This is known as critical CSS.

This critical code is then added inline to the page’s HTML, instead of in separate stylesheets, so that the code can be rendered without needing to load the CSS file first.

The rest of the CSS can then be loaded after your visitors can see the contents of the page. This is known as ‘deferred loading’.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you two methods to optimize WordPress CSS delivery, and you can choose the one that works best for you.

Method 1: Optimizing WordPress CSS Delivery with WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin in the market. It offers the simplest way to optimize your WordPress CSS delivery. In fact, it’s as easy as checking a box.

WP Rocket is a premium plugin, but the best part is that all features are included in their lowest plan.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Rocket plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, you need to navigate to the Settings » WP Rocket page and switch to the ‘File Optimization’ tab.

Switch to the File Optimization Tab

Next, you need to scroll down to the CSS files section. Once there, you need to check the box next to the ‘Optimize CSS delivery’ option.

Check Optimize CSS Delivery

This feature will intelligently identify the critical CSS needed to format the part of the web page your visitors see first. Your pages will load more quickly, and the rest of the CSS will be loaded after your visitors can see its contents.

All you need to do now is click the Save Changes button and wait for WP Rocket to generate the necessary CSS file for all your posts and pages.

It will also automatically clear the cache for your website, so that your visitors will see the new optimized version of your site instead of the any unoptimized versions stored in cache.

There are plenty of other ways that WP Rocket can help you improve your website’s performance. To learn more, see our guide on how to properly install and setup WP Rocket in WordPress.

Method 2: Optimizing WordPress CSS Delivery with Autoptimize

Autoptimize is a free plugin designed to improve the delivery of your website’s CSS and JS files.

While Autoptimize is a free plugin, it doesn’t have as many features as WP Rocket and takes more time to set up.

For example, it’s not able to automatically identify critical CSS like WP Rocket can. Instead, Autoptimize requires the help of a premium third-party service which is an additional cost and requires extra time to configure.

However, it could be a good option if you’re on a tight budget and don’t need all the other features of WP Rocket to speed up your site.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Autoptimize plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » Autoptimize page to configure the plugin settings. Once there, you need to scroll down to the CSS Options section and check the Optimize CSS Code box at the top.

Scroll Down to CSS Options

Once you do that you need to make sure that ‘Aggregate CSS-files’ option is unchecked and then check ‘Eliminate render-blocking CSS’.

You can now click on the ‘Save Changes and Empty Cache’ button to store your settings.

But the plugin will not work properly until you sign up for a Critical CSS account. This is a premium subscription service that will provide Autoptimize the critical CSS code it needs to optimize your WordPress CSS delivery.

To do that, navigate to the Critical CSS tab in Autoptimize’s settings. Here you’ll find the information you need to sign up with Critical CSS. You can get started by clicking the sign up link in the third paragraph.

Sign Up for a Critical CSS Account

Once you’ve received your Critical CSS API key, scroll down to the API Key section so you can paste it into the ‘Your API key’ text box. After that, make sure you click the Save Changes button.

Paste Your Critical CSS API Key

Autoptimize now has all of the information it needs to add the critical CSS inline and defer loading the stylesheets until after the page has been rendered. As a result, your website will load more quickly.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to optimize WordPress CSS delivery.

You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how much it really costs to build a WordPress website, and our comparison of the best managed WordPress hosting companies.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Optimize WordPress CSS Delivery (2 Methods) appeared first on WPBeginner.