• Web Design

WordPress 3.6 – Six Useful Hacks that You Still Need

The wait is finally over and WordPress 3.6 has rolled out with all the latest features that boost the content management’s images as one most preferred by users. The new release which was being eagerly awaited by developers and users and WordPress has once again proved why it still remains the most user-friendly and scalable content management system in the world. Although it makes the life of the developers easier, there are still a few tweaks that can help you draw more mileage out of this CMS solution. So below we have listed some of the useful hacks that make your life easier as a user.

1. Multi Column Content

As a developer you are aware of the fact that splitting the content into two or more columns makes your website look attractive. This helps you showcase your creativity to the visitors of your page and at the same time makes the content easy to read. Comparison tables, lists, before and after images you can do a lot by splitting the content. WordPress 3.6 hasn’t quite addressed the issue and you can use the following hack in the functions.php file.

Once you have done this, you will need to tweak the single.php file. Comment on the_content by adding // before the line and using this code

2. Create Tiny URLs Automatically

Social media has become very powerful tool for businesses to brand themselves and Twitter is one such platform where we like to share all our posts. With only 140 characters at hand and lots of hash tags to take care of tiny URLs provide you the perfect solution. You don’t like going to a tiny URL generator site and then post it on Twitter, do you? Now you can automatically create Tiny URLs for your website using the following codes. For this you will have to tweak the functions.php and single.php file in your WordPress site.

In the functions.php file make add the following code

3. Add a Facebook Share Button

We have discussed how you can draw mileage out of Twitter and how can we forget Facebook. With a billion plus users, it is the most popular social media platform in the world. It is the perfect place where you can share your latest blog post or post by others. With the following code you will add a Facebook share button to your site. It is more than a share button as it uses Google Analytics and lets you know how many times a post has been shared. For this you will need to tweak the single.php or the page.php file.

4. Add Google Map to the Site

If you have a shop or an office that isn’t located in the high street area providing a map on your Contact Us page is advisable. With Google Map providing you all the benefits you just need to integrate it into your website. This helps your customers and clients locate you and also get the driving directions to your office. This is also useful for businesses that operate from multiple locations. Adding a Google map to your WordPress site is pretty easy and you need a small tweak in the functions.php file of your website.

Now you will need to add the following code that will help you specify the width and height of the map appearing in your webpage. Also you need to change the URL with your source URL

5. Page Load Time Tester

The time that a page takes to load often decides the success of your website. And you would invariably want to know this. This hack is very useful when it comes to testing your website and it isn’t something that you will display to your users. To make use of this you will need to tweak the CSS file and leave the code without detracting it. Here goes the code in the footer.

6. Making Your Users Subscribe to RSS Feed

If you are primarily using WordPress as your blog tool you are aware of the potential of an RSS feed in increasing the popularity of your website. We all love to see our users get updates on our latest posts. You can achieve this by adding the following code in your page.php file and add your custom URL.

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Author Bio:

This post is contributed by Andrew Johnson, who is founder of BestPSDtoHTML. He loves writing about creative designs, website development, technologies and everything about latest innovations. As an Internet entrepreneur, he constantly tries to inspire people about PSD to WordPress conversions, being the latest trend in the market. He has been prophetic in identifying the best ways to leverage and harness such news to drive sales growth for companies ranging from start-ups to huge organizations.