Dvorak Designs Blog

One of the things I did with this website, and something I see a lot of people wanting to do when they use WordPress as full Content Management System, is to add /blog/ into the URLs of their blog posts and other related pages. While keeping WordPress in the root of their server, and keeping their static pages from having the blog prefix. As an example, you will see the URL of this post as starts off with www.dvorakdesigns.com/blog/, where as my other website pages do not have /blog/ in them.

Really it’s not that hard. But, if you’re picky like me, you not only want your blog posts to have the URL prefix, but also your category, tag, archive and author pages as well; pretty much anything related to the blog portion of your website. This proved to be a little more difficult to figure out, though I eventually did thanks to help from people over at WordPress StackExchange.

As a quick note/warning, this will not work if you have a sub-directory on your server named “blog” or if you have a sub-domain (which would make a sub-directory) on your server at blog.yourdomain.com. Also, if you’re like me and used to have a blog at a sub-domain like that, you will have problems setting up redirects. I’m currently looking into a solution for that now, but no one seems to know how to do it. Once I figure it out I will post it.

At any rate, here’s how to setup the URL structure.

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I’ve written quite a few bits and pieces about website speed and speed optimization, but I decided I wanted to bring them all together into a website speed super article. My goal with this will be to cover as many aspects of improving website speed that I know about, along with how I utilize them.

I cover everything pretty thoroughly in this guide, but there’s always something I don’t know about yet. If you follow this list, your website should be pretty well off though. Of course, if you know anything I didn’t cover, please tell me in a comment at the end of the article. It will benefit the community, and I’ll probably come out with a part two of this guide with everything I’ve discovered after writing this.

Now, onto the list. If you’re ready, read on! Be sure you’re prepared though, it’s about six pages of awesome tips.

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While continuing work on my new website, I’ve needed to find several different jQuery-based plugins for a variety of features. As you can imagine, there is nearly an endless amount of jQuery things out there, and finding the right one can be time consuming. I did, however, find three plugins I think are great all around. JQuery is something that’s new to me still, so I tend to gravitate towards the more simple plugins. So my hope is you will find these plugins as easy to use and setup as I did.

1. EasySlider – jQuery Image Scroller

What I like about this plugin is it works out of the box and comes with all of the default information you could need. Like placeholder images, previous/next buttons, and even some pre-configured settings from the author. This makes it significantly easier for someone like me to see how things are working together. If you want to customize it with your own settings, that’s quite easy too. The author provides a lot of information on how to change the various aspects of the plugin across the three different version pages (Version 1.0, Version 1.5, and Version 1.7). It seems most of the information applies to all of the versions, but I recommend downloading version 1.7, as it appears to be the most recent one.

2. idTabs – jQuery Tabs

The search for this plugin started when I noticed a neat, tab-based sidebar on another blog. There are a lot of options out there for something like this, but this one was the simplest one I could find. The coding and the way it works is pretty straightforward, and there is a lot of customization you can do with CSS. Which is also very easy.

3. jScrollPane – jQuery Scrollbar Customization

Scrollbar customization is something I’ve tried on and off, with none of the previous solutions working how I wanted. So I was quite happy when I found this plugin. I use it to customize the look of scrollbars on divs (not the main scrollbar of the browser, which I’m not sure this particular plugin is capable of). The plugin page has a lot of information, which can seem overwhelming. If you take the time to read through it, this plugin is fairly easy to implement and customize. You can pretty much make the scrollbar look any way you want.

If you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing to our RSS feed to keep up with other articles like it and to insure you don’t miss the release of our new website, which will feature all of these plugins in action.

In light of the new Dvorak Designs website that is on the way, I am going to start Sharing and Retweeting relevant news on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Since I’m just one person, and I can’t blog about everything (even though I wish I could), I’m hoping that this will help get information out to more people in a faster manner.

So, if you’re interested in keeping up with web design/development and SEO related news, tips and tricks, use the buttons below to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

As you’ve probably noticed, there has been a lack of updates on my blog during this last month. It’s partly due to the holiday season, and being busy with other projects. Though it’s mostly because I’ve been working on learning new web design techniques and getting into new habits with handling projects.

By learning new web design techniques, what I really mean is I had an “ah-ha” moment while working on one of my current projects. Since starting this business I’ve struggled a lot with where I want to go with it, and what I wanted to do with my designs. Now I have a pretty good idea and a pretty solid goal as I continue to work my way through the project. It may have taken awhile to come to the conclusion that I did, but I think it’s better late than never in this situation.

So I ask that you bear with me while I make the transition. It will be happening after the new year, and I think it’s going to make my services and my blog even more useful for everyone.

I updated my portfolio again today, because I finished what I consider to be a pretty huge project for me. It was my first attempt at doing any type of serious illustration work. It was in the form of three cats that are going to be used on children’s book covers. I think they turned out pretty well for my first shot, so it’s certainly something I’ll continue to build on as time goes by.

Then of course I created the first cover for the children’s books, using the cat illustrations.

Over the next few days I will be working on the look and feel of all the websites on the network, as well as working towards making them even more user friendly. I like doing live testing, so if you end up on one of our pages and things don’t look right, just give it a few minutes and then reload the page and see what it looks like. If you notice any long standing problems, please post a comment to this blog post or contact me.

Today my portfolio was updated with quite a few projects that were completed since the last update. There are too many to list in this post, so be sure to head over to my portfolio to see them all.

One of the bigger ones in this update is an eBay template. eBay templates are a new thing for me, but of course they still use the same principles as any web-based project. This one was interesting in particular, since I had to build it using tables (a relatively dated form of website construction). Overall the client was happy, and was able to use the template in their auction listing program of choice (which was the main goal of the template).

Next we have some World of Warcraft signatures. These are never done as paid work, and I am not the owner of the models (Blizzard Entertainment is). I simply manipulate them to my liking and add a nice background or other effects. They’re fun little projects to do when I’m having some down time, and they let me discover new techniques without falling behind on the paid project.

There are even more in my portfolio, so be sure to check it out!

While doing a recent project, I needed some icons/vectors, and since I put in the effort to find free ones, I decided it might be worth sharing them.

Cardboard Box Vectors

Colored Star Icons

Vista Style Return Arrow

Have your own icons to share? Post them in the comments below, and I may include them in future posts!

Over the next week or two I’m going to be restructuring the blog. Mostly I’ll be redoing the categories things are divided into so I can provide a better browsing experience for everyone and cover a broader range of topics. During this time, links to some articles may be temporarily broken while I setup redirects and get everything moved around.

Once the restructuring is done, I plan to stick to a more rigorous posting schedule. Meaning there will be many more posts per week than there were previously. Without any skipped weeks.

I appreciate everyones’ patience while I work to make this blog as reader friendly as possible. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.