one digital life

Tutorial: Magazine layouts with Wordpress

Want to structure your Wordpress site to be less like a traditional blog, and more like an online magazine? Darren Hoyt has you covered with a nice little tutorial on reformatting your Wordpress pages.

via Quality Peoples

Peek into page formatting with XRAY

XRAY is a super handy little bookmarklet that allows you to reveal the formatting of web page elements just by clicking around the page.

I’ve only used it with Safari, but since it’s just a bit of javascript, it should work with all modern browsers, on both platforms.

UPDATE: One of the XRAY developers left a comment saying that it doesn’t quite work in IE or Opera yet, but he’s working on it and should have a version soon. Thanks for the update, John.

via SimpleBits

Google, Feedburner, and Free Stuff

If you’re a Feedburner user, you may want to check out this post. Looks like Google is removing the fees from some services that use to cost extra.

Mouse alternative for an injured hand

For several weeks after my hand surgery, I was unable to use a mouse. Luckily, I did find that I could use a trackball. I chose this Logitech model. You move the cursor with your thumb, and click with your first two fingers. I’ve also seen versions that are the opposite… you move the cursor with your fingers, and click with your thumb.

I personally prefer a mouse, and I’ve switched back now that I’m able to use one again, but if you ever find yourself with a hand injury, one of these may mean the difference between being able to work, or not.

LightWindow - a Lightbox for Everything

Have you used Lightbox, or Slimbox, on your site to display images, and wished you could use it for other types of content? If so, you may want to have a look at lightWindow. It’s the lightbox for just about everything else… QuickTime, Flash, PDF, other web pages, forms, inline content, and oh ya… images.

via Ajaxian

Is it better to buy, or rent?

The NY Times has published an awesome, interactive guide for determining the financial benefits of buying, or renting a home. Basically, you put in all the relevant information, and it can give you costs for each year you are in the house, and at what point it becomes better to have bought, over renting. Of course, the numbers it gives are based on averages. It may not reflect costs specific to your area, but it’s still a good data point.

In order to access the guide, you’ll need to sign up for a NY Times account. It’s free, and only takes a minute. It’s time well spent if you’re thinking about moving.

via Vestal Design

QuickTip: Timed Screenshots with ‘Grab’

For the previous post, I needed to take a screen capture of the OS X app switcher. There’s just one problem, with the app switcher active, the OS won’t let you activate a screen capture via the keyboard shortcut.

Luckily, Apple gives us a built-in workaround for this, in the form of, Grab. Grab is a handy little application located in your Utilities folder. In addition to giving us the same type of screen captures available via the keyboard shortcuts, it also gives us the option for a “Timed Screen”. Basically, 10 seconds after you click go, Grab will capture your screen. It works a little differently than the keyboard shortcuts, as Grab brings up the capture in its own window, and you have the option to save it as a file, or copy/paste it into another app.

You probably won’t need this functionality very often, but when you do, it’s nice to know it’s there. It also comes in handy if you can’t remember all the variations of the keyboard shortcuts.

Quicktip: cycle through apps in both directions

Most Mac users know that holding the keyboard combination of Command (Apple Key) + Tab will cycle through running applications. But, you may not know that holding Command + ~ will cycle through them in the opposite direction (you have to call up the switcher with Command + Tab first). This comes in very handy if you pass by the app you want. You don’t have to go all the way around again, just switch to the ~ key to go back. Command + Shift + Tab has the same effect, but I find the ~ key more convenient.

A couple of other useful tips for the app switcher are…

• If you want to open a file with something other than it’s default app, you can start dragging the file in the finder, hit Command + Tab to call up the switcher, and then drop the file on the app you want to open it with.
• If you want to quit multiple apps, hit Command + Tab to call up the switcher, cycle through the apps, and hit “q” when the app you want to quit is hi-lighted (while continuing to hold Command).
• When the switcher is active, you can also just click an app with your mouse to make it come to the front.

Oh, and if you really want to take command of the app switcher (no pun intended), have a look at Witch (Free). It’s like the built in app switcher, but it also lists every open window, making switching that much faster.