My Technophilic Musings

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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Some time back I had posted a little hack to fix an issue that users of i3theme have, i.e., their right sidebar drops to below the main content area in IE6. But it wasn’t that good as it took care of only the situation when this phenomena was caused by the tag cloud widget. So, here is a little modification I did to fix the issue more properly.

1. Go to your wp-content/themes/<i3theme> folder and open the style.css file in your favourite text editor.

2. Search for “#sidebar” (without the quotes) until you reach the following code:

3. Now, modify this code to look like:

4. That’s it. Save your file and you are done.

So what does it do? Basically I just added an attribute “word-wrap: break-word” to the sidebar handling. So, if there is a word that cannot fit in the sidebar width, the word will be broken to continue in the next line and thus the sidebar alignment will remain intact. let me know if you face any issues with this.

Note that this particular word-wrap property is Internet Explorer specific. Firefox (and other browsers) will ignore it, but since the problem with sidebar alignment occurs only with IE, so it will enable IE to display your site properly.

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Quote of the day: Grandpa: My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star.

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: i3theme, i3theme 1.6, i3theme sidebar issue, i3theme sidebar problem, IE, IE6, internet explorer, sidebar, word wrap, wordpress

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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For the uninitiated:

Shantz WP QOTD is a plugin to add quotes to your wordpress blog in a few easy clicks. It adds quotes to your posts and your sidebars with a multitude of options for sources and customization.

I made a few additions / modifications to the code and the plugin has been updated to 1.1.0. The changes are:

• Added Custom tag support for adding quotes anywhere in your posts/pages
• Added Custom quote separator support and multi-line quotes support

Config Screenshots:

I recommend that you update to this new version asap, as apart from the above mentioned changes, the code is a bit more cleaner as well, which would run a bit better IMO and also help in any modification if you have in mind. For full details and downloads, go to shantz-wp-qotd page.

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Quote of the day: "I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought: What the hell good would that do?"

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: blog, customization, plugin, Programming, projects, QOTD, quote of the day, Shantz, shantz-wp-qotd, shantz-wp-qotd 1.1.0, sidebar, Updated, widget, wordpress, wordpress blog, WordPress Plugin

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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Shantz WP QOTD is a plugin to add quotes to your wordpress blog in a few easy clicks. It adds quotes to your posts and your sidebars with a multitude of options for sources and customization.

== Description ==

There are many quotes plugins out there. This one has been started with a view to have the best of features and options, ease of use and multiple sources to get the quotes from.

Features:

• Add quotes to all your posts automatically.
• Widget support - Can also have a widget in the sidebar for quotes.
• Customize and style your quotes with your own text and tags.
• Multiple sources for quotes (paste in admin page, get from file implemented, fetch from web/rss soon to come)
• Multiple patterns for quotes - Random Quote, Quote of the day (all posts display quote of the day), Quote of that day (all posts display quote for their own days)
• Pattern for widget can be different
• Customization for widget can be different
• Add quotes to top or bottom of posts
• Custom template tag to add quote anywhere you want
• Custom quote boundary decalarator tags/Multiline quote support
• Enable/Disable the quotes without deactivating the plugin
• Option to exclude pages from displaying quotes

Coming Soon:

• Fetch from web/RSS support
• Quotes Categories
• Pics support for quotes
• Anything else you want
• File selection

And more...

== Installation ==

The Shantz-WP-QOTD plugin can be installed in following easy steps:

1. Unzip "shantz-wp-qotd" archive and put all files into your "plugins" folder (/wp-content/plugins/). It is advisable to create a sub directory into the plugins folder, like /wp-content/plugins/shantz-wp-qotd/

2. Activate the plugin

3. Go to Options > Shantz WP Quotes, adjust your settings and save them.

4. For adding and configuring widget to sidebar, go to Presentation > Widgets.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= How to add quotes anywhere in the posts/pages? =
Use the tag "<!-- shantz-wp-qotd {option} -->" anywhere in your post (without the quotes).
Note:
1. {option} (including the braces) has to be replaced by the quote pattern that you want: qotd, qottd or r. qotd is quote of the day, qottd is quote of that day and r is random.
2. The tag has to be added using the code editor and not the visual editor, otherwise it will replace the <, > with their HTML equivalents.

= How to use the custom separator/multi-line quotes? =
By default, if you leave the custom separator box blank, the plugin uses a newline character as the separator. However, if you have quotes that have multiple lines, you can change this to a tag of your choice, say [quote]. Now, in your quotes file (or quotes pasted in admin panel options) add this tag at the end of each quote and you are done.

= What is the format for saving quotes? =
In text box in admin page, as well as in the file, the quotes have to be saved as one on each line. Each quote is separate by newline.

= Where is the file with quotes located =

For the get from file option, a file "quotes.txt" has to be present in the same directory where shantz-wp-qotd.php is residing. A sample quotes.txt has been given with this plugin (with some quotes from southpark, simpsons, matrix and deus ex)

= I checked the option "exclude pages" but my pages are still displaying quotes =
Check your WordPress version. This option is effective only for Version 2.1 and above

= How to upgrade to a new version =
Simply overwrite the old files with the new ones.

== Screenshots ==

Config Screens and plugin in action:

You can also see the plugin in action right here on my site (check bottom of posts and the right sidebar topmost widget)

== Version History ==

• Version 1.2.2
  • Fixed a bug because of which quotes were blank some times. Thanks to Thom for reporting it.

• Version 1.2.1
  • Option to exclude pages from displaying quotes is also compatible with wordpress version < 2.1

• Version 1.2.0
  • Added option to exclude pages from displaying quotes
  • Fixed a bug that quotes source selection checkboxes always remain checked after updating settings.
  • Cosmetic: Fixed a few spelling mistakes

• Version 1.1.0.1
  • Cosmetic: Changed readme.txt according to wp-extend standards

• Version 1.1.0
  • Added Custom tag support for adding quotes anywhere in your posts/pages
  • Added Custom quote separator support and multi-line quotes support
• Version 1.0.1
  • Fixed some styling related issues in text added before/after quote displayed in widget (especially links related issues)

• Version 1.0.0
  • Initial version

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written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: plugin, QOTD, quote of the day, Shantz, sidebar, widget, widget support, widgets, wordpress, wordpress blog, WordPress Plugin, WP-QOTD

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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I am just in love with this theme. I knew about the cool feature that you can click on those little green dots on the right top corner of any widget and the widget will minimize to just a bar but just now discovered another awesome feature for the viewers of the wordpress based blogs using this theme. The feature is that you, the viewer, can reorganize the widgets on the left and right sidebars according to your preference, like move the “Pages” widget towards the top for convenient navigation through all the static pages in the site. All this through simple steps like -“Click, drag, drop” and you are set. The other widgets will automatically move up and down to make space. And the clincher is that it will remember your preferences (actually the browser will remember, I think). So, whenever you come back to the site, you will see it the way you like it. Here is an example:

Default widget layout

Widget layout after reorganization

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Quote of the day: "When due process fails us, we really do live in a world of terror." - JC Denton

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: end users, i3theme, i3theme feature, layout, move widgets, navigation, preferences, sidebar, sidebars, simple steps, Theme, widget, wordpress

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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The awesome i3theme that this blog uses is a treat to the eyes, except to a lot of IE6 users. The issue is that for many people viewing wordpress blogs using this theme, the right sidebar doesn’t appear on the right, but below the middle column main area.

I didn’t know this problem existed as I don’t use IE but when a friend mailed to let me know, I started hunting around for the solution. Infact, found on the home page of i3theme, that the author acknowledged this bug and fixed it in v1.5, except the fact, that the fix doesn’t work. Because this blog was also using the same version.

Now, not taking anything away from the author, who has done a wonderful job with the theme, I took it upon myself to fix it, and the solution turned out to be really simple.

Continue reading »

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Quote of the day: Morpheus: Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: i3theme, IE6, largest, resize, right sidebar problem, sidebar, tags, widgets, wordpress, wp_tag_cloud