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About

I’m a WordPress junkie from Boulder, Colorado. I teach WordPress classes at Boulder Digital Arts, consult, train, and code. Questions I receive on this site help me to be a better teacher and find the best WordPress, CSS, and other web development resources to share with my students.

If you have a question, a blog I might be interested in, or some other resources you’d like to share, please contact me via MoonGooseDesigns.com.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kathy-Couts-Kelly/1619027553 Kathy Couts Kelly

    Great website – love the personalized drawing up top! Do you do seminars or house-calls for people that are “lost and wandering,” technologically?

  • Anonymous

    Hi Kathy,

    I do private tutoring, yes! Let me know what you need. I charge $75/hour and pack in a lot of good info. If you just need some general direction, contact me via my contact form, and I can send you a list of WordPress resources.

  • Anonymous

    Hi Ken,

    I think you could change your MS WP general settings to use www. I believe that WP automatically takes care of the canonical redirection. I have also used the All in One SEO Pack or Yoast WordPress SEO plugin to take care of canonical URLs. Here’s another plugin that is supposed to help with correct indexing of the sites: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/xml-sitemap-feed/. I don’t work with MS, so I’d love to hear back about you what you discover.

  • Gary

    Hi Angela
    I am seeking an uncomplicated video plugin that will allow me to show YouTube, Vimeo etc videos in the sidebar of my WordPress blog (perhaps by way of a widget). I write a blog about music and the context is this: I’d like to show vids under a heading, ‘What I am listening to now’.
    Thanks in advance.
    Gary

  • Anonymous

    Hi Gary,

    The two plugins I used most often for this are:

    Viper’s Video Quicktags – A free plugin – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/vipers-video-quicktags/

    VidEmbed – a paid plugin but allows you to not show related videos for YouTube videos – http://bit.ly/pcI8Jj

  • http://twitter.com/trailsnet trailsnet

    Hi Angela,
    I was impressed by your Twitter & blog bio information. You’re a Boulderite, a trail lover, a Mac user, & a WP aficionado. That’s a perfect combination, if you ask me.  (-:
    I recently switched my main trailsnet website/blog over from Blogger to WP. Most of my old site was created on RapidWeaver for Mac. I would like to go to an entirely WP-based site, but must have unique sidebar  contents on each page. WordPress doesn’t seem to be designed for that. Any suggestions as to how I can accomplish unique sidebar content on each page?

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for writing! Different sidebars on different pages are super easy to accomplish. I advice people one of two ways with this depending on how many different sidebars you need and what exactly will be on them. There are three different options:

    Custom Sidebars plugin — allows you to create different sidebars and select which sidebar to display on which page. I recommend this if you want just certain pages to have completely different sidebar content.

    Display Widgets plugin — lets you deterine which widgets display on which pages

    Custom Field Template — a bit more geeky, technical, but allows you to create a unique field in addition to the normal Title and Content area of the page and you can have the content of that field display in the sidebar. I recommend this if you have Testimonials, quotes, photos that will be different on every page.

    Widget Entries — not so much for having different sidebar content, but makes it easy to format text and photos in the sidebar area because you have a visual editor to work with.

    Good luck! Let me know if you need more info.

    Angela

  • Andrea

    Hello Angela, I am looking for an events registration WP plugin that will allow me to post more than one event which have dates throughout the year constantly being displayed, and has paypal feature for visitors to use for event registration payment.  Is there such a thing? ~Andrea

  • Anonymous

    Hi Andrea,

    I’m sorry it took so long to reply. I had a glitch with my email app and just got this notice. I would recommend Event Espresso. It’s a premium plugin, which means you have to pay for it, but it is really awesome for event registration and management. Here is my affiliate link: http://askwpgirl.com/go/eventespresso.php

  • cc

    Hello Angela,
    A friend asked me to help design her a new wordpress site from scratch because her old and ugly site someone made for her using Joomla is horrible. Here’s my question – I have installed WordPress on the host server but my next step is to switch the domain name from the old Joomla site (and leave that site as is) then start using wordpress to build the site. It seems like a simple thing to do, right? Just move some files around? My main issue is that I don’t know if I need to do things in a certain order so the domain points to wordpress instead of Joomla. Someone told me I needed to ftp the word press site but I am going to make it from scratch online, not on my laptop. So that confused me as well.

  • Anonymous

    Hi! I get a lot of people wanting to move from Joomla to WordPress since the WordPress interface is so much more friendly and most people don’t need the types of layout options that Joomla provides, though with the new themes that are coming out, particularly the ones from ThemeBlvd at Themeforest.net, it’s amazing what you can do with custom layouts in WordPress without having to be a coding geek.

    In answer to your question, what I typically do is:

    1 – Install WordPress in a subdirectory of the current site and do ALL of the development there. I leave the Joomla site still up, so I can be sure I’ve copied all the page content, etc.

    2 – When we’re ready to go live, I actually put ALL of the Joomla files in a BACKUP folder, so the root of the domain where Joomla used to be is all spiffy and clean.

    3 – I move the WordPress application Index.php to the root and make some settings changes per the instructions I’ve written in this post:

    http://askwpgirl.com/how-do-i-move-wordpress-from-a-subdirectory-to-the-root-directory/

    4 – Note, you will no longer be able to “see” the Joomla site, though it is theoretically possible to modify the Joomla settings as well to view it via the sitename.com/backup — though for Search Engine purposes, you’ll want to completely remove the site, so Google isn’t indexing the new and old site as doing so results in “duplicate content” which Google will dock you for and decrease your page rank.

    Feel free to write me via my contact form if you have any other questions. Good luck!!!

  • Sharon_barfield

    I have a question: I intended to install WordPress via Fantastico on a subdomain but instead installed it on my domain. Should I uninstall WP from the domain and reinstall it on a subdomain or redirect it from one place to the other? 

  • Anonymous

    It would be best if you could uninstall it using the Fantastico uninstaller, then reinstall it properly. How far did you get with adding pages, etc.?

  • Dave

    Used your Method to place my clients index into the root leaving our wp installation in the development folder. Fantastic!!!!…. but. Now my WP is broken cannot access widgets. The first thing I noticed is the flyout menus in the dashboard stopped working. I can still edit the individual pages but not the widgets.

    Site is  techmediamarketing.com.
    Theme is Mizzo by themedutch.
    WP version 3.3.1 Tried a auto re-install from the dash with no luck

    Any suggestion on a fix would be great!
    TIA :-D ave

  • Anonymous

    Hi Dave,

    That’s really crazy. I would read the FAQ (http://askwpgirl.com/moving-wordpress-from-subdirectory-to-root-faq/) I wrote on this process and double check your settings, etc. Try to clear your browser cache. Be sure the URL for WordPress in the settings is correct. One person who wrote me had www in one of the URLs and not www in the other, and this caused problems.

    I don’t know what you mean by “auto re-install from the dash” — there is no auto-reinstall.

    I’m wondering if you used Fantastico for the original install and if there are any Fantastico files on the server that might b messing things up. Check the contents of your .htaccess.

    Try logging in via a different browser. Anyway, keep me posted. You can write to me directly via: http://moongoosedesigns.com/contact-angela-bowman-boulder-colorado/

  • Chris

    Hi Angela, (I wish I lived closer so I could attend your classes!)

    Can you recommend a set up for providing a client with a wholesale products store that requires a password/log in? The HOME page needs to define the brand, tell a bit about the products, offer a link to a contact form to set up as a wholesaler, and finally, a log in for established resellers to access the wholesale online store.

    I have lots of ideas and theme/plugin combinations but I see no clear winning solution.

    I can detail more to you: thru email?

    Any help appreciated!

    Chris

  • Anonymous

    Hi Chris,

    It is a big question. The plugin I prefer to use is Shopp Plugin, but it is still just a plugin and no WordPress theme or plugin is going to be a full e-commerce solution, particularly if they have high volume or need specific reporting needs or need certain user interfaces like you describe.

    A better solution is to use Magento. You can contact me via my web form at http://moongoosedesigns.com, and I can send you contact info for a Magento developer. It’s more pricey to go that route, but it is a full e-commerce solution that you simply can’t do in WordPress with any plugin or theme.

    Angela

  • Dorothy

    Hi Angela,
    I just came across your page and am so happy as I cannot get an answer to my question – even from Artisteer.
     
    I have built a WordPress site using Artisteer and have checked it in Firefox, Chrome and
    Safari for Windows (on my 17″ monitor), Iphone and Ipad.
    All looks great.
    BUT Safari on Mac and Safari for Windows on a 15″ screen has issues with rollover.
    When I rollover menu the whole menu shifts and breaks.
    Please help.

    I’ve read every forum I can find and can’t find an answer.
    My site is: wpdev.ika.ie. I have attached a screenshot.

    Thanks,
    Dorothy

  • AskWPGirl

    Hi Dorothy, Yes, I see what you mean. Artiseer is now using “Responsive Design” in its layouts. What that means is that the elements on the page dynamically resize to match the screen size or device. However, it is doing such a poor job of implementing this that the whole menu structure is totally ruined on the 15″ monitors, and you’ll notice it is also ruined on the larger monitors if you resize your browser window. What you can do to “fix” this problem is to change your Artiseer layout from “fluid” to “fixed.” See page 108 of your Artiseer documentation. You might also check page 109 of the documentation and perhaps have your Menu “Inside Sheet” so it stays within the main content area of the site.

    I personally, would throw Artiseer out the window and build your themes using a more well developed base template. I use ThemeBlvd themes because they are responsive, VERY well coded, and have tons of functionality for custom layouts, custom sidebars, sliders, and more.

    You can get ThemeBlvd themes at ThemeForest.net. Barely Corporate is a nice theme with tabbed menus. ThemeBlvd themes are very well documented with TONS of how-to videos. They are certainly worth the trouble to learn how to use especially if you do this for a living. They also look smashing right out of the box.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1334580138 Julianne Durante

    Angela, you’re wonderful. Really, that’s all I have to say.

  • AskWPGirl

    You need to read either the readme file that came with the plugin or visit the plugin’s website for instructions. It is not always transparent how a plugin is to be used, hence why the documentation for the plugin is important. The plugin developer usually has installation and usage information on their site or the plugin’s page at wordpress.org.