I believe in continued education and realise the value of being self-sufficient instead relying on people around us (no matter how much skilful they are in comparison).
So my little cousin (who has ambitions to be a programmer) and I took a short four hours WordPress/basic programming class with David Wang. Here’s a list of things I’ve learned that are helpful for maintaining my sites:
1. To maintain a website, you need to constantly update:
- Theme
- Plugin
- WordPress itself
That’ll prevent hacking (hopefully).
2. Html comment
* <! – – Hi There – – >
I was told that I shouldn’t play with html because one small mistake can ruin the whole thing. Solution: always jot down the changes I made within it using Html comment!
3. Check code
- Command + Option + I = go to inspector
Command + Option + OPTION + U = go to source itself - Shortcuts to check things like the sizing of the fonts on my site, so I can preview it and make changes.
4. Then difference between HTML & CSS
- HTML = content/data
- CSS = style
5.Check colour on the web
- https://www.webpagefx.com/web-design/random-color-picker/
Useful when choosing colour for my site(s).
6. Using Child theme
Once WordPress is updated, any changes you’ve made to its still will be lost. Using a child theme means that WordPress updates won’t override the changes.
7. How to check efficiency
- Gtmetrics.com
- tools.pingdom.com
8. Creating contact form
David recommended Ninja Form. Though I still can’t do it properly yet because of some mail server issues.
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There’s so much more to learn! But I think the most important lesson is to know that I can and should do things on my own. If you have any comments on how to improve these sites, please let me know:
Next goal, learn to add a ‘RANDOM’ button to STICKGEEK so that visitors can randomly select a comic.