Resources
Text Editors
UltraEdit
I’ve been using UltraEdit for a long time, and it’s my preferred choice for editing web pages, code, and text. It has syntax highlighting which makes HTML and other code easy to read and has more features than you can shake a stick at. While it’s a pay-for program, I wouldn’t use anything else.
NotePad++
Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.
FTP
FileZilla
FileZilla is an excellent, free FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program that you absolutely have to have if you’re going to be doing anything with websites.
FireFTP
This is a great plugin for the FireFox browser. Yup, you can run an FTP program right from your browser!
Hosting
Host Gator
Host Gator is a powerhouse when it comes to shared or dedicated hosting. If you’re going to be an affiliate marketer, you need a host that’s solid and offers all the features you need.
IX Web Hosting
IX Web Hosting is my current host. They offer CHEAP hosting with near unlimited resources like emails, unlimited domains, ecommerce; the works.
Free Press Release Sites
Here’s a quick snapshot of places you can submit a press release about your company or product. Make sure that all press releases are pithy and written in the third person. You can use your preferred keyword but don’t overdo it (no more than 4 mentions in 400 words). Since it’s a press release, duplicate content is not an issue so you don’t have to “spin” the release each time you submit it like you would for articles.
www.24-7PressRelease.com
www.1888PressRelease.com
www.ClickPress.com
www.EcommWire.com
www.Express-Press-Release.com
www.Free-Press-Release.com
www.Free-Press-Release-Center.info
www.I-Newswire.com
www.NewswireToday.com
www.PR.com
www.PR9.net
www.PRBuzz.com
www.PRCompass.com
www.PRUrgent.com
www.Press-Base.com
www.PressAbout.com
www.PressMethod.com
www.PRLeap.com
www.PRLog.org
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi. I am trying out your easy columns and am having the same problem I have with all the other ones I have tried.
I am trying to get rid of the margins above and below the columns.
I would give you a link but by the time you look at it (if you do) it may be gone from my test pages.
hope you can help so i can by u some coffee
Dan,
I’d be happy to help if I can see a test page. One thing you can do is edit the wp-ez-columns.css in the plugin’s css directory (yoursite/wp-content/plugins/easy-columns/css) and change the margins like so:
.wpcol-one-quarter,
.wpcol-one-half,
.wpcol-three-quarter,
.wpcol-one-third,
.wpcol-two-third {
float: left;
margin-right: 4%;
position: relative;
margin-top: 0px; /* custom margin settings */
margin-bottom: 0px; /* custom margin settings */
}
If that doesn't work, you can even use negative values, like:
margin-top: -5px;. There may be a setting in your theme that sets margins for <'div> tags, but who knows. If you want to email me a link to your test page, I'd be happy to take a look: pfriedl .at. gmail.com. Hope that helps!Hello,
I am trying to set up the second page of my website with 2 columns to organize ads from a vendor selling shirts promoting autism awareness. But I am having a hard time figuring out how to work easy columns on a page other than the main page. Do you have any resources to help out a newby? Easy columns for dummies, or something like that?
Thanks.
Randy,
Sorry for the delay. To set up any number of columns in your pages, just make sure that the editor is set to Visual mode when editing any page or post. You should see the Easy Columns icon in the editor. While editing the page or post, you can click the icon and it’ll bring up options for your columns. Using any of those choices will insert the column shortcodes into your content, and from there you can insert content inside the shortcodes.
If you were going to have two columns in your page, then you’d use something like this:
[wpcol_1half]Half Column[/wpcol_1half]
[wpcol_1half_end]Half Column[/wpcol_1half_end]
How can I center the content of columns? Should I put some parameter in “class” or “style”?
You could center the content between the shortcodes, or if you want to insert style, it would be:
text-align:center;. Hope that helps!It helped, thanks!
Good to hear! if you’re going to use a lot of centered content, you may want to edit the columns CSS in the plugin directory and add something like this:
.centered { text-align: center; }. Then when you create columns, you can add “centered” as the class and it’ll center all your text/content in the columns.I have a long list of items (214) which I would like to organize into an ordered list of 4 columns. I mostly have it working by creating 4 ordered lists (using the start attribute so the numbering continues between the lists) and using Easy Columns to create the columns. The problem I have is that each of the 4 colums starts a line lower on the page, like stair steps.. I am using Internet Explorer. Any ideas?
Ann, it may be that you’re hitting a carriage return for each column, and with the WordPress editor, that creates tags in the content. If you have that many items, columns may not be the way to go. I’d suggest using a plugin that unlocks all the abilities of tinyMCE including tables. With tables, you can make absolutely sure your data stays in a grid format.
I too had an issue with the spacing between columns. It was too close.
After adjusting the column sizes in the settings area within the plugin I researched here to figure out how to further refine the look of the columns on my page.
To control the spacing on my web page I used the info in a previous post to come up with the following code:
.wpcol-one-quarter {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
.wpcol-one-half {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
.wpcol-three-quarter {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
.wpcol-one-third {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
.wpcol-two-third {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
.wpcol-one-fifth {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
.wpcol-two-fifth {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
.wpcol-three-fifth {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
.wpcol-four-fifth {padding: 0px; float:right;margin-left: 1%; position: relative; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; }
My theme allowed me to adjust the column width by adjusting/ changing the margin-right to margin-left and added 1% which is fine for me.
I hope this helps somebody. Thank you so much for this great plugin! This will take my site to another level!
H the Newbie
H, good job! to figure out the spacing, I had to draw out everything on paper first – just the way I am. But the easy formula for adjusting column widths and margins is fairly easy:
1) The number of spaces (gutters) between your columns is always 1 less than the number of columns. 3 columns? two gutters. If you want 5% gutters, then you’ll be using up 10% of the page width (2 gutters x 5% each = 10%).
2) Subtract the total margins of your gutters from 100% and that gives you the total width of your 3 columns: 100-10 = 90%. Then divide that number by the number of columns to get the column width: 90/3 = 30% for each column.
So the result is that for the new 1/3 columns, you’d set the width to 30% with a margin-left of 5%. Ok, class dismissed!