WOW Update – New Theme and Key Tools

Hey it’s been a while since I have posted. I’m still here but if you are a past visitor you will have noticed that I recently updated my WordPress theme and WOW has had a bit of a major overhaul, bootstrap style. It took me a good few months to complete the design and make it as bug-free as possible but as I now work part-time in a school and being a widowed single mother time is very precious.

Why I chose Bootstrap? Having played around with it in the past it suited my needs, particularly using the Sass version as Boostrap 3.6.   I could have created my own framework for this theme but this would have been more time-consuming and why reinvent the wheel?

I didn’t require the full Bootstrap framework but being able to remove certain parts of it came in quite handy and very simple to do with Sass.  Foundation is pretty cool too but Bootstrap is a much easier learning curve and therefore perfect for the job.

Key Tools for Building the Theme

Some of the tools that I found valuable in this new build were my testing server Ampps.  My preferred code editor Brackets.  CodeKit for compiling the Sass, optimising images, compressing JavaScript & CSS files viewing and testing browsers on my local network across devices and its invaluable auto-refresh browser upon saving.

GitHub Desktop for saving all my local code changes with the ability to revert if something went wrong and Forklift, my trusty FTP client.

Key Changes

Now back to the changes. I have now have a separate homepage from my articles (blog) page.  The homepage shows the latest posts and all the popular posts from the past.  A re-designed Projects page shows all my tutorials with easy access to all the code and corresponding posts. On the TODO list is to create a WordPress Projects Page Plugin in the near future to make this even simpler.

I removed a few redundant WordPress plugins and extra JavaScript code including Social sharing services for now. I’m  looking at alternatives on how users can share my posts in the meantime.   I have always have had very minimal advertisements. I run this blog as hobby but donations are very welcome and keep the cost of it down even more.

Hope you have enjoyed your tour of the new WOW. If you come across any errors please let me know.