We received our updates from the Information Commissioner and this was potentially the most pertinent to our clients.
If you have not yet read the updates regarding cookies it would be a good idea to do so: you can view the update here via this link : Advice on the New Cookie Regulations
Previously…
In the past you had to :
- tell people how you used cookies, and
- tell them how they could “opt out” if they objected.
Many people either chose not to use cookies themselves or to include a privacy policy that gave this information.
Now…
The new requirement now states that you can only place cookies on machines where the user has already given consent. This rule can be viewed on Page 2 of the pdf document highlighted in red: Advice on the New Cookie Regulations
What do I have to do?
If you have a site that uses cookies then you need to check whether you are actively collecting data via these cookies or other technology and whether or not you have the subscriber or users permission to do so. If not then you will have to gain their permission.
If you are not aware whether you are doing this via your website then contact your designer/developer and ask them if your website uses cookies or data collection technology and if the answer is yes ask if your designer/developer is aware of the new EU Rules regarding this information? They should be able to access this information via the Information Commissioner’s website and update their current information if they are not aware.
Love Web Design has already begun a process of checking all data collection website to ensure that they are compliant with the latest legislation and where they are not will be affecting changes to bring them up to date with these changes.
At present all Love Web Design client site’s should at the time the sites are finished prompt users to accept/permit cookies to reside on their computers.
Questions / Feedback
We hope this article provides useful information. Should you have any further questions or queries please do not hesitate to contact us, where we hope to be able to provide you with the information you need. We look forward to talking to you.
404 pages are probably the first that we all come across on the web, but what do those codes actually stand for?
Did you ever wonder what these codes actually meant? Did you go back, try again and get the same response or did you give up and move on to the next search result?
Sometimes, when you understand the errors that you are being presented with you can make a decision a little quicker, go back to the source and report the error or even return to your search results.
With this in mind, we have a little table below which gives a more human explanation to the some more common errors that we encounter on the web. Some will be familiar, maybe not on a conscious level and others will be screamingly obvious.
| Error Code | Description |
| 404 Bad Request | The piece of code that has been written is incorrectly put together. This is the servers way of saying it cannot understand it and it needs to be changed before you try again. |
| 401 Unauthorised | This error code requires user authentication, which pretty much means it requires “the user”, whatever or whomever that may be to have or input some form of authentication. This may be via a piece of code or other means of authentication. |
| 403 Forbidden | The server understood the command that it was given but is refusing to fulfil the command. This is commonly used when the server does not, or cannot reveal why it is refusing to fulfil the command, (when it has no other response to give or none are applicable). |
| 404 Not Found | The server has not found anything matching that requested and it cannot determine whether this is temporary or permanent. |
| 410 Gone | The server has found a match for the item requested although it has been removed permanently with no forwarding address. This tends only to be used on servers where this is configurable. Not seen often. |
| 500 Internal Server Error | There are many reasons for a 500. These are internal server errors and occur when the server encounters a problem unexpectedly. |
| 301 Moved Permanently | The server has matched the request, the item has moved and it has found the forwarding location. Usually the browser page will redirect you. |
| Invalid URL | This is exactly what it sounds like, although not quite as some would interpret, it tends to be misinterpreted as “The web address is wrong!”. This means that the URL or web address is put together incorrectly. The URL should be formed as: http://www.company.com or http://company.co.uk. There are other variations depending on the language of your website, however if you still or this basic principle you cannot go far wrong. |
| Host Not Found | This happens when the web server’s host computer cannot be found using it’s domain name. This usually means there is a problem with your DNS system or connectivity to your DNS system or general Internet connectivity problems. |
COMMENTS / FEEDBACK
We would very much like to know if you find these articles useful or helpful and whether you would like to see more of these and what topics would be useful to you. If you have a question please do feel free to submit them via the Contact page.
We look forward to hearing from you.
You have started a new blog, you have had it up and running for a while and then you want to add some pictures to it.
You have been putting images throughout the body text of your post for a while but this is not really cutting the mustard anymore; you would now like to add a gallery, so how do you do it?
What is a Plugin?
A plugin is a piece of code or software that you add to WordPress to extend it’s functionality. Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. Using the Add New function within your Dashboard you can search, find, download, rate and comment on some of the best plugins that the WordPress community has on offer.
Using Plugins from Other Websites
In order to use Plugins (Templates and Themes) from other websites you will need access to the file directories that sit on your web server (also know as FTP access). If you have this then the installation process is the same EXCEPT that you need to download the Plugin to your computer first and then Add New and upload the plugin from your desktop.
NOTE: I have personally found that uploading plugins from other websites is not as reliable as using the WordPress Community downloads. They are often incomplete and can cause errors, these eventually result in your blog giving errors and you having to uninstall things. Use things that are from a known and trusted source.
How do I use one?
You will need to be logged in to your blog to follow this: or you can print it off and run through it later.
On your left hand WordPress menu, you will find the Plugins Panel.
Once in your plugins Panel, click on Add New.
This will take you to a new window where you can search for your new plugin. In this instance we are searching for a plugin that will install a Gallery on both Posts and Pages. Nothing too complicated, just visually appealing and simply to use.
The next screen we see is the Add New screen (below), if you type “gallery” in the search box and press Search Plugins you will then be returned with a list of Plugins that have been found.
As you will no doubt have guessed by now there is nothing massively complicated about finding plugins so far. Seems relatively simple doesn’t it, however this is the relatively easy part. Things can get a little more complicated from here on.
Having been returned with a search list we can then browse through the list to find a plugin that is suitable for our needs. Earlier, I mentioned that we are looking for a simple gallery that will install on both posts and pages.
So looking down the search list we can see (this is only a clipping of my search results page), we can see there are a few here. We can also see brief information about them, their versions and ratings. You can also change your search criteria at the top under the Install Plugins header to show Featured, Popular, Newest and Recently Updated Plugins – However these will not be solely galleries.
NOTE: For the purpose of this guide I am going to select the NextGEN Gallery, as I have used this previously and I know it’s functionality, which may or may not be helpful to you, but will demonstrate the installation of a plugin for you.
So in the next step I am going to click on Detail under the title of NextGen Gallery, this would usually be after I have read the brief description and want to read more about the plugin itself and see if there are anymore useful details that will help me to decide whether this plugin is right for me to install on my blog.
This will open a new pop-up window giving information about the NextGEN Gallery plugin.Looking at the top of this window you can see that there are several tabs, (from left to right) showing Description, Installation, Screenshots, ChangeLog, FAQs & Other Notes. All of these tabs will provide useful information about the Plugin you are viewing.
In the case of this particular plugin at the time of searching. I was looking for a plugin that could be used in a post as well as on a page; a gallery that could provide a slide show although that was not necessary just useful and could also show random images. If you look at the FAQs tab you will see that all of this was provided.
At this point I took the decision to install the Plugin using the orange Install Nowbutton shown on the top right of this window. At this point it may take some time to install the Plugin. WordPress does this automatically, you will be asked if you are sure.
Once WordPress has installed the Plugin, you will be returned to the plugins screen to activate the plugin. If you do not activate the plugin it will not work! Once this is done, you should notice that Gallery has appear on your left hand menu towards the bottom. You will need to go to this section and explore it.
The most important thing to do here is to remember to set up your Albums. You will need to give your Albums a name in order to display them.
This plugin works via a shortcode, that is by placing a small piece of code in the place you would like the gallery to display.
This is show on the FAQs section of the Details window tab that we viewed before we installed the plugin, and will look like this [ gallery = X ]. You will need to replace X with the name of your Album.
Once this is done, you can finish browsing your options, add your images to your albums and finally add your shortcode to your post or to your page and you will have a live gallery!
COMMENTS / FEEDBACK
We would very much like to know if you find these articles useful or helpful and whether you would like to see more of these and what topics would be useful to you. If you have a question please do feel free to submit them via the Contact page.
We look forward to hearing from you.
This is the answer to a question posted by Jennifer on Love Web Design’s Facebook page.
Login to your facebook page
In the search bar at the top centre, type the word “twitter“,
You will be presented with a predictive list, the result you are looking for is Twitter, with App written underneath.
Once selected you may receive a message that asks you to wait while you are redirected.
A page will then display that asks you if you wish to Allow or Deny Twitter access to Facebook.
If you have not already set this up, you will be asked for your Twitter username and asked to set other preferences.
Set as required and follow the prompts.
Now you are set to go!
COMMENTS / FEEDBACK
We would very much like to know if you find these articles useful or helpful and whether you would like to see more of these and what topics would be useful to you. If you have a question please do feel free to submit them via the Contact page.
We look forward to hearing from you.
I started to use Tweetdeck over a year ago, the first thing I found was that the pop up alerts annoyed the heck out of me. Being a newbie to the program I hadn’t got a clue how to alter them of turn them off, but also being a “meddler” or a “tweaker” of settings off I went to explore the program and see if I could actually turn the darn things off!
The Settings Window:
Go to Settings in the top right section of the window (this is indicated by a spanner/wrench), this will present you with a window like this:
For today’s purpose, you will see that the image above has the Notifications tab highlighted, showing the Notifications window.
In the Top Left of this pane, you find the Notification windows section. This is the annoying bit for most people. The instruction set below gives you the information you need to switch these off.
Turning Notifications Off Completely:
- Go to Settings in the top right section of the window (indicated by a spanner/wrench)
- Then go to Notifications
- Turn Detail on to Detail Off by simply clicking on the words
- Turn Summary on to Summary off by clicking on the words
- Click to Save Settings
In the Top Right section of the Window, is the Notification Window position in which the Notifications appear. You can move them to your preferred space on your screen.
In this section you can also adjust the sound level for the alerts. You can see from the image above that I have mine set to 0%. This is so I do not have the mute my PC and the continuous “bleep” does not annoy me any more!
The next section down deals with frequency. Currently this window shows 30seconds before the next set of summaries will be shown.
The next section is shown in Expanded View. I am told that most will only view the Advanced options for columns and will have to click on this line to expand it. I believe I expanded mine a while ago and it has remained like this ever since!
If you have multiple columns, this is where you will select your individual preferences for those columns.
At present, I have Details switched off (as shown in the top left section), which is why the Detail column under Advanced Options is greyed out.
You will also see that all Alerts on all columns are turned off.
COMMENTS / FEEDBACK
We would very much like to know if you find these articles useful or helpful and whether you would like to see more of these and what topics would be useful to you. If you have a question please do feel free to submit them via the Contact page, we will post answer here on the blog or reply personally if requested to.
We look forward to hearing from you.
