Today was one of those days where the stars fully aligned for me at the right time. This post is mostly just a bookmark for me, but if your a WordPress dev or enjoy builidng themes and apps for it and haven't read these posts, you should.
It's safe to say that we've all seen it. A client calls us up to add something for them, or make an update and we make the mistake of looking at the markup on a post they made. No matter how hard you try, a client will never remember why they should be using an <h2> or <h3> or how <p><b>My Subtitle</b></p> doesn't look perfectly styled like that <h4> you created for them. The one you added an extra few pixels of margin to. The <h4> that you have nicely displayed on your design styleguide subpage that you shared with them after launching the site. That one page that they constantly refer to...
Is it too much for us to expect that our clients will follow our instructions exactly as we laid them out after they pay us thousands of dollars to construct a beautiful website? Yes. It's still great in practice to build style guides that outline the proper use of headers, subheads, paragraphs, bulleted lists, etc. However, we have to also take into consideration the fact that clients don't do what we do for a reason, and whatever that reason is it will keep them in the TinyMCE world that we all have a love and hate relationship with.
Let's not blame TinyMCE just yet. Save the pitchforks for the inventors of WYSIWYG editor. Sometime in the 70s evil scientists, bent on destroying the world I presume, introduced the first WYSIWYG editors and by the 80s these hellspawns found their way to home computers.
Honestly, I can't even begin to imagine where we'd be if the WYSIWYG editor wasn't introduced. Home computing wouldn't have taken off as it did, and the fact that so many of us work from home have to attribute that luxury because of it.
However that was 35+ years ago. Today it seems like anyone with two units of "design" from their local community college and access to MS Word fancies themselves a type designer. They may not know it, but we as web professionals we do whenever we glance to see what type of content our clients are entering into their pages (see example at top of page).
Just about every CMS today uses TinyMCE: Posterous, WordPress, Squarespace, Joomla, Facebook, etc. It even has that lovely "paste from word" option that we try and train clients to use. However, this doesn't prevent them from making type layout changes within the editor. Each CMS, has the ability to disable certain aspects of TinyMCE to make it even more user friendly. For instance, Posterous (where you're seeing this) only allows a WYSIWYG user change font size. There is no option to change from a paragraph style to a header. Lame for me, but simple for someone who doesn't know the difference.
I'd like to think that there's some sort of perfect solution. Something that lets you enable a "preformat" for clients. Something smart enough to know when they need an <h1> or <h2> or that they don't really need to force each new line in a paragraph. One that recognizes when they add line breaks (<br>) by hand and turns it into a new paragraph automagically. How about one that removes the double spaces after periods?
At this point it seems like too much of a dream. The only thing I can hope is that one day a solution is revealed and we don't have to deal with <p align="center"><b></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p> ever again.
==Prepare Chicken==
3T Olive Oil
5 peeled carrots, sliced
3 ribs of peeled celery, sliced
4 chicken legs with skin
3 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1 white onion
1 bay leaf
5 cups of water, 1/2 cup of additional water
2-1/2 cups of chicken stock
5 cubes of chicken boullioun
1-1/2 ts of salt
1/2 ts of pepper
1/3 cup all purpose flour
Heat oil on medium-high heat
Add chicken legs and brown on each side for 3 minutes
Add celery, and onions - saute for 3 minutes
Add chicken breast, water, stock, boullioun, salt, pepper, bay leaf
Bring to boil
Reduce heat and simmer for 30min
Remove chicken and add carrots, simmer for 10min
Remove chicken meat from bones
Whisk flour and remaining water in a medium bowl
Add mixture and deboned chicken to saucepan, cover and continue to simmer
==Prepare Dumplings==
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ts baking powder
1 ts salt
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
2T of vegetable oil
To prepare the dumplings, combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Make a well in the dry mixture and add the milk, egg, and oil. Stir briskly to make a batter.
For each dumpling, spoon a rounded tablespoon of batter into the simmering broth. Cover and simmer for another 13 to 15 minutes, without stirring.
Ladle into wide soup bowls and serve hot. Makes 5 to 6 servings.
This is just a snapshot of the hundreds of posts that keep going up on Dribbble since the passing of Steve Jobs. Thought it'd be nice to just collect a few favorites.
"Steve Jobs Memorial Bracelet" by Dave Lilly (wear your own)
"⌘Z" by Alberto Quiñonez
"Steve Portrait" by Michele Zamparo
"A Tribute to Steve" by Nathan Walker
"Steven Paul Jobs" by Dylan Roscover
"Steve" by Haydn Woods
"Stay Hungry Stay Foolish" by Egor Kosten
"Steve Jobs" by Uriel Albarran O.
"RIP" by Jason Tiernan
"Remembering Steve" by Thomas Ricciardiello (background available as a poster - psd or textured wallpaper)
"Goodbye." by Ryan Webster
"Goodbye." by Ryan Putnam
"Steve Jobs Tribute" by Ryan Putnam
"Steve" by Max Rudberg
"Good bye." by Vincent Winberg
"Goodbye SJ" by Diego Caiazza
"Long Live Steve" by Bryan Butler
"Rest In Peace, Mr. Jobs" by Cory Angen
"Please Confirm Departure." by Alana Riley
"Steve Jobs iPhone Wallpaper" by Adrian Myburgh
"Thank You Steve" by Nat Al-Tahhan
"R.I.P." by etherbrian
"Your legacy lives on." by Nacho
Brayden, being the inventive type, figures out that Bri's head makes a great balancing surface. She agrees.
As we prepare to go on our big road trip to Disneyland later this year, we've been doing our best to introduce classic Disney characters and movies to Brayden so he'd somewhat recognize them when we were walking around the park. Today was Winnie the Pooh.
Me: [after seeing a commercial for a new Winnie the Pooh movie] Brayden do you want to watch Winnie the Pooh today?
Brayden: Yes! Hippie the Poooooooh!
