Use MAMP Pro to run both SSL and non-SSL connections for the same site

By Simon Leadbetter, Jul 2014

A quick tip to help you run a website using both http and https protocols on your local MAMP server.

The best way to add an SVG image to your website

By Simon Leadbetter, May 2014

SVG is great, however, as with most things relating to building a website, it is not simply a case of just using it. You need to know when it will work and when it won’t. So, we did some research to find the best way to add SVG to a website without the need for hacks or Javascript.

Working with ExpressionEngine’s discussion forum module and seeing an error page?

By Simon Leadbetter, Sep 2013

Kindness in the workplace

By Simon Leadbetter, Aug 2013

Are we a society that has fogotten what it means to be kind? Do we not care about the needs of others? This article explores how kindness can find its way into the workplace with, perhaps, the help of a few Karma Points.

Enhanced Link Attribution in Google Analytics

By Simon Leadbetter, May 2013

Did you know that by making a simple change to your Google Analytics tracking code and clicking a checkbox in the account setting you can get truer results when using the wonderful In-Page Analytics? No, neither did we.

Do you know your straight from your curlies? Using the right quotation marks is just smarter

By Simon Leadbetter, Feb 2013

Marking a passage of text with quotation marks is simple, right? It is… if you know the secret key combination that unlocks the mystical curly quotes. All will be revealed.

Use a Dropbox account to synchronise your Sublime Text 2 settings

By Simon Leadbetter, Feb 2013

A decent text editor is a web designer/developer’s Holy Grail. Everyone has their favourite and being a recent convert to Sublime Text 2, I can say that it’s my new best friend – especially as it’s easy to keep it synchronised between multiple machines.

An alternative for the missing if no_paginate tag

By Simon Leadbetter, Jan 2013

ExpressionEngine is great in a million-and-one ways, but if you’ve ever wanted to display content when there is no pagination then you will find there is no native tag for this task. However, this simple work-around does the trick. 

Monster horizontal scroll bars when creating a RTL (right-to-left) layout

By Simon Leadbetter, Jan 2013

When we say monster, what we mean is a horizontal scroll bar that is longer than the channel tunnel.

Web Forms: a great big User Experience brick wall

By Simon Leadbetter, Jan 2013

Web forms are notoriously difficult to get right. In fact, they are invariably seen as the one area of a website that is attributed to a poor user experience and often the primary cause of frustration. So we’ve collated a few tips to help you avoid your web forms becoming an unsurmountable obstacle for your users.

Stretched Google Maps UI? That will be your responsive images

By Simon Leadbetter, Oct 2012

Creating a default config for Wygwam/CKEditor and linking it to a custom StyleSet

By Simon Leadbetter, Sep 2012

Like many of Pixel & Tonic’s ExpressionEngine add-ons, Wygwam is installed by default on every website we build, however, configuring the Advanced Settings for each Editor was becoming a bind. Until now.

Correct spelling, sound punctuation and better grammar can really improve your design

By Simon Leadbetter, Aug 2012

The very essence of being a designer is the ability to communicate a message. And sometimes, as the designer, it is down to you to define what that message will be. This article explores the benefits you can gain from improving your writing skills. Of course, it is also a golden opportunity for you to spot the inevitable spelling mistake and then ridicule me forever.

Use the .dev domain suffix in MAMP Pro

By Simon Leadbetter, May 2012

MAMP Pro is a local server environment that we use to build and test website. Until recently, we set-up a new host using the domain name of the website we work working on, however, there is a better way.

Getting Disqus to play nice with a responsive layout

By Simon Leadbetter, Feb 2012