Category Archives: Rx

How to Install Semi-bold and Other Font Variations for Word/PowerPoint

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If Microsoft Word and PowerPoint don’t recognize fonts styles other than bold or italic even if other styles are installed, there is a hack.

I found the perfect font to use for titles in a presentation, Raleway Semi-bold. I installed it and when I went back to PowerPoint, I had two options: bold and italic. So, where’s semi-bold? A quick search found that it’s a MS-Office problem. A hack around it was to remove all other variations of the bold font, except for the semi-bold. This would be great unless I wanted to use the actual bold font. My solution was to rename the Semi-Bold Raleway font and install it as a “new” font. 

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[Rx] Trim CSS Fat Using Win7 Grunt

2016-01-26_113926Back in the day, you didn’t have to worry about “devices.” Now, we’re all modern. We have stylish CSS that makes HTML look hipster-good on any screen size you can imagine. To do all this you need css code, lots of code.

You  can punch the code-masters ticket and roll your own CSS or you can attach everything to a CSS framework (Bootstrap, Foundation, etc.).

These frameworks don’t know what you want, so they give you EVERYTHING. You have a screen the size of you large toenail? Not a problem, but the typical websites uses less than 80% of all the framework css code. 

The price you pay for a kitchen sink framework is speed. Luckily, if you have a need for speed, you can trim out the CSS fat using unCSS.

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[Rx] Creating a WordPress Undescores Starter Theme

2016-01-21_112522_crUnderscores is an online tool for creating a starter theme in WordPress.

It saves a lot of time because it inserts the name of the theme with an underscore in the variable names in a boilerplate theme. If you activate this theme, it’s just basic text and nothing else.

There’s still more to do to create a WP theme, but it certainly is better than rolling your own.

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[Rx] VM Virtualbox and AVIRA Antivirus Conflict

Merge02Virtualbox (current version 5.0.10)  is free software for  creating  virtual machines, VMs. These are other computer operating systems and programs running in a self-contained window on your operating system.

Avira 15.0.15 is a free antivirus software that I’ve used for years.

The long and short of this post is that there is a conflict with these versions causing error messages to pop up.

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[Rx] Local Web Development – Installing WordPress on UniServer

wp_02Uniform Server is an open source lightweight mobile WAMP server that I use as a local web development environment.  The version in this update is: 12.0.1_Zero XII. After UniServer, I installed the latest WordPress.

Here’s the problem. I go through and set something up, like the UniServer Dev Environment. It’s working beautifully. Then, a few months go by and there’s an update. Oh, goodie, I want the latest and greatest. What should be quick and easy ends up being a real pain. Well, it’s a pain because I didn’t document it the first time. Duh!

There were two tricky parts in setting this up. The first was a dependency on an x86 version of Visual C++ runtime on my x64 system and setting up the WP Config with those rip-your-hair-out  “Can’t Connect to Database Errors.”

Installing WordPress on UniServer

INSTALL UNIFORM SERVER

1a. Install Uniform Server Zero XII. Clicking on the executable asks for an install directory. For a normal install, you’re limited to the root (C:\). If you’re using my magic batch file, you can run it anywhere using start.bat. Otherwise, in the root directory launch with UniController.exe. Start Apache and MySQL by pushing the buttons.

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Now, if you get an error message when you press the Apache button, you need to update the Visual Studio 2015 C++ Redistributable.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49984

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Here’s the crazy thing. I’m running on x64, but I had to install both x64 and x86 versions of the software. The downloads are on the same page.

1b. Turn off UniServer Nag for MySQL database password.

Go to home > us-config > us_config.ini

Change Nag_user=true to Nag_user=false

What this means is that the username for the SQL database is root and the password is blank or whatever you set it. In my case, it’s root (see 2b.).

1c. Change Default Port

My previous development environment was InstantWP. This used listening port: 4001
I think this had to do with security or something like that. Anyway, I decided to use this with UniServer too.

1. Turn off Apache in the Uniserver console.

2. Go to Apache > Edit Basic and Modules > Edit Basic Configuration

3. On Listen port change the default value (80) to 4001

4. Hit the Update Configuration button and you’re good to go.

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PHP Extras.

In the UniServer Control Panel, PHP > Edit Basic and Modules > PHP Modules Enable/Disable, you might need to turn on some other modules for other CMS programs. These are some that I turn on:

  • php_curl
  • php_fileinfo
  • php_opensll

 

INSTALL WORDPRESS

2a. Install WordPress.

1. Download the latest WordPress.

2. Inside the zip file, there is a directory called wordpress. Unzip this folder and put it into  UniserverZ > www

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2b. Change the MySQL database password to root.

1. In the UniServer Panel, go to MySQL > Change MySQL Password

2. Enter root and press OK.

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2c. Create wordpress database.

1.  In the UniServer Panel, press the Start MySQL button.

2. In the UniServer Panel, go to MySQL > Database create-delete

3. For the database name, enter wordpress and press Create Database

4. Press [ x ] to exit.

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2d. Setup WP-Config.

1. Make sure both Apache and MySQL are running (green).

2. In the browser type: http://127.0.0.1:4001/wordpress

3. Select Language and Continue.

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4. Press Let’s go!

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5. Enter Data.

Database Name: wordpress
User Name: root
Password: root
Database Host: 127.0.0.1

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6. Press Submit

7. There should be a message that starts: “All right, sparky!”

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8. Press Run the Install.

9. Enter in the Information.

Site Title: WordPress
Username: admin
Password: password (confirm weak password)
Email: admin@site.com

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10. Press Install WordPress.

11. Login with admin and password. http://127.0.0.1:4001/wordpress/wp-login.php

That’s it! Now, the really neat thing is that the development environment  is now self-contained in the folder and you can do the WordPress updates without having to go through all this happy good stuff again. Add the Start.bat file, zip up the folders, and save it in a nice, safe place with a name that you might remember (UniServerZ_WP). Next time you want to play, unzip and it’s ready for some serious DevelopRx action.

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