About Jessica Neuman Beck:

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http://www.beckonweb.com
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Jessica is a web designer, writer, and all-around geek.

Posts by Jessica Neuman Beck:

Registration is OPEN for WordCamp PDX 2010!

Don’t miss out on the chance to attend WordCamp PDX this year – there are TONS of speakers (I’m one of them!) and some pretty fab giveaways, including copies of our book!

Registration is open at the official WordCamp site. Don’t forget to tell them your shirt size.

Custom Menus in WordPress 3.0

One of the coolest new features in WordPress 3.0 is the ability to add custom menus. In this post we’ll walk you through the process of adding custom menu support to your existing them as well as setting up the custom menus in the admin section.

1. Add the register_nav_menus function to your functions.php file.

In your functions.php file, add the following code:
register_nav_menus( array(
'main-menu' => __( 'Main Menu' ),
) );

This will allow your theme to recognize and register a custom navigation menu.

2. Replace the code for your current navigation menu (in your header.php file) with wp_nav_menu.

Open your header.php file and find the section that calls up your navigation menu. It may look something like this:

<?php wp_list_pages(); ?>
Replace that code with this one:

<?php wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'main-menu' ) ); ?>
Using the above code will replace your existing navigation menu with one you specify in the new Menus section (see below).

3. Log in to the admin area of your WordPress site and go to Appearance > Menus.

4. Create a new menu. Give your menu a name (this will not be displayed on your site) and add links by choosing from your pages, categories, or custom URLs. Once you’ve added all the links you want to include in your navigation menu, click “Save Menu.”

5. In the top left of the Menus section, you will see a box labeled “Theme Locations” which should say the following: Your theme supports 1 menu. Select which menu you would like to use. In the drop-down, choose the menu you just created and hit “Save.”

That’s it! You’ve just set up custom menus for your WordPress theme. You can add, delete or re-order your menu items any time you want.

Additionally, you can add custom menus to your sidebar, too – without touching a single line of code. Just add a new custom menu by clicking the plus sign next to your existing menu. Once you’ve got your new menu named and some menu items in place, go to Appearance > Widgets and choose the Custom Menu widget. Drag it to your sidebar, give it a name, and you’re ready to roll!

Questions? Problems? Leave a comment and we’ll do our best to help you out.

get the book!

Itching for a copy of our new book, the WordPress Visual QuickStart Guide? Of course you are, and we’re here to help.

The book hits stores on November 23, and over the course of the next couple of weeks we’ll be giving away copies to celebrate.

For now, you can sign up for our email newsletter over on our Facebook page; one lucky winner will be chosen at the end of the day tomorrow (November 20). And while you’re there, become a fan of couldbe studios!

More to come…keep your eye on this space.

Posting from e-mail

It can be really convenient to post from e-mail, especially if you’re
on the go! Just remember a couple of things to make sure you don’t run
into any problems.

1. Attachments don’t work well over e-mail, so limit yourself to text
2. Keep your formatting to a minimum
3. Don’t cc: anyone on your blog post e-mails; the address is a secret!

photo gallery

Here is a gallery of some recent photos.

podcast!

Click the link to listen.

sample podcast

Music and Memory

The connection between music and memory is well-documented, but scientists have only recently been able to pinpoint the area in the brain that is activated by a musical trigger. According to cognitive neuroscientist Petr Janata, “[Music] calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person’s face in your mind’s eye.”

What does that mean for bloggers? Well, keeping track of the music you listen to while you compose a particularly tricky post can help you recall the post later. You may also notice that certain types of music help you write certain types of posts.