The Torknado Project

https://torknado.com/2023/05/making-contact-form-7-more-usable/
If you use Contact Form 7, there's a thing you should do to make sure people know whether their form submission succeeded.

Making Contact Form 7 more usable If you use Contact Form 7, there's a thing you might do to avoid user misunderstandings from the default form behavior.

Controlling how links to your pages appear elsewhere Before you post, use these settings to control you search engines and social media describe your webpage.

You've written a terrific post, or an important page on your WordPress site. The title is good, the words are right, it has some relevant pictures. But will it send the right message when people see a link to it in search results and links from social media?

Controlling how links to your pages appear elsewhere Before you post, use these settings to control you search engines and social media describe your webpage.

The default settings for the iThemes Security plugin (which I've recommended here) are such as to prevent the statistics gathering plugin Matomo (which I also recommend) from working. The symptom of the problem is that you get a 403 Forbidden (or Not Allowed) error when trying to view the Matomo reporting screen. Here's how to fix it.

iThemes Security incompatibility with Matomo How to resolve 403 Forbidden error or 403 Not Allowed error when using Matomo on a WordPress site that also has the iThemese Security plugin.

If you're posting pictures that you want to prevent people from copying and reusing without your permission, you probably want to watermark the larger versions. You've probably seen watermarks on stock photo sites -- a translucent overlay...

Plugin comparison: Watermarks I compare plugins for adding watermarks to protect images from unauthorized reuse (aka theft).

You probably don't need this plugin to use hCaptcha in WordPress unless you're using Contact Form 7, but if you do need it, this is the plugin you need.

Plugin review: hCaptcha for Forms and More You probably don't need this plugin unless you're using Contact Form 7, but if you do need it, this is the plugin you need.

What's great about the Neve theme, what's not great, how to work around the flaws, and how to make a header banner.

Theme Review: Neve My current favorite, the Neve theme has a clean look, great typography control, and enough options to make it easy to customize without being overwhelming.

I've updated my advice on contact forms for WordPress sites.

Plugin review: Contact Form 7 vs. WPForms Lite Your website needs a way for people to get in touch with you (or at least with your representative, if you're too much a bigshot to answer your own email). It's

My new plugin is now added to the WordPress catalog for anyone to install with the Add New button from their plugins screen. It lets you enter an Excerpt for Pages, to control the text that appears with them in on-site search results. It was previously available just from my website.

Plugin: Torknado Page Excerpt When you enter a Post in WordPress, you can also enter an excerpt to override the automatic excerpt generated by default from the first 55 words of the post. Th

When editing WordPress page content, you can copy and paste sections of HTML data, including images. But you're not copying the images -- just the references to the images which may be on a different website. If you're doing a lot of that -- for instance, if you're copying a bunch of content from one site of yours to another -- it's nice if you can copy the images into your media library.

Plugin review: Auto Upload Images I set up this website to separate out my technical work from my fiction writing. Fiction on tylertork.com (it's really excellent fiction BTW), nonfiction here.

Like a post grid, but it's a grid of pages instead, automatically generated from child pages. Say it with me, class: there's a plugin for that.

Plugin review: CC Child Pages I often want a page containing an automatically generated grid of subsidiary pages, without having to work hard to make it happen.

Needed a way to edit the "excerpt" of a page (like you can a post), but the theme didn't let me! So I wrote a very simple plugin to wrassle it into submission. It is now available on this site, free to anyone.

A new plugin by me I needed a way to edit the "excerpt" of a page (as opposed to a post), but the theme didn't let me! So I wrote a very simple plugin to force it to. You can have it, no charge.

You can paste images directly into a post or page while editing -- but the resulting filename in your media library is completely random. Here's a plugin to let you specify the filename as you paste.

Plugin review: The Paste You can paste images directly into a post or page while editing -- but the resulting filename in your media library is completely random. Here's a plugin to let you specify the filename as you paste.

Speed up your WordPress website by automatically converting all images to the more compact WebP format. There's a free plugin for that.

Speed up your website with WebP Make your images load faster using WebP format on your WordPress website. If images are faster, the page is faster. And a faster site gives better SEO and lower

Two features that make the WordPress block editor a thing of niceness. They save time and prevent inconsistent formatting in the content of your pages and posts. But how and where are they best used?



A reusable block is an element you can create on the fly while editing a page. It lets you name and save a block to repeat it elsewhere.

Reusable Blocks and Patterns Two of the features that make the WordPress block editor a thing of niceness. They save time and prevent inconsistent formatting within the content of your page

If you've installed a spam control plugin such as Antispam Bee, you shouldn't be getting a lot of new spam comments on your posts. But what about the thousands of comments you received before activating spam blocking? Some tiny fraction of them may be legit comments from actual people, that you'd like to keep.

Sifting Through a Ton of Spam Comments Ban SPAM If you've installed a spam control plugin such as Antispam Bee, you shouldn't be getting a lot of new spam comments on your posts. But what about th

Book launch!🎉🎉🎉
https://torknado.com/obook-author
And most hosting providers are having sales.
You probably have today off.
Might be a good time to create an author website!

One-Hour Author Website I enable authors to create their own professional WordPress website, on a budget, with no coding. Your own site with your domain name gives you credibility and

The popular Jetpack plugin adds a whole lot of functions in one giant package. It’s often installed automatically with WordPress.

I don’t care for it, and the automatic setup program for "One Hour Author Website" deactivates it if it's present. Instead, I use smaller plugins that perform just the functions you actually need.

Plugin review: Jetpack The popular Jetpack plugin adds a whole lot of functions in one giant package. It’s often installed automatically with WordPress. I don’t care for it, an

The Redirection plugin. This is how you move pages without breaking links people have created to them. Links to your site are gold -- don't throw them away.

Plugin review: Redirection Redirection by John Godley. I used to have one website for my writing projects -- tylertork.com. Then I split it out into two -- the old one for fiction writ

For authors who have their own websites, this is a way to leverage the site to engage readers, to encourage additional sales and reviews.

When someone has just finished reading one of your books, assuming they enjoyed it, that’s the perfect time to invite them to do something for you.

Post-Read Pages For authors who have their own websites, this is a way to leverage the site to engage readers, to encourage additional sales and reviews. When someone has ju

A free WordPress plugin to install in a single step all the other plugins I consider essential for an author website. Shows list with explanations so you can choose which are right for you, then press Go.

Quick Install of My "Essential" Plugins To save time, I've created a list of the plugins I install when creating an author website, which you can install in a single step using my "install list of plu

Some online booksellers, including the One Who Shall Not Be Named, offer an affiliate program. This is an incentive for you to direct customers to them, by having links from your site to their site that include your affiliate ID so they know who to credit.

If your website has links to where to buy your books, you might as well get a little extra if people buy through those links.

Affiliate Income on Your Own Book Sales Some online booksellers, including the One Who Shall Not Be Named, offer an affiliate program. This is an incentive for you to direct customers to them, by havi

How to create QR codes for a variety of purposes, that work reliably and don't invade visitors' privacy.

How to make non-skeevy QR codes Recent statistics show that use of QR codes -- those dotty squares that point your smartphone to a web page -- are on the rise. I'm not here to make the case fo

My publisher and I have mutually decided their production process isn't fast enough to accommodate the frequent updates a book such as One Hour Author Website will require. I need your feedback on how to deliver this content.

Change of Plan My publisher and I have mutually decided their production process isn't fast enough to accommodate the frequent updates a book such as One Hour Author Website w

If your website host is SiteGround, you will have gotten a notice that your DNS servers are changing. If SiteGround is not also your domain registrar, you DO need to take action to keep your website working.

You’re switching website hosting to a different provider (here are my recommended providers). You want minimum downtime, and to avoid breaking anything you might not notice right away.

Here’s the checklist for moving your website...

How to Migrate a WordPress Website You’re switching website hosting to a different provider (here are my recommended providers). You want minimum downtime, and to avoid breaking anything you mi

A trusted associate recently recommended a new website hosting company to me, so I checked them out. They look good, and we're planning to transfer the website of an organization I work with to them in the near future, mainly because they're more in line with the organization's values.

The hosting company is greengeeks.com, and the selling point is environmentalism.

New Hosting Provider Recommendation A trusted associate recently recommended a new website hosting company to me, so I checked them out. They look good, and we're planning to transfer the website

I've previously reviewed and recommended the UpdraftPlus Backup plugin. The WPvivid Backup and Migration Plugin does basically the same task, roughly as well, and you might choose either based on your needs. Each of them has a free version and a "pro" version with additional features.

Plugin Review: WPvivid Backup Plugin I've previously reviewed and recommended the UpdraftPlus Backup plugin. The WPvivid Backup and Migration Plugin does basically the same task, roughly as well, a

This is about an occasional problem I've seen with e-book downloads. When you click the download link (as opposed to using the context menu to explicitly save the file), it opens in the browser, but the contents are garbage characters.

This isn’t a problem with the visitor’s computer. It happens because your web server isn’t set up to handle the e-book file format.

E-book download garbage screen This is about an occasional problem I've seen with e-book downloads. When you click the download link (as opposed to using the context menu to explicitly save t

Back in the old days, the Wild West days, anyone could send email claiming to be from whoever and receiving email systems would accept it. But the mind-boggling gamut of spam and scam email has made people suspicious. Many servers are checking IDs at the door now.

Plugin Review: WP Mail SMTP This plugin helps email sent by your website get past spam filters.