<div class="rss-widget"><ul><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wordpress.tv/2014/07/10/tammie-lister-the-theme-is-in-the-details/' title='    '>WordPress.tv: Tammie Lister: The Theme Is In The Details</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wordpress.org/news/2014/07/wordpress-4-0-beta-1/' title='WordPress 4.0 Beta 1 is now available! This software is still in development, so we don’t recommend you run it on a production site. Consider setting up a test site just to play with the new version. To test WordPress 4.0, try the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”). Or you can download the beta here (zip). 4.0 is due out next month, but to get there, we need your help testing what we’ve been working on:  Previews of embedding via URLs in the visual editor and the “Insert from URL” tab in the media modal. Try pasting a URL (such as a WordPress.tv or YouTube video) onto its own line in the visual editor. (#28195, #15490) The Media Library now has a “grid” view in addition to the existing list view. Clicking on an item takes you into a modal where you can see a larger preview and edit information about that attachment, and you can navigate between items right from the modal without closing it. (#24716) We’re freshening up the plugin install experience. You’ll see some early visual changes as well as more information when searching for plugins and viewing details. (#28785, #27440) Selecting a language when you run the installation process. (#28577) The editor intelligently resizes and its top and bottom bars pin when needed. Browsers don’t like to agree on where to put things like cursors, so if you find a bug here, please also let us know your browser and operating system. (#28328) We’ve made some improvements to how your keyboard and cursor interact with TinyMCE views such as the gallery preview. Much like the editor resizing and scrolling improvements, knowing about your setup is particularly important for bug reports here. (#28595) Widgets in the Customizer are now loaded in a separate panel. (#27406) We’ve also made some changes to some formatting functions, so if you see quotes curling in the wrong direction, please file a bug report.  If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on the WordPress Trac. There, you can also find a list of known bugs and everything we’ve fixed so far. Developers: Never fear, we haven’t forgotten you. There’s plenty for you, too – more on that in upcoming posts. In the meantime, check out the API for panels in the Customizer. Happy testing! Plugins, editor Media, things in between Please help look for bugs'>Dev Blog: WordPress 4.0 Beta 1</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wptavern.com/wp-engine-becomes-the-first-large-partner-to-integrate-sidekick?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=wp-engine-becomes-the-first-large-partner-to-integrate-sidekick' title='WP Engine User Portal WP Engine has revamped their user portal and is the first large partner to integrate Sidekick into its service. Sidekick provides WP Engine customers access to guided tours for understanding how different components of the User Portal work together. Sidekick is a product created by FlowPress to create interactive, narrated, guided walkthroughs. The new user portal has guides to learn about the WP Engine platform, managing your account, setting up your site, etc. I was granted access to a WP Engine staging server to experience the benefits these guides offer and I’m impressed. They’re a helping hand at the click of a button. The walkthroughs are clear and to the point. Unlike reading tutorials or watching videos, it was nice to be guided through the process of managing my account. The magic behind the walkthroughs is Sidekick Composer. Although not available to the public yet, I consider it the Camtasia studio for WordPress. After watching a demo of what this plugin is capable of, I think plugin authors are going to love it. Instead of using pointers, they’ll be able to create interactive tours with narrated explanations on how to configure or use their plugin. Keep an eye on the Tavern as rumor has it, the beta period for Sidekick Composer will open soon. When it happens, we’ll let you know.'>WPTavern: WP Engine Becomes The First Large Partner To Integrate Sidekick</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wptavern.com/create-your-own-custom-pointers-in-the-wordpress-admin?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=create-your-own-custom-pointers-in-the-wordpress-admin' title='Admin pointers were first added in WordPress 3.3 for the purpose of helping users discover and navigate new features in major releases. For example, when widgets were added to the customizer, an admin pointer displayed to highlight live widget previews on the themes page.  The friendly pointers, when used sparingly, can draw attention to important items and help new users more effectively navigate the admin. Ordinarily, creating your own pointers requires a bit of custom coding. Fortunately, the admin pointers feature is easy to extend, so plugin developers have been able to harness it for unique uses. Better Admin Pointers is a plugin that makes it possible for anyone to create custom pointers and add them to any screen in the admin. The plugin saves the new pointers as a custom post type. Pointers will display until they are dismissed by the user. Here’s an example of a pointer created to identify which plugin you’re editing:  Pointer Customization Options Better Admin Pointers allows you to customize every aspect of your custom pointers, including:  Main content area Pointer id – A unique id so that it can be tracked in the WP DB as dismissed Screen – What page/screen it should appear on Target – CSS id or class we want the pointer to attach to on the screen above Position Edge – Which edge should be adjacent to the target? (left, right, top, or bottom) Position Align – How should the pointer be aligned on this edge, relative to the target? (top, bottom, left, right, or middle)  The plugin’s settings page has a checkbox option to “show current screen,” which will display the value you need for the screen ID when creating a new pointer.  The WordPress Plugin API also has a handy Admin Screen Reference where you can easily locate IDs for the screens. A point of caution here: It’s easy to go overboard creating too many admin pointers. Some popular plugins annoy users to no end with their ever-present pointers. Don’t make this mistake if you decide to customize your own. While testing the plugin, I was able to create and customize pointers faster than I imagined. The custom post type essentially guides you through the process with an explanation of the values expected in each box. For the average user, the most difficult aspect of customizing a pointer might be setting the target. If you’re not familiar with using your browser to inspect elements, it may be frustrating to determine the right CSS class or ID to use. However, the plugin’s most typical use case is most likely to be a developer setting up pointers for a client website or for someone who is new to WordPress. I can see pointers being very useful for helping clients navigate custom features that a developer has built into the admin. Better Admin Pointers provides a quick way to write up a few friendly pointers to accompany new or confusing screens. Download it for free from WordPress.org.'>WPTavern: Create Your Own Custom Pointers in the WordPress Admin</a></li><li><a class='rsswidget' href='http://wptavern.com/first-look-at-the-new-plugin-details-screen-coming-to-wordpress-4-0?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=first-look-at-the-new-plugin-details-screen-coming-to-wordpress-4-0' title='In the past two weeks, a lot of work has been done to improve the various plugin installer modals in the backend of WordPress. A modal is a fancy way of saying a dialog or popup box. One of the modals revamped is the plugin details view. When users click on the details link when searching for plugins to install from the backend of WordPress, a dialog box appears showing detailed plugin information. Here is what the current implementation looks like. Current Plugin Details Modal View Here’s what the new view looks like. Keep in mind that it’s a work in progress. The Detailed Modal View For WordPress 4.0 As you can see, the plugin’s banner image is displayed at the top. A reviews tab has been added making it easy to read the latest reviews. In addition to the average rating, you can now see how the average is determined. All contributors to the plugin are listed along with their Gravatars. When the modal view shrinks, the detailed information is displayed above the description text. I found the reviews hard to read in chronological order because it’s difficult to determine where a review begins and ends. Showing Gravatars is neat but I question their usefulness if they are the size of favicons. Overall, I like the improvements and can’t wait to see what the finished product looks like. What do you think of the new look?'>WPTavern: First Look At The New Plugin Details Screen Coming To WordPress 4.0</a></li></ul></div>