wptouch logo

WPtouch Pro

Mobile Suite for WordPress

October 30, 2012 — By WPTouch Admin

Optimize Your Site for iPad with WPtouch Pro

tips-central-cigardojo-mobile-ipad-themes

CigarDojo.com is a good example of a WPtouch Pro-powered site
optimized for both mobile and iPad

We often field questions about using WPtouch Pro for smartphones, but did you know WPtouch Pro also supports iPad tablets as well?

WPtouch Pro on iPad takes its cues from standard iPad user interfaces so your visitors will instantly know how to navigate your website.

Features include:

  • iPad-native touch and scrolling gestures
  • easy to configure popovers
  • fly in forms
  • easy to customize iPad sidebar logo and backgrounds
  • full retina support, and more!

Our latest Tips Central featured site, CigarDojo.com, is a good example of a customized WPtouch Pro iPad optimized site.

Enabling WPtouch Pro iPad support is as simple as turning on iPad support in the WPtouch Pro admin panel. From there you can customize your iPad theme as you wish. Settings which make sense for both mobile and iPad are automatically shared in WPtouch Pro, saving time and effort to set things up and maintain as you go along.

Find out more about WPtouch Pro for iPad on our WPtouch Pro page.

Interested in looking at more examples of WPtouch Pro-powered sites? Check out our Tips Central archives.

Do you have questions for us about WPtouch Pro for iPad? Let us know!

October 26, 2012 — By WPTouch Admin

Must Read WordPress Articles, October 20-26

Our weekly roundup of must read WordPress articles includes top news stories and popular, recently-published tutorials. Catch up on announcements and resources you might have missed over the past week.

http://storify.com/bravenewcode/must-read-wordpress-articles-october-20-26

October 25, 2012 — By WPTouch Admin

WPtouch Pro Tips Central: CigarDojo.com Wins Our First Top Mobile Site Award!

CigarDojo.com: WPtouch Pro Top Mobile Site

Congratulations to the CigarDojo.com team on being the first ever recipients of our new WPtouch Pro Top Mobile Site award! CigarDojo.com is standout mobile site that does a exemplary job of taking advantage of WPtouch Pro’s features. Find out what makes the site a winner and pick up ideas for your own WPtouch Pro projects in this special edition of our Tips Central posts.

Have you worked on a WPtouch Pro-powered site that you think has what it takes to be one of our Top Mobile Sites? Be sure to let us know in the comments!

Site URL: www.cigardojo.com
Master Sensei: Eric Guttormson
License Type: Single*
CigarDojo on Twitter: @CigarDojo
Eric Guttormson on Twitter: @ericguttormson

*We’ve upgraded Eric’s WPtouch Pro license to a Developer License as part of winning our WPtouch Pro Top Mobile Site award.

tips-central-cigardojo-mobile-ipad-themes

How long have you been using WPtouch Pro?
The CigarDojo blog opened in February 2012 and we added the WPtouch Pro plugin a few months later, in May. Therefore, we have had our website “mobilized” for about six months.

Why did you choose WPtouch Pro to power your mobile site?
We had tested a few mobile themes for our blog and were not satisfied with the results. We wanted a mobile version of our website that appeared to be state-of-the-art and we considered hiring an agency to custom create a solution for us. After finding WPtouch Pro, we knew without a doubt it was the product for us. After testing the free version for a day or so we bought the Pro version and lived happily ever after.

What do you like most about using WPtouch Pro?
The look and feel of the “mobilized version” of our site is what we like the most about WPtouch Pro. With very little effort we were able to make our mobile website look exactly the way we wanted it to look. We also love the iPad version of our website; it’s great having two distinct mobile versions of the site, one for phones and one for tablets. Another one of my favorite aspects of WPtouch Pro is the way the user comments are formatted for mobile users. In fact I wish I could make my full-blown site look half as cool. Everything about WPtouch Pro is slick and well-coded.

What improvements would you like to see included in future WPtouch Pro updates?
I can’t think of anything that could make WPtouch Pro a better product. It’s masterfully coded and very affordable, what more could your ask for?

OUR TIPS CENTRAL NOTES ON CigarDojo.com

Note: Links to support documentation are available exclusively to current WPtouch Pro customers who are logged into bravenewcode.com.

1. Mobile brand extension
CigarDojo.com does a fantastic job of visually extending the non-mobile website theme to the mobile theme. The site ensures good continuity of experience regardless of the device used to visit. The two themes are unified through the use of WPtouch Pro’s ability to add a custom logo, use a background image for the site, and add custom menu icons.
Support Documentation: Adding Custom Icons and Sets

tips-central-cigardojo

Mobile brand extension

2. Keeping it simple
One of the strengths of CigarDojo.com’s mobile theme is its simplicity. In keeping with good useability guidelines for mobile sites, only selected content was added to the WPtouch Pro mobile theme. For example, the mobile menu only includes a few added links while other menu items and sidebar content was left for the non-mobile theme where space permits. By making judicious use of available WPtouch Pro styling, content, and added functionality options, the mobile theme for CigarDojo.com is uncluttered, attractive, and easy to navigate.

One suggestion is to use a custom WordPress menu in order to eliminate the duplication of the menu items for the CigarDojo app. Implementing iOS6 Smart Banner capability might be an even stronger method of promotion on the mobile site experience.
Support Documentation: Using a custom WordPress menu

3. WordTwit Pro
CigarDojo.com makes use of WPtouch Pro’s built-in support for WordTwit Pro allowing Tweets to be populated and viewed from the menu area.

tips-central-cigardojo-wordtwit-pro-integration

WordTwit Pro Integration

Are you interested in having your WPtouch Pro-powered site featured in our “Tips Central” series? Please drop us a note through our contact form to inquire.

October 23, 2012 — By WPTouch Admin

Our Favourite WordPress Plugins: Duane Storey, BraveNewCode Co-founder

One half of BraveNewCode’s founding partnership, Duane Storey has been developing software applications/web-based architectures since he was in the womb. He has built novel web applications, Facebook applications, and even contributed to the voice engine that was once in Yahoo! Messenger.

This week we asked Duane to share some of his thoughts on WordPress and his favourite plugins.

Why do you work with WordPress?

I’ve always really enjoyed the process of writing, and of course having people read and sometimes comment on pieces I’ve written. As a result years ago I started exploring website options and eventually decided that WordPress was the best platform for me to use. Once I started using WordPress I realized that the flexible plugin architecture made it really easy to add functionality to my site, so I started writing code to present my photos in a better way. Eventually this lead me towards the creation of WPtouch, and ultimately BraveNewCode, with Dale.

Top Three Plugins

Flickr RSS by eightface and stefano.verna
This plugin is really basic, but I’ve pretty much used it on every site I’ve worked on where having Flickr photos was important. It does what it says it does, and it’s not confusing. I like simplicity.

Gravity Forms by rocketgenius
Having a contact form on a website is pretty standard these days, and whenever I think about adding one to a site, I almost always go with Gravity Forms. It’s really the best form creation/management plugin on the market. It is a commercial plugin, but I am always happy to hand over some money since it saves me a ton of time and effort when putting a site together with it.

WooCommerce by WooThemes
At BraveNewCode we’ve pretty much tried every eCommerce engine available for WordPress over the years. Without a doubt, WooCommerce is the most reliable and well-written one we’ve encountered, and it definitely simplifies things for us around here. It’s definitely my go-to plugin for doing commerce on WordPress now.

October 19, 2012 — By WPTouch Admin

This Week’s Must Read WordPress Articles, October 13-19

It’s been an eventful week in the WordPress world! The first ever BuddyCamp took place on October 13 and was attended by WordPress leaders who came from far and wide to participate. In other recent news, WordPress 3.5 Beta 2 was released. Read all about these stories and more in our weekly roundup.

http://storify.com/bravenewcode/this-week-s-must-read-wordpress-stories-october-13

October 18, 2012 — By WPTouch Admin

WPtouch Pro Tips Central: leeannbrady.com

leeannbrady.com logo
Our “Tips Central” blog series spotlights WPtouch Pro-powered sites built and maintained by designers, developers and site owners like you. Read about other designers, developers, and site owners’ experiences with WPtouch Pro and get ideas for your own projects. Our experts also provide their recommendations for additional site enhancements using WPtouch Pro.

Site URL: leeannbrady.com
Site Designer: Kelly Brady
License Type: Developer
Twitter: @drleebrady

tips-central-leeannbrady-mobile-ipad-themes

How long have you been using WPtouch Pro?
I believe we launched the site in May 2011. We initially used the free version of WPtouch and soon after upgraded to WPtouch Pro. Besides the enhancements to my mobile site, I liked the idea of having access to support.

Why did you choose WPtouch Pro to power your mobile site?
I’m not a good front-end designer and I needed a solid, functional mobile capability for blog posts. I’m not a theme developer and certainly not a mobile theme developer. The plugin I chose needed to support embedded video but not clash with a complex, free theme framework we currently use. I really liked the look and feel of WPtouch Pro right out of the gate so nothing had to be done except setting a few preferences in the WPtouch Pro admin panels.

What do you like most about using WPtouch Pro?
“Fire and forget.” WPtouch Pro doesn’t cause problems, doesn’t require a lot of maintenance, looks very nice, and keeps up with iPad/Android and other mobile display formats.

What improvements would you like to see included in future WPtouch Pro updates?
I’d love to see a theme wizard or other easier parameters made available so that I could change some of the look and feel a little if I want to without having to learn more about your mobile themes. I’d also love for you to include — or to offer at a small fee — a set of ready-to-go mobile themes that vary the look and feel a little.

OUR TIPS CENTRAL SUGGESTIONS FOR leeannbrady.com

Note: Links to support documentation are available exclusively to current WPtouch Pro customers who are logged into bravenewcode.com.

1. Extend non-mobile theme styling.
WPtouch Pro’s styling options — including its fully customizable child theme feature — will allow the non-mobile theme’s styling elements such as header, navigation bar, and content area background color to be carried through to the mobile theme. Small changes such as these can help solidify brand continuity across platforms.

tips-central-leeannbrady-styling-options

WPtouch Pro’s Mobile theme styling options

2. Add social links.
WPtouch Pro’s menu can be customized to include the social links from the “Stay Connected” homepage sidebar on leeannbrady.com. Up to three items can be added to the default WPtouch Pro menu or a custom WordPress menu can but used for maximum flexibility. Icons can be added to maximize recognition.
Support Documentation: Using a custom WordPress menu

tips-central-leeannbrady-social-menu-icons

Adding custom social media icons

3. Enable advanced functionality.
It appears that the non-mobile theme for leeannbrady.com uses custom post types, custom page templates, or a combination of these to display content such as the “Dental Articles” landing page. WPtouch Pro can be set up to access these functions from the non-mobile theme so they are available to mobile devices.

NOTE: Complexity of this setup varies with the complexity of the non-mobile theme.

Support Documentation: Enabling Custom Post Type Support
 and Creating a Custom Page Template

tips-central-leeannbrady-custom-post-type-support

WPtouch Pro’s Custom Post Type support

4. Include Google Translate functionality.
The non-mobile site uses a plugin that adds a Google Translate tool to the site footer. That plugin’s code can be included in the Custom Footer Content field in WPtouch Pro’s General settings and will appear on the mobile site experience.

tips-central-leeannbrady-custom-footer-content

Custom footer content support

5. Add startup images for iOS Web-App Mode.
When activating iOS Web-App Mode to complete your online experience, WPtouch Pro offers options to include images for a variety of screen sizes and resolutions, including Retina displays.
Support Documentation: iOS Web-App Mode

tips-central-leeannbrady-loading-screen-options

Web-App Mode loading screen options

Are you interested in having your WPtouch Pro-powered site featured in our “Tips Central” series? Please drop us a note through our contact form to inquire.

Previous Blog Entries

Added To Cart

Item added to cart successfully. You can either continue browsing and add more themes or extensions, or checkout now.

View Cart Checkout