Exclude Categories from displaying in the Sidebar – WordPress 2.7

1. Locate which categories you would like to hide from displaying in the sidebar. Category ID’s can be found from the WordPress Admin Panel under Manage-> Categories. Simply hover over a category and the cat_ID=# will be listed at the bottom of your browser window.
2. Using an FTP client, FTP to your WordPress installation
3. Navigate to wp-includes/widgets.php and copy widgets.php to your desktop
4. Open widgets.php with a text editor and find the following line:

$d = $options[$number]['dropdown'] ? ’1′ : ’0′;

5. Under this line, add the following line:

$ex = “1,2,3″;

6. Change 1,2,3 to reflect the category ID’s you would like to exclude
7. Next, find the following line:

$cat_args = array(‘orderby’ => ‘name’, ‘show_count’ => $c, ‘hierarchical’ => $h);

8. Replace it with the following line,

$cat_args = array(‘orderby’ => ‘name’, ‘show_count’ => $c, ‘hierarchical’ => $h, ‘exclude’ => $ex );

9. Save the widgets.php file and upload it to your wp-includes directory on your server
10. Go view your site. Your sidebar category widget should now be displaying all but the excluded categories.

That was it. Enjoy it

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Bevel Dark is a Social Bookmark Icon Pack created exclusively for the viewers of Tutorial9. A few weeks ago we released our Free Social Icon Pack, "Bevel Lite", which this set compliments nicely for darker themed websites and projects.

The set includes 10 icons featuring the logos of popular social bookmarking sites. Bevel Dark includes 512×512, 256×256, 128×128, and 64×64 icons in .png format.

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1. Minimalism Around the Web: Design Inspiration & WordPress Themes
2. Create a Vector-Based Zune with Photoshop
3. IconDock Selects WordPress

Quick Nav:

• Design a Zune in Adobe Photoshop
• Download the PSD

What We’re Making

Step 1: Creating the Background

Since our Zune is going to be a nice sleek back, let’s setup a light blue background that will compliment the black.
Create a new document that is 400×600px. Set your foreground color to a nice light blue (#b5efff) and your background color to a darker blue (#00bef3). Grab your Gradient Tool and drag a radial gradient starting at the top right corner and ending at the bottom left corner of the document.

Make a selection about 125px high starting at the bottom of your document using the Rectangle Marquee Tool. Set your foreground color to white and create a Foreground to Transparent gradient starting at the top of the selection running to the bottom. Then set the layer blending mode to Soft Light.

Step 2: Creating the Body of the Zune

Set your foreground color to black. Grab your Rounded Rectangle Tool which is located underneath the rectangle tool. When a shape is made with the rounded rectangle tool, it is made with a path. The path around the object is what makes the shape a vector. Set the Radius of your tool to 7px and then draw a rectangle that nearly covers your canvas. Then apply the following Gradient Overlay.

Duplicate your rounded rectangle by right clicking on it and selecting Duplicate Layer. Change the color of the rectangle to #1e1e1e by double clicking the color thumbnail in the layer. Enter free transform by going to Edit > Free Transform. Then drag the top, left, and right sides about 10px into the body (each done separately). Now drag the bottom side a good 120px up from the bottom and complete your transform.

Then apply the following layer styles:

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Stroke

Duplicate your newest rectangle. Go to free transform, and while holding alt+shift, drag the one of the corners inward. Drag it so it is about 10-15px smaller than the previous rectangle. Holding alt makes the transform go to the center of the object and holding shift makes the object maintain its proportions. Change the color to #0f0f0f. Then apply the following Inner Shadow.

Step 3: Adding Highlights to the Body

Since we want our Zune to have a shiny more reflective appearance, like a real one, we are going to add a nice highlight layer. Duplicate your bottom most rectangle, this should be your largest one. Drag it above all of your layers and set the Fill of the layer to 0%.

Step 4: Creating the Pad

Alright, we now have the main body of our Zune complete! The only problem now is that it doesn’t have any buttons on it. We need to add the touch sensitive pad and the buttons that fall on each side.

Set your foreground to black and grab the Rounded Rectangle Tool with a radius of 30-40px. While holding shift, drag a rounded rectangle onto the Zune until it appears to be the correct size. Place it in the horizontal center at the bottom of the pad, but make sure it is closer to the screen than it is to the bottom of the Zune, since it is like that on the real thing. Then apply the following Outer Glow.

Duplicate your previous rectangle. Right click the layer and select Clear Layer Style, which will remove the out glow. Change the color to #070707. Then start a transform on it and hold alt+shift and make it about 2px smaller.

Now apply the following layer styles:

Inner Glow

Stroke

Duplicate your latest rectangle and clear the layer styles like we did before. Change the color to black and make it about 2px smaller.

Once again, duplicate your latest rectangle and clear the layer styles. Make it 2px smaller just like we did before. Then apply the following layer styles:

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

Step 5: Creating the Circular Buttons

Only two buttons to go before we have our Zune!

Create a new layer group by clicking the folder icon at the bottom of the layers panel. Grab the Ellipse Tool underneath the rectangle tool. While holding shift, drag a new circle onto the Zune for the arrow button. Place it to the left of the pad and apply the following layer styles:

Outer Glow

Stroke

Duplicate your previous layer and clear the layer styles. Make it 2-3px smaller and apply the following layer styles:

Gradient Overlay

Stroke

Now that we have the actual button made, lets duplicate it for the other side. Right click your group and select Duplicate Group. Then, while holding shift, drag it to the right side of the pad. Holding shift makes it move in a straight line.

Step 6: Creating the Icons for the Buttons

Now that we have out buttons, we need to create some icons for them. Turn your grid on by going to View > Show > Grid You can change the options for your grid by going to Edit > Preferences > Guids, Grids, & Slices.

Grab your Pen Tool and create an arrow like the one shown below.

Set the fill of the layer to 0% and then add a Stroke. The fill of the layer will change the opacity of the actual pixels in the layer while leaving any layer effects applied to it alone.

Repeat the process for the right button using a triangle and two rectangles.

We Now Have a Vector Zune Graphic!

Place all of your Zune layers into a layer group. Re-size the group to be small and big so that you can see you won’t lose any quality due to the fact that everything is vectorized. Feel free to add a shadow under your final result by creating a new layer underneath your Zune and making a black oval with the Elliptical Marquee Tool and applying a Gaussian Blur.

Download the PSD

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Minimalism. Underappreciated by Nature

Minimalism used in Website Design is under appreciated, as in so many other areas of design. Considering its nature, this isn’t so surprising. Minimal is a term used to describe work that is stripped to its most fundamental features. In other words only the basic and necessary elements are used, making it easy to miss the true beauty of minimalist works.

How can something be beautiful if there is nothing there? The real beauty of minimalist works comes from what is not there, and perhaps more importantly the functions each basic element serves. A minimalist reduces multiple elements that each serve different purposes into single units that have many visual and functional responsibilities.

It was first said by Robert Browning that “Less is more,” and since then his idea became a fundamental philosophy for minimalist ideology. His saying was later adopted by German Industrial Designer Dieter Rams “Less, but better,” which beautifully summarizes what Minimalist design is really all about. It’s using less, and creating a more fulfilling experience. Since then minimalism has been an idea that has influenced many of todays most renown designers, including people like Johnathan Ive (Designer of iMac, iPod, iPhone) and John Pawson.

Minimal Web Design Showcase

The bare, sleek appearance of Behind Design is complimented nicely by its focus-on-hover content areas.

Bureau for Visual Affairs uses simple elements like lines, numbers, and blocks of color to create a simple yet totally cohesive website. Minimal use of color draws the eye to desired locations in an instant, while a single image is of upmost importance to the viewer.

designhaus berlin isn’t just a portfolio. It feels like a portfolio. And it does so with hardly any visual cues aside from a typographic grid. Many of the pages display with separate background colors which resembles flipping through a creative portfolio in a more tangible sense.

Erratic Wisdom adheres to grid. How do we know? The whole background of the site is a dot grid with simple labels instructing viewers how to use the site.

Giles Revell’s Portfolio is straight to the point. Images featuring Giles work are even spread out across the page, and are identified in the page header when hovered over. No happy text, all very nice looking.

Maurice Kuhlborn’s site is split into horizontal bars, each with it’s own content. One of the bars doubles as a navigation, and a description of the current page being viewed.

Non-Format’s uses a splash page of sorts , which immediately gives you an idea of the caliber of work the rest of the site contains. Navigation expands and collapses as needed, always retaining interest on the incredible creative work this Norwegian/British team is responsible for.

Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects might be a hard name to swallow, but the presentation of their projects is elegant as it is simple. The entire background of the homepage doubles as a photo from one of their projects, while the rest of their site manages to keep identical navigation structure despite heavy style changes. The text feels minimal, and emphasis is very much on the photographs.

Parsley Studio uses a collection of simple images that fill a background to make it stand out, and these images function as a navigation system for their portfolio. Actually, if you try browsing their full portfolio, you’ll notice they don’t use any text whatsoever until hovered over.

qlear is a much darker site than many other minimalist sites featured here, but the display of content remains simple and inventive. Browsing through the portfolio is a seamless, smooth, intuitive process. The header doubles as a place to get to know the creator, Kevin Kalle.

ReinH is a personal blog/journal that hops right into the latest post. Aside from a faded background image, it’s a layout composed of only text, but the different shades create a distinguishable content hierarchy.

Tim Jarvis – A Base Reference contains very little text, as the primary content are the beautiful photos. The home page loads a different work everytime it’s loaded, each bringing it’s own mood to the entire site.

Tom Booth’s portfolio is divided until multicolored categories. Clicking a category expands it allowing the viewer to quickly navigate to a specific work.

Twistori is a unique concept that uses Twitter to display different emotions from around the web as they are posted. The navigation also acts as the means of separating posts. The page automatically updates, and there is even a screensaver that can be downloaded to use it on the go (For Mac OS X).

Jan Reichle uses the background of the site as a clever logo type. The site functions in a similar manner to a file structure on a PC or Mac, effectively showing what is available, and precisely where the user currently is.

Muller is formated to feel like a catalogue, and a catalogue it feels like. The block grid makes the content easy to parse, and the simple display of work communicates the work effectively.

Shaun Inman uses an animated flash background, but it all feels so simple and right. Outstanding grid work in play here. You may know Shaun from his work with Mint.

Vitor Lourenco puts on a wonderful display of what a perfect web interface may look like. Aside from working on Twitter, Vitor’s portfolio contains some impressive work.

John Pawson may be one of the most highly respected minimal designers of this day an age, with quite a portfolio under his belt. His site is clearly demonstrates his beliefs of trying to achieve simplicity in art.

Minimal WordPress Themes

If you’re a WordPress user, you may take interest in some of these themes with a minimalist aesthetic.

“Cardeo Minimal WordPress Theme” – This simple WordPress theme is split into 3 columns on a white background with hardly any noise. Images are given upmost prominence.

“Hemingway” – A dark, simple, and elegant WordPress theme split into several columns and rows. The entire layout is divided and organized by nothing more than blocks of text and simple lines.

“Just Lucid” – Not quite as elegant as Hemingway or Cardeo, Just Lucid does offer a wider post format for WordPress users that need the extra width, but want to keep things clean.

“Modicus” – Minimal with a hint of attitude is how I would describe Modicus. It has a few unique quirks to itself, but Modicus is definitely a theme worth experimenting with if you need a minimal layout. It’s fast, ad friendly, and includes an optional homepage.

“Minim” – Another theme by Upstart Blogger that feels a bit more clean. It’s lightweight giving it the speed advantage over other sites, and formatted to accept standard ad formats.

Minimal WordPress Themes elsewhere on the Web:

• The Best Minimalist WordPress Themes
• Minimal WordPress Theme Archive
• WordPress Theme Directory: Themes Tagged with Minimal

Slightly Unrelated, but You Might Also Like This

Creative Package Design

Again, websites certainly aren’t the only place minimalist ideas are put into practice (it could be argued that web design was minimalist trends last compared to most forms of design). Check out this incredible collection of well crafted products after you finish up here.

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