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Improving your WordPress tables with the #1 plugin for tables and charts

One of the typical tasks almost each site creator eventually needs to solve is a requirement to display huge amounts of data to the site visitors in a readable and interactive manner. A classic solution is organising the data in a table.

If you deal with data management on your website, you should know about wpDataTables. This is the number one WordPress plugin for tables and charts. wpDataTables takes any amount of data and organizes it on your website. It does so quickly and efficiently so you can avoid five major issues.

Major Issue #1: Wasting time organizing data

Putting together a price list or product catalog on your site can be time-consuming. You will sometimes need to manually craft a table or chart. Then, you might need to align it to fit the page, and then to pour in all the data to form neatly organized columns. This process can be a giant waste of time.

Solution: wpDataTables will spare you a lot of time as well as frustration! It will manage your data for you in a matter of minutes.

For example, you might already have a table in Excel, Google Spreadsheet or MySQL. In this case, you can create a table on your WordPress site with wpDataTables in a couple of clicks.

Or, by clicking Add New you can have a new table in two seconds flat. After that, all that is left is organizing your data and optimizing your design with just a few clicks.

Here is exactly what you can do.

• Use any type of input source. This can be MySQL, Excel, CSV, Google Spreadsheet, XML, JSON or Serialized PHP array
• Upload files, no matter how complex or massive it is
• Copy, save to Excel or save to CSV (Table tools feature)
• Sort your tables (Enable sorting feature)
• Limit the table’s width (Limit table layout feature)
• Define how many entries are displayed on a page (Display length feature)
• Calculating the sum, average, maximum or minimum of all values in numeric columns (Calculation functions feature)
• Use foreign keys for MySQL-based tables.
• Preview your table to make sure the structure is flawless (Preview feature)

Major Issue #2: Needing five different plugins

Typically, you would need multiple plugins when you work with complex data. That means time spent learning how each and everyone works.

It might be hard to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of different plugins. What is more, merging them is a huge headache. Some plugins may cause conflicts when installed on same WordPress installation.

Solution: Using wpDataTables you can create and organize your information anyway you want.

You can also use the built-in Chart Creation Wizard to turn your data into a graph or chart. It only takes a few clicks.

Three render engines can be used; Google Charts, Highcharts, and Chart.js. Also, you can easily insert a form on your website. To do this, you can take advantage of a wpDataTables add-on that integrates Gravity Forms.

Here are some of the most appreciated features of the Gravity Forms integration add-on.

• Show any form fields as table columns.
• Display all the entry’s additional information (IP, DateTime, User ID) in a table.
• Configure the output (display all records, only last XX records etc)
• Show or hide deleted entries.
• Use all of wpDataTables power once you create the form – sort, search, filter, and navigate through Gravity forms data as through any other wpDataTable.

Major Issue #3: Ruining the design of your website

Adding a major amount of data can compromise the design of your site. The design is the first thing to go when organizing a large quantity of data. Often you risk a well-organized, but an ugly-looking table that takes over your site.

Solution: wpDataTables allows you to adjust the table design to your liking.

You can do a lot with wpDataTables for matching your style. This includes quick colors, font size, editing columns to its appropriate type.

Major Issue #4: Having a hard time navigating the data

The most important thing in data management is easy navigation.

You want any visitor to your website to be able to find the precise thing they are looking for. Even if you have millions of rows.

Solution: wpDataTables has put extra effort into the filtering features. This allows creating an easy and intuitive navigation experience.

What you can do with the plugin:

• Display a filter below each column (Advanced filtering feature)
• Create a filter within the form (Filter in the form feature)

If you wish for an even better navigation and filtering experience you can use Powerful Filters. A multifunctional addon. It will extend default functionalities in several ways.

• Cascade Filtering – filter values in order from left to right. Selection in each filter will enable next one and narrow down the options in it.
• Independent Cascade Filtering. Lose the restriction to define filter values from left to right. Any filter narrows down all others.
• Hide Table before filtering – keep the table hidden until a selection is made in the filter.
• Search Button – make the table apply filters only when the Search button is clicked.

Major Issue #5: Taking forever to load a page due to the massive amount of data

The trouble is that loading a page with a large amount of data can take forever. All your efforts to organize your massive data will be for nothing if it takes a long time to load. No one wants to wait longer than a few seconds before they move on from your page.

Solution: wpDataTables automatically creates responsive mega tables.

Here’s what you can do, even with a huge amount of data:

• Display your table differently on various devices. (Responsive feature)
• Hide table until full page is loaded. (Optional feature)
• Scroll the table horizontally (Scrollable feature)

Do you think wpDataTables is for you?

With wpDataTables, you never have to worry about writing code. 16,000 people have chosen this plugin because of its time-saving functionality. Even without tech skills, it is rated high as an easy to use the plugin. So, if you need to gather and publish data in all its forms, you can easily use wpDataTables to manage them.

You can use the plugin to create and organize:

• Price lists
• Product catalogues
• Product/price comparisons
• Event rundowns
• Data collection
• Inventories

Why waste time with messy, ugly charts when you can use this simple plugin and addons? All the headache causing tech issues can be removed from your day.

wpDataTables relieves the struggle of displaying massive amounts of data. There will be no need to compromise load speed, navigation or design. You can have the website of your dreams with less mess and fuss.

Best Multipurpose WP Themes You Can Use in 2018

There is one thing web designers like about multipurpose WordPress themes. It is that they can be used to build virtually any type of website. It can be for a creative type, a small business, a corporation, or a cause. A counter-argument is that multipurpose is a “jack of all trades, master of none”.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Multipurpose themes are more than capable of handling any web design task. The 15 described here can yield results you and your clients will be more than proud of.

The widespread popularity of these 2018 themes enjoy more than proves the point.

1. BeTheme – Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme

BeTheme is big. It’s big in terms of its selection of pre-built websites (more than 320), the number of core features you have access to (40 or so), and the number of satisfied users (thousands). The only small number associated with this premium multipurpose theme might be its ThemeForest best-seller ranking (it’s in the top 5).

Be’s large number of customizable pre-built websites is a blessing if you land a client that operates a business that could best be described as rather uncommon if not unique. You’ll feel doubly blessed if your work involves clients from a range of business type and niches.

Locating a pre-built website that’s a great match for a given client’s needs typically takes minutes, rather than consuming hours of your valuable time.

Be’s Muffin Builder and Options Panel, together with its impressive array of shortcodes will do most of the heavy lifting for you. It’s not uncommon to be able to have a completed website up and running and ready for delivery in roughly 4 hours.

BeTheme is definitely worth looking into.

 

2. Total

Use the Total drag and drop front-end visual page builder and the WordPress Customizer to create your website, monetize it, and you’re ready to set up shop. While you can create any type of website for virtually any purpose, Total really shines when used in the design and creation of eCommerce sites.

Total is fully compatible with and supports the WooCommerce plugin and is bbPress compatible as well.

Total is delightfully easy for WordPress users to work with. You can view the demos on the WordPress dashboard and click to install any demo you intend to use. At the same time, you’ll be prompted to install any plugins that may be required. Then it’s simply a matter of putting your website or eCommerce shop together.

Total is one of the few multipurpose themes that takes developers’ needs into account. All the hooks, snippets, and filters developers look for are built it. Read the rest of this entry »

Try the most efficient UX/UI Tools in 2018

Beautiful web pages aren’t always enough to keep a visitor engaged. In fact, if a site’s UI and UX aren’t carefully designed, visitors aren’t apt to stay around for long.

Consequently, there’s a huge and ever-growing demand for UX designers. Salaries that are in keeping with the demand make the thought of diving into UX an attractive one.

If you’ve already gone this route, you need to understand the importance of having the proper UX tools. You need to know what they are, and what they do. These tools include support collaboration, prototyping, interactive design, and user testing.

User flow diagrams make up an important piece of the puzzle. So does the ability to tweak specific design elements. These can be changed during the design phase and after product deployment.

Here are 7 top UX tools, any one of which can make your work life a lot easier.

1. Mason

Mason’s simple visual interface enables you to design real digital and software features without having to resort to building mockups or prototypes, and the overhead expenses they sometimes entail when handed over to engineering for comments and feedback.

Mason allows you implement your design exactly as you built it, all without a single line of code. The QA process involved in ensuring that the final product matches the design is eliminated, and you can make edits and changes immediately via the Mason platform, and watch them go live in real-time.

This is a radically different way to build, modify, deploy, and maintain desktop and mobile features. Radically doesn’t mean complex or difficult either. Mason’s creators have followed the best design practices and solutions. Mason’s feature-building process is straightforward, and you’ll realize significant savings in time and overhead expenses, and the team collaboration process will be smoother and more efficient and effective.

Another of Mason’s benefits is that it doesn’t lock you into specific platforms or hosting environments. You can simply work with a tech stack that makes the most sense to you.

2. Overflow

Most of you would agree that designers find it difficult to tell a story with their designs, and to communicate their design thinking process to convey the message they want. Not anymore. Overflow is the first-ever user flow diagramming tool created specifically for designers.

It gives designers and product managers the flexibility to present their ideas in an impactful way, by navigating between their screen designs comfortably and focusing on the details when needed. Overflow is a cross-platform tool that integrates seamlessly with the most popular design tools, allowing designers to design, present, share & print their user flows, all in one place.

So in other words, Overflow makes designers look good and keeps their audience captivated so that they can follow the story throughout the entire user journey.

Overflow is currently available in private beta. Check out the above link for early access.  Read the rest of this entry »