…along comes another cool WordPress trick!

Of course, I’m joking about learning everything I need to know. There are so many ways to use WordPress, I doubt that anybody knows everything about it. And don’t forget that WordPress is just a platform — you’d have to know everything about CSS, HTML, PHP, etc. to know everything.

But I have started to venture into ways to make my web sites easier for the client to manage. And one of the neatest ways to do that is to create custom write panels. These live in the Dashboard just like normal “Add New Posts” or “Add New Pages” panels. But instead of presenting a confusing array of non-relevant options, the custom panels make the experience more pleasant by presenting only the options that the author needs. You can also add features to the write panel, such as an easier way to include form elements or thumbnails.

I’m pretty excited about the never-ending learning that WordPress development brings me. In just the past year, I’ve gone from thinking of WordPress as a bloggers tool to realizing that it really is a full-featured web development platform with an awesome amount of muscle. The online community has been amazing and I’ve begun listening religiously to a couple of podcasts, including @wptavern’s WordPress Weekly. I would highly recommend it if you use WordPress much at all.