The blog
Practical how-to guides for developers, designers, and WordPress users.
ToolCreek is Live: Free Tools for Developers and WordPress
Meet ToolCreek, a fast, free, browser-based toolbox for developers, designers, and WordPress users. No signup, no uploads, everything runs on your device.
How to Block AI Crawlers from Your Site
Learn how to block AI crawlers like GPTBot, Google-Extended, and CCBot with robots.txt rules, plus the server-level blocks bad bots actually respect.
How to Bulk Rename Images
Learn how to bulk rename images with clean, SEO-friendly filenames using consistent naming patterns, all in your browser with files staying on your device.
WordPress Transients: How to Name Transient Keys
How to name a WordPress transient key safely: the 172-character limit, why it exists, prefixing conventions, and hashing variable data for short unique keys.
How to Compare AI Models for Your Project
Learn how to compare AI models the right way: context window, token pricing, latency, capabilities, cutoff, and open vs API, then test on your own prompts.
How to Find and Remove Invisible Characters in Text
Invisible characters break code, search, and formatting in text that looks perfectly fine. Here is how to find and strip the hidden culprits fast.
How to Add Review and Rating Schema
Review schema is how star ratings show up in Google. Learn the Review and AggregateRating JSON-LD fields, the rules Google enforces, and how to add it.
How to Estimate Gzip and Brotli Compressed Size
Learn how to estimate the gzip size of your text assets, why brotli usually wins, and how to find the real over-the-wire payload that affects load time.
How to Use CSS Filters
Learn how to use CSS filters to blur, brighten, recolor, and shadow images and elements in pure CSS, plus chaining, backdrop-filter, and performance.
How to Estimate Reading Time for an Article
How to estimate reading time for any article: divide word count by average reading speed (200 to 250 wpm), round up, and show the 'X min read' label.
How to Add WooCommerce Code Snippets Safely
Learn how to add WooCommerce code snippets without breaking your store. Covers hooks, where to put code, safe examples, and the rules that keep you safe.
How to Build a Type Scale for Your Website
Build a harmonious type scale by multiplying a base size by a ratio, mapping steps to h1-h6, and making the font size scale fluid with clamp().
How to Write a System Prompt for an AI Model
Learn how to write a system prompt that controls an AI model's role, tone, rules, and output format, with a reusable skeleton you can copy.
How to Write a Content-Security-Policy (CSP)
Learn how to write a Content-Security-Policy to reduce XSS risk: key CSP directives, source keywords, and how to test safely with Report-Only mode.
How to Create a WooCommerce Product Import CSV
Build your own WooCommerce product CSV with the right columns, price and category formatting, and import it cleanly via WooCommerce > Products > Import.
How to Find WordPress Hooks (Actions and Filters)
Learn what WordPress hooks are, how actions and filters differ, and how to find the exact hook to customize WordPress, WooCommerce, or a theme safely.
How to Generate Placeholder Images
Generate placeholder images at exact dimensions in your browser. Label, color, and export PNG dummy images that prevent layout shift while you wait for real assets.
How to Convert URLs for WordPress Multisite
Convert URLs between subdomain and subdirectory WordPress Multisite layouts, map subsites correctly, and change domains safely without breaking your network.
WordPress Image Sizes Explained
WordPress image sizes explained: the default thumbnail, medium, large, and full versions WordPress makes on upload, plus how to control and regenerate them.
How to Calculate WooCommerce Taxes
Learn how to calculate WooCommerce tax on an order: inclusive vs exclusive pricing, tax classes, address-based rates, compound taxes, and rounding.
Useful .htaccess Rules for WordPress
Practical .htaccess rules for WordPress on Apache: force HTTPS, set www, add 301 redirects, protect wp-config.php, and enable caching. Back up first.
How to Write a robots.txt File
Learn robots.txt syntax: User-agent, Disallow, Allow, Sitemap, and rule matching. Plus the key fact that robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing.
How to Add Organization Schema
Add Organization schema so Google understands your brand entity. Learn the key JSON-LD fields, sameAs links, and how to validate it correctly.
How to Add Local Business Schema
Add Local Business schema to your site with valid LocalBusiness JSON-LD: address, phone, hours, geo coords, and the NAP consistency that local SEO needs.
How to Add Breadcrumb Schema
Breadcrumb schema tells Google your page's place in the site so search results show a clean trail like Home > Category > Page instead of a raw URL.
How to Add Product Schema for Rich Results
Add Product schema so Google can show price, availability, and review stars. Learn the JSON-LD fields, Google's rules, and how to validate it.
How to Count Tokens for LLM Prompts
Learn how to count tokens for LLM prompts so you can estimate cost and stay under the context window, plus a quick rule of thumb for English text.
How to View and Sort a CSV File Online
Need to view a CSV file as a clean, sortable table? Read, sort, and search any CSV in your browser without Excel mangling your data.
How to Clean Up Whitespace in Text
Clean up whitespace fast: trim spaces, collapse double spaces, drop blank lines, and strip the hidden characters that sneak in from copy-paste.
How to Sort and Deduplicate Lines of Text
How to sort and deduplicate lines of text in your browser: alphabetical, numeric, and reverse sorting, case handling, and removing duplicate or blank lines.
What Is EditorConfig and How to Use It
EditorConfig keeps indentation, line endings, and charset consistent across every editor on your team. Here is what a .editorconfig file does and how to set one up.
How to Generate a JSON Schema
Turn a JSON example into a JSON Schema you can validate against. What type, properties, required, items, and enum mean, and how to refine the draft.
How to Create CSS Animations with Keyframes
Learn how to create CSS animations with @keyframes and the animation shorthand, when to use them over transitions, and how to keep them smooth and accessible.
Tailwind CSS Color Palette Reference
Look up the hex value behind any Tailwind CSS color class, understand the 50-950 shade scale, and copy palettes for use in any design tool.
How to Add CSS Text Shadow
Learn the CSS text-shadow syntax, how to layer multiple shadows for outlines and neon glows, and how to keep text readable over images.
How to Use CSS border-radius
Learn CSS border-radius the practical way: the 1-to-4 value shorthand, per-corner control, pills and circles with %, and the slash syntax for ellipses.
How to Add Article Schema to Blog Posts
Add Article schema to your blog posts so Google can show article rich results. The required JSON-LD fields, author and publisher signals, and how to validate.
How to Extract All URLs from a Sitemap
Learn how to extract sitemap URLs into a clean list for audits, crawls, and migrations, plus how sitemap files and index files are structured.
How to Add FAQ Schema for Rich Results
Add FAQ schema (FAQPage JSON-LD) so your questions are eligible for expandable rich results in Google. Build it, place it, and validate it correctly.
Safe Ways to Add Code Snippets to WordPress
How to add code snippets to WordPress without breaking your site: a snippets plugin, a child theme, and the rules that keep functions.php from crashing.
How to Fix Broken WordPress Serialized Data
Did a database find-and-replace break your widgets or theme options? Here is why serialized data breaks and how to fix it safely.
How to Choose a WordPress Permalink Structure
Pick the right WordPress permalink structure for SEO: why Post name wins, what the structure tags do, and the 301 redirect rule when changing a live site.
How to Pick a Color from an Image
Pick a color from an image to get its exact HEX, RGB, and HSL. Use an eyedropper on a photo, screenshot, or logo to match a brand, right in your browser.
How WP-Cron Works and How to Fix It
WP-Cron is not a real cron job. Learn why scheduled posts and tasks fail, and the reliable fix using DISABLE_WP_CRON and a server cron job.
How to Add a Watermark to an Image
Add a watermark to an image with text or a logo, right in your browser. Learn placement, opacity, and what a watermark can and cannot protect.
How to Remove an Image Background
How to remove an image background in your browser and get a clean transparent PNG cutout for products, profile pics, logos, and design work.
HTML Entities Explained and How to Encode Them
What HTML entities are, the five characters that matter most for safety, and how to encode them in your browser to show code literally and prevent XSS.
How to Unminify and Beautify JavaScript
Stuck reading a minified one-liner? Learn how to unminify JavaScript so it is readable again, what beautifying can recover, and what it cannot.
Essential HTTP Security Headers
Learn the security headers every site should send: HSTS, CSP, X-Content-Type-Options, frame-ancestors, Referrer-Policy, and Permissions-Policy, and what each prevents.
How to Query JSON with JSONPath
Learn JSONPath syntax to pull exact values out of big JSON: root, recursive descent, wildcards, slices, and filters, with worked examples you can run.
How to Convert XML to JSON
Convert XML to JSON in your browser. How elements, attributes, and repeated tags map to JSON keys, plus the tricky parts to watch for.
How to Create a .gitignore File
Learn what a .gitignore file does, the pattern syntax, what to ignore, and how to generate one fast so you stop committing build output and secrets.
HTTP Status Codes Explained
What HTTP status codes mean and what to do about them. Quick reference for 200, 301, 404, 500, and every code class developers and SEOs hit.
How CSS Specificity Works
CSS specificity decides which rule wins when two selectors target the same element. Learn to count it, why higher beats source order, and when to avoid !important.
How to Use CSS Grid for Layouts
Learn CSS Grid for real two-dimensional layouts: grid-template-columns, the fr unit, repeat(), minmax(), gap, item spans, and responsive auto-fit grids.
How to Use CSS Flexbox for Layouts
How CSS Flexbox lays out items in a row or column, the key container and item properties, and when to use Flexbox instead of Grid.
How Much Memory Does WordPress Need
How much WordPress memory you need, what the WP_MEMORY_LIMIT and WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT constants do, and how to fix the exhausted memory error fast.
How to Minify HTML
Learn how to minify HTML in your browser: what minification removes, why it speeds up page loads, the pitfalls to watch, and a quick step-by-step.
How to Convert TSV to CSV
Convert TSV to CSV (and back) in your browser. The only difference is the delimiter, but escaping commas matters. Here is how to do it cleanly.
How to Find and Replace Text Online
Find and replace text in your browser: swap every match, control case sensitivity, match whole words, and use regex with capture groups. Nothing is uploaded.
How to Convert JSON to CSV
Turn a JSON array into a spreadsheet. Learn how JSON to CSV maps keys to headers, flattens nested data, and escapes commas, quotes, and newlines.
How to Calculate Aspect Ratio
Learn how to calculate aspect ratio, reduce dimensions to a clean ratio like 16:9, solve for a missing width or height, and use the CSS aspect-ratio property.
How to Fix CORS Errors
Seeing 'blocked by CORS policy' in the console? Learn what causes CORS errors and the correct server-side way to fix them safely.
How to Use CSS clamp() for Responsive Sizing
Learn how CSS clamp() makes text and spacing scale smoothly with the viewport, no media query pile-up, with a real fluid typography example you can copy.
How to Convert PNG to WebP
Learn how to convert PNG to WebP in your browser for smaller, faster-loading images that keep transparency and crisp quality. No upload required.
How to Remove EXIF Metadata from Photos
Remove EXIF metadata from photos before you share them. EXIF data can leak your GPS location and camera details. Here is how to strip it in your browser.
How to Resize an Image Online
How to resize an image online by pixels or percentage, lock the aspect ratio to avoid distortion, and downscale for faster pages, all in your browser.
How to Generate a Color Palette
How to generate a color palette from a base color, pick the right harmony scheme, build a real UI palette with neutrals and state colors, and check contrast.
How to Hash a Password with Bcrypt
Learn how to hash a password with bcrypt: why it's slow and salted by design, what the cost factor means, and how to verify a password against a hash.
How to Minify CSS for Faster Load Times
Learn how to minify CSS by stripping whitespace and comments to shrink files, speed up first paint, and load pages faster, all in your browser.
How to Convert SVG to PNG
How to convert SVG to PNG in your browser. Pick the right export size, keep transparency, and get a pixel-perfect raster image without uploading a file.
How Strong Is Your Password and How to Check
Learn what makes a password strong, how strength meters estimate guess time, and how to check yours safely in a browser where it never leaves your device.
How to Create CSS Box Shadows
Learn the CSS box-shadow syntax, what each value does, and how to layer shadows for soft, realistic depth. Build one fast with the Box Shadow Generator.
How to Read and Write a Cron Expression
Learn to read a cron expression field by field, master the * , - / special characters with worked examples, and see why WP-Cron differs from system cron.
How to Create Clean URL Slugs
Learn how to create clean URL slugs that help SEO and readers: lowercase, hyphen-separated, short, keyword-focused, and built right from your titles.
How to Convert Between Binary, Decimal, and Hex
How to convert between binary, decimal, hex, and octal, why hex maps neatly to bytes, and a worked example showing 255 = 0xFF = 11111111.
How to Convert a Unix Timestamp to a Date
Convert a Unix timestamp to a human date in your browser. Learn seconds vs milliseconds, UTC vs local time, the 2038 problem, and how to convert both ways.
How to Convert Markdown to HTML
Convert Markdown to HTML in your browser. Map headings, bold, links, lists, code fences, tables, and task lists to clean HTML, with no uploads.
How to Convert YAML to JSON and Back
Convert YAML to JSON and back in your browser. See how the two formats differ, walk through the steps, and dodge the classic YAML gotchas, with no uploads.
How to Create a QR Code for Free
Make a QR code for a URL, text, or wifi in seconds. Learn what QR codes encode, static vs dynamic, error correction, and how to generate one safely.
Why Your Favicon Looks Cropped in Google and How to Fix It
Google renders favicons inside a circular mask, so corner artwork gets clipped. Learn the safe-zone fix and how to check your favicon before it ships.
What Is Lorem Ipsum and How to Generate It
Learn what Lorem Ipsum is, why designers use this scrambled Latin placeholder text, when to avoid it, and how to generate paragraphs, words, and lists.
How to Detect a WordPress Theme and Its Plugins
Learn how to detect a WordPress theme and its plugins by reading public HTML. Spot wp-content paths, version strings, and signatures like Divi and Elementor.
How to Generate Bulk Product SKUs for WooCommerce
Learn what a good WooCommerce SKU looks like and how to generate bulk product SKUs from a pattern, so every code stays short, consistent, and unique.
How to Change the WordPress Database Table Prefix
Change the WordPress database table prefix from the default wp_ to a custom value. Set it for new installs and migrate existing sites safely.
How to Translate Text to Morse Code
Translate text to Morse code and back in your browser. Learn the dot and dash timing rules, letter and word spacing, and why SOS is ... --- ...
How to Convert JSON to XML
Convert JSON to XML in your browser. See how keys map to elements, arrays to repeated tags, and how to avoid invalid element names, with no uploads.
How to Convert CSV to JSON
Convert CSV to JSON in your browser. Turn rows and columns into a clean array of objects, handle quoted fields and custom delimiters, with no uploads.
How to Check a Page Canonical Tag
A canonical tag tells search engines the preferred URL among duplicates. Learn what rel=canonical does, the common mistakes, and how to check it fast.
How to Preview Your Google Search Snippet
See your Google search snippet before you publish. Learn how the title, URL, and meta description build the result, the length limits, and how to earn clicks.
How to Import Sample Products into WooCommerce
Learn how to import sample products into WooCommerce using the built-in CSV importer, populate a test store fast, and clean up the dummy data afterward.
How to Bulk Import Tax Rates into WooCommerce
Skip the manual rows. Learn how to bulk import WooCommerce tax rates from a CSV, the exact columns WooCommerce expects, and where the import lives.
How to Turn Text into ASCII Art
Turn text into ASCII art banners in your browser. Learn how figlet-style fonts work and how to make banners for READMEs, CLI tools, and code comments.
How to Compare Two Texts and Find the Differences
Compare two texts and find the differences line by line in your browser. Learn to read a side-by-side diff and keep sensitive text private.
Flesch Reading Ease and Readability Scores Explained
Learn what Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid grade level mean, what score to aim for on web content, and how to make your writing easier to read.
How to Create an XML Sitemap and Submit It
An XML sitemap helps search engines find your pages. Learn what belongs in one, the optional tags worth using, and how to build and submit yours.
How to Set Up hreflang Tags for a Multilingual Site
hreflang tells Google which language or region version of a page to show. Learn the two rules that make it work and how to generate correct tags.
The Meta Tags Every Page Needs (and How to Generate Them)
A short, practical list of the meta tags that actually matter for SEO and social sharing, what each one does, and how to generate the full set.
How to Register a WordPress Block with block.json
block.json is the modern way to define a Gutenberg block. Learn what goes in it, how supports work, and how to register the block in one line of PHP.
How to Reset a WordPress Password from the Database
Locked out of WordPress with no working email? Here is the safe way to set a new password directly in the database using a password hash.
How to Create a Custom Taxonomy in WordPress
Custom taxonomies organize your content beyond categories and tags. Learn the difference between hierarchical and flat taxonomies and how to register one.
How to Fix Your Social Share Preview (Open Graph)
When a link looks broken on Facebook, X, or LinkedIn, the Open Graph tags are usually the cause. Learn the tags that matter and how to preview them.
How to Create a Custom Post Type in WordPress
Custom post types let WordPress manage more than posts and pages. Learn what register_post_type() needs, the options that matter, and how to generate clean code.
How to Check Color Contrast for Accessibility (WCAG)
Low-contrast text is the most common accessibility failure. Learn the WCAG contrast ratios, what AA and AAA mean, and how to check any color pair.
HEX, RGB, HSL: How to Convert Colors
What HEX, RGB, and HSL each mean, when to use which, and how to convert between them instantly. HSL in particular makes building color variations easy.
How to Test a Regular Expression Without the Guesswork
Regex is powerful but easy to get wrong. Learn a practical way to build and test patterns, the tokens you will actually use, and common mistakes to avoid.
How to Tune PHP-FPM for Your WordPress Server
PHP-FPM settings decide how many requests your site can handle at once. Learn how to size pm.max_children to your RAM without crashing under load.
What Is a UUID and When to Use One
UUIDs give you unique IDs without a central database. Learn what they are, why v4 is the common choice, and when to use one instead of a number.
How to Leverage Browser Caching in .htaccess
Fix the 'serve static assets with an efficient cache policy' warning. Set far-future cache headers for images, CSS, and JS in Apache .htaccess.
How to Test Your robots.txt Before It Costs You Traffic
One wrong line in robots.txt can hide your whole site from Google. Learn how the rules work and how to test any URL against any crawler before you ship.
Word and Character Count: A Quick Guide
Where character limits actually matter, from meta descriptions to tweets, and how to count words, characters, and reading time as you type.
How to Compress Images Without Losing Quality
Smaller images mean faster pages. Learn how image compression works, when to use WebP, and how to shrink files in your browser without visible quality loss.
How to Decode a JWT and Read What's Inside
A JWT has three parts you can read in seconds. Learn what each part holds, how to decode one safely, and why decoding is not the same as verifying.
How to Create CSS Gradients (Linear and Radial)
Build smooth CSS gradients without guessing the syntax. A quick guide to linear and radial gradients, color stops, angles, and when to use each.
URL Encoding Explained: When and How to Use It
Why spaces become %20, what gets encoded in a URL, and how to encode or decode query strings safely in your browser.
How to Set Up a Secure wp-config.php
The wp-config.php settings that matter most for WordPress security and performance: keys, table prefix, file editing, debug, and more.
How to Convert Text Case Online: camelCase, snake_case and More
Switch text between UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case, camelCase, snake_case, and kebab-case in your browser, and learn when each one is used.
MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256: How to Generate Hashes Online
What a hash is, the difference between MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-256, and how to generate one in your browser for checksums and integrity checks.
How to Enable Gzip Compression in .htaccess for WordPress
Fix the 'enable text compression' warning. A step-by-step guide to turning on gzip in Apache .htaccess, what to compress, and how to verify it works.
What Is Base64 and When Should You Use It
Base64 explained in plain terms: what it does, when it helps, when it hurts performance, and how to encode or decode it in your browser.
How to Create a Strong Password You Can Actually Use
Length beats complexity. A practical guide to strong passwords, why random is better than clever, and how to generate one safely in your browser.
How to Generate WordPress Security Keys and Salts
What the salts in wp-config.php actually do, when to regenerate them, and how to create fresh WordPress keys safely in your browser.
How to Format and Validate JSON Online
Beautify, minify, and validate JSON right in your browser. A quick guide to reading messy JSON and fixing the errors that break it, with no uploads.