6 essential Chrome tools for bloggers

Screenshot of Inspect Element on the ONA Mizzou blog 

By Sarah Darby

Whether you're an experienced coder or beginner blogger, Chrome tools can make you life a whole lot easier. 

Chrome has a number of free extensions and built-in features that make it an ideal browser for all of your blogging needs. 

Using just a few Chrome tools will help you begin to think like a web designer and allow you to easily customize and enhance your blog, portfolio or website.

Here are six of my favorite free Chrome tools (most of which I use every day):

LIVE BLOG: Crack the Code: WordPress

By Kara Tabor

Hi everyone! We're beginning our latest event "Crack the Code: WordPress." Feel free to follow along on this live blog post or on Twitter at @ONAMizzou.

Our featured speaker is Madi Alexander, a journalism grad student and coding wizard who has interned for the New York Times and ProPublica. She's leading our event and introducing some invaluable hacks for getting started with WordPress.

Blogging the way to existential disrepair: Part two!

I think about this picture on the regular.
Photo courtesy of Mike Licht/Flickr

By Emerald O'Brien

Around this time last year, I dutifully shared my tips for successful blogging, tips which I learned through several disastrous years of blogging experiences.

A year later, I am finally through with my days of required academic blogging.

So, what have I learned on the other side? Pretty much nothing, but check out the amended version of my old blog for a few extra nuggets. New additions are in italics and a sassy but gracefully matured voice.  

3 easy hacks to amp up your WordPress site

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

By Madison Feller

You already know that your personal website is an essential part of your toolbox. It showcases who you are, what you're about and what you can do. But how do you personalize your Wordpress site to make it just a little bit more functional and creative? We have three quick hacks you can use to make it that much better.

Choosing the right portfolio site for you

Photo by The City College First-Year Writing Program

By Maria Davison

So you want to build a personal portfolio site, but you're not sure where to begin? Picking the right platform to best showcase your work can seem like a daunting task, if only slightly less daunting than coding it yourself. But an outstanding online portfolio will help you out when it comes to applying for everything from your first internship to your dream job. The key is picking one that showcases your work at its best and makes it shine.

I asked a few ONA Mizzou Exec members and some other friends of ONA Mizzou to share the pros and cons of several common portfolio sites. Here's what they had to say: