Hi there and happy holidays!

First, let me extend a warm welcome back to the blog. It’s been far too long since my last post, and for that, I owe you an explanation. Life and work have kept me on my toes, leaving little room to nurture this space as much as I would like. However, exciting developments are on the horizon, and I’m thrilled to share a glimpse of what’s been happening behind the scenes and what’s coming next.

Status update on my life as a Rydoo’er

A significant chunk of my time has been dedicated to my work at Rydoo, where we’ve been hard at work on a complete overhaul of our website and branding. The new version of the site is now live, and I’m proud to say it’s a significant leap forward. We’ve launched the updated website in six languages, ensuring that our message resonates globally. This project has been a labor of love—a culmination of meticulous planning, collaboration, and execution. From refreshing the brand identity to fine-tuning the multilingual user experience, every detail has been a step toward creating a platform that reflects the Rydoo mission.

Freelance work and supporting the developer community

Beyond Rydoo, I’ve kept busy with freelance projects that have pushed my skills to new levels. You can find some of them on the Websites section. And of course, is also part of my freelance work, to actively support the frameworks and plugins I developed, such as: Mr.Utils and Mr.Dev’s Framework. These tools have been instrumental for users and developers, and ensuring they’re running smoothly and efficiently has been a priority. Whether it’s updating documentation, providing technical support, or rolling out new features, I’m deeply committed to empowering the developer community and, as a result, empower our clients and authors too.

Taking my music hobby to new heights

On a more personal note, I’ve been channelling my creative energy into my music hobby. Music has always been a passion of mine, but over the past few months, I’ve taken it to a new level. I got new guitar pedals that added a lot of new sounds and opened up exciting possibilities for my unique sound. I’m exploring ways to integrate my love for music into future projects, so check my new songs on my personal Instagram and Youtube, and stay tuned for updates on that front.

A web developer status update: new project in the works

Perhaps the most exciting update is a new web development project I’ve been quietly working on. While I can’t share too many details just yet, I’m confident it will be a game-changer in its niche. This project represents months of research and planning, using newer technologies, and I’m eager to unveil it soon. And once I do, it’s likely that I’ll have a lot more to add to this blog.

The blog’s future

With this new project set to launch, I’m planning to bring the blog back to life. My vision for this space is evolving, much like my personal and professional endeavours. I’m looking forward to sharing more in-depth insights, tutorials, and updates as I embark on this next chapter. The blog will once again become a hub for tech enthusiasts, developers, and anyone who enjoys the journey of learning and creating.

Wrapping up the web developer status update

If you’ve been following the blog over the years, thank you for your patience and support. This journey has been filled with growth, challenges, and opportunities, and I’m grateful to have you here. The hiatus was necessary, but it’s paved the way for an exciting future.

As we prepare to welcome 2025, I’m filled with anticipation and motivation. There’s so much to share, and I’m eager to make this blog a vibrant, informative, and inspiring space once again. Here’s to a new year filled with creativity, innovation, and meaningful connections.

Stay tuned for updates, until then, let’s celebrate Christmas and start 2025 with the right footer!
🎅 🎄 🎁 🥂

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1. Getting a standing desk

I knew the amount of work I was having would be something temporary but still it was affecting me physically, I had to do something about it. The usual running on Jardim da Estrela and Tapada das Necessidades while using the app C25K (Couch to 5 KM) was not enough anymore. So I got the basic standing desk from Yaasa in discount.

I’m impressed with it more than I imagined. Working standing up felt more natural than expected and it felt even more natural to change between sited and standing up, whenever my body asked for it. I know it seems obvious, but putting it in practice is another level.

And this was not the only thing I did to improve my work from home experience.

2. A bigger multitasking screen for my workspace

I started using a widescreen from LG and although the proportions were strange on some movies and games, I noticed that this proportion is perfect to work and my multitasking improved a lot.

Specially when combined with PowerToys from Microsoft. Between all the features, the app allows to have more control on the space each window occupies and their position, with key binding shortcuts.

I used a multiple screen setup before but found the widescreen to be more convenient and comfortable to the eye. And I still go with multiple screens sometimes, when connecting with my laptop.

The different proportions felt strange not only on movies and games, also on websites without a container (with designs that stretch to the window), they looked odd in some situations and sometimes they would have big empty spaces, that could make better use of the widescreen.

My website was one of them.

3. Make my website match with the new widescreen

You can see below how my website looked on wide screens (on dark theme):

I could get used to it, it’s normal to have different experiences between screen sizes… But in the end, I started thinking “I have to look to my website very often”, it would feel strange that the experience was not well optimized and adapted to me.

This feeling was strong specially on blogs.

So I made specific changes to make better use of the widescreen, and this is the result:

The bigger changes were on the single blog page. As you might notice, the table of contents is always open and faster to access.

On the blog list, I could increase the number of tiles per line, but if I did that the transition to the single blog page would not make sense: The left “sidebar” would increase and decrease too many times for my taste.

Now I’m happier working on this website. And I might give extra thoughts to my client’s websites, now that I have a real testing device for wide situations.

More steps to improve my workspace

For now those were the 3 steps I did.

Something that might count as 4th step, I do keep two different desks at home now. One is the standing desk mentioned above, the other has a desktop computer to change when I feel like it.

For next steps, I’ll improve the cable management and I’ve found myself watching videos of other people improving their workspace, with lots of great ideas and extra accessories. I might not resist and start copying some of them in the near future.

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The journey of Mr.Dev.’s Widget and Module

Back when I first started developing Mr.Dev.’s Widget and Module, it didn’t have that name and the main intention was to show categories in accordions and posts inside tabs that are inside those accordions for Ruben R Dias website.

Back then, WordPress and Joomla were CMS where the frontend was totally dependent of extra elements (themes, plugins and other optional features) that the developer/designer could choose to use or could create custom tools.

We (developers) had the full control over the frontend.

In my case, I choosed to create a widget and module because of the functions and the graphic user interface (GUI) that both WordPress and Joomla had already built-in. In theory they allowed to not bloat the systems with something otherwise done from scratch or using external dependencies.

The version of Mr.Dev.’s widget/module I gave to my direct clients became very powerful, allowing to show any type of content (from posts to products) with many options, themes and layouts. All that with checkbox and fields, so it was safe to give to clients, knowing they would not affect negatively the design.

To indirect clients (people downloading the widget/module to their own developments) I put the most powerful features part of the paid plugin Mr.Dev.’s Framework.

But then things changed..

As for the module, Joomla 4 was later released with different methods to create modules. It was not worth it to recreate the module, so it was discontinued and unsupported for other two reasons: The user-base of Joomla is much smaller comparing to WordPress and I was using Joomla mostly for a company where I am not working anymore.

As for the widget, WordPress also changed, with a new highly visual editor enabled by default: The Gutenberg block editor meant that WordPress was pushing to developers a specific tool to change the frontend, a tool that basically transforms the CMS into a site builder.

And with that, the optional features such as widgets and the customizer started to become obsolete vs the block editor with full site editor growing much stronger.

Despite this, Mr.Dev.’s Widget is still compatible and support is available! But no further development will be put into it (for the reason mentioned above).

Instead I’ll focus my energies on Mr.Dev’s Framework and Mr.Utils..

The plugin development journey of Mr.Dev.’s Framework

The idea behind the framework came up because I started noticing how using a third-party framework (Gantry5 with particles) together with the block editor and Mr.Dev.’ widgets was adding extra learning curves, starting to bloat WordPress and I wasn’t even needing all the features of Gantry5.

So, keeping that idea of not wanting to bloat the system and make it simpler, I had to adopt the block editor and accept it as the future moving forward.

Mr.Dev.’s Framework focus on adding optional features he considers essential to a CMS, without repeating features already available by default and helping transition / discontinue features that might become available by default.

Being a continued path, the Framework its on active development and improvements continue to be made.

And this brings us to today..

The new version of Mr.Utils joined with the Framework

Mr.Dev.’s Framework already helps to create breakpoints, add media sizes, create stylesheets with global colors, typography, sizes and files via a graphic user interface (GUI). And it always included an optional frontend toolkit I developed called Mr.Utils.

There was no graphic user interface to use that toolkit, it was used mainly by developers knowing concepts like classes, CSS and javascript functions.

As of today, Mr.Utils and the framework reached the block editor!

Mr.Dev. now gives an option for editors and clients to use that frontend toolkit using the GUI!

All options will appear under an “Utilities” tab,  allowing to easily implement designs that were difficult or impossible to implement with the current state of the Gutenberg block editor. Including Mr.Utils pagination (perpage) and components to create sliders and tabs.

If you don’t have Mr.Dev’s Framework yet, you can actually install Mr.Utils as a plugin for free. It will give you the same interface just without some advanced options.

And to finish with another great news, a present just in time for Christmas…

Mr.Utils plugin is available on WordPress repository!

I hope you’ve found interesting to know the reasons behind developing this plugins, that you can join me on this journey and most of all, enjoy using the plugins!

Let’s now celebrate Christmas and start 2022 with the right footer! 🎅 🎄 🎁 🥂

Extra note: Mr. comes from playing with the initials of my first and last name while representing a person that is a developer. Dev. represents the fact that all framework features are optional, thinking on developers that want some control and worry about lighter work environments.

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Today marks the day I launch a new website.

A portfolio website including a client area, a blog and dark/light theme.

Why a new website?

The previous website made it’s purpose.

Back in 2014 I was still very divided between graphic design, web development and music. It made sense to have a website divided in those three categories.

But nowadays, with my work being mostly developing websites and plugins, the other two categories became obsolete and could generate some confusion even.

Because of that, it made a lot more sense to start working on a new website, instead of updating the content of the old one.

For that reason, the previous website was outdated for a time, but not anymore!

Needed more interaction with visitors and clients

A new website with a blog

The intention of the previous website was solely to show the projects on the many areas I worked on, because of that it had no good space for interaction with the visitors.

But now, by focusing on my work as web developer (and focusing on English speaking audiences), this new website can have a blog. One unique blog to keep my visitors up to date about many topics and even give some tips & tricks.

A new website with a client area

Although the projects as freelance were a niche comparing to the full-time job and naturally end to have less priority, I felt it was still a good idea to have an area specific for those few clients and ready for eventual future needs.

A client area that allows clients to renew their maintenance, request support, calculate quotes, see specific tutorials and more.

At the same time, this area allows those clients to be less dependent of me, when I can’t help them directly for having a full-time job.

A new showcase of my developed tools

This new website was made using some of the tools I developed from scratch, such as Mr.Utils and Mr.Dev.’s Framework. Tools that can also be used by other developers.

Remembering the old website

Here are some screenshots to remember the previous website.

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Hi there! I’m Marcos, I was born in 1991 in Lisbon (Portugal) and I’m a web developer.

About my work experience

Web Developer

I’ve been working professionally as a Web Developer since 2014.

You can find me on:

• Github
• LinkedIn

Eventcluster

I started in a internship at Eventcluster for 6 months. There I worked on a already developed event booking platform as web content manager and junior developer. I optimized and helped the platform reach almost 800 results on the many sectors.

Browserbox

Then I moved to Browserbox (The company that developed the Eventcluster platform) where I developed around 40 Joomla websites as web developer during almost 5 years.

Freelancer

I also started activity as freelancer, where I developed:

• Some WordPress websites, most of them in collaboration with itemzero studio.
• My own front-end toolkit called Mr.Utils.
• Plugins labeled Mr.Dev. – Theme Framework , Widget and Module.
• The plugin editor4roks.
• This website with blog and client area.

Rydoo

And since March 2020 I’ve been working at Rydoo with the Marketing Team, developing new landing pages on the website and Hubspot.

About my academic education

You can find me on:

• Behance

Graphic Design

From 2010 to 2013, I did a bachelor in Graphic Design at Escola Superior de Artes e Design in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal (ESAD.CR)

Web Design

Then I did a one year post-graduation in Web Design, at Escola Superior de Tecnologias e Artes in Lisbon, Portugal (ESTAL)

There I was introduced to the essentials of coding in HTML, CSS, jQuery, Javascript and PHP and the final project was to apply that knowledge to develop a website from scratch, also developing a small back-end for it.

And still studying

My interest in coding continues to grow since then and I’ve been self-learning and modernizing my knowledge in this vast and rapidly changing area. Also adding knowledge in Sass, Twig, Blade and more recently React.

About my personal interests

I love music and I compose my own songs!

You can find me on:

• Bandcamp
• Soundcloud
• Youtube
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Bandcamp
• YouTube

I started playing guitar when I was in high-school and I immediately wanted to make my own songs and to be able to sing while playing. With love and patience I was able to achieve that and I shared my songs on-line and did some concerts. I was also part of a small band during high-school and part of a crazy funny band in college, called Die Kiri.

I was very influenced by artists such as Hyde, The Doors, Nick Cave, Led Zeppelin, Diabo na Cruz, B fachada, PJ Harvey, Nirvana, Tenacious D and more. You might find me covering some of their songs.

Unfortunately, nowadays I don’t have so much time to compose new songs but my love for music is always with me. I still find excitement knowing more about my favorite artists, watching concerts and recording some riffs and lyrics.

Other interests

Travelling

I love travelling specially with the people closer to me.

Dining out

I love simple things, like dining out or have a nice drink with friends.

Favorite series, movies and games

I enjoyed a lot the Twin Peaks series and really any movie from David Lynch.

In terms of animated series and movies: Evangelion (first time I watched it entirely was trough eMule, anyone remembers it? lol)

In terms of games the epic Nier: Automata. To play on-line my guilty-pleasure is Rocket League.

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