Maria’s Guides

Scott McNulty and I talk to Chuck Joiner about WordPress.

One of the things I like to do — but don’t get a chance to do very often these days — is talk to podcasters and other media people about the projects I’ve worked on.

Earlier this month, I got a chance to do just that with Chuck Joiner, the host of the MacVoices podcast. For the first time ever, Chuck did a double interview, killing two birds with one stone as he spoke to author Scott McNulty and I about WordPress. During the Interview, we talked about our separate WordPress-related projects and how they might be used together to help someone learn the ins and outs of using WordPress.

Here’s the blurb on the MacVoices Web site:

Thinking of starting a blog with WordPress? Maria Langer, the author of Self-Hosting a WordPress Site and WordPress.Com 2.7 Essential Training on Lynda.com and Scott McNulty, the author of Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read, share some tips from their respective projects to help you make the right choices. Maria and Scott talk about deciding on using WordPress.com or selecting your own host, one-click vs. user installs, why permalink structure is one of the first things you should think about, and finding and customizing a theme for your blog and more. Backup options, favorite plug-ins and why their video and book compliment each other are discussed.

If you’d like to hear the podcast, you can download it directly from its page on the MacVoices Web site.

Information from Automattic.

WordPress 2.7.1 has been released. This is a maintenance release and is recommended for all self-hosted WordPress users.

WordPress 2.7 users can use the automatic upgrade feature by visiting the Upgrade WordPress administration panel for their blog (Tools > Upgrade). As usual, you should back up your WordPress database before upgrading.

You can learn more on the WordPress 2.7.1 page on WordPress.org.

Links for the month of January.

Here are a few links of interest to the folks who read my books and articles or watch my training videos.

• TUAW Macworld 2009 Keynote Predictions - What the folks at The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) think might happen at next week's Macworld Expo keynote.
• Apple market share tops 10%, Windows share lowest since tracking began - Interesting stats about computer platform distribution among users. On The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).
• 10 Resources for When You Need Help with CSS - A list of resources, with screenshots and links, for CSS information. Great for beginners. On Vandelay Website Design.
• 10 Killer WordPress Hacks - Excellent list with instructions and reference links to WordPress hacks for self-hosted WordPress users. On Smashing Magazine.
• FOLLOW FAIL: The Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Follow You in Return on Twitter - If you follow me in Twitter but I don't follow you back, it could be for one of these reasons. On Mashable.com.
• How not to build a website - finding a website developer - Extremely good advice here. Thanks to @Jen4Web on Twitter for sharing the link. On WomenEntrepreneur.com.
• Macworld 2009 keynote liveblog - Mike T. Rose treats us to a live blog of the Keynote. Here's the final list of updates. Thanks tons, @MikeTRose! On The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).
• The Twitter Applications Database - ANOTHER compilation of Twitter applications.
• Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard - Even some Mac users have to admit that this is pretty funny. On The Onion.
• Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs - The rumors of his impending death are greatly exaggerated. Again. On Apple.com.
• Twitter Yourself a Job - Tips from the Wall Street Journal for using Twitter as part of a job hunt strategy.
• Twitter be Nimble, Twitter be Quick, if you don’t know Jack, try these Twitter Tricks - A great introduction to Twitter for new users and power user wannbes. On TwiTip.com.
• WordPress Discussion Management: Enable or Disable Comments and Pingbacks via SQL - Great post that explains how to use MySQL commands to enable or disable comments and pingbacks. Also explains how you can periodically turn off comments and pingbacks on all posts based on date.
• Separating Pings from Comments in WordPress 2.7 - Great tutorial for WordPress 2.7 users, explaining how to separate pingbacks/trackbacks and comments in the comments area of a blog post. On Sivel.net.
• Introducing Tweetbacks Plugin for Wordpress - Excellent! A Tweetback plugin for WordPress users. This post includes a link to the plugin with complete instructions for WordPress 2.7 and earlier versions. On Smashing Magazine.
• CSS tips that every beginning developer should know - Great beginning CSS tutorial. On Arbenting.
• Tweetbacks, Copyright and Scraping - Another way of looking at Tweetbacks — one I never thought of. By Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today, in the Blog Herald.
• Apple IQ Test - My score was dismal. I knew everything about Macs before 1995, but failed miserable on most questions dealing with facts after that. Could that indicate that I actually DO have a life? If you think you know Macs, try this test. On Infoworld.com. Thanks to @shepherdfx on Twitter for sharing the link.
• U.S. Airways Crash Rescue Picture: Citizen Journalism, Twitter At Work - Incredible photos of today's crash taken moments afterward. So glad this one had a happy ending. On AlleyInsider.com.
• Hate the Player It’s Not a Game - Jeremy Tanner tells it like it is Re: Twitter spammers who call themselves gurus, mavens, etc.
• Twitter Support - Twitter help is now centralized in one place. Thanks to @mdy on Twitter for pointing this out.
• 7 Ways to Be Worth Following on Twitter - I really wish everyone who used Twitter would read this article and follow its advice. There would be a lot less noise online. On Twitip.com.
• Mac Automation: Creating Watch Me Do workflows - Good how-to piece for Automator users. On The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).
• How Not to be a Key Online Influencer - An example of how a self-labeled “key online influencer” can easily get cut down by the same social networking services he’s trying to promote — by the company he’s trying to promote them to. A lesson for anyone who blogs or tweets: when you say something publicly, ANYONE can read it. By David Henderson. Thanks to @SonoranDragon on Twitter for retweeting this link.
• Macintosh 25th Anniversary Reunion: Where Did Time Go? - Guy Kawasaki's tribute to the Mac's 25th birthday. Includes the complete introduction of the Mac, as well as the famous 1984 commercial. (Did you know that only appeared on TV as a commercial twice?) Thanks to @LeVitus for tweeting this one.
• I am popular on Twitter. Here’s why this means nothing. - And I thought I was the only one laughing at people bragging about their Twitter popularity stats. On ZDNet.com.
• The 100 Most Popular Twitter applications - The title says it all. On blending the mix.
• The Unforeseen Consequences of the Social Web - Sound advice for people who use Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking services: what you put online might stay there for a very, very long time. On ReadWriteWeb. Thanks to @jodene on Twitter (where else?) for tweeting this link. Good reading.

New training videos for WordPress.com users.

I’m pleased to announce the release of my latest online training material for Lynda.com: WordPress.com 2.7 Essential Training.

From the official course description:

The blogging revolution has led to new levels of communication on the information superhighway. WordPress 2.7 Essential Training is the onramp for anyone who wants to get up to speed quickly and easily. Maria Langer, author and veteran blogger, shows how to set up a free WordPress account, create posts, and maintain a blog. She goes on to explore the possibilities WordPress offers for creating blogs that are unique in style and voice. Exercise files accompany the course.

Topics Include:
• Understanding the functionality of WordPress
• Composing and previewing pages
• Including images and multimedia files in posts
• Moderating comments and pingbacks
• Adding and managing user accounts
• Customizing with widgets

I want to add here that this material is also great basic instruction for self-hosted WordPress 2.7 users interested in learning the basics of blogging with WordPress. This course could be considered a “prerequisite” for my Self-Hosting a WordPress Site course, also on Lynda.com.

Remember: if you have a Lynda.com membership, you can view all of these videos — and any other video in the library — for free. You don’t pay per title; you pay by the month or year. This is an excellent value for anyone interested in learning lots of new software and topics without spending a fortune on books, one-on-one training, or training videos. Give it a try!

New training videos for self-hosted WordPress users.

I’m extremely pleased to announce the release of my latest online training material for Lynda.com: Self-Hosting a WordPress Site.

From the official course description:

In Self-Hosting a WordPress Site, author and avid blogger Maria Langer shows how a blog can be customized to make it stand out in the digital crowd. Maria walks WordPress users—from casual bloggers to seasoned pros—through the steps to making a blog truly unique. This course goes beyond the basics, like setting a standard theme, and demonstrates such advanced techniques as incorporating CSS, PHP, and HTML.

Topics Include:
• Installing WordPress on any ISP
• Touring a WordPress CMS site
• Understanding all the content creation options
• Creating a customized look with PHP and CSS changes
• Using plug-ins to add features
• Setting options for user accounts

Remember: if you have a Lynda.com membership, you can view all of these videos — and any other video in the library — for free. You don’t pay per title; you pay by the month or year. This is an excellent value for anyone interested in learning lots of new software and topics without spending a fortune on books, one-on-one training, or training videos. Give it a try!

Hacking it might be better than ignoring it.

One of the cool features of the Dashboard and administration panels in the current version of WordPress is its reminders of comments awaiting modification and plugins requiring update. You’ll see the reminders as numbers inside red circles. The one shown here, for example, is telling me that one of my installed plugins has an update available.

Clicking the Plugins button on the administration panel’s navigation bar displays the details. In this case, it’s a list of plugins, with a yellow bar indicating the available update:

If you’ve been following the posts about WordPress on this site, you might recall that I had a problem with this particular plugin, Landing Sites. In fact, I’d already updated it on my blog and discovered that the update didn’t work. So I’d reinstalled the older version. As a result, WordPress is no nagging me to update to a version I don’t want to use.

A stronger person would simply ignore the update flag. But why do that if you can turn the flag off for this plugin?

Here’s the trick.

1. Use WordPress’s built-in plugin editor to open the plugin file you don’t want to update for the current version.
2. Locate the line near the beginning that begins with the word Version: and includes the current version number. Here’s what it looks like for the plugin I’m hacking:
   
3. Replace the version number with the current version number. So, in this example, I’d replace 1.3 with 1.4.1.
4. You can then get a bit fancy and modify the Description area to note the real version number, just in case you forget. This information will appear on the Manage Plugins administration panel as a reminder. Here’s what my fully edited Description and Version look like:
   
5. Click the Update File button to save your changes.

If you did all of this right and didn’t edit something you shouldn’t have, WordPress will think you have the current version of the plugin installed and the reminder icon will go away. As shown here, the version number and description in the Manage Plugins administration panel will reflect your changes.

Best of all, if another update comes out, WordPress will still notify you about it.