Archive for the ‘Upgrades’ Category

So – at last it’s here – the much anticipated new upgrade for WordPress with some very exciting features and evolutions – we’re itching to get stuck in.

But… we’re going to wait just a few days. I’m not sure how, but experience suggests that allowing those lovely geek types, who create all the plugins we enjoy and which make our WordPress blogs and websites fly, a few days to be sure their creations will work with 3.0 is worth a few days.

This may seem a little over-cautious, and it’s quite likely that the plugin developers have worked out any issues already, in readiness, but just in case we’ll hold-fire just a little and gently test the waters with those quieter, less demanding blogs before letting 3.0 loose on the busier, meatier blogsites with lots more functionality.

And please, please – when you come to upgrade your WordPress, follow the sensible process:

1. Take backups
2. Deactivate your plugins
3. Then upgrade
4. Activate your plugins one by one (if you can bear to)
5. Then play…

We’ll have a look at how useful this new version can be, now that it’s here and most of you will be comfortable working with the firm release.

Good luck!

Something that some WordPress themes include on the blog page is a note of the number of comments each blog has received. And if there are no comments it will say that “No Comments” which you might prefer to change to something more inviting.

To do this you need to delve in the code just a little (or get your blogmistress to do it for you – it’s generally a quick job).

What happened to April? I’m sure there is at least another week of that month! Goodness, this year seems to be romping along faster than ever…

Time for you to put forward your worthy cause for a new website and/or blog using WordPress. We include all the hosting and a domain name, all that is needed, to get someone online with a shiny new website.

From last month we are working with Fiona on her Forget me Not project – fundraising for Leukaemia Research. Before that we sponsored Paul Weston on his determined and successful job hunt.

So who will we be supporting from this month? It’s your choice. Please add your suggestions below, then on May 12th you get to vote on those put forward.

Who and what are we looking to support? Charities, any non-profit organisations, communities, clubs, schools, any struggling business or project that would really benefit from such a boost. We do ask that you check that your suggestion does want a website, of course – just in case

So – who should the Blogmistress support next?

This fine weather has encouraged me to add the case study for Ecohouse Solar – a provider of solar heating and and electricity systems.

Ecohouse Solar

About a year ago, we were asked if WordPress would be able to work primarily as a website – and of course we said yes, having already found that not only is WordPress excellent as a blogging platform, but that is is a pretty useful CMS for websites too.

A pdf of the required design then arrived and the challenge was to get the WordPress design to match this as closely as possible! Now often we will approach things from the other way, but more of you are wanting to make use of your own design and have WordPress work with that. Thankfully there was already a theme that would allow us to incorporate the imagery and functionality that Ecohouse wanted. The Atahualpa theme was created to allow the WordPress user a wealth of design options and includes a support forum too.

And with some nice table plugins, and one that allow us to specify individual sidebar components to a page, the site is working well for Ecohouse.

MailTo is a fab way of having people click a link on your blog or website and it set up an email, all ready to be written.

I used to use this quite a lot and then I forgot all about it and stopped.

Combined with the Cryptx plugin I think MailTo is an excellent way of enabling people to contact you

Here’s how

You just need a tiny snippet of HTML and insert it into a widget on your blog.

<a href=”mailto:sarah@blogmistress.com“>Email Sarah</a>

Copy the code above and substitute the email address (in red) for your email address, if you don’t I shall get all your emails

The part in blue is your anchor text, change that to something other that email Sarah.

That’s it. Done.

Combined with the Cryptx it’s harder for the email harvesters to capture your data and so much easier for your readers / customers to contact you.

Sarah