Websitetology

“But, I don’t want to have a blog for a website”- we hear it all the time. The reality is, WordPress is a Content Publishing system using a database. It really doesn’t care what your site looks like, it’s just the tool to manage that content.

I don’t call it a Content Management System anymore- because, it’s really not managing the content, you are. It helps you publish to the web what you need to publish, in the easiest way possible. We use other CMS systems like Drupal and Joomla- however, they require a steeper learning curve than WordPress- making them less likely to help you be prolific. Google prefers prolific – trust me.

We found the Thesis theme about 6 months ago. It’s a paid theme- something we typically don’t strongly recommend, however, from a developers standpoint, Thesis gives us all the tools we need to make a site do almost anything. For us, that’s worth it.

The Krispy Kreme UK site done in Thesis

For you- it means you can have a site that looks great, and doesn’t look like a “WordPress” site. The developer of Thesis-  Chris Pearson, is an active member of the WordPress community. He understands the idea of supporting his theme, and has been building a community of users. He’s on Twitter- Personified

Which brings us to the site that doesn’t look like WordPress (and there are many of them) that I thought I’d highlight today- Krispy Kreme UK. Take a look at the screen shot- or wander over to the site.

And, if you don’t want to pay for Thesis, there are some other premium type themes that are free. Read this post to see what’s out there.

Some things in WordPress just slip past the experts-and having “blog archive” show up in our page titles was a bit embarrassing. See, it’s not an archive- it’s a post that has value (just because you use WordPress as your Content Management System, doesn’t make the site a blog).

We are showing up as number 1 in Google less than 24 hours after making a post about Firefox 3’s spellchecker not working in Wordpress as you type, and the words “blog archive” were showing up in our titles. So- to remove the “blog archive” I did what I recommend to all my students- I googled for answers:

eHowToGuru » How to remove “Blog Archive” from your Wordpress post title
The Title section in Header.php contains the codes which displays your Wordpress title. This is important because search engine listings will display your post title followed by a description of your post. I began to notice that all of my listings had the words Blog Archive in them which was unneccesary and caused part of the titles displayed to be cut off.

To remove the words Blog Archive, do this:

1. Log into your self hosted Wordpress blog and click Presentation
2. Click on Theme Editor
3. On the right handside of your browser window, select Header from the list of theme files
4. Look for this line of code just a few lines from the top.

<title><?php bloginfo(’name’); ?> <?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » Blog Archive <?php } ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title>
5. Remove this section
<?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » Blog Archive <?php } ?>

The remaining portion should look like this:
<title><?php bloginfo(’name’); ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title>
6. Click Update File to save the file.

To tell if you were successful, save a post. Then either look at the top of your browser window once you’ve isolated the post (clicked on it’s headline to only have it showing as a single post)- or try to bookmark it. The new page title should show up without >>blog archive>>

Note- this won’t change your search results or break incoming links- since those are to the URL, not to the title. It’ll just shorten your page titles and get right to the meat of your content.

If there is one thing that seems overly complex to new WP users it’s FTP. I’m not quite sure why, maybe it’s the overly complex/techie look of most FTP programs (we like Transmit for the Mac- very sexy and sweet)- or recommend the FireFTP plugin for Firefox.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol- and it’s a fancy way of saying- copy files from your computer to a Web server. Not so hard. But, when it comes to loading a new plugin or theme for WordPress you used to have to go through all these steps:

Backup your Database

Once you’ve found a plugin or theme in your browser (preferably Firefox)- download it to your computer

1. Unstuff it on your computer
2. Open an FTP program and connect to your site
3. Navigate to the WP-Content folder
4. Browse your computer to find the file you’ve downloaded
5. Upload it to the WP-Content folder
6. Open your WordPress admin, go to Plugins or Presentation and activate the new addition.

Along comes Anirudh, and he writes this one click plugin- and all that goes away!

OneClick for Wordpress | Thought Outflux | Anirudh Sanjeev
OneClick is a Wordpress Plugin Firefox Extension combo which will change the way you look at wordpress forever. It reduces the effort needed to install a plugin or a theme for wordpress to just one simple click. It’s excellent for admins, non-techies, people with restrictive firewalls, and just about anyone who uses wordpress and installs plugins and themes.

Not only does this WordPress tool backup your files, providing role-back if your new plugin may bork your WP install, it has auto update notification (if he releases updates to it- a norm for Firefox installs- but not for WordPress, yet) so you will never be using the old version.

The one caveat is that it may be harder to delete some of your new themes or plugins- unless you go through his provided file nuke protocol.

We probably will stick to using our FTP process (we bill by the minute – but for many of you, this may be another key to making WP the easiest system on the planet for publishing on the web.

If you do like his plugin- please go to the plugin rating contest and give him a thumbs up!

Wordpress isn’t just for blogs- in fact, the word blog needs to die. WordPress builds a website- actively served, using a sophisticated Content Management System that is easy to use. It’s so easy- that smart companies are starting to use it to manage content and keep their site up-to-date, and W3C compliant for a lot less money.

Here are some of the sites we’ve found using WordPress as a back end. To verify- you just type /wp-admin after the url.

• http://www.xxlmag.com/ home isn’t WP, but it all leads to interior pages managed by WP.
  
• http://autoshows.ford.com/
• http://wildscotsman.com/whisky/ must be of age to view
• http://redblock.com.au/
• http://whoisjengordon.com/
• http://agenturblog.de/
• http://www.deliciousdays.com/
• http://allthingsd.com/
• http://www.2checkout.com/
• http://www.houseofnaked.com/ (it’s an ad agency- don’t worry)

Some, more than others look like a more conventional site. The point is, data from a database can be formatted anyway you want. The key is understanding the real beauty of a WordPress site is that everything offers the ability to build community.

To create this post, to teach you how to use the Press It function of WordPress, I thought it was best if I actually used it to write the post. So, just like you would, I did a Google Search for “How to use WordPress Press It”. To get to the top of Google, it never hurts to link to content that’s already at the top (lesson 1).

Looking at the Google results- I saw the WordPress Codex link. And while it’s number one, I’ve often found the codex a little rough for reading. Looking over it, I was right. So, I looked to my online “friend” Lorelle. Her posts are usually pretty on the money. So, I clicked on the link and it took me to her post. Note- this is IMPORTANT- it took me to HER POST, not her site. For Press it to work, you need to select an article or post that has a unique url. Her site url is www.lorelle.wordpress.com

this post has the url:

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/09/15/wordpress-power-user-features-just-press-it/

See the difference? A post can be one of 10 or 20 or so in reverse chronological order, or it can stand alone. You need the post alone. In most blog applications, and most CMS (content management system) systems- the way you do this is to click on the headline, or look for a link that says “permalink”. This will isolate the article you are interested in.

Now, I should mention, you need to do what Lorelle explains here at the beginning as a “click and drag to your link toolbar”- or what WordPress says to “Right click on the following link and choose “Add to favorites” to create a posting shortcut.”

However, there were changes from WordPress 2.5 to 2.7. In 2.5 you made the Press It link  from the “Write post” page of your WordPress admin area- it’s at the bottom of the page. In 2.7 it’s been moved and renamed, now appearing in the Tools are of your left Dashboard column. However, you still do the same thing- drag the link to your toolbar, or bookmark/favorite it.

So, I’ve clicked to Lorelle’s post- then I highlight the part of her post I want to put on my blog to comment on. Then I look to my toolbar where I have the “Press it” bookmark stored- and click it. Voila- her highlighted content is in my write post pane- with her headline (more about this in a minute).

It’s below- and to show that I didn’t write it, I’m going to select it all and use the “Indent list/Blockquote” button from my Visual Text Editor tool bar (it’s the 7th icon over- with a blue arrow pointing at lines to move them right).

WordPress Power User Features – Just Press It « Lorelle on WordPress
With every installation of WordPress comes a little gem called Press It. It is a javascript “bookmarklet” found on the Write Post screen in your Admin. It’s at the very bottom. If you click and drag the link to your Link Toolbar in your Internet browser, it will put the javascript on the bar for you to quickly click and use.

When visiting a site you want to create a link and post about on your blog or website, just click the link and a window will pop up with either your site’s login or, if you are already logged in, a condensed version of the Write Post screen. Inside will be the title filled out with the title of the website you are visiting if there is one and a link in the Editing textarea. You just fill in the text, mark the categories, then save it as a draft or private or publish it.

Now, this is even more powerful than you first may think. If you select text on the page and then click Press It, the text you highlighted will be copied and pasted into the post. Wow That is cool and I love it. What a great feature.

You can learn more about how to use the Press It in the WordPress Codex.

When I want to return to my writing, I use the “Outdent” button (to the left of the blockquote button) and we’re back to normal. Depending on how your theme is configured, your “blockquoted” text could have a pair of apostrophes {“} or a line on the left side, or appear in a bubble, or shaded area. All this says is: “this content is quoted.”

I never use the Title of my quoted text for my title- instead, I write my own. Their title will appear as the link at the top of the blockquote. Remember, this is my take on it- not a wholesale steal. One thing about Pressit- it doesn’t know what to alt title the link- so you have to do it. Select the link, click the link tool- and write a descriptive explanation of what the link is to. While Lorelles post title is pretty clear- it’s not great: so I wrote: Link to Lorelle on Wordpress explaining the PressIt function (roll over the link to see this text). The “Title” function is critical for blind people- and a good habit to adopt. Think of one of those Amazon.com links with a million digits and letters, a blind person wouldn’t know what the link is taking him to- and remember, Google is just like a blind person.

So, we’re almost done. Only a few things to pay attention to.

If we’re Pressit’ing from a WordPress site- this works like clockwork. But, if you are quoting a TypePad site or other CMS- you may need to find a “Trackback” address that may be different than the article’s “permalink” or direct URL. This is because WordPress is elegant- and the others, well, they aren’t.

So- get that “Trackback” url and paste it below your post window in the area called “Trackback” (it’s below the upload tool- and usually under the “optional excerpt” pane). Put it in and then make sure to add your post to some categories- and hit “Publish” and you are done.

Now, while you are so proud of yourself for adding someone else’s content to your site, legally- there is one other fringe benefit, if all of this works right: there will now be a comment (or trackback) on Lorelle’s site, with an excerpt and a link to this post. Voila, we’ve built a link and a relationship! Yee-Haw!

Some people with a lot of readers don’t allow comments anymore- just trackbacks to their posts. Need an example- look at Seth Godin’s blog. Note- I have to use one URL for the post, and a second to create a trackback since Seth use TypePad.

Now- while that may seem like a lot, it’s really easy once you get the hang of it. Hopefully, this step-by-step instruction post will help.

Remember, good content brings more readers, more links, and more google love, so make sure what you add to someone else’s content actually adds value to their post.

Lorelle, how’d I do?

Here is a video tutorial from the WordPress crew:
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this VideoPress video.

We’ve been saying it all along- WordPress is a great Content Management System (CMS)- now mega-companies are starting to figure out that Googlelove is more important than Flash driven sites.

With a lot of CSS wizardry, you can make your WordPress site look like anything you want- Take a look at Ford’s site:

Ford Motor Company – NAIAS Detroit 2007 » At The Show

Apparently, Ford doesn’t quite get it- the site is down as of Monday 15 Jan 2007

When we install WordPress for clients, we often include a nice selection of themes and some essential plugins. However, many people want to change the look of their site- by uploading new themes- or add new functionality to WordPress using Plugins. Here is how you update your WordPress install using FireFTP a free plug-in FTP for Firefox.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and the FireFTP extension for Firefox is a free, open source solution- other programs that do the same thing on a Mac are Fetch and Transmit. On a PC, you can get SmartFTP or FTP Explorer. FireFTP will do everything you need- and it’s free.
First you have to have Firefox installed- go to www.getfirefox.com to download a copy (if you haven’t already). Install Firefox- and don’t worry, it can reside peacefully next to Internet Explorer or Safari- you can have multiple browsers on your machine. It’s our opinion that you should make it your primary browser- and import all settings from your current default browser- but that is up to you.

Once in Firefox- go to TOOLS>ADD ONS

This will take you to the page where all the extensions are listed. Find the Search box- and type in FIREFTP- it should take you to this page: https://addons.mozilla.org/search.php?q=Fireftp&type=E&app=firefox

Click on FIREFTP, and then the “Install now” button. Restart Firefox and you should now have a little seahorse in your tool bar- and “FireFTP” as an option in your TOOLS menu.

The icons: back, forward (dimmed), refresh, stop, FireFTP (the blue seahorse), Sage, autofill, new tab.

Now that you have FireFTP installed- you have to set it up for accessing your WordPress installation.

These are instructions for our server- using a standard Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) running Cpanel.

First- click on the “Manage Accounts” text on the left side- create new account.

Main Tab: 

Account Name: What ever you want to call your site.

Host: url.tld (example: websitetology.com)

Login: your site login, will be different than your WordPress login

Password: your site login, may be different than your WordPress login

Connection type tab: 

Check “Passive mode”

Initial directories:

Local: a folder on your computer where you will keep your WordPress files.

Remote: www

Advanced tab:

No need to enter anything in these- although you can decide on how you want your file names to be structured- either Leave Case Alone, convert to lower case, or  CONVERT TO UPPER CASE (note- all files must not have spaces in them.)

Clicking on connect should open the connection- with your local folder on the left- and your www folder on the server on the right.

There will be a long list of files on the server- with a lot of them starting with WP – this is your WordPress install- the only, ONLY, folder you will move things in and out of is your wp-content folder.

Inside it you will find three folders,  Uploads, themes and plugins.

These are where you place your content- respectively.

Uploads is where the WordPress upload tool will place your files- using a year, month, date file hierarchy. Sometimes you may go in here to update a file, or check a link structure. Most of you will never have to access this folder.

The Themes folder is where you will copy the entire folder of a theme that you have downloaded to your computer from someplace like the WordPress Theme Viewer. To upload the file from your computer to the server- have the closed folder that contains your theme on the left, and the themes folder open on the right- select the theme on the left- and click the right arrow button in the center-FireFTP will begin the upload process.

To upload- select the file on left- Pool, click right arrow and it will move from your computer to the server.

Once the files are done the FTP process- you log into your WordPress admin panel- the Desktop, click on the presentation tab- and activate your new theme.

To upload Plugins- you do the same thing- only upload them into your Plugin folder.

If you have any questions- or run into problems with these instructions- please comment below- and I will update or clarify the instructions.

I’ve posted about this before: http://blogosopher.com/?p=66 and mentioned the same source: Lorelle.

There are two common reasons people have their themes “break” or act oddly:

1. they’ve copied formatted text from Microsoft Word that starts adding code that “overrides” the CSS of your theme.
2. the picture or object that they try to place in their post is too big.

You can easily identify the first problem by noticing that your font has changed in a post and everything following it. The way to fix it is to go to your edit post function- click the “quicktag” HTML button- and search out any thing that says “span” “font” and a font name, “H1″ H2″ etc- (it will be in the “< " and ">” carrot figures) these are not tags that the standard WordPress interface uses. Anything you undo here- will be able to be fixed in the standard WYSIWG view of the “Write Post” window- where you can reformat to your heart’s content. Sometimes Microsoft Word adds so much trash- it’s easier to copy the content back into Word- and then save it as text only before pasting into the Write Post window.

The second problem- where the sidebar moves to the bottom- typically is only seen by the 90% of people who still aren’t using Firefox. Microsoft Internet Explorer doesn’t understand some of the fundamental code to CSS (still)- and you must test by looking at your site using IE 6 on a PC. The simple solution- use Thumbnails- and never have images wider than about 400 pixels. However if you want to read all the details of this problem- Lorelle has a ton of good links – look at the excerpt of her post- then continue on to the link:
Lorelle on WordPress

One of the more common complaints and problems for new WordPress users is the issue of their images breaking their WordPress Theme. The Theme they choose is wonderful, reflective of their personality and blog, and the moment they upload their first photograph, it seems to break their blog.Web Design Sidebar pushes out over the content areaHave you ever tried to shove a square peg into a round hole? Or squeeze into a size 2 dress when you really should be wearing a 22? The results are what happens to web page designs when someone tries to cram something too big into a small space.

All web pages today feature at least two “columns”, two side-by-side sections to display their content. One is typically called the sidebar and the other is the content or main column or something similar. Each of these columns are known as containers, as they contain content and design elements within their borders. When something goes into these containers that exceeds their inherent width, they tend to stretch and break the design.

Put something wider than the width of the sidebar into the sidebar and it stretches to accommodate it. Since it’s literally pushed beyond its seam, it shoves the content section down to the bottom of the page. Put something wider than the width of the content section into the content section, and it shoves the sidebar around. If what you include in any container on your web page is wider than the designated width, something has got to give and it is usually your web page layout and structure.

The key is to only put things that are the maximum width into these columns (containers) so they won’t stretch and bork your web page design.

It’s one of our favorite “Super Themes” for WordPress- all kinds of added functions- stripped down interface- and a host of possible plugins integrate and play well with it.

There are even pages of tutorials on how to customize it-

So- after a long hiatus- the new version is released:
K2 0.9 Release at K2

We’ve downloaded it- and will have it up and running at www.esrati.com

It won’t look any different to most of you- but, it does some really cool things other themes don’t- for a hint- try typing a search and see how it starts returning results as you type- or look over on the archives page.

We try to install it as an option on every site we host. The only thing we’ve found was it didn’t work well with the Google Map plug-n-play plugin that we used on Gem Real Estate Group’s geographic listings page- so we had to modify a different theme. Might be fixed with this release- but we’re not ready to redo a theme just yet.