Did you hear that sound? That low, thunking kind of sound? Yeah that’s the sound of a writer working on a book about WordPress banging their head against a wall (or desk). In case you didn’t know, book publishing timelines are rather long. Not as long as say, Microsoft OS releases, but typically longer than the release schedule for WordPress. Using WordPress is slated to be release in July (feel free to pre-order now), and in case you hadn’t looked at a calendar it’s March and my first draft of [...]
Tagged as:
WordPress 3.0,
WordPress Books,
WordPress how-to,
WordPress MU,
WordPress tips
There’s nothing like being a WordPress user who’s supposed to know what’s what and not being able to get a basic thing like posting through a blog editor to work consistently. Since WP 2.9.1 came out I’ve had a helluva time with WordPress on DreamHost. I get strange 404 not found errors and when I’m posting remotely either a) all of the time or b) when planets in a distant as yet unknown galaxy align I get the charming “Missed Schedule” error.
Since, as you might gather I’d rather figure this [...]
Tagged as:
fixing WordPress,
WordPress 2.9.1,
WordPress bugs,
WordPress how-to,
WordPress tips
Last Fall I started doing a WordPress One Minute Podcast and put 11 episodes in the can before I got busy and stopped (let’s call it “on hiatus”). Since I’m working on Using WordPress right now, I thought I’d bring the episodes over here.
Here is the episode list and you can download all the episodes below:
Ep 1: Pasting from Word
Ep 2: Disable the default admin account
Ep 3: Turbo-charge admin panels
Ep 4: WP.com vs WP.org
Ep 5: Press this bookmarklet
Ep 6: Sidebar widgets
Ep 7: CPanel file manager
Ep 8: Pretty Permalinks
Ep 9: Upgrading [...]
Tagged as:
WordPress how-to,
WordPress One Minute Podcast,
WordPress podcast,
WordPress tips
I’m plodding through Chapter 10 of Using WordPress now. The chapter is on one of my favorite WP topics—using WordPress for things other than blogs (sites, collaboration, project management). I might be over-thinking this chapter, but it’s going well. As I was researching/double-checking some facts on using WordPress for websites, I came across a really great post on converting existing websites to WordPress. David’s method is simple, elegant, and one that I hadn’t thought of trying. I did some more research and am pretty well convinced that his method is [...]
Tagged as:
WordPress tips,
Writing
by Tris Hussey on January 2, 2010 · 21 comments
in Blogging, Blogging 101, Books, Business blogs, Cool tools, Featured, Internet Life, Multimedia blogs, Personal blogs, Portfolio blogs, Social Media, Using WordPress, Web 2.0, WordPress
Even though it’s been the holiday season, work on Using WordPress hasn’t slowed down only a wee bit. Several of the initial chapters are now in the loving hands of my editors and I’m proceeding full steam ahead. Since crowd sourcing works pretty darn well for getting feedback, commentary, and information, I’m looking for a bit of help with the next chapter in the book: WordPress Plugins.
Us WordPress.org/DIY install users know that there are thousands of WP plugins out there to try. Lots of plugins do the same thing and [...]
Tagged as:
Blogging,
Blogging 101,
Social Media,
Web 2.0,
WordPress 2.9,
WordPress plugins,
WordPress tips,
WordPress.org
by Tris Hussey on December 18, 2009 · 7 comments
in Blogging, Cool tools, Create Your Own Blog, Featured, Internet Life, Personal blogs, Photography, Podcasting, Portfolio blogs, Technology, Using WordPress, Web 2.0, WordPress
This afternoon WordPress 2.9 went from Release Candidate to just plain old released and, yeah this is a good one. I’ve been using 2.9 in it’s early beta incarnations for months now and have been quite happy with it. I haven’t noticed a huge improvement in speed or stability, but then again I’m not benchmarking it, I’m just using it. Oh and writing about it, of course.
For my money, there are two great features that make this a great update. The first is the new built-in image editor. No, you [...]
Tagged as:
Blogging,
Podcasting,
Technology,
Untitled,
Web 2.0,
WordPress 2.9,
WordPress 3.0,
WordPress tips,
WordPress updates,
WordPress.org
As you may have gathered from previous posts, before I finished Create Your Own Blog, I started work on book number 2. I’ve been a little cagey about it, but with things pretty much set now I can tell you that I’m writing a beginner’s guide to WordPress called: Using WordPress. This book will follow other Using… books from Pearson where the book is aimed at the novice and will also include screencasts and podcasts to go along with the book.
It’s very exciting to be working on my next book [...]
Tagged as:
Social Media,
Technology,
Web 2.0,
WordPress Books,
WordPress tips,
Writing
Have you heard of Subversion? No? I’m not surprised because it’s one of those tools that for the most part developers make use of. Just what is Subversion (or SVN for short)? SVN is a tool for version control. It’s purpose is to keep track of all the versions of a given document(s) and make sure that when people are working on a document together, that they don’t overwrite each other’s code. That’s the top level, basic idea behind SVN and for the most part SVN is used by developers [...]
Tagged as:
Subversion,
SVNx,
tech tips,
Technology,
version control,
WordPress tips,
Writing
by Tris Hussey on November 29, 2009 · 6 comments
in Blogging, Blogging 101, Cool tools, Create Your Own Blog, Featured, Internet Life, Social Media, Teaching, Web 2.0, WordPress
Yes, you read that correctly, WordPress isn’t the best CMS out there. WordPress is, however, the CMS I like best. My BCIT class on Thursday afternoons is one of those great groups of students that everyone should have the opportunity to teach. They challenge me constantly. No, not in a disrespectful way, in an intelligent way. They challenge me to challenge myself and learn more so I can teach them more (hence all my experimentation with Subversion).
This week, for example, I was working through the WordPress theme structure with a [...]
Tagged as:
Blogging,
Blogging 101,
blogging tools,
Social Media,
Teaching,
Web 2.0,
WordPress Classes,
WordPress tips
By popular demand, I am teaching another round of WordPress courses January 16th and April 10th, 2010. These courses are being offered through BCIT and will be offered as separate morning and afternoon sessions. The morning session will use WordPress.com to build a website/blog. The afternoon session will use WordPress you install yourself to build the same kind of site, but with more customized features.
You can sign up for the WordPress morning course and WordPress afternoon course through the BCIT website.
I know that the courses will be taught in the [...]
Tagged as:
BCIT,
Blogging,
Blogging 101,
Social Media,
Teaching,
Web 2.0,
WordPress Classes,
WordPress tips,
WordPress.com,
WordPress.org
In the beginning, there was email
Web-based collaboration tools and strategies has been one of my professional passions for a decade now. Beyond that I always thought it was cool, I started telecommuting in 2000, so needing easy and complete solutions was high on my priority list.
Over the years, I think I’ve tried nearly all the solutions around with varying degrees of success and failure. Almost always success or failure has been determined by either the willingness of the team to adapt and change or the ease of use of the [...]
Tagged as:
collaboration,
Social Media,
Web 2.0,
WordPress plugins,
WordPress tips
Tris Hussey is a writer, teacher, blogger, and speaker on all facets of Internet life, WordPress, and social media. He is the author of Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Blogging Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro and Using WordPress.
