WordPress 2.9 – Update Success

This is the second day since WordPress 2.9 has officially been released. Normally, I wait a couple of weeks to upgrade. But this time I took the dive and the update went through seamlessly. In fact, I have seen a lot of the same results via Twitter. Sounds like a lot of the bugs were worked out in beta. Way to go WordPress!

Of course, I did backup all my files and database just in case!

I will come back and post any plugin or widget conflicts as I hear them.

And how did your experience go?

New Image Widget

I have in the past given you steps to create an image in your sidebar using the text widget.

Well, today WordPress just came out with a new Image Widget, that solves that problem. Now it’s easy to add an image to your sidebar

Will the new theme Headway take the place of Thesis?

Just a quick post, as the talk on Twitter, and elsewhere, is the new theme Headway. I’ve yet to really take the time to go through it, but at first glance it’s pretty impressive.

So instead of rehashing what has been said, check out the Headway site and John Haydon, social media marketer, on why he made the switch from Thesis to Headway.

I Survived My 2.8 Update!

Just had to do a quick post as I finally made the move to update to version 2.8. From past experience, I have found it useful not to jump on the bandwagon and update the minute the new version comes out. It’s pretty much my practice across the board with most hardware and software.

I did take the time to read other horror stories via Twitter and LinkedIn, took note of all the disappointments and frustrations, and basically, sat back and waited. Nearly 30 days later, with some of the bugs worked out, on the day after the 4th of July, I decided to take the plunge.

I anticipated similar fireworks and explosions that had been a constant for the past two days.

Fortunately, it didn’t happen.

Like a good WordPress neurotic, I:

• backed up my files (although I do use WP-Dbmanager plugin for auto updates)
• turned off all of my plugins and updated them — several had updated versions for 2.8, lucky me (and yes all 14 plugins)
• clicked my auto install update
• activated plugins again
• and presto, my site worked like a charm, and 2.8 was active

I must note that we do use a premium theme from StudioPress that survived the update without a glitch.

(Heavy sigh). Now it’s off to update client sites. So far 3 updated, and things are good.

If you updated recently, let me know how it went for you!

WordPress 2.8 is Officially Released

As of Wed., June 10th, WordPress 2.8 is out. There are some nice new features, nothing major, but worth checking out.

If you are on WordPress.com, you are updated automatically.

If you have your WordPress on your own server, when updating, remember to:

• Backup your database and files before updating.
• If you are using a free theme or a paid premium theme, find out if they have made it WordPress 2.8-compatible. If they haven’t, try the update, but again remember to backup. If your theme has issues, upload the old files again and wait till your theme is updated before going to 2.8 again.
• If you do need to update your theme, and you had someone customize it, talk to them before installing the updated version of your theme.
• After updating, if your blog or website starts having problems, deactivate any plugins one by one to see if that is what’s causing the issue.
• Check your widgets and make sure they are working with the new version.

And finally, don’t feel you have to update right away. Make sure you eventually do it, but you don’t need to be the first one on your block!

If anyone else has suggestions or insights, please feel free to comment.

A Peek at Some WordPress Beta 2.8 Features

WordPress Beta 2.8 has been out for a bit and I have finally taken some time to look at the new features. There’s some good stuff there! I won’t take the time to go through them all, but here are some that are worth highlighting.

THEMES

Now you can upload themes through the admin panel. In 2.7 and older, you needed to use FTP clients. And since there are a lot of WordPress users out there that don’t get “ftp” they limited themselves to the preinstalled themes. And an added benefit: now you can browse themes and search via keywords, and also apply filters too based on width, colours and columns. In addition the management of themes has improved. Before, you had to select the theme you wanted, and then either press activate or close after viewing a preview of the theme. Now you get options to activate immediately if you want, and also to delete the theme if you want as well.

WIDGETS AND PLUGINS

Although there isn’t any major change to the widget view, it it a lot cleaner and easier to use. As far as plugins, you can now edit them from within your editor. If a plugin is not working well, and you have the know how in coding, you can tweak it in order to get it working correctly.

COMMENTS

The new option to edit individual comments from the edit post selection saves a bit of time to do the standard delete, spam and reply to comments.

DASHBOARD

Again, just a bit making things a bit easier, you can now change the look of your dashboard and can set the number of columns that you want to be shown. Anything from one to four columns is allowed.

NOTE: If you are on the free WordPress.com, some of the features are not available.

So that’s just a quick preview. There is a whole bunch of other changes and improvements, but for most WordPress users, these are the one’s that will be more obvious. Not sure when we are looking at for the full release, but the Beta version does seem pretty stable. In any case, it’s just around the corner.

9 Easy Steps to Creating a Graphic Link in Your WordPress Blog Sidebar

I don’t know how many times I have had someone ask me, “I want my logo on the sidebar of my WordPress blog. Is there an easy way to do this without knowing a coding?”

So with out further ado, here you go: (note, this is for version 2.7)

1. Create a new post or page. It doesn’t matter which, since you won’t be saving it. Whatever you are more comfortable with.
2. Click on the Upload/Insert “Add an Image”.
3. Select the From Computer tab, and then select your logo file and upload.
4. In the box, Link URL, put the web site address you want your logo to link to, (eg. http://www.yoursite.com)
5. Choose thumbnail and click on inset. (You can choose a larger image and size it down, but this would be a good place to start)
6. Now choose the HTML above your post box and select and copy the code. (You can either save this post as a draft or cancel it)
7. Next, select appearance, then Widgets.
8. Find the Text Widget, click add and find the new Text Widget on your right hand side.
9. Click edit, paste your html into the box, save and presto, you now have a graphic link to your website.