Using Author Template Tags Outside of the WordPress Loop

WordPress allows you to create a custom Author web page for your WordPress blog. You can make this page look like anything you want, customized to the author or with just some tidbits about the author added to the page to help readers learn a little more about the person behind the post. I had […]

Are Tags Working For You?

I asked this question on the Blog Herald: Are Tags Working? After Pam of Grassroots Science (Alaska) reminded me recently about the flaws in tags, the lack of consistency and control, I’m asking you again. Are tags working for you and your blog? With the advent of tags built into WordPress 2.3, a whole new […]

WordPress 2.1: Template Tag and Function Changes

I’m just beginning to dig into some of the template tag and function changes in WordPress 2.1, as are many volunteers covering the WordPress Support Forums and WordPress Codex. Here is a DRAFT list of some of the template tag and function changes I’ve found in WordPress 2.1. If you know of any others or […]

Alex King: WordPress Themes Versus Templates

Alex King’s “WP Themes vs. Templates” discusses the modular system of how WordPress Themes work with some good tips on creating a template form to work within your WordPress Theme. While the theme system works well as advertised, it doesn’t work exactly the way I like to set up my web front-end code. Luckily, it […]

Cybercafe Experiments: How to Convert Any Web Template Into a WordPress Theme

Max Limpag of The Cybercafe Experiments has written a great guide on “How to convert any web template into a WordPress theme” so you can take any open source or free web design template and convert it into a WordPress Theme. Among blogging applications, WordPress probably has the largest number of great-looking themes to use. […]

Tags and Tagging in WordPress

One of most popular posts I wrote is on A Tagging Bookmarklet for WordPress and WordPress.com Users, which offers a step-by-step process of how to create the tags and signature you find at the bottom of every post that I write. I’d like to clear up a little confusion about tags in WordPress.com for you. […]

Editing the Edit This WordPress Template Tag

For those of you just reading WordPress blogs, there is a part of the blog, just under the title, that you can’t see. If you are the administrator, owner, or chef-cook-and-bottle-washer of a WordPress blog, and logged in, you see it. It’s called the Edit Post Link Template Tag. Once you are logged in, the […]

Combining Ultimate Tag Warrior With Jerome’s Keywords WordPress Plugins – Meet Tags in the Head

As many of you know, I think Christine Davis’ Ultimate Tag Warrior WordPress Plugin is awesome. And I adore Jerome’s Keywords, so much so that when the two wouldn’t work together, with Christine’s help, we came up with a solution so everyone can use both. Well, Kirk Montgomery of Max Power has come up with […]

Free Text Only Editors for Templates, PHP, HTML, CSS, and More

Over and over again on the WordPress Support Forum and WordPress Codex, I and other volunteers keep saying “Use a TEXT ONLY editor to edit your files.” A text editor is one that only works with raw text. But what does that really mean? When you are working with Word, WordPerfect, or any word processing […]

WordPress Tips and Tricks for Template Files

Tips Apply to WordPress 1.5+ We looked customizing the WordPress Administration Panels and many other WordPress Tips. This one looks at some tips and tricks for WordPress template files and style sheets. The template files in WordPress are found within your WordPress Themes. They are the building blocks which come together to create the structure […]

Categories versus Tags: Defining the Limitations

I recently talked about categories and tags, what they do and which one to choose and adding Technorati tags to WordPressMU sites, like wordpress.com, and I want to share with you a recent struggle I went through on this issue. I have spent the past five days debating about the name of a new category […]

Adding Technorati Tags to WordPressMU Sites

Note: This article is deprecated. It is no longer valid. You should not be linking your tags to Technorati, but to your own content. Single hosted versions of WordPress now come with built-in tagging and tag clouds. Manually creating a tag cloud is not necessary. WordPress.com users currently only host “global” tags, tags that link […]

WordPress Template Files and Style Sheets – Give Them a Name

I love the modular template files in WordPress. The ability to mix and match the building blocks to create custom web pages is great. The problem comes when working on the style sheet for the different looks. I often have to track down which style belongs to which template file. Solution? Give them a name? […]

WordPress School: HTML and CSS – Identifying IDs and Classes

As we round up the mini-series on HTML and CSS basics as part of the ongoing Lorelle’s WordPress School free online course, and to prepare you for working with WordPress Themes, it is important to understand how to find the right design element to change on a website, specifically within a WordPress Theme. We’ve been […]

WordPress School: HTML and CSS Tutorial

Over the past week we’ve been learning about the web browser, your gateway to WordPress and the web. This was a precursor to the next mini-series of tutorials in Lorelle’s WordPress School free online course. We are going to learn HTML and CSS. Learning WordPress from the inside out means learning the basic fundamentals of […]