Archive for the Category »WordPress «

Jan

Test Proves Fatal In Internet Explorer (IE)

Testing your blog in more than one browser is not only important, it’s essential. Essential, because all of your visitors will not be using the same browser as you.

Today’s Lesson

Months ago, I was in the market for a new blog theme. My extensive search revealed one, I absolutely loved.

I quickly downloaded it, and put it use.

In my Firefox browser, it was very impressive.

But, when I tested it in IE (Internet Explorer), it totally collapsed.

The sidebars were distorted, parts were missing, and in IE, it didn’t even look like the same theme.

Thinking I had downloaded an older version, I checked the theme author’s website. There was only one version, no updates.

I read the the comment section, and others were encountering the same problem, however, the author did not offer “a fix”.

My continued search lead me to the theme I am currently using.

I actually like this one better (for now)……so all is not lost.

Today’s Assignment

Have you tested your blog theme in more than one browser?

Are you seeing a difference?

Is it something you can live with, or will you have to make adjustments?

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, WordPress 12 Comments

Jan

WP – Use of Post Timestamp May Require Changing Your Post Slug

Barbara Swafford

I learn something new about WordPress, every time I’m working on my blog. Today, I learned how using the post timestamp can affect my post slug.

Today’s Lesson

I often use the “post timestamp” feature for future posts.

Today, as I was running errands for our business, I got to thinking about a particular post I have scheduled for the future (blogging seems to follow me wherever I go). I decided I needed to change one word in its title, so when I got back to my desk, I made the change.

That was easy.

But…. I happened to notice, the “post slug” didn’t change.

For those of you who use WordPress, the definition of post slug, as quoted by WordPress.org is:

Post Slug
This is where WordPress will “clean up” your post title to create a link, if you are using Permalinks. The commas, quotes, apostrophes, and other non-HTML favorable characters are changed and a dash is put between each word. If your title is “My Site – Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid”, it will be cleaned up to be “my-site-heres-lookin-at-you-kid” as the title. You can manually change this, maybe shortening it to “my-site-lookin-at-you-kid”.

The “post slug” feature, can be found in the right hand column of your “write” or “manage – posts” page of WordPress. The post slug area will remain blank until you hit the publish button.

From this, I have learned, if you use the timestamp feature, and change the title after you have hit “publish”, your post slug (permalink) may not match the actual post title.

Now, that may not be a big deal, however, if you were to completely change the title, a visitor who found your blog. via a search engine, may think they landed on the wrong page.

So, as a word of caution, if you are using the “post timestamp” feature, once you hit publish, your title is “carved in the “stone” of the post slug”, unless…. you manually change it.

Changing your post slug is easy. Just delete the words that are incorrect, and type in the new one(s). Remember, there is a dash between each word.

Today’s Assignment

If you use the post timestamp feature, have you ever noticed this?

Do you think it matters if your permalink may be different than your actual title?

Was this information helpful?

Category: Archives, Blogging Lessons, WordPress, Writing Tips Tags: Blogging, WordPress 10 Comments

Jan

WP Post Time Stamp – Publish While You Are Sleeping

Barbara Swafford

If you blog and are using WordPress, you can use the “post time stamp” and pre-write posts, and have them “publish” while you are enjoying a good nights rest.

Todays’ Lesson

At this time of year, my full time job keeps me extremely busy. It’s time for quarter and year end reports, W-2′s, and I am also preparing for filing our taxes.

Although I would rather be blogging, I must attend to my full time job, since it pays the bills.

With blogs, as we all know, posting frequently helps to get us crawled by the search engines.

Using the post time stamp is the perfect answer for that.

I take several hours, when I’m feeling creative, and write numerous posts.

After I have reviewed my posts, and checked for typos or poor grammar, I go to the right hand section of my “post page”, scroll down to “Post Timestamp”, and check the “Edit timestamp” button.

I then change the date, to a future date, and also change the time.

I usually change the time, to just past midnight.

I then click on “save and continue editing” and then click on “publish”.

You may not have to click on “save and continue editing”, however, I like to double check that I have changed everything correctly, before I click on “publish”.

Then……if you go to your “Dashboard”, under “Scheduled Entries”, you will see your post title and when it is scheduled to publish.

If you choose to edit your “scheduled entries”, you can click on the title, and edit them accordingly.

How sweet is that?