I don’t have time to write this week, but have had some time to tweak the site and try a few plug-ins.
The first new tool is Performancing, a Firefox plug-in that allows me to write from with my browser and post directly to this blog. (I’m using it now!) I find it much more forgiving than the WordPress built in editor.
Second, I have changed the theme (with a big shout out to Rick Mahn for sending me the Contempt theme files) and modified it to include Sidebar Widgets. It took me far too long to figure out how to do this. To save others the trouble, here are my notes:
Using FTP:
copy widgets folder to ../wp-content/plugins
copy contempt folder to ../wp-content/themes
copy ../wp-content/plugins/widgets/default/functions.php
and ../wp-content/plugins/widgets/default/sidebar.php
to ../wp-content/themes/contempt/
Go into WP Plugins, activate Widgets, and there you go.
Looks good!
Comment by Waldo Jaquith — June 30, 2006 @ 4:49 pm
Thank you, Waldo. Of course, when you turned me onto to WordPress, one of the draws was that I would not have to spend hours tweaking the look and feel. Hah! That’s okay, playing in the sandbox is the best way I know to figure out how it all works. I’m very pleased with this look and, other than a few small additions, intend to keep it this way for the foreseeable future. I appreciate all of your help.
Comment by semi — June 30, 2006 @ 5:12 pm
Funny that you should have chosen this theme. I’ve been looking at new WP themes for my blog and believe it or not, this is one of the ones I was looking at! Of course, mine is not self-hosted so I’m stuck with certain things (like no way to include the contact page from Blix 🙁 ) but this is a great looking theme.
Comment by Vivian J. Paige — June 30, 2006 @ 7:15 pm
Vivian — I found the Contempt theme on WordPress.com and looked everywhere for the files. I keep a WordPress-hosted site as a “sandbox” for trying out new things, but I appreciate the flexibility of being able to host my own domain. If you ever want to move off of WordPress.com to your own domain, I will be happy to help you.
Comment by semi — June 30, 2006 @ 8:19 pm
Hey semi! The site looks nice – guess Contempt is a popular choice! Anyway, I’ll have to check out widgets – I’ve got them installed on a blog I’m developing, but have not had a real chance to investigate them yet.
Vivian – setting up and hosting your own WordPress is quite easy, and there are a number of affordable hosting sites. The ability to customize is a huge benefit!
Comment by Rick Mahn — June 30, 2006 @ 10:19 pm
Thanks for the offer. I’ll keep it in mind if I decide to move away from wordpress.com. I actually have another site that is self-hosted and I originally thought about putting my blog there as well but decided against it. We’ll see what the future brings.
I do like this theme, though.
Comment by Vivian J. Paige — July 1, 2006 @ 11:22 pm