Tag Archives: blog

Using Windows Live Writer to manage your blog

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Over the last couple of posts I’ve written (including this one), I have been using Windows Live Writer. This is a free piece of software that is created by Microsoft. It can manage and sort your blog for you with ease, and means you don’t have to use any online dashboard.

For GEEK!, I use WordPress and Windows Live Writer takes WordPress in its stride. I simply tell WLW my login details, and it automatically works out what my blog looks like, what theme I use, and what my posts would look like.

It does this all very quickly, and within a minute or so it is ready to go.

It is really quick, efficient and professional and I really like its simplicity. It is a great concept that works very well. I really like using it because it is so much easier than logging into the WordPress dashboard, then getting distracted by plugins, WP upgrades – the lot. With this, I just write my post without any distractions at all.

Perfect! Another recommendation for GEEK! Recommends.

WordPress 2.8 Beta Review

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WordPress recently released WordPress 2.8 Beta, which has some interesting new features which will come in handy.

As usual I’ve tested it out, and here are the highlights:

New theme installer

Wordpress Theme Installer

This new theme installer now means that WordPress can install themes you find on the WordPress Theme Directory straight to your theme directory without the need of FTP or manual file copying. It’s very similar to the automatic plugin installation system that was implemented in WordPress 2.7. However, it is more advanced and allows the user to select certain filters to make searching easier. This will definitely be a nifty little feature to look forward to.

Widget handling

widgetsThe widget handling system has been improved, with a much better click and drag interface which is much simpler to use than the previous widget handling system.

Those are the two things I find most useful. Other than that, I can’t find anything else that I would find outstanding.

WordPress has posted a Codex page with information that corresponds to the WordPress 2.8 Beta, so if you’d like a full changelog please click here.

Try it out and see what you think. I haven’t found any major bugs, but I’d recommend you don’t install it on your main blog/site. If you can, create a test blog for WordPress 2.8 beta and wait for the final release before installing it on your main blog/site.

Can you run a normal website using WordPress?

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Since, over the last few months, I have become a massive fan of the well-known blogging platform WordPress, it begs the question could you run a normal website using WordPress?

Well, I am quite confident in saying yes. I am now designing and setting up websites for a small range of people, and with all of them I’ve set them up using WordPress.

WordPress was originally designed as a platform for blogging. It is used by millions at wordpress.com, and you can also run it on your own site by installing the package at wordpress.org.

I love using WordPress with GEEK!. I have used it even since it was launched back in September 2008. It’s a great platform that not only blogs well, but has really neat features and great expansion capabilities.

And I believe that WordPress can be used for websites and not just blogs. Frankly, it beats many web design software packages available, both free and paid. The community that has accumulated with WordPress is also unbelievable. People are now producing fantastic plugins and themes that can be used for free on any site. Even the theme that I use on GEEK! is used with thanks to the people at jide.fr who produced the fantastic ‘Freshy 2’ theme.

So, if you are thinking of building a website any time soon, take a look at WordPress. It is quite obviously designed for blogs, but if you’ve got the time to play around with it a bit, you can get a perfectly good website going in a few hours. In my opinion, it’s better than any freeware or commercial product around.

WordPress 2.7 release set for 10th November

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Post: http://www.geekonthepc.co.uk/2008/10/21/new-look-wordpress-on-the-way/

Just  a quick update to my post regarding the new WordPress 2.7

The release has now be confirmed for the 10th of November 2008, so remember to upgrade on the day.

More details and a preview can be found on the WordPress podcast.

I’ll post a Product Review up for it shortly after the release.