Nov 26th, 2007 | Book Progress | No Comments
Even if I didn’t post here for quite a while - the work on the book is going on. I have changed my method of working on it: for a while I tried to go and write everything in the order as it will be presented in the book, starting with chapter one and then the next and the next… But I figured, sometimes it goes faster if I write different chapters and parts on the same day when I become aware of a possible issue that should be addressed in the book. Many times browsing the net or getting a question or comments starts an idea. I used to put these ideas in notes thinking I would write them later when we arrive to that point in the process. Now I think it is more efficient if I start to write at least a draft clarifying that issue, so when it comes to that point in the book I will have to make just the final touch on the text. There, probably, will be a bit more work to arrange everything in the right order but definitely it speeds up the writing process.
Anyway, knowing that some future bloggers don’t want to wait until the book comes out I thought I could refer them to the service offered on my design site: the Start Blogging! package, which is an excellent solution for those not interested to learn the technicaldetails of running a blog. If you are impatient about starting your blog… you may want to check that out!
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Jul 19th, 2007 | Book Progress | 8 Comments
The other day I was talking with a friend about the book’s progress. When I mentioned spending time on the WordPress forums he couldn’t understand why I am doing it. I have tried to explain that it helps me but seemingly I couldn’t convince him. Too bad at that time I didn’t have such a clear example like this thread yesterday. Just a sample of a few questions when the new user wants to change (switch) the theme on a WordPress blog installed for her by someone else. (If you don’t know: themes are the exterior, front-end “clothing” of a blog…)
Where is the wp-content/themes directory? How do I find it? Create it? Access it?
If I’ve downloaded an FTP and also have an FTP on my host, how do I get them to make the themes be accessible onto the admin of my wp site?
How do I connect the FTP to the host? And which one?…
In several posts I have tried to clarify some basic notions. So I wrote simple instructions like:
With the FTP program/client (when installed on your computer) you connect your computer and the host computer. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. The name should say all: you will be transferring the unzipped files from your computer to the host server. The wp-content/themes/ folder is there (otherwise you wouldn’t see your blog).
Start here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/FTP_Clients
The first thing you should do:
install that FTP program that you downloaded.
FTP Fugu - that’s the program’software that should be installed on your computer. Most of these gizmos have an automatic installer, you just have to start the process.
(Also, .zip files are just compressed version of all the files of a program, so the package is not that huge when downloading…}
It’s been a while since I last used Mac, but I remember there is something on it that you can see the files and folders on your computer. You should always save/store the downloaded and unzipped program files - and theme files for that matter - in their own subfolders in a logical system/structure.
Now what any FTP program does: it has two parallel windows:
- one showing the files and folders on your computer
- the other one (when connected to the server) showing the files and folders there
From here is quite logical: you can up- and download = move files in both directions.
That’s the whole idea.
Too bad I couldn’t attach an image to my explanation but I can do it now :) I wouldn’t say this a complete chapter for the book. But it gives you a very clear idea what kind of topics are a must when the target audience is the absolutely non-web-savy future bloggers. They are my potential readers (and buyers, of course). I also have the advantage of coming from a non-technical background, therefore I understand perfectly how difficult is at the beginning to grasp these ideas. Here is my promise: there will definitely be a chapter about FTP and how it works.
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May 31st, 2007 | Book Progress | 5 Comments
…sometimes. As much as I would like to be a full-time WordPress book writer, there are real life obligations that delay the work on the WordPress manual. Even if it’s not widely known I have an off-line business in financial services. That field is a highly regulated one - meaning you need all kind of provincial licenses (in Canada) to be able to work. Yes, I know, it’s crazy that for 30 million people you need a different license for every province but that’s how it is. Now renewing the license requires a certain number of CE (continuing education) credits, and just before the deadline I realized I was short of the necessary credits. Thanks God for the online services, I succeeded to take some courses and to pass the tests. Now I am fine for a year…
I am back on working on my WordPress tutorial. While I am working on it I still keep an eye on the WP Forums - to see what kind of questions are asked. A few posts in the recent days reminded me that not only completely novice users have difficulties to grasp the basic working of the WordPress script but also users who come from a more traditional web background. If somebody has dealt only with static html pages (like using MS FrontPage) it is not easy to get the idea of dynamic database driven sites or the structure of the WP themes.
So, I was wondering… should I include something (a chapter?) for future WP users who are familiar with the “classic” web and HTML but are inexperienced with PHP and MySQL based sites?
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May 22nd, 2007 | Book Progress | No Comments
Lately I have spent more time on writing the book itself than updating this blog. Some very dear old freinds of ours visited us here in Montreal and we spent time together going to see the usual turist attractions: Vieux Montreal - the old city, the old port, Mont Royal etc.
Of course, even when offline I was “troubleshooting’ all the time…
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May 10th, 2007 | Book Progress | No Comments
Today (Thursday) I wrote mainly about how to prepare a computer for blogging with WordPress: what kind of tools, software one will likely need in order to manage all the tasks during the setup and later while blogging. For example, for those who plan to post many pictures I would strongly advise to have an image editing program to avoid uploading a 900KB 1200×1000px picture in a narrow column blog.
(Even if you think no normal person would do something like that, believe me, it happens…)
And after the yesterday’s dilemma regarding the html vs. dynamic site - I ended up with a nicely illustrated simple explanation of how the two web site types work. I gave it to a friend to read it and got very positive feedback. Which makes me to plan further simple clarifications about web related issues. Of course, the keyword here is: simple.
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