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a class="title" href="http://guerrillawebbuilder.com/65/wordpress-editor-quick-reference" rel="bookmark">Wordpress Editor Reference

August 15th, 2009 No comments
Icon Function Description
Add an Image Add an Image To insert an image, click on button and locate the desired image on your desktop. The acceptable formats are jpg, gif and png. 
Once it’s uploaded take note of the options presented. The ones that matter are the last 2:
Alignment: If you want the image to break the text (a line, then the image, then another line of text) then select None. Once the image is inserted into your text, you can control the left to right positioning with the text alignment buttons on the toolbar (see below).
If, instead, you’d like your paragraph text to wrap/flow around the image, then use one of the 3 other choices as desired.
Size: Wordpress can automatically resize your images. Pick the best size as desired.
When you are ready, click on the “Insert into Post” button to insert your image.
Add Video Add Video This will allow you to upload a video and place a link in your page to the uploaded file for the visitor’s browser to handle. Since you are depending on your site visitors to have the correct software to view the video you should stick with popular formats such as mov, mpeg and avi.
Note: This does not place an embedded video like YouTube does, just a link to one. To embed a video (meaning the movie will play inside of your site) please refer to the “Embedding a video in your page” section where I go over the process in detail.
Add Audio Add Audio This will allow you to upload an audio file such as an mp3 and place a link to it on your page for visitors to click and play in their preferred music application such as iTunes.
Add Media Add Media This button is similar to the video and audio ones and is there for you to upload generic files such as PDF documents, MS Word files and so on. Once uploaded, clicking on the “Insert into Post” button will place a link on the page. The visitor’s browser will take care of handling the file once it is clicked on.
Tip: If you intend to place documents for download on your site, sitck with PDF if you can as it is one of the most universal formats. MS Word is popular but usually a bad idea.
Bold Bold Make text bold. Select the text with your mouse first.
Italic Italic Italicize text. Select the text with your mouse first.
Strikethrough Strikethrough Place a strike on text. Select the text with your mouse first.
Bulleted List Unordered (Bulleted) List Create a bulleted list Start a new line, click the button to place the first bullet, type text, hit enter to create a new entry. When you are done, hit enter twice.
Numbered List Ordered (Numbered) List Create a numbered list Start a new line, click the button to place the first number, type text, hit enter to create a new entry. When you are done, hit enter twice.
Blockquote Blockquote This creates an indented paragraph. Many themes will style this in their own particular way. Preview your page to get a clear idea of that this looks like on your selected theme.
Align Left Align Left Align the current paragraph to the left.
Align Center Align Center Center the current paragraph.
Align Right Align Right Align the current paragraph to the right.
Insert/Edit Link Insert/Edit Link Create a a hyperlink (a clickable link). Select the desired text (i.e. the visible text that will be clickable), then click this button and type the web address (i.e. http://timeshout.com).
Unlink Unlink Removes the link from a previously created hyperlink and turns it back into regular text.
Insert More Tag Insert More Tag Splits the page into multiple ones by inserting a “read more…” link. Useful for long pages.
Toggle Spellchecker Toggle Spellchecker Turns the spellchecker on and off. Good idea.
Toggle Fullscreen Mode Toggle Fullscreen Mode This option will launch the editor into full screen mode. This is very useful.
Show/Hide Kitchen Sink Show/Hide Kitchen Sink Toggle the second/advanced toolbar on the editor.
Paragraph Styles Paragraph Styles This drop down will let you select the format or style of the current paragraph. Note that what you see in the editor is only an approximation. The theme itself will determine what your headers, colors and font size will look like. Preview your draft for a clearer idea.
Underline Underline Underline the text. Select the text with your mouse first. I strongly recommend never using this as people expect underlined text to be links.
Align Full Align Full Align the current paragraph using full justification.
Select Text Color Select Text Color Change the text color. Select the text with your mouse first. I recommend that you use this sparingly such as to highlight a word or two. Do not use this to change the colors of all your headings for example. The stylesheet of the theme should be modified if that is what you want (though this is a bit more advanced as this stage).
Paste as Plain Text Paste as Plain Text Use this option to paste and clean text that you have copied from another source. This will strip all formatting and hidden code. You will have to reformat your text. Though this may take a little longer, I recommend this option as it will guarantee that your site’s pages stay consistent.
Paste from Word Paste from Word If you have some text written in MS Word, you can use this option to paste it inside of your page. It will attempt to clean unwanted hiddent code from the imported text while trying to preserve the format as best as possible. Feel free to experiment between this and the “Paste as Plain Text” option above.
Insert/Edit Embedded Media Insert/Edit Embedded Media This button will let you embed external FLV (Flash Videos) and such from external sources such as YouTube.
Remove Formatting Remove Formatting Removes formatting from the text such as bold, color, etc. Select the text with your mouse first.
Insert/Edit Embedded Media Insert/Edit Embedded Media Use this option to embed a video inside of your page such as what YouTube has. You can use Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media, etc. You’ll first need to upload your video file using the “Add Video” option.
Insert Custom Characters Insert Custom Characters Use this button to insert special characters such as copyright, currency and other symbols.
Outdent Outdent Removes possible indent from a paragraph of text.
Indent Indent Indent the current paragraph.
Undo Undo Undo the previous action(s).
Redo Redo Redo the previously undone action(s).
Help Help Read the provided help documentation.

a class="title" href="http://guerrillawebbuilder.com/57/selected-wordpress-plugins" rel="bookmark">Selected Wordpress plugins

August 15th, 2009 No comments

A few Wordpress plugins of use.

Smart YouTube

An excellent plugin to embed YouTube videos in your posts with incredible ease. Highly recommended if you like showing lots of YouTube vids on your site.

Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/smart-youtube/

StatPress SEOlution

This featured filled plugin will allow you to track visits to your website as well as get a really nice overview of search engine spider activity.

Once installed and activated you’ll see a “Statpress” entry in the admin menu.

Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/statpress-seolution/

NextGEN Gallery

If you’d like the ability to embed many photos, slideshows and image galleries on your site then this plugin is for you. You’ll want to read the Installation and FAQ notes to learn how to use this plugin.

Once installed and activated you’ll see a “Gallery” entry in the admin menu.

Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/

Exclude Pages

If you’d like to have Pages not show in your menu, then this plugin is for you. It adds a checkbox, “include this page in menu” next to the Page edit form in admin.

Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/

a class="title" href="http://guerrillawebbuilder.com/55/selected-wordpress-themes" rel="bookmark">Selected Wordpress themes

August 15th, 2009 No comments

Here are a few quality themes that cover a wide range of needs.

Carrington
An excellent theme that is both elegant and professional.
Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/carrington-blog
iNove
A clean, elegant design.
Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/inove
Pixeled
A slick theme on a dark background. Good for media websites.
Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/pixeled
Massive News
An excellent theme for those looking for a newspaper layout.
Website: http://iwordpress.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/massive-news-wordpress-theme/

Carrington

An excellent theme that is both elegant and professional.

Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/carrington-blog

iNove

A clean, elegant design.

Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/inove

Pixeled

A slick theme on a dark background. Good for media websites.

Website: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/pixeled

Massive News

An excellent theme for those looking for a newspaper layout. Note that this is a commercial theme.

Website: http://www.press75.com/the-massive-news-wordpress-theme/

a class="title" href="http://guerrillawebbuilder.com/53/introduction-to-wordpress" rel="bookmark">Introduction to Wordpress

August 15th, 2009 No comments

What is Wordpress?

To quote the Wordpress site:

“WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.”

Wordpress is an open source (free to use) blogging platform. A blog (short for web log) is a website that is specifically designed to present entries, events, photos etc.. in a chronological order. Wordpress is one of the most (if not the most) popular blogging system on the internet and powers millions of pages.

Why use a blog if I just want a basic website?

The web is becoming increasingly dynamic – meaning gone are the days of boring static websites that never changed – these are being replaced with sites that encourage the owner to express themselves and also engage their audience by allowing commenting and discussion (whether you set your site to allow this is up to you). Wordpress can be tweaked to allow for a less “bloggy” feel if desired and I will show you how.

Why Wordpress specifically?

Wordpress has a number of features that are of benefit to you, the aspiring web developer:

Ability to add content without technical knowledge

That’s right… Wordpress offers you the ability to add pages as needed, the content of which can be edited easily using a visual editor. If you can use a word processor such a MS Word then you’ll find this even simpler. Uploading photos and videos is a snap.

Multiple themes

Themes are the “look and feel” of your site. Many excellent designers have created themes that you can use and modify as needed in order to create a professional site with minimal hassle. There are around 600 different themes available on the Wordpress site and many more can be found by Googling for them. A list of of excellent themes can be found here.

Plugins

Wordpress, out of the box, is mostly a writing platform. You might however have specific needs such as the desire to embed a photo gallery, create a simple shopping cart, etc. This functionality can be easily added through the use of plugins. Wordpress has around 4000 plugins available! A list of useful plugins can be found here.

Free

Wordpress is open source – which means that you can use it for free. Read the license on their site for further details.

Lots of documentation and resources

With any new tool or service there is bound to come a time when you will have questions. Wordpress has a very large user base and many many articles have been written on various aspects of its usage.

In short, Wordpress is a fantastic tool to get a website up in a few minutes. The perfect tool for any aspiring Guerrilla Web Builder!

a class="title" href="http://guerrillawebbuilder.com/28/find-a-domain-name" rel="bookmark">Finding a domain name

August 15th, 2009 No comments

The first thing to do before starting to build a site is to get a domain name.

For each domain name it is possible to get the .com, .net etc.. and other endings (known as the top level domain or TLD). I recommend that you get the .com name if possible.

You’ll quickly find that many of the words that you try are taken. In fact almost every dictionary word is taken! So you have a few options. One is to come up with something that doesn’t mean anything or that spelled in an odd way (i.e. flickr.com, twitter.com) the other is to combine two or more words that are not usually related (i.e. facebook.com, youtube,com).

Try to keep it simple and catchy. Avoid cheesy domains names such as best-web-design-cheap-deals-r-us.com. They lack professionalism and are hard to type and remember.

If you are thinking of marketing your site online then keep in mind that keywords (what people type in the Google search box) are a nice thing to have in your domain name. Also, if you intend to have a local business then you will increase your chance of finding an available domain name by slapping your city/location in the name such as mycitywebdesign.com.

You can use hyphens (i.e. my-domain.com) if desired though I generally don’t recommend them unless you can also get the domain name without the hyphen. This is also true of pural spellings. You run the risk of having your potential clients mistype your domain and go to your competitor instead.

Once you found something that is available then you’re ready to go to the next step. Perhaps come up with a list of ideas and ask your friends and sleep on it.

Here’s a handy form that will check domain availability for you for some of the common endings.

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