My Computer Back in Service

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 I have been using the Andreas04 2.0 WordPress Theme on my Working at Home on the Internet Blog for well over a year. I made so many tweaks on it in that time frame to make it a bit more functional, I decided to go a little further and remake the look as well.

Introducing…

Andreas04 3.1-the dark side

Some things I changed/added include:

• “More”… the split post never worked in the old theme, it does now
• RSS feed subscription links at the top of the page
• More room for the Tag line in the header
• Dynamic Footer (not just the bottom of the page anymore)
• Drop down menu for Categories
• Added Titles to the previous/next posts
• Shrunk the container (actual space used) to 900px
• Added a Search feature to help navigation for visitors

Oh, and I made it Darker.

You can take a look at The Darkside Theme live on the Joe’s Freeware Finds Blog or download Andreas04 3.1 now.

How many times have you read an article on one of your favorite Blogs and said to yourself… “I wish I could print this so I can keep it around for future reference“? I know I have, especially when there is some information that needs to be exact when I need to use it.

Well, I found a WordPress Plugin that fits the bill. As far as I can tell this is the third incarnation of this plugin, but it does what it says it will. Your readers can print an article or page including images in a very readable format.

Go to WP-Print 2.20 and download the zip file and unzip it

Upload everything in the Print folder to wp-content/plugins on your host

Activate the plugin

In your index/page/single post php 

Look for <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

Add <?php if(function_exists(’wp_print’)) { print_link(); } ?> where you want the print option to show

 Go to WP-Admin -> Options -> Print to set your preferences

This is really important

Go to WP-Admin -> Options -> Permalinks -> Update Permalink Structure to re-generate the Permalink, DON’T change anything, just Update the Permalink. (I overlooked this step and nothing worked until I did the update)

So far I can see only 2 minor glitches

The images will only print in Black & White, it would be nice to have some color options

There is no way to get back to the Blog unless you hit the <– Back Arrow

Overall I think this is a very nice clean way to offer your readers a way to print any article or page on your WordPress Blog.

The other day, I asked everyone What Do YOU Want to Know? Brooke from Snippets n Blurbs asked a couple of questions (I hope I answered the first one in comments Brooke).

The question, which is the subject of this post was:

“This might not be what you want posted here - but I think that people need to know more about SEO - the general stuff. Why it is important, some of the costs associated, not all web designers offer that…etc.”

In order to answer these questions within a question, I will break it down a little bit.

1. SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. In other words, it is how people can best find your site when using Google, Yahoo, MSN or any of the other Search Engines by typing in certain search terms or “Keywords”.
2. Cost is not an object. It is free if you think you know how people will try to find the services, articles or products you offer. A suggestion I would make is to try to find your site on SE’s by using different terms to see what you get. Again, it’s free.
3. The unasked question is How to go about it. This is where the Meta Tags come in. They are located in the “head” php in the presentation portion of your template.

Most templates will include a Meta Description which is derived from your “tagline”. An example of this would be:

<meta name=”description” content=”<?php bloginfo(’description’); ?>” />
  <meta name=”author” content=”Joe Hauckes  / My Computer Back in Service - http://mcbsconsulting.com” />
(you can add your own description in place of the bloginfo, but don’t make it too long)

The other is the Meta Keyword which is where you put words and phrases you think people will use to find you. Another example from MCBS:

<meta name=”keyword”
content=”help,DSL,Setup,php,online,offline,adapt,programs,install,hardware,software,
computer,consulting,internet,” />

Probably the most important is not within tags, but using the right “Keywords” within your content. If you write good content with a good mix of what you want people to find, they will come.

Just remember, none of this happens overnight, it takes time.

This may seem a little early in the process, since the Blog has only existed for a little over a month, but I wanted to ask you for your Questions.

I can write anything about what I know regarding fixes, programs, shortcuts etc. But, even though these solutions are proven to work, I am only guessing at what may be useful to YOU. So, what I would like to do is open a dialogue with you and find out what you have questions about.

Do you want information about:

• Online Problems?
• Offline Solutions?
• Anti-virus/malware programs?
• How to’s on installation of plugins/add-ons?
• Adjusting/Adapting Webpage or Blogging platforms?
• Hardware problems with your PC?

This is NOT a sales pitch. This is to try to provide you with information that will help you solve some of the problems you incur in your day to day use of your computer. And it may possibly help others who are running into the same situations.

Ask Away!

If you Blog, you know that most of the time spent writing a post is online. If you are on a dedicated server with one of the High Speed Providers it is usually not a problem.

But if you still use Dial-up (why would you?) or need to post using Wi-Fi it can get expensive pretty quickly. Sometimes you just don’t have access to the internet for whatever reason, but still want to get an article ready for when you regain internet access.

What to do?

I personally, just started using Windows Live Writer. It seems to fit the bill for most times when I am not online but need to get something written. (This post is written on Live Writer.)

What it does:

• It is compatible with Blogging Services like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and Movable Type and most other platforms.
• It uses WYSIWYG so you can see what your Article will look like before it is published.
• You can insert pictures, tables, videos, hyperlinks, just about anything you can do on your blog online. It even spell checks as you’re typing.
• Best of all once you are satisfied and can get online, you can publish it directly, save as a draft online or save as  a draft and continue editing online.
• You can even set categories and a date to pre-publish a post (al least using WordPress I don’t know about the others).

What is Doesn’t:

• If you have a recurring series of posts that the lead paragraph/ending are always the same, you Can Not save it as a local draft and reuse it. It will automatically pick up whatever the end published document contains.
• For some reason, when you publish a post containing pictures or .jpg .gif .jpeg .png or similar, it will automatically add it to the default upload as a new pic. If you delete it from the upload file, you will lose the picture or whatever graphic you added to a previous post.

All in all, Windows Live Writer is a very effective and powerful publishing tool for writing Blog Posts when you aren’t online.