Changing your WordPress posting name
If you've run a default installation of WordPress, you probably have a note at the bottom of your posts saying "Posted by Admin...." and the date. I'm not called Admin, and I don't know anyone else who is, so I'd change it. Here's what you need to do: From the WP dashboard, click on "users". Click on the user name you want to change, "admin" in this case. Add the name you want to post under to... Read more
Congratulations are in order
Blog Mum had its first baby today. 
The lovely Jane, aka Demon Bead Lady, is now blogging at eAuctionAnorak, hosted with us. I couldn't have asked for a more good-humoured and patient eldest child. Welcome to WordPress, my little blogsprog!... Read more
Change your sidebar in seconds with widgets
A friend emailed me today to ask how to add a search box to a new blog theme he's installing. I think he thought it was going to be horribly complicated, but it isn't: WordPress gives you the ability to add search, and plenty of other useful things, to your blog in just a couple of clicks. Widgets are little tricks which WP has stored, and which you can choose to add (or remove) at any time,... Read more
Adding widgets to your WP theme
Most up-to-date themes should support widgets; anything you download from the official WP theme repository will do so. But what if you're running an old theme, or writing one yourself? Actually, adding widgetability (is that a word? you know what I mean) is pretty straightforward. You'll need to have an up to date install of WordPress*, and to edit two theme files. Firstly, functions.php. Add... Read more
3 plugins to stop comment spam
I love blogging and I love WordPress. And so do comment spammers. If you've got a brand-new blog, you've probably got a month or so before the spam comments advertising everything from pharmaceuticals to porn start. Here's how to keep them off your blog. Akismet looks at the content of comments left on your blog, and analyses their spamminess. Comments it believes are spam don't appear on your... Read more
Keep your WordPress blog secure
It's happened again today: a chum running WordPress has told me their blog has been hacked. With a sinking feeling I asked, what version are you using? It's 2.2: five versions out of date. It can't be said too often: keep your WP install up to date. The good news is that 2.7 has an inbuilt upgrade option, so that you only need to click one button, and it'll upgrade itself. 2.7 comes out in a... Read more
WordPress Plugins
We've looked at how to install WordPress and how to make it pretty; today I want to look at making WP do more. Plugins are additions to the basic WordPress functionality, which allow you make it do just about anything you can imagine, from adding polls to your posts to controlling banner ads. Find them in the official WordPress plugin directory. Like themes, they're extremely easy to add to... Read more
WordPress Themes
Last week, we looked at installing WordPress's blogging software. If you're playing along, you should have a WordPress install that looks something like the screenshot on the left. As well as starting writing, one of the first things you'll probably want to do is to change the look of your blog. This is done with something WP calls "themes". A theme is a collection of files which modify the... Read more
Installing WordPress
because there are no dummies or complete idiots around here. I've assumed some basic knowledge of t'internet and web hosting here, including how zip files and FTP work. If anything needs more clarification, leave me a comment. Why WordPress? There are lots of blog management systems, and not all of them take effort to install like WordPress does. If you use BlogSpot, for example,... Read more
