Tips for Improving your WordPress Skills
Posted by Mert Erkal on Dec 3, 2007 in WordPress | 11 commentsStarting from this week, i will be sharing some tips & tricks regarding WordPress which will eventually make you a better WordPress user. I will be glad to learn from your experiences, too. Please share your secret WordPress tricks with me and my readers. Knowledge grows when it is shared.
Expand Your Text Editor
Did you know that you can expand your text editor in WordPress ? Advanced version of the text editor can also be used to write posts. For some reason this option isn’t enabled by default nor is there a box in any of the options to make it appear. You have to know the “secret code”.
So what is the secret code then?
Ctrl + Alt + V Just press that key combination when you are in the “Write” section of your wordpress blog. The text editor will then look like this :
Add a Simple Forum to Your WordPress Blog
Sounds great, ha ? It can easily increase the interaction with you and your readers. Did you know that there is a plugin to do this ? It is called RS Discuss.
Installing RS Discuss is very easy. All you need is to upload the plugin file to your WordPress plugin directory and then activate it. You can even add administrators, moderators in your WordPress forum, just goto the RS Discuss menu and edit the user settings. Really cool!
Use Fresh New WordPress Themes
“Everything changes, nothing remains without change.” – Budha Quotes
Don’t stick to your old theme too long. A fresh, good looking theme can change your blog’s popularity dramatically. Here are some fresh new free WordPress themes, that have popped up around the blogosphere:
![[Preview]](http://wordpress.jepson.no/wp-content/uploads/PortraitPress-preview-big.jpg){kind=link}
Excellent tips, do you know what the short cut is for the Mac OS for the advanced text function?
Hi Eric,
I have never tried WordPress in a Mac OS driven PC, but i found this for your easy guidance:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Write_Post_SubPanel#Advanced_Post_Editing
Thanks for your interest to my blog!
Looking forward to see you here soon
Mert
My tip. When installing code into a sidebar you would normally use a text box. WP only allows nine of these. However you really only need a couple as the code for each item you wish to install can all be loaded into the one text box.
For example, on my site I have a left and right side bar. I use two text boxes, one for each side bar. I load all the code for my widgets for my left side bar into the left text box.
You can include HTML tags like and of course which is used to separate each widget.
Doing this helps the page to load faster as only one box is loaded and the code run – it also looks cleaner.
the radical blogger
Thanks for the tip Les! You are amazing!
I’ll be looking forward to your WP tips. I have two WordPress blogs but I’m not very good with them yet.
Hi Markk, glad to see you in my blog. I have been using WordPress quite sometime, and i thought it is the right time to share it with others. I checked your blog at Blogger. It looks very nice, however noone can not guarantee you that your blog will not be blocked by Google one day. That is why i prefer having my own domain with WordPress installed. I will share with you what i learnt so far regarding WordPress. Your questions will be answered in 24 hours.
Looking forward to see you here soon…
Thanks for reviewing the forum plugin, will have a look at it tonite.
Hi Colin, i haven’t tried it before, but i am planning to do soon. It will be perfect if you share your thoughts about the plugin after installing it.
Hi,
Your site is one of my favorites seen around blog explosion. Keep up the good work.
I enjoy reading your blog. It is great to find someone who can find the fun things in life!
I wish you all the best in all years.
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With Regards,
Karoly Domonyi
http://www.ariestrade.com
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Good tips Mert. I installed Advanced Tiny MCE Editor plugin as I didn’t know the magic words earlier. Let us know if you discover more magics. Take care.
Thanks again for the email with the follow-up link. It was very useful.