posts

Quick Way To Find Out The Scheduled Time Of A Post

By Jeffro on October 5, 2011

Since publishing more content for WPTavern, I’ve become quite fond of the ability to schedule posts into the future. However, one gripe I’ve had is not being able to easily identify the time a post has been scheduled to be published. I was hoping that at some point in the future, on the All Posts administration panel that I would be able to see the time the post was going to go live under the term Scheduled, instead of having to go into the edit panel for the post to see the exact time. My mouse cursor must have been at the right place at the right time because I discovered tonight that if I hover my mouse cursor over the date the post has been scheduled, a tool-tip will appear that gives me the exact time.

It’s little things like this that I really appreciate.

Posted in WordPress | Tagged posts, scheduling, tips | 4 Responses

WordPress To Be More Tumblr Like

By Jeffro on November 13, 2010

What’s that sound? It’s a cannon ball being shot over the bow of Tumblr. The big discussion point over the past two days has revolved around a new feature slated to hit WordPress 3.1 called Post Formats. Otto as well as Mark Jaquith do a great job explaining what these are. To make a long story short, Tumblr has different ways of displaying content depending upon which format is being used. Matt Mullenweg has actually been doing something similar with his own site at Ma.tt which Otto shows screenshots of. While the notion of displaying content differently based on the type of content being published is not new, the way of doing it currently does not lend itself to data portability.

This is why the core developers have decided to settle on a standard set of post formats. A standard set of formats enables users to switch themes without losing the way in which those post formats are displayed. It’s also been decided that there will be no API calls or hooks available to extend or modify the standard set of post types which is a rare thing in WordPress considering there is usually always a way to modify or extend a feature set. I was against the idea of post formats until I figured out that they are different from post templates, which I use for content that is the same but with different values. Instead, I’m getting excited about the ability to be able to post just a link or maybe just a quote from an interesting piece dedicated to WordPress. Post formats will simply make it easier to publish short-form content and display that content differently than regular posts.

Another thing that interests me regarding the inclusion of post formats is that WordPress.com will most likely see this same feature added to the service which would basically empower WordPress.com users to publish posts just like those on Tumblr with the only thing missing being a slick Bookmarklet. If both WordPress.com and WordPress the open-source project both have this feature set, what will this do to disrupt Tumblr? Considering the strength of Tumblr will essentially become a feature of WordPress, what drive will there be to continue using the service? Granted, perhaps the WordPress implementation won’t be as pretty as theirs but still, I’d be somewhat worried if I were Tumblr. This addition to the software could possibly contribute to a sizable chunk of the Tumblr audience migrating to WordPress.com.

On the flip side, both WordPress and Tumblr continue to co-exist and nothing much really changes. What do you think?

Posted in WordPress | Tagged formats, posts, tumblr | 12 Responses

Looking For Guest Posts For September

By Jeffro on August 13, 2010

In a few weeks, I’ll be on vacation from September 5th to September 11th. During this time, I won’t be available to write or publish anything which is why I’m asking for volunteers to write guest posts. What I’m looking for are user guides, plugin reviews, tutorials, regarding WordPress, BuddyPress, bbPress, etc. WPTavern.com gets on average 60,000 pageviews per month and some of the smartest people within the WordPress community read the site on a weekly basis. If you write a guest post, be sure to send me the HTML version of the post either in an email or in an attached TXT file. If the post has images, include those as attachments to the email. One of the posts that I am working on for that week is a guide on purchasing themes.

Posted in News | Tagged blog, guests, posts, wordpress | 6 Responses

Looking For Guest Blog Posts

By Jeffro on September 16, 2009

I’ll be out of town starting next week and although I think I’ll have a few posts of my own that I will schedule, I’m wondering if anyone within the community is interested in writing a guest blog post for this site? The article should be submitted through the WPTavern post submission form located here:

http://www.wptavern.com/submit-a-post

If your post has images, temporarily link to them in the post from an image host such as image shack. I will upload the images to WPTavern and put them in the right place. I’m looking for any posts within the following categories.

WordPress.org, WordPress MU, BuddyPress, Theme Review, Plugin Review, bbPress, Blogging

I’ve already had a few people volunteer to write a post for the site. If you can have the post submitted to WPTavern before the end of the day this Saturday, I would really appreciate it.

Posted in News | Tagged blog, guest, posts, wptavern

Does Scheduling Posts Freak You Out?

By Jeffro on September 1, 2009

Well, does it? I mentioned on Twitter that often times, when I hit the button to schedule a post, I freak out for about three seconds because I see the text that says Post Published. In my mind I’m thinking hey, I didn’t want to publish this post but have it scheduled to post in the future. So my first instinct is to look to the right in the publish widget and make sure the status is set to scheduled. One time, I accidentally published a post to the frontpage when I really wanted to have it scheduled. That was annoying.

At any rate, I think that instead of the text saying Post Published after I schedule a post, it should say Post Scheduled along with the time the post is scheduled for just like it does in the Publish widget so that it doesn’t freak me out and I can consider the text normal behavior. I think this is a usability issue, but before I make any noise about it, I wanted to get your thoughts.

Posted in WordPress | Tagged posts, publishing, scheduling, user interface | 12 Responses

Ask Jeff: How Did You Get The Photo To The Left Side Of Your Posts And How Was The Post Automatically Shorted?

By Jeffro on July 27, 2009

This post is part of an ongoing series called Ask Jeff. This is where I’ll take a question someone within the WPTavern or WordPress community gives me and provide my thoughts/answer to. This question was submitted by Andrew.

How did you get the photo to the left side of your posts and how was the post automatically shorted?

I use a child theme called Hybrid News which is a theme built on top of the Hybrid framework. Out of the box, this theme has a frontpage template file that automatically cuts off posts after a certain character amount so that it only displays the excerpt. However, I don’t like the minimal amount of control I had over the display of the excerpt which is why I installed and use a plugin called The Excerpt Re-Reloaded. This plugin gives me the ability to fine tune the behaviour and display of the excerpt.

As for the images, this is another feature provided by the theme out of the box. Thanks to the Get_The_Image script Justin put into this theme, it can automatically take the first uploaded image in the post and use that as the post image thumbnail or you can specify which image to use based on the image URL. You can have the post thumbnails show up on the left, or right which is just a change in the CSS file.

In short, both features come with the theme out of the box except I used a plugin to modify the excerpt.

Submit Your Question:

If you have a question regarding any aspect of WordPress you would like me to answer or at least, hear my take on, you can either contact me using the following contact form with your question or you can follow WPTavern on Twitter and send me an @reply with your question. If the WPTavern account is following you, simply send me a Direct Message with your question.

Posted in News | Tagged askjeff, excerpts, posts, Themes | 1 Response

Keeping An Eye Out For Post Ideas

By Jeffro on July 22, 2009

WeblogToolsCollection.com recently published an article that discussed how to develop post ideas. Near the end, the author wanted to know what individuals did to generate post ideas on their own and quite a few people responded in the comments. Most people used the drafts section of WordPress to write down a block of notes for a particular post and then saved it for future use. Others used a text file on their desktop, sticky notes, note taking applications, etc. As a blogger myself, I thought I’d share my tips and techniques for how I generate ideas for posts. This list is in no particular order.

Twitter – Without a doubt, the biggest source of ideas to write about has come from Twitter. The WPTavern twitter account follows 237 people, 95% of these folks have something to do with WordPress. Through theme and their streams, I get links to interesting sites, ideas, discussions, etc. For a long time, I practically stopped using my feedreader in place of Twitter because it was that effective for me.

RSS – It’s interesting that just the other day, Adii of WooThemes asked this question:

I seem to get most of the most important news stories via Twitter. so why bother with RSS?

The short answer is, Twitter can’t give you the scoop on everything WordPress related and that is how I maximize my use of RSS. While Twitter is the pulse of what is going on right now, RSS and the feeds I have subscribed to provide me a bigger picture with regards to what is happening with WordPress. Everything from development to plugin and theme releases, RSS does a great job at filling the gaps that Twitter leaves open. I can’t tell you how often I’ve found a great story in my feedreader that was not mentioned on Twitter. Also, you have to subscribe to feeds and searches which give you a non-WordPress community perspective on things. Too much in-house linking and you begin to lose focus on the bigger picture.

Comments – I envy those blogs who have an intelligent audience such as the case with WPTavern.com. All too often throughout a conversation, I’ll see bits and pieces of opinions or topics that generate new posts ideas. Whether it be the passing on of a link to a relevant article or a plugin that fixes a problem, I’ve always enjoyed reading thoughtful comments which continue the conversation rather than derail it. Comments are like additional food for thought.

Normal Conversation – Whether I’m chatting in IRC, on Skype, or through any other real-time means of communication, I’m always on the lookout for ideas to talk about. There have been many times where I’ve conversed with someone about a particular topic I had in mind and because of the conversation, I’ve changed the way I was going to write the post or, I come up with two posts on the subject.

Community – Luckily, I have a strong community of folks who participate on the forum and who I communicate with on a daily basis. If they find something interesting or newsworthy, they generally say so on the forum or send it to me in an email.

Not Thinking About The Topics – To be honest, this is when I think of post ideas the most. When I’m not thinking about the subject. When I’m reading a magazine or when I’m outside on a hike, I’m thinking about things I’ve written already or things I’ve seen pop up and I have time to formulate ideas or ways to approach the topic for a future post. This is also when I have free time to think of random, insane ideas which are always fun as they challenge my imagination.

Note Taking:

This is the point where I think most people will be shocked in that, I don’t write down ideas or write draft posts. I’m one of those people that if an idea is flowing or I need to write a post, I do so right then and there either on my iPhone or in the write panel. Although because of the iPhone, I’ll sometimes just write the majority of my thoughts regarding the topic and then attack it again once I reach a desktop or my notebook. That’s as far as I go with drafts.

The bottom line is, I am open minded to any and all ideas. I’m always on the lookout for them and thankfully, I have a knack of choosing some good ones to write about.

Posted in Blogging | Tagged blogs, ideas, posts, writing | 2 Responses