I know it’s been ages since I’ve posted and I’m so sorry for that. Life has kept me constantly busy and I haven’t been able to tend to How to Blog nearly as often as I’d like. I did want to make sure everyone knew that the latest version of WordPress is currently 2.9.1 – make sure to upgrade!

I do intend to write a few posts soon, including info about some of the really cool wordpress plugins I’ve recently stumbled across.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that WordPress 2.8 is now available.

As a reminder, I always advise readers to wait just a few days before upgrading, as sometimes WP has a habit of releasing an update that breaks things and requires you to install yet another update shortly after that to fix everything…in other words, sometimes some big bugs slip through (not always, though). So just waiting a few extra days before upgrading and finding out whether this is, in fact, a stable release is usually a good idea. I will keep you posted on word from the wordpress community and when I think it’s safe to do the upgrade. If you’re using WordPress 2.7.1, the fantastic news is that you can actually upgrade WP from your dashboard automatically when you’re ready — just don’t forget to backup your database beforehand

While I did say to wait a few days, once it’s clear WordPress 2.8 is stable then, like other updates, it is crucial that you upgrade all of your WordPress installations (but first check to make sure that any of your “MUST HAVE” plugins are compatible with the new version and then weigh the pros and cons. These updates are critical – they generally not only FIX existing bugs (this release fixes 790 bugs!), but they almost always include security enhancements — these are something you need as it is never okay to go around with an old version of WordPress that it turns out can be hacked. Major updates often have new features that you will want, as well.

Here’s a rundown of what you get with WordPress 2.8 (the new stuff, that is):

• 2.8 is way faster to use
• You can now browse the entire theme directory and install a theme with one click from the comfort of your WordPress dashboard
• If you make edits or tweaks to themes or plugins from your dashboard, you’ll appreciate the new CodePress editor which gives syntax highlighting to the previously-plain editor.
• completely redesigned the widgets interface to allow you to do things like edit widgets on the fly, have multiple copies of the same widget, drag and drop widgets between sidebars, and save inactive widgets so you don’t lose all their settings.
• new Screen Options on every page. It’s the tab in the top right. Now, for example, if you have a wide monitor you could set up your dashboard to have four columns of widgets instead of the two it has by default. On other pages you can change how many items show per page.
• Check out the full list of over 180 new features, changes, upgrades, and improvements on the Codex

Good stuff. I’m going to upgrade to WordPress 2.8 on a test blog I have and let you know how that goes. I’ll also let you know when I’ve decided to upgrade How to Blog

I frequently receive email from readers of How to Blog, sometimes thanking me and other times with blogging questions that they have which they hope that I can answer. In many of the latter cases, I am able to answer their questions and get them back happily blogging. But there are times when I just don’t know the answer. So, I have decided to post the support questions that I receive that I cannot help with on How to Blog to see if any of the blog’s readers can help each other out!

I already posted the first Reader Question regarding a problem after a WordPress upgrade.. I hope that you guys are able to help out on that one b/c I’m clueless.

What do you guys think of this new addition to the blog – the occasional posting of Reader Questions or even any articles or opinion pieces? I’m all ears!

Can you help my reader, Steven, who wrote in to me with the following problem?

I have recently upgraded to WordPress 2.7.1 from 2.6.

I was creating pages with wp 2.6. Underneath the post title was displayed the “url” or permalink, and I could edit and customize it any way I liked.

Now with wp 2.7.1, no matter what I enter in the page slug box, my new pages’ permalinks are always in the default format, ie the ugly permalinks with the numeric ids (despite that my permalink settings are set to ‘custom’). The old pages created with wp 2.6 are unaffected.

I have been struggling and researching for the past 5 hours and still can’t get it to work. I’ve read that there are some problems with ‘category slugs’ meant for posts, but so far I have not found any feedback about page slug or page permalinks.

Please help me.

Unfortunately, I’ve no suggestions for Steven with today’s Reader Question (RQ) — can YOU help him?

Please provide any and all suggestions in the comments section! Thanks from both myself and Steven for any assistance you can provide.

The last couple of times that I tried to update my wordpress theme list, when I click ‘Save’ (or Save and Continue Editing) there is a long wait after which I get presented with a blank page. Upon then checking the post it hasn’t been updated. This is driving me nuts as I have almost 100 new wordpress themes to add to the list! I am not using the TinyMCE editor, and instead using straight html code. When I try updating the post from blogjet, it comes back with an error message saying, “Error posting to blog: the xml-rpc server returned an empty resonse.”

What gives? I have no problem creating new posts. But the one post I need to edit the most frequently won’t let me update it!

Update: I found numerous posts about this problem in the wordpress support forums, but no real solutions. Of course, wordpress.org is currently taking another lunch break so I can’t link to them for ya at the moment. HOWEVER, on the plus side, I did finally get wordpress to allow me to update my theme list (made a few slight mods to the html for the page — really shouldn’t have made a difference and frankly I don’t know why it didn’t work and why it does now…I’m just glad its working finally!)