Free Technology Tutorials

In this video I show how to quickly install a WordPress blog and then replicate it multiple times resulting in multiple independent WordPress installs using a single database. If you need hundreds of WordPress installs, then the using the network feature (multiple blog feature) in WordPress is the way to go. However, if you only need a few then installing separate blogs may be a lit simpler and easier for you to manage.

The video in this post is a follow-up to the last video I published here about creating a members only WordPress blog. In that video I briefly demonstated a WordPress plugin that allows you to upload a csv file of and create tens of thousands users in a matter of minutes. In this video, I demonstrate how to create that csv file of users with MS Excel. The video is a bit long…I’m sure given a lot of planning and thought I could have demonstrated this in under 10 minutes, but since I can now upload videos of unlimited length to YouTube, and since I no longer have the time to spend hours on creating these, my videos will tend to be a bit longer these days. The upside is, in this video, you should not only learn a thing or two about WordPress, but you may pick up a few Excel tips that could come in handy in several different applications–I demonstrate the use of the “text to columns”, “concatenate”, and “past values only” functions in Excel that are extremely useful. Anyway, enjoy.

In the video above I demonstrate how to close a WordPress blog to the public and make it available only to members who have a username and password created for them by the blog administrator. The site I demonstrate has 49,500 members that I created and bulk uploaded in about an hour. I show the plugin I used for the bulk upload of users. I’ll create a follow-up video in a week or so demonstrating how I used Excel to create those users from a file with nothing but first and last names. If you have need for a private blog/website to share with a few people or tens of thousands of people, this should help get you started.

I created a video a couple years ago demonstrating how to create multiple WordPress blogs using a single database and I still get lots of email asking various questions about that process. However, since the release of WordPress 3.0 and the merging of WordPress and WordPress Mu, that process is no longer needed. You can now create multiple blogs using a single install of the base WordPress code. Although I no longer actively create WordPress tutorials for the general public, I decided to do an update so that people wouldn’t be following the old procedure and unnecessarily uploading multiple copies of the WP code-base to create multiple blogs.  Read more... (141 words, estimated 34 secs reading time)

WordPress 3.3.1 is now available. This maintenance release fixes 15 issues with WordPress 3.3, as well as a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that affected version 3.3. Upgrade now, but if you are not extremely tech-savvy, then view this first!

Experienced users will appreciate the new drag-and-drop uploader, hover menus for the navigation, the new toolbar, improved co-editing support, and the new Tumblr importer. We’ve also been thinking a ton about what the WordPress experience is like for people completely new to the software. Version 3.3 has significant improvements there with pointer tips for new features included in each update, a friendly welcome message for first-time users, and revamped help tabs throughout the interface. Finally we’ve improved the dashboard experience on the iPad and other tablets with better touch support.

Read more here

If you don’t currently have your WordPress blog configured to render on mobile devi ces, then watch this video for directions on using the WPTouch plugin. In only a few minutes you have configure your blog to render very nicely on a variety of smartphones.

WordPress 3.0.5 was just released and includes some important security fixes. Upgrade is a must!

http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.0.5

In the video below I demonstrate the basics of how to set-up a child theme in WordPress 3.0 or later and how to do some basic editing to significantly change the look of the theme. This is intended as a very basic how-to video for non-techies and those wanting to learn to make some simple edits to the default WordPress theme. If you are a theme creating guru, then you’re not going to get much out of this. Enjoy!

WordPress just released a critical security update–version 3.0.4. If you are running an older WordPress version this upgrade is a must. You can upgrade automatically in the admin area of your site or search this blog for a video demonstrating how to upgrade manually. Don’t disregard this upgrade…it’s important.

WordPress 3.0 was just released and it’s a very nice version. I think the best feature in this release is the merging of WordPress and WordPress Mu (multi-user). I just upgraded this site to 3.0 and, as usual, the upgrade was smooth, quick, and problem-free.

I’ve been hosting a multi-user site for the past few years that currently has around 500 blogs, so I’ll be moving that site to WP 3.0 in the next few weeks. Of course, I’ll be doing some testing first, but as I do the transfer, I’ll create a video to document the process and publish it here.

WordPress 3.0, due to be out around mid-2010, will be getting a new default theme. So, if you love Kubrick, I’m sure you will still be able to use it and customize it, but it won’t be the default with the next release–at least not in its current form. If you would like to provide input on what the default theme should be, look like, features it should have, etc., then be sure to stop over at WP.org and post your 2 cents.

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/342819

Since I don’t participate in those forums any longer, I’ll just provide my thinking here.  Read more... (283 words, 1 image, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)