Free Technology Tutorials

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.

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!

In the video above I demonstrate how to do some basic editing on the default WordPress themes (Twentyten and Twentyeleven) to reduce the header size and remove some of the items that, in my opinion, take up way too much space in the header. In the process, I show the basics of setting up a child theme and provide a glimpse into how I use local copies of WordPress running on my computer to make theme editing a lot quicker and simpler. I also demonstrate how to preview changes in Firebug and then copy those changes into your theme css file. This tutorial is intended for non-techies…if you are an expert, then this isn’t for you. Enjoy!

In the video below I demonstrate how to take a full backup of your WordPress blog before upgrading so that you will have everything you need just in case the upgrade breaks your site and you need to get back to where you were. One of the biggest mistakes people make when upgrading their site is to just trust that everything will go well and fail to make a good backup. Don’t be a victim…you may make a hundred backups you never need, but one day you will need one.

On April 26, 2011, WordPress 3.1.2 was released to the public. This is a security update for all previous WordPress versions. All WP sites should upgrade…see release notes.

http://wordpress.org/news/2011/04/wordpress-3-1-2/

WordPress 3.1 was just released and as usual the features just keep getting better. I upgraded this morning and it took all of about 15 seconds. Below are the major updates that would be of interest to normal users, but I think the most significant update is the admin bar on the homepage of the blog. There have been a couple of plugins that would accomplish this out for a while, but they just didn’t see to quite work like they should…this one is simple, gives you access to just the most frequently used tools, and seems to work as advertised. Well done once again WordPress…you’re still setting the standard for others to follow…and most are way behind.  Read more... (207 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

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!

Outline of my presentations at WordCamp Louisville:

WP  Basic Installation and Setup:

• Install in subdirectory
• Install in root
• Install multiple copies
  • Using single database
  • Using different databases
  • Mention setting up a networking
• Install local copy for offline testing/development

Moving WP From One Host to Another:

• Move WP maintaining same url
• Move WP changing the url
• Move WP subdirectory to root & vice-versa
• Copy WP from hosting account to local computer

Tools used in presentations:

WinSCP: A simple ftp client I use in conjunction with hosting control panels such as Cpanel.  Read more... (183 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

The following video demonstrates how to move your WordPress blog from one server to another and change the web address. This is an updated video from one I did a few years ago here. This video addresses the issue of changing the web address in the database where that information is entered as serialized data. To learn more about serialized data in WordPress, just use Google, but in short, if you use a text editor to do a search & replace of the url in the database dump–like I demo in the old video–then you will have problems with text widgets not coming over and you may have problems with values in some of your plugins. Using the procedure demonstrated in this new video should solve those problems, thanks in large part to the script provided at Spectacu.la. Download that script here for use as demonstrated in the video below.  Read more... (151 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)

Kudos to Matt Mullenweg for leading by example when it comes to open source.

Automattic has transferred the WordPress trademark to the WordPress Foundation, the non-profit dedicated to promoting and ensuring access to WordPress and related open source projects in perpetuity. This means that the most central piece of WordPress’s identity, its name, is now fully independent from any company.

This is a really big deal.

http://ma.tt/2010/09/wordpress-trademark/  Read more... (207 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

In the following videos I demonstrate a simple technique to change the color scheme of the WordPress Arjuna theme using Gimp–free image editing software. The technique I show here can be used on any image-based theme and shows a real simple technique using layers, color, and opacity to change the overall theme color scheme.

Part 1 of 2:

Part 2 of 2: