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We’re looking at some basic “how-to” videos. Check this one out and let us know what you think. It’s a basic instruction on WordPress 2.7.
TheoBloggers Blog and FAQ
Welcome!
This is the official blog site for TheoBloggers.org. This is where you'll find info and updates on WordPress and the TheoBloggers.org hosting services. Links to all TheoBloggers can be found in the sidebar.
This is also where we'll post answers to questions that we receive. You can use the search function to find answers you may be looking for. You can also use the "Contact Us" link to submit questions you don't see any answers for.
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out http://www.branchweaver.com for other services offered by the TheoBloggers family.
Ask and ye shall recieve.
One of our TheoBloggers asks about how to put links into post The built in WordPress editor makes this very easy. Let’s demonstrate by creating a TheoBloggers link.
1. Start by entering the text you wish to use as a link:
TheoBloggers
2. Highlight the text and then click the chain link icon in the editor.
3. Fill in the information in the box that pops up.
- Link URL is the site you want to link to
- Target is whether you want the link to open in a new window or in the existing window
- Title is what you want to show if people hover over the link you’ve created
- Class has to do with CSS appearance, and for the average user won’t be used.
4. Click “Insert”. Your new link should look something like this:
5. If you want to remove a link, highlight the link you’ve created and then click the broken link icon in the toolbar.
Send us your WordPress questions via the “Contact Us” page and we’ll answer them as quickly as we can.
The sidebar in your blog adds substantial functionality to your blog. It allows you to include snippets of info, interactivity, links, and other useful features to your blog. Most blogs have one sidebar, either left or right of blog content. Some blogs have two sidebars, and these can either appear on the same side of the blog content or on opposite sides. Fewer blogs have more than two sidebars, but these begin to be referred to as “three-column” or “four-column” blogs since the amount of space taken up by the sidebars drastically reduces the amount of space allocated for the blog content. The number and layout of the columns are determined by the theme of the blog. For the average end user, changing their sidebar number and layout is not really an option.
Back in the day… moving things around in the sidebar was tough and adding sections to the sidebar was nearly impossible as doing either required directly editing the sidebar.php file within the theme. With the addition of widgets to WordPress, this has become a fairly simple process. Widgets work within the sidebar with the WordPress default options and options generated by plugins that are installed to create a flexible and easily customizable sidebar.
To edit the side bar (in WordPress version 2.7 and higher), click on “Appearance” in the left column of the dashboard.
This will open a dropdown box where you will find the “Widgets” option. Click “Widgets” access the sidebar editing tool. You can see that there is a column on the left that tells you what your available widgets are, a column in the center that has a description of the widgets, and a column on the right that shows you what widgets you are currently using. The appearance of the “currently using” column is what determines how your sidebar looks on your blog.
To move a widget from the “available” column to the “current” column, click the word “Add” that is in button for the widget you wish to
use. For example, to add an RSS widget in the above example, you would click the word “Add” that is in the RSS button. Most widgets have editable features in them, which can be accessed by clicking the word “Edit” in the widget button in the “Currently used” column. For example, when you click “Edit” in the “Pages” widget in the example above, the button opens up with options to change the title, sort the pages, and exclude some pages. Be sure to click “done” when finished editing a widget and “save changes” when finished editing your sidebar.
Widgets can also be used to add features that don’t come from plugins. Some mapping features, social networking plugins, and other options will generate html code for you to insert into your blog. To do so, simply add a “Text” widget, open the editing features, and paste the code into the text area.
These are the basics. Let us know what other ideas or questions you have in the comments section.
The inaugural TheoBlogger Awards held on the Saturday of the International Soul Winning Workshop in Tulsa, OK were… how do you say… interesting!
I’m not sure that any of us could have predicted the circumstances under which the awards were held. A freak snowstorm/blizzard in Tulsa on the day of the awards dropped somewhere around 8 inches of snow. This was fine for those of us from Michigan, which included my party and Patrick Mead, the southerners present were a little more scared off by the snow. Shortly after my arrival at the luncheon, the power in the Memorial Drive church building went out. We sat around in the dark cracking jokes about how this would be the least amount of technology ever used at a technology associated luncheon. Patrick Mead mused aloud, “Lord, give us a sign if you don’t want us to have this luncheon. A freak snowstorm or sudden power failure, perhaps.” This and Patrick’s desire to wear a skirt, have a sex change, and show cleavage in order to win the “Female Blogger of the Year” award next year were only a few of the many jokes he cracked for us.
Brian Nicklaus, a.k.a. The Blog Prophet, presented perhaps the best award of the day to Trey Morgan: a “Disciple of John Dobbs” t-shirt.
Despite the weather, power failure, and presentation by TheoBloggers, we all seemed to have a great time. We’re already having discussions about next year and how we want to handle our blogger gettogether. If you have any suggestions, please leave your comments below.
Before I post the results, I’d like to give a HUGE shoutout to Diann Coggins for catering our meal for us during the luncheon. She adapted on the fly to the weather and power issues and did a fabulous job.
The award winners for this year, as selected by popular vote of 874 voters, were:
- Best Marriage/Family/Parenting Blog: Laura Coppinger - http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/blog
- Best Leadership/Discipleship Blog: Patrick Mead - http://patrickmead.net
- Best Devotional/Inspirational Blog: John Dobbs - http://johndobbs.com
- Best Theological Blog: John Mark Hicks - http://johnmarkhicks.wordpress.com
- Best Practical Ministry Blog: Trey Morgan - http://treymorgan.net
- Best New Blogger: Steve Tucker - http://thetractorcab.wordpress.com
- Best Blog by a Female Blogger: Sarah Stirman - http://sarahstirman.blogspot.com
- Blogger of the Year: Trey Morgan - http://treymorgan.net
Congrats to all the winners!
We’re looking for ways to improve on next year’s awards. Leave us your comments or “contact us” to share your ideas.
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