Archive

Archive for the ‘Help’ Category

Installing the latest version of WordPress

April 15th, 2009

Step 1: Download WordPress

First step, navigate on over to the download page at WordPress.org. Do not download WordPress on any other third party site.

download-wordpress

You can download either the .zip or .tar.gz file, both contain the same files. You would probably rather download the .zip if you are a Windows user. Once you have extracted the files you will be ready to upload the files to your hosting account. Go ahead and click the link below to see the next page in the tutorial.

Step 2: Extract the files
You should have extracted all the files in the latest.zip or latest.tar.gz and have them all ready to go in a directory on your local machine. I use Windows XP, and it will look some of  like this.

extract-the-files

Keep in mind that some of the icons may look slightly different for you depending on the default programs you have chosen for the filetypes.

Next you will need an FTP client to upload the files to your web host. If you still don’t have a host at this point, we highly recommend Micfo for affordable shared and reseller solutions. They even have Fantastico on all accounts, so you don’t even need this manual installation tutorial. Okay, back to the FTP client. We recommend using either FileZilla or SmartFTP. Both are free and relatively straightforward to use. Make sure you download the Client and not the server. We will be using FileZilla for the next part of our tutorial.

Step 3: Upload files to your host
Using FileZilla, it’s easy to upload files directly from your computer to your hosting account. Open it up, type in your login details at the top and click the Quickconnect button.

upload-files-to-your-host

You should have a screen like you see above. Make sure you are uploading within the public folder, which is usually called /public_html/. If you want to install to a subdirectory, that’s fine as well. Once you have uploaded all the WordPress files and folders in the same structure as in the .zip or .tar.gz file, you are ready to set up your database.

Step 4: Set up the database
This is where it may get a little tricky. We will be using cPanel for the example. When you login to your cPanel account, you should see something like this below.

set-up-the-database

Different versions may differ, the important thing is to navigate to the MySQL® Databases page. You should now be at a page which looks like this.
set-up-the-database-1

On this page you will create the MySQL database, and the user that connects to it. Keep in mind that this not related to the WordPress admin login, we will get to that step next. First, type in the name you want to call your database. For this example, we will simply call it wordpress. The next step is to create a user which will connect to the database. For purposes of the example we will use dbuser as the username and you can use your imagination for the password. Please make sure you write down the password you use temporarily, because it is needed for the next step. You will then need to add that user to the database you just created with All privileges. You should now have something that looks like this.

set-up-the-database-2

Notice the prefix of yourusername_ in the database name and username. This is your username for your hosting account. You will need to use the database name and username as you see it on this page, or it won’t work. Next we will actually start installing WordPress via the web-based installation script.

Step 5: Install WordPress …finally
it’s almost done now. You have already uploaded the WordPress folders and files to your hosting account and set up the database. Now it’s time to navigate to the URL you have installed it on via your web browser. If everything was uploaded properly, you should see a page like this.

install-wordpress

Yes, that’s right, you are supposed to see an error. Why? Because WordPress doesn’t know how to connect to the database you’ve just created. Go through the create a wp-config.php file through a web interface page and enter the database details. You probably won’t need to edit the last two fields.

install-wordpress1

Hopefully there won’t be any errors. If there are you will need to create a wp-config.php file manually. After the database has been configured to work with WordPress, it’s smooth sailing. Everything past this should be relatively straightforward. Just type in the title of your blog, your e-mail, and you are done. Your username should be admin and your password will be automatically generated for you. Go ahead and login and change this if you want.

install-wordpress-2You should have something like this as your final result.

Help , , ,

Uploading Images to Joomla

April 13th, 2009

In a Joomla site, or any for that matter, there should be standards regarding how things look. Standards imply that someone has taken the time to write something like what you’re reading. Reason for this: Good looking stuff doesn’t just happen. It takes some planning.

Anatomy of a Joomla Story

First, all stories (same thing as what others call a “post”) have at least four elements.
1.) A descriptive title 2.) Some intro copy 3.) A thumbnail image and 4.) The rest of the story

anatomy-of-a-joomla-story

The Thumbnail

All stories should have an intro thumbnail. Why? Because people relate to images, not text, and it looks better. So decide on a size and stick to it for all stories. Suggested size is something about 150 or less in width. You can vary the height based on the amount of intro text. (It’s more important to lock the width than trying to do both)

the-thumbnail

Intro Text

Every story should have about the same amount of intro text.You do this because at some point, you’re going to display multiple stories on the same page. This is especially important when you’re displaying in more than one column. Look at any newspaper. The front page is always the same. The story begins, but then has you flipping back to page 8 to read the rest. Same concept applies here.

intro-text

Above is an example of how a 2 column layout might appear with similar sized thumbnails and intro text.

Read More vs Page Break

You use Read More when there’s just one more page to view. If however you have 10 pages that make up a story, it’s better to use the Page Break function so that readers can jump to any page within.

read-more-vs-page-break

Uploading Images with Media Manager

You have two ways to do this. FTP or the Joomla Media Manager. As we have already written one of these for FTP, this time we’ll cover the Media Manager. Both Joomla 1.0.x and 1.5, to get to the Media Manager, log into the backend and look for the button:

uploading-images-with-media-manager

Find The Image

For a story, you will need to upload two (or more) images. The thumbnail and the other one(s).

find-the-image

When you’re done finding the image, then click …

click

Where are my images?

It’s important to remember where you upload your images. Therefore, this too should be included as part of your documented process. e.g., All images that you plan to use within stories, should be in the /stories directory. If you have lots of categories, then it’s a good idea to have category directories within. e.g., stories/cat1

where-are-my-images

If you don’t remember where you uploaded images, it will be tough to insert them into the actual stories later.

Inserting the Thumbnail

inserting-the-thumbnail

Remember where you put that image?

You must indicate the location of the image, usually starting with images.

remember-where-you-put-that-image

Align Thumbnails LEFT

Thumbnails should be aligned left, generally speaking. (sometimes people like to align right)
If you are a lefty, then do this:

align-thumbnails-left

Help , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,