Wordpress questions

[Lauxa]

I've found a couple of drawbacks to Wordpress, and was wondering if some veterans have found any workarounds.

First, the WYSIWG editor is all right, but not the greatest. Is there any way to upgrade this? The editor on this forum, for instance, is much better than on Wordpress.

Second, is there any way to make a page or post invisible without outright deleting it? So that the content is still there in the CMS, but it is not visible on the site.

Finally, any reccommendations on calendar plugins? I'm going to try out Events Calendar plug-in, Calendar v2.0, does anyone else have a favorite?

Thanks for any feedback!

[John Wesley]

There is an option that can be used to make posts PRIVATE so only you can see them. You can set this option on the WRITE page, it's in the sidebar somewhere on the right under POST STATUS I believe.

I agree about the Text Editor not being great. I think they upgraded it with WP 2.1, so you may want to upgrade to that if you don't like it.

[Phil Newton]

As of WordPress 2.1 you can set pages to private & draft, which is a huge bonus

I find the default editor extremely clumsy, so I keep it switched off and use Windows Live Writer to compose all of my posts. The only drawback is that it can't create pages, but you can copy and paste the code if you wish.

[icesar]

Yes, in both 2.0 and 2.1 you can set your posts to private, or leave them as drafts if you don't want them displayed.

The editor has been upgraded a bit in 2.1, but if it's still not enough, I recommend desktop blogging software such as Ecto or Qumana.

[Alex]

Hey icesar!


The program I use is blogdesk... it's very simple. But, it's best you find something that you are comfortable with. Whatever it is, it will likely be better than working online with wordpress.

[Jill]

For an event calendar, I'm using Event Calendar 3.1.0.

[Indy107]

I looked at Even Cal yesterday. Do you have write the event as a post? I like the ability to show upcoming events, but having to post each event in its own post seems - strange. Maybe I'm missing something. I just don't want 50 small posts filling up my blog with little 2 line events just to get it to show up on the calendar.

Also - my question. On my blog anyone can view it, and can comment if they fill out a name and email address. But lets say I put up a file for downloading, can I make it where only registered users can download it?

Thanks

Indy
forestgrovelive

[dcldnl]

You can use the HTML editor you want, then you can copy the HTML code on the WP editor.

[brooksr]

To improve the editor, I'm using:

ST Visualize Advanced Features

"Show the advanced options button on the WYSIWYG editor all the time."

http://www.solo-technology.com/blog/...nced-features/

This allows me to color hyperlinks blue, which is a help. Note: when you are in the WP editor, you must click the button on the far right, to display the this additional toolbar.

My sequence is:

1. Write in MS Word. Use the spell and grammer checker. Include links as just plain text.

2. Copy into Notepad.

3. Copy from Notepad into WP. Cut, paste and color the links in WP using the toolbar there.

This is a bit of a pain but it works. I tried using a blog editor called Qumana and lost a couple hours work.

Brooks

[tobyhede]

I am using a Firefox plugin called ScribeFire. It's pretty good. Publishes to Wordpress as well as several other blogs.

[Clara]

I had Scribefire on my 'puter for a while now and never got around to figuring out what it was for. Thanks!

[IanC]

I didn't have much luck with the default Wordpress editor or any editor plugins that I tried. I use a desktop editor called ecto. It is available for Windows and Mac computers. It provides many options that are not available with the default editor. I have pasted the link below.

ecto

[Peter S C]

I use Windows Live Writer (Beta). Not normally a fan of Microsoft but it works a charm.

Microsoft Live Writer (Beta)