Newbie tips for WordPress

Newbies using WordPress will likely be interested in the following tips. I’ve been blogging using WordPress for a few months, and these are some of the things I’ve learned. It may very well be that these things are covered in the WordPress documentation or help forums. Frankly, I don’t give a shit. My attempts (incomplete as they may have been) to read the WordPress documentation and forums haven’t readily yielded the insights listed below. Knowing these things in advance would have saved me some aggravation. So I hope it helps.

1. Do not cut and paste text from Microsoft Word or other word processing software into WordPress. This causes f-ups. Type your entries directly into the WordPress template.

2. After every entry that you post check for XHTML validity. You will see a link called “Valid XHTML” under Meta at the bottom of the right-hand column of your home page. Click on this link after every entry you have typed in. If your XHTML is valid you will see a green bar with the words “This Page is Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.” Below that you will see a line that says “Result: Passed HTML Validation.” Why is this important? If your pages aren’t XHTML valid you will eventually see major screw ups in your blog page formatting.

3. What if your page isn’t XHTML valid? Instead of the green bar, you will see a red bar that says “This page is not valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional.” Below that you will see a line that says “Failed Validation, 3 errors” or 5 errors or 10 errors depending. Your natural inclination will be to try to correct the errors. Don’t do this. Instead, simply try to narrow down what’s causing the errors and erase them from your posting. Yes, the errors can be corrected. But often this requires knowledge of WordPress coding. I don’t have this knowledge. If you’re a Newbie, you don’t either.

4. What causes errors? The simplest things. If you put an ampersand, &, in the headline of an entry, that will cause errors. If you put quote marks “ ” in the headline, that will cause errors. (Use ‘ ’ for quotes in headlines instead). I’ve found that even loading certain gif images can cause a slew of errors. Just get rid of anything that causes errors unless you’re really ready to learn how to code a fix.

5. WordPress help forum moderators are overworked and cranky. You’d be too if you had to answer the same f-ing questions a hundred million times. So when you ask a question in a forum, you will likely get one of two responses: 1. No response whatsoever. 2. A response that’s raises more questions then it answers. Bottom line: solve your own problems to the best of your ability. If you are a Newbie or an old bastard who knows nothing about online code (like me), then solving your own problems means minimizing the potential for errors, i.e., keep it simple stupid.

6. Don’t piddle. Start reading a few WordPress forums and a few chapters of the documentation and son-of-a gun you’re ready to do stuff. Next thing you know you’re clicking through the WordPress dashboard and saying, “let me try this.” Or worse, you actually think you understand what the documentation says and you start changing code. Save yourself the embarrassment of having to log into the help forum with the words “Help!!!!” Don’t piddle with WordPress settings, code or anything else unless you know what the hell you’re doing.