Category: WordPress

How to Techniques in Presenting a WordPress Blog Post

After blogging using WordPress for over a year, I would like to share with you some techniques. I have learned a lot about smart devices and their associated apps. My other area of blogging has been about PCs, software, and the Windows 10 operating system.

After blogging using WordPress for over a year, I would like to share with you some techniques. I have learned a lot about smart devices and their associated apps. My other area of blogging has been about PCs, software, and the Windows 10 operating system. Although this has been a no profit adventure, I hope it has been a help to you. I can make a “profit” by your donation of any amount; just access my Donate page.

I have a template that I follow for each post in regards to placement of text, images, and WordPress features. I use lots of “white space”, via the WordPress Spacer feature as well as color coded headings and sub headings.

This is for blogs using WordPress

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The Blog Style and Introduction

To engage the reader, you, I write in conversational style so you are reading, say, a book. I use personal pronouns like “you” or “your”. To grab your interest, the title of the post provides a summary of the blog. Instead of a title like “Add a Widget”, I would use a title “How to Add a Widget On iPhone in iOS 14”, a more descriptive title to engage you to read the post.

After developing the main introductory paragraph, I copy the paragraph to the Post Excerpt block.

Use of Tweet

At the beginning and ending of the post, I use the Click to Tweet feature of WordPress. I add the Twitter feature at the end so you can see how your Tweet will be displayed. If you find the post helpful, I am wanting you to share about the post.

Using Images and Sotware Tools

For images or screen-grabs, from an iPhone, I use the PC based WinX MediaTrans (click here) software to export photos to its directory. Refer to below image:

Blog 1
WinX main screen

Then, I move or copy the images to the Techsmith Snagit (click here) directory; another application I use to resize, stack, annotate, capture the cursor, or blur an image. (Techsmith also has create/edit video software called Camtasia). See below image:

Blog 2
Snagit toolset

For Windows images, I only need the Snagit software. Both applications are feature rich and well worth the investment for blogging or other purposes..

Finally, I upload the images to WordPress Media library. To aid you, I caption each screenshot. I always refer you to the following image after describing the screen-grab. I have found it annoying on other blog posts not knowing what descriptive text goes with an image.

Using Copy and Paste for Resuable Blocks

Instead of using WordPress Reusable Block feature, I use the built-in “copy and paste” feature of Windows 10. I have each reusable block of text “pinned” to easily paste using Windows+V command to my blog without using WordPress; it’s faster and more efficient. You can have up to 25 entries “pinned” (or unpinned) in the “copy and paste” function of Windows 10. See following image:

Blog 3
Using “copy and paste” in Windows 10

A caveat, if you use special characters (such as emphasized letters or words) in a “pinned” item, you have to manually edit these out using WordPress Edit as HTML feature.

The Wrapup

In closing, I usually have a one sentence summary of the post.

At the very end of a post, I use the WordPress Embed feature to promote my Kindle formatted e-book available on Amazon about a Vietnam war battle I was in.

That’s it. I am sure some of these WordPress techniques can be of benefit on your next blog post. Happy blogging!

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The following is a previous Twitter feed so you can view how a Tweet will be displayed.

I Would Like to Hear From You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath
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How to Edit a WordPress Post

What has happen to WordPress? When you clicked on a Draft, Scheduled or Published post, WordPress would assume you wanted to View the blog post. In a recent update, WordPress now assumes you want to Edit the blog post. This is frustrating. I simply want to view a post and make changes “on the fly”. Now you have to click Save Draft, Update or Schedule the post regardless if you made a change or not. Refer to below image on how I used to view/edit by clicking on a post:

Edit a Post 1
Viewing my Drafts posts in the Editor

Following is my exchanges with WordPress engineers.

My comment:
“I go to Posts and click to open a draft. The Save Draft is displayed in upper right corner. All I do is view the post, I make no changes. I want to leave the post, I then have to save it. I go back into the post, sometimes it ask to Restore the backup.

But I made no changes. This is frustrating. Same thing happens to a Scheduled post. I always have to update. It didn’t use to work this way. If I made no changes, I just used the back arrow; now I always have to save and sometimes restore from a backup.”

See following image asking me to Restore the backup when I made no changes:

Edit a Post 2
Asking me to restore the backup when I made no changes

WordPress response:
“I just ran a test on your site, and did find that if I open a post, and keep it open for more than 30 seconds, close it and then go back into it, it’s providing the message of restoring a backup, even though no changes were made.

Clicking Update on the unchanged post, before closing it, gets rid of the message and avoids it from appearing at all.

It’s not really a bug or a problem, it’s the result of opening a post for a period of time, even if no changes are made.

You can prevent it by clicking Update before exiting any post or page that you open.”

My response:
“Microsoft products are smart enough to know if you have made a change. When you edit a document, and you don’t’ save it , Microsoft will prompt you if you want to save. WordPress should do the same. If all I am doing is viewing a post, it should not prompt me to save or update.”

WordPress response:
“Thank you for the critical feedback! We are always working to improve our editing experience and feedback like this is helpful. One of our genuine concerns is that users do not lose their content while they are working on their post or page. With that said, we hope to ensure that users are prompted to save even the smallest changes made to their posts so that they don’t lose their work.

My best suggestion here is to view your published posts instead of the posts within the editor. This will give you a better sense of what your readers see as well and will ensure that no unwanted changes are made to the posts or pages. You can click on the three dots to the right of the post or page title and click “View” to see the published version of the post/page.”

Refer to below image on how to Edit or Preview a post:

Edit a Post 3
How you must edit or preview a post

Are you experincing this behavior from your WordPress blog site?

I have done the usual like logging in and out of WordPress; clearing my Chrome cache and cookies at least twice. But I still have problems.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

Four Tips and Gotchas for a WordPress Blog

I have been blogging using WordPress as my hosting site for a couple of months. I have discovered a few tips and gotchas using WordPress that may be of interest to you.

First, if you noticed some strange highlighted text on your site, don’t panic. They will go away by exiting and relaunching your site. I had some highlighted text (in yellow) in my Categories section that I did not enter. After exiting and relaunching, the highlighted yellow text disappeared.

Second, if you have links in your posts, the linkage may add the words “opens in a new tab” at the end of your URL. This happens if you have the slider control Open in new tab turned off. This control is found in the drop down arrow next to the Return or the Edit (the pencil) icon). Your links will not work. You must remove the words (opens in a new tab) in the link URL. To open the link in a new tab, you must turn the slider control Open in new tab to the On position.

Third, when I am writing a post, I want to return to a previous block to add or change some text. I position the cursor in the text, but nothing happens. I am unable to add or change any text. I have to save whatever changes I have made, exit the post, then relaunch the post. Then I am able to make text changes. This is most frustrating aspect of WordPress.

Fourth, in my version of WordPress, the Dashboard does not automatically load. To get to the Dashboard, enter <your website name>/wp-admin in your browser search field. For my blog, I would enter the following in my browser: techsavvy.life/wp-admin.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

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