2010 18/01

WordPress Questions? Ask Them Here!

By Erica
View Comments com
Filed in: Wordpress

You’ve paid someone to install WordPress on your hosting, modify your theme, and get you blogging. You’re up and running, puttin’ out the content, and then you notice:

Your blog is running slow
Your images aren’t aligned properly
The sidebars are all wonky… some things right aligned, some left, some centered, and everything is a different size!
Those crazy-cool social buttons in someone else’s sidebar are making your blog jealous
You’re wondering how to put some space between the images and the text

Whatever your question, I invite you to ask it here in the comment section!! I’m going to be taking reader’s questions and answering them publicly on the blog so that everyone is helped!

David Cable

Hi. I am thinking of starting an online subscription site, whereby I would want any new members to enter basic contact details then they would have their own blog which they update as regularly as they want.

I want to know if wordpress is the thing to use so I can give members the best service and usability. Would this work and would members have the felxibilty to personalise their blog? Would they get their own www. address? Sorry for basic questions but I have heard how good wordpress is and think it could make my idea a great business
EricaMueller

David,

It is possible to add more than one author to a Wordpress blog, and many blogs are multi-author, however, each installation of Wordpress is only allowed one theme running at a time. So no, the users would not each get their own blog or their own look.

If you wanted, you could create one big, multi-author blog with links in the navigation to each author's content, but I think you're looking for something a little more personal for your users.
KreCi

That is really great that you want to help people. There are hundreds of bloggers that are not technical an I am sure they will appreciate your help. And you will get topics for new posts. Very good idea! Good luck. Postretweeted!
EricaMueller

Thanks, KreCi!! Saw your Tweet and I really appreciate it!

Yes, the hard part now will be waiting to answer the questions in posts, when I so badly want to answer them all as they come in. :-)
Kevin Tea

Erica, what a great idea.I'm thinking about "tarting up" my blog a fraction so I'm sure I'll have some questions for you. The problem with the WordPress support forum is that there are so many posts it's difficult to find your question after five minutes!

The first thing I am looking at is getting a decent logo ...
Time As Wine

Hi Erica, nice to be here!
I've a question, I'm really looking for graphic designer that can create a good banner, logo, etc. Do you have one?
EricaMueller

Hi!

Depends on what you're looking for (how complicated) and what you're willing to pay. I offer some basic services at http://TechnoMomDesigns.com. However, if you're needing something more, I can recommend a designers or two!
Steve Youngs

Hi Erica!

I ran into this just this morning. How do I center a table in a post? I found a div class ("ctr"), but that only centers the text within the table and not the table itself, which is what I want.

I also, naively tried wrapping it in <center> </center>. That even worked in the preview, but since I published those elements were eaten. :-(

Thanks for any help, Erica, and don't be surprised if I'm back... again and again and again. :-)

Kind regards,
Steve.

Oh, in case you want to look, the table and post I'm talking about is this one.
EricaMueller

Steve,

Here's an example of the 'center' definition for a table:

<table width="400" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5">

Note that some themes don't like to center things. I've had a few that were built to automatically right align a photo or table so that nothing I did would change it...

Hope that's not the case for you!
Steve Youngs

Hi Erica!

Yeah, I tried that. And I tried putting it into a "style" attribute. I obviously have one of those broken themes. Time to dig into the source, I guess.

Thanks for your help.
Hillary

I'm looking for a great way to show off photos on my wordpress blog. I use thesis and can add them to the rotating image box, but we are doing a photography project and would like a clean, easy to interface modality for showing off the pictures. Any ideas?
EricaMueller

Hillary,

To get you started, here's a plugin that makes a slideshow gallery of images you can put in your sidebar via a widget. Or, you can put it in a page or post. :-)

Here it is in the WP database of plugins:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/lazyest-gal...

And, here's the plugin homepage:
http://brimosoft.nl/lazyest/

I'll add your question to my list of upcoming posts and we'll get a few more people in here to help answer it!
EricaMueller

Hillary,

I have researched a few plugins and added my recommendations to a post on my blog!

Image Gallery or Slideshows for Wordpress Sidebars
http://www.ericasays.com/2226/image-gallery-or-...

I hope you find one of these plugins useful for your site!
Eugen Oprea

I can't think at any question or problem at the moment, but I am just curios after reading your post:

What would you do if the blog is running slow?
EricaMueller

Eugen,

While not a complete list, my post here: http://blissfullydomestic.com/2010/a-few-tips-t... should get you started.

I can't wait to turn your question into a post and bring in some of the gracious experts who have offered to help answer Wordpress questions!
Eugen Oprea

Thanks for the link Erica and I am looking forward to reading your blog post about this.
Firas Steitiyeh

Erica, such a great initiative and I would like to support and answers your readers' questions as well if my help is needed at some point!
EricaMueller

Firas,

My hope was that I could outsource the questions I can't answer! :-) I'll keep a list of people willing to answer questions, and when I get one I think would be better answered by someone else, I'll send out a call for help! I think it would be a great way to bring some new voices to this site. And, if more than one person answers, we could end up with a cool collaboration post!
Graham Tappenden

I'll help with WordPress questions... if I can answer them!
EricaMueller

Thanks, Graham! Now, we just have to find the people with questions???

I am usually flooded with questions via. Twitter and Skype on a daily basis, and today, everyone seems to know everything about Wordpress....

I guess I should be happy for them. :-)