Blogging has become an important form of social media for professional and for personal activities.  It is important to find what tools brings out your best blogging skills.  Windows Live Writer is a desktop blog-publishing application for you PC users to work off-line.  You are able to blog using Windows Live Writer and then publish to your blogging site provided by Windows Live, Wordpress, Blogger, Live Journal, TypePad, SharePoint, and Community Server.

Work with photos, videos, maps, and plug-ins. So,  not only are you able to post photographs, but Windows Live Writer also makes it possible to post albums.  There are a number of editing tools included.  Whatever published effect you set for your photos such as a “tilt” or a “scatter” album, a link will direct the viewer to that album in Windows Live or a larger photograph.  Also keep in mind there is a toolbar provided for formatting your post.  You can set up embedded videos to not only publish in your blog but also in YouTube or Soapbox.  Customize your application using Windows Live Writer’s provided plug-ins.  The newer plug-ins are in favor of some very popular social media applications which include Flickr Upload, Digg This, and Twitter Notify.  So you will be actively blogging as well as sharing through the mentioned applications.

Worried about the visual result?  Your blog post is meant to appear in preview mode as it will in the published view.  This should prevent surprises from popping up in your published post.

Here is Windows Live Writer’s “Full Feature List”:

• New border treatments (including Instant Photo)
• Crop and tilt photos
• Insert multiple photos
• Toolbar alignment commands enabled for images
• Insert and upload Windows Live photo albums
• Insert and publish video to YouTube
• Additional spell checking languages: Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, English (Australia), Estonian, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Turkish, and Ukrainian
• Server-side tagging (for supported blogs)
• Type-down filtering in the Open dialog
• Twitter, Digg and Flickr Plug-ins
• Improved blog account setup
• Lightbox and Windows Live Spaces inline preview support
• Improved category control: adding categories, type-down filtering
• Tabbed view switching
• AutoLink glossary
• Smart quotes/typographic characters
• Word count
• Support for bidirectional languages (like Hebrew and Arabic)
• Tabs for view switching
• Updated look and feel

Are you using or have used Windows Live Writer?  What do you think?

How WordPress Changed My Life

Presentation by Sarah R. Barnes at the 2008 West Virginia Higher Education Technology Conference

My name is Sarah Barnes and I work for the WVU Office of Information Technology. Today I am going to talk about WordPress and how it changed my life.

Now this may seem like a rather melodramatic title, but when I was thinking about how I wanted to present on WordPress I started to examine why exactly it is that I have grown so fond of it.
To explain that, I need to put it in perspective.

I got into web design in 1996. I am primarily self-taught and my interest in web development has generally been on the design and usability of websites.  Before I got to know WordPress, my work had been primarily rooted in static html, usually using includes.

About a year and a half ago, I completed a major redesign of the Office of Information Technology website.  Since the site is still mostly static html with php includes right now, I was running into a problem with maintaining the news portion of our site. I was creating new static files for each new news story and saving it in a specific place, uploading it, adding it manually to an XML file (for our RSS feed) to make sure it appeared on the main page. Additionally, if I was not available, my supervisor could not add content.  Also – if both of us were out, no one could post a new story to the main page. Long story short, we had to find a way that we could

1. Update the main news stories easily,
2. When we were off-campus if necessary,
3. Would produce an RSS feed that could be pushed to subscribers and syndicated on our website wherever needed.

I’d known for awhile we needed something database-driven. Unfortunately, I didn’t know anything about creating databases. I’d always relied on “the server guy” to handle that.

Enter WordPress.  What exactly is it?

WordPress was originally designed as a blogging tool competing with other blogging tools like Blogger, Moveable Type, TextPattern, and others. It was created in 2003 and it is currently the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world.

Though one of my colleagues at OIT (Justin) had mentioned WordPress to me before, I didn’t fully explore the option until after attending a presentation about setting up WordPress. The presenter demonstrated how easy it was to set up and use and integrated it into her website.  She even used a press release section of her website as an example.

So initially I asked Justin for help setting up WordPress so I could try it out to serve up press releases.  After I got in and saw what the fuss was about it was really eye opening. I was able, in a matter of a few hours, modify a WordPress theme to look exactly like the OIT website and incorporate it into our existing site structure.

Not Just a Blogging Tool

I realized that this application was extremely versatile and could easily be modified to be used on a variety of websites – not just as a blog tool or a news engine. It could also be used as a content management system.  Soon after that I dove in and tried installing it on my own on my own personal hosting account. I realized I’d been wasting a lot of time by assuming that I couldn’t set up database driven sites on my own.  As it turns out, given the proper tools, it’s pretty durn easy to set it up yourself.  So, this really was a liberating step for me.  I began to see a greater potential for using this platform than just to run press releases or a blog and began to use it to develop other sites.

Its modular nature makes it amenable to different types of websites.  As it turns out, it is an excellent content management system for community organizations, classes, collaboration tools, project updates, diaries, photo galleries, discussion, even ecommerce.

System requirements and installation (the famous 5 minute install)

Installing WordPress is incredibly easy. WordPress needs 2 things: php and a database like SQL or MySQL.

At first I was incredibly daunted by the prospect of setting up my own database. I’d heard of a great tool called phpMyAdmin which is a kind of graphical interface for setting up databases on servers that use php and SQL/MySQL. I hadn’t actually used it before, but I gave it a try and suddenly I was free.

Once the database is set up all you need to do with Wordpress is edit 1 file. A single file – wp-config.php.

Even then all you need to do with this file is edit the database name, username, password, and location.

Once you upload that and point your browser to the website, it’ll take you through a couple of screens and have you set up the admin account.

After that you are done. It is ridiculously simple.

How does WordPress Work?

Using WordPress is also very easy. Let me put it this way. My dad had no concept of what a blog really was or did 2 months ago. Now he has a blog and is managing the content himself (for the most part) posting articles, links, videos, and photos. I occasionally have to explain a thing or two to him about how it works or what he can do with it, but overall I have spent exactly maybe 2-3 hours TOTAL on telling him how to use it.

I would venture to say that adding content to WordPress is as easy as sending an email.
There are several different roles in WordPress: Admin, Editor, Author and Contributor. Admin, has the highest level privileges and can do anything. Editors can’t change settings, but they can manage all posts and pages. Authors can only publish posts. Contributors are only able to send content for review.

Content is divided into Posts and Pages. Pages are not a part of the blog timeline and not added to the RSS feed generated by WordPress. Pages are best for content that is more static. Posts are the way the bulk of your content is generated in Wordpress. Posts are in a timeline and update the RSS feed.

Write – To create a new Post or Page click the Write tab or select either the Write a New Post or Write a New Page buttons on the main WordPress “Dashboard.” You can also add new Links under the Write tab.

Manage lets you go back and edit pages, posts, links, categories, tags, your media library, import or export data, etc.

Design controls which theme you use. Themes are displays based on any that you have uploaded to the themes folder. Select a new theme by clicking on one and applying it. The Widgets link controls your sidebars. This is optional, but it is an easy way to mange certain aspects of WordPress. You can have multiple sidebars.

Comments lets you manage comments made on your Wordpress site.

Administrator Tabs

Administrative management does require you know a little bit more than your average bear, but in comparison to other Content Management Systems it is very user-friendly and uncomplicated.

Users lets you manage all the users of your blog. You can dictate who is an admin, editor, author, contributor or simply a subscriber. You can also change passwords here if you want.
Plugins controls what plugins are active on your website. To add new plugins upload to wp-content>plugins. Then go to Plugins and activate any you want to use.

Settings controls the back end. Turn comments on or off, set Permalinks, edit settings for writing and reading posts, etc. Also options for specific plugins are usually under this tab.

Themes are uploaded to wp-content> themes and activated under the Design tab.

Updating/Upgrading

Right now upgrading WordPress has to be done manually or by installing a plugin called WordPress Automatic Plugin. In WordPress 2.7 (coming out in November) this feature will be added by default.

Updating plugins is also important to keep on top of, and can (as of WP 2.5) be updated easily through the WP interface.

Designing for WordPress (Themes)

Now. After you install WordPress you will want to customize the look and feel of the site. WordPress uses “themes” to customize a basic set of code. The implementation of themes in WordPress is what, in my opinion, makes it stand out from other content management systems. Each theme is self-contained within the wp-content folder. This folder is the only one that stores custom information for your WordPress install. You can modify other parts of Wordpress, but by setting it up this way, they’ve made it so it is unlikely that the average user will ever want or have to.

WordPress is a php application, but it is extremely modular. The application is broken down into several core files which can be modified in limitless ways.

The best way to jump into WordPress, however, is to download a theme and modify it. I feel this is the best way to learn how it works. Once you do this a ew times, you see how different themes are constructed and start to get a better understanding of what is possible. I generally look for a theme that has the overall layout I’m looking for and go from there. However, if you want, you can start your own theme from scratch. A good place to start is with a blank theme (download “Starkers”) and build your own look and feel.

One thing I really like about WordPress is the Theme Editor. You can edit the theme in real time on the website if you want. This is a lot less time consuming that upload it each time you make a change. OTOH, it does require a level of comfort with straight code with no syntax highlighting.

Plugins

Another aspect of WordPress that makes it very attractive and flexible is the plethora of plugins available to extend its capabilities.  Plugins that do everything from improving the backend administrative features to making your WordPress site a full-blown shopping cart.
[In-depth discussion probably not an option due to time constraints.]

…more?

So you may be asking yourself, WordPress sounds great, but can it really manage a large site? What about multiple blogs? Do you have to install it multiple times?

Well, there is another WordPress for those of us who want to run multiple instances of Wordpress and have centralized control over all of them called Wordpress Multiuser or WordPress Mu.

WordPress Mu is a single installation that lets you manage multiple “blogs.” Wordpress.com and Edublogs use it to manage the millions of hosted blogs. This summer we launched a blog for OIT using WPMU (blog.oit.wvu.edu). I can control the available themes and plugins from a central location.  The biggest drawback to WPMU, in my opinion is the lack of a web-based theme editor.

WPMU in iself is a presentation, so I’l go ahead and end here.  I really appreciate your time.  Thank you.

Questions?

Please keep in mind that this was only a 30 minute presentation, so I didn’t really have a lot of time to cover everything in WordPress.

Is anyone else out there using WordPress?  How are you using it?

If you are one of those folks, you may be asking – “Well, what is RSS anyway and why do I care?”

Universal RSS symbol

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary.  Many websites produce RSS feeds – basically a simple file (XML) of the website’s content that is pushed out (or “fed” if you will) to the rest of the Internet.  This file can be subscribed to by an RSS reader or syndicated on another website.

The beauty of RSS is that you get notified as soon as something is posted.

Google Reader

Checking in is no more difficult than visiting a central location on the web, such as Google Reader, iGoogle, myYahoo (to name but a few), or an application like FeedReader or NewsGator. Keep in mind there are hundreds of different places and tools to set up your virtual news desk, just find one that works best for you.

FeedReader

Subscribing to feeds also greatly reduces the amount of time spent loading new windows or surfing, refreshing, etc. I’ve been very happy to discover new sites and sources of information that I might not have otherwise known about simply by subscribing to content this way.  Blogs (like this one) will often point me to a new source of information and I’ll add it to my reader.  Since I use Google Reader, I also see recommendations for feeds that I might be interested in on the landing page.

To subscribe to a website’s feed, look for the RSS symbol or a link to RSS.  Your browser will ask you how you want to subscribe.  Choose the option that works best for you.

On the flipside getting your news from RSS feeds can be a bit overwhleming.  Due to the shear volume of information you now have access to, you have to be selective about what you spend your time reading this way.  Right now I use both iGoogle and Google Reader.  Why both? They both have different strengths and I find that using them both lets me monitor different sites in different ways.

iGoogle lets me add feeds, but displays up to 9 headlines and summaries at a time.  I can have different tabs (created by me) for different types of feeds.  I use this for monitoring headlines and current events.  Google Reader, on the other hand, adds all of the new stories to a feed and I use this to monitor blogs of more specialized information that I am probably going to want to read.

I’ll post again with more tips on using RSS and Google Reader.  In the meantime, feel free to post any questions or comments about using RSS.

Need more information? Try this great little video from Common Craft called “RSS in Plain English.”

Here are some other handy resources for learning more about RSS:

• Introduction to RSS
• Wikipedia: RSS
• RSS 2.0 at Harvard Law
• RSS Tutorial for Content Publishers and Webmasters

This semester marks the launch of this blog.  We’re hoping that this is a helpful resource for you during your time at WVU.  I invite you to subscribe to our blog or even the OIT News so you can keep up with the latest developments from OIT.

So you might be wondering, why would I be interested in getting messages about technology at WVU?  Well, that’s a good question!  What would you like to see here?  We want to hear from you.

This blog is intended to provide us (OIT) with an alternate way of connecting to you, BUT offer a way for you to participate as well.  You are invited to make comments on anything we post here, ask questions, etc.

[We do ask though, that if you have a support question, to please simply contact the Help Desk (304-293-4444 or email oithelp@mail.wvu.edu) so they can help you directly.]

Here are some related links you should be aware of:

• OIT News and Announcements – This is our main conduit of information from OIT.  You can subscribe to the RSS feed and be notified immediately when we post something new.  Keep in mind though that the email version of our RSS is a daily digest, so the posts are only delivered once per day.
• Student Technology Resouces – This includes a breakdown of all the different logins and numbers, etc. that you need to be aware of as a WVU student.  If you think there should be something listed here that is not, let us know so we can add it.  [Feel free to post suggestions in the comments below.]
  

Last year, however, I decided to try using what is arguably the most widely used and popular blogging tool to manage my course content online.  I installed WordPress on my personal web hosting account (a relatively inexpensive account that I pay for with a web hosting company).  Installing WordPress is easy, but you don’t have to install it yourself to use it.  But, you don’t even have to use WordPress.  Utilizing a blog for a course is easy to manage and makes delivering content to your students super easy.

You might ask, why not use eCampus instead?  Well, you can, this is just another tool that you might be interested in using. The concept of blogging itself warrants exploration as it has many uses in the classroom.  In using a tool like WordPress, one can get a better feel for how that might work.

WordPress has three basic types of content: posts, pages, and comments.   Posts are best for news items or items that are timestamped.  Posts in WordPress are by default displayed on the main page of most WordPress themes.  Posts are added to the site’s RSS Feed and can be subscribed to.  [You can opt to have a page display as the main page, though.] Pages, on the other hand are best for content that is “timeless” and doesn’t need to be timestamped.  Pages are not part of the RSS feed by default.  Comments are usually tied to posts, but you can have comments on pages too.  Comments also generate an RSS feed.

Ok, so now that the technical explanation is our of the way….

I set up pages for the course syllabus, the class schedule, general project instructions, final project information, and contact information.   For each assignment, I set up posts with detailed instructions and the due date prominently displayed in the post title.  This included tests as well.  I also created a How-to section pertaining to each assignment.  Additionally if something came up during the semester that I needed to explain in more detail, I could post and have it displayed at the top of the page (at the beginning of the feed, if you will).  Now, the real beauty in WordPress is not the ease of use in which all of this can be set up – which (is pretty darn easy), but the ability to forward date (timestamp) the posts.  So I can, in essence, create the entire course at the beginning of the semester and specify on what date and at what time I want the post to appear on the website.  This is especially handy for tests, but it minimizes the risk that the students will visit the first week, completely overwhelmed with information, and not pay as much attention to new information as they need to as the semester goes on.

Once you are finished with the course, you can then go back and reuse the posts for the next semester by simply changing the dates and updating downloads like tests and the syllabus.  This is also a good time to refine any of the posts that may have been confusing to some of the students or you found prompted a bunch of questions.

One thing I have not done in the past is allowed comments.  I am considering allowing that this semester to make the site more collaborative.  Other ideas I am tossing around are:

1. Allowing the students access to blog with updates about their projects.  In my class each student selects an organization (real or fictional) and develops basic public relations materials for it (logo, letterhead, business card, advertisements, brochure, and a newsletter).
2. Adding screencasts about using the software.
3. Asking questions and asking the students to reply in the comments.  Typically I don’t have much time to have discussions in class because so much of it is about how to use the software to create their projects.

I know I am barely scratching the surface in what I can actually do with this platform and to enhance the student experience.  On the other hand I don’t want to complicate it too much and water down the primary objective of the course – to teach the students about desktop publishing in a public relations context.

Regardless, using a blog to manage the timing and delivery of information is a huge help for a busy person like myself.