I have just added a new plugin that is the WordPress WordCount plugin. This plugin is very useful for those who are writing reviews and wish to know how much words he/she has written. You need to download and then uploaded the plugin to your Wordpress plugin folder ( wp-content/plugins/ ). After that, activate the plugin.

To calculate the words in your post, just click on “Calculate Words” and it will display the number of words. This plugin works with the visual editor on or off. One thing that I like about this WordCount plugin is that I do not need to save my post first. Other plugins that I tried either need me to save my post or publish it first. By the way, this plugin works right up to WordPress version 2.3.1

You may download the WordPress WordCount plugin here.

A new version of WordPress is available now. This version is released with a over twenty bugs that was in version 2.30. There have been some security issue found in the previous version and it is advisable that user of version 2.30 upgrade their WordPress to version 2.3.1. For a full list of changes made, check out the Trac.

For self hosted WordPress blog:

1. Download the latest WordPress version.
2. Backup critical files such as your themes and plugins.
3. Extract and upload all content of the downloaded WordPress file to your host. Overwrite everything. You can use FTP for easier upload.
4. Login to http://your-domain/wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php (this is an example) to upgrade your current Wordpress and follow the instruction to finish the upgrade process (You can skip this if you are upgrading from 2.3 to 2.3.1)

The WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin is a very cool WordPress plugin. It allows a WordPress user to automatically upgrade their WordPress installation to the latest version one provided by Wordpress.org. It just takes 5 steps to complete the WordPress installation using the plugin.

Just follow the following steps to complete your WordPress installation.

1. Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
2. Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
3. Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
4. Puts the site in maintenance mode.
5. De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
6. Upgrades wordpress files.
7. Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
8. Re-activates the plugins.

Another cool feature of the plugin is that it can also be run in a automated mode where you do not need to click on any links to get to the next step. I prefer to use the step by step though. One thing to note that if you did any changes to the WordPress core files, you will need to update it back manually. It doesn’t copy your changes over but overwrites it. I had my tinyMCE changes all overwritten and need to replace it manually.

I was searching on the internet today when i came across a new WordPress Theme Design Competition organized by DesignVitality. If you are a web designer, now is a chance to show the rest of the world how good you are with your design. The cash and prizes for this competition amounts is over $1,5000.

There will be three winners and they will get as below.

1. Grand Prize Winner will receive $1,000 in PayPal money.
2. The First Runner Up will receive a New 4GB Apple iPhone OR Nintendo Wii
3. The Second Runner Up will receive 2 years of Free Web Hosting.

For the rules and how to enter for the competition, please refer to DesignVitality.com website.

This blog currently uses the latest WordPress 2.3 version, named “Dexter”. There are many cool stuffs added this time as well as some things being removed. I am using the WYSIWYG editor for all my posting. The new visual editor has some changes, both good and bad. I believe there used to be a video and flash icon on the editor where we can add videos and flash. Now these two icons are gone from the visual editor. However, they have included the button to toggle the Advanced Toolbar which is located at the end of the visual editor. I have made my own modifications and added emotions in as well to the visual editor. I’m still thinking of whether to add in creating tables capability to the visual editor. Perhaps when I need it, I’ll add it during that time.

If you wish to edit your visual editor, you may do so yourself. It is quite easy to mod it and remove unwanted stuffs from the visual editor.

Steps

1. Go to “../wp-includes/js/tinymce/”.
2. Located the file “tiny_mce_config.php”
3. At line 28, add in “emotions”

before : $plugins = array(’inlinepopups’, ‘autosave’, ’spellchecker’, ‘paste’, ‘wordpress’);
after : $plugins = array(’inlinepopups’, ‘autosave’, ’spellchecker’, ‘paste’, ‘wordpress’, ‘emotions’);

4. At line 32, search for ‘wp_help’, ’separator’. Added in ‘emotions’ with the quotes after ’separator’.
5. Save the file.
6. Now go to TinyMCE website and download the TinyMCE release.
7. Unzip the content and go to “../tinymce\jscripts\tiny_mce\plugins\emotions”.
8. Copy the whole “emotions” folder to “../wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins”.
9. Reload your visual editor and you should see the emotions appear on your visual editor.

This blog will be using Theme Leia which is made by Kapikua. This theme is really nice and simple with plenty of headers that you can change from including Christmas headers. There are other themes from Kapikua site which you can download. The only thing is the site isn’t in English.

However this theme doesn’t support the popular widget function. I have customized this theme with widgets and added in widget 3 widgets control for now. There are Leftbar, Rightbar and Postbar. The LeftBar and RightBar is just like the normal widgets for sidebar. The Postbar will be located right at the bottom of the post.

I have already added the AuctionAds which is made to float to the left inside the content container. I haven’t added any plugins yet. Currently the only plugin I’m using will be Akismet. There will be more customization to this theme more when I have the free time to do so.