How to customize Wordpress Easily

1. You installed Wordpress. What next? Find a template! Head over to wordpress.org/extend/themes/ and take a look. You have lots of templates there that can be customized later without you having and design/coding experience.So choose a template for your blog. Then upload it. That's the first step. Now, let's go further with step 2.
2. Let's put some Wordpress plugins (can be found at wordpress.org/extend/plugins/). But which ones are the best for your site?First, install some SEO (search engine optimization) plugins that can help you get more visitors from the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Live.) You have some lists of SEO plugins in the resources section below on this page.Tip: Don't over-obsess with plugins. I know they can be great enhancers of your blog but focus 80% of your time on what truly matters...the content. Content is what gets readers.

3. After playing around with themes and plugins you will want to customize them to suit your needs. Fortunately that's easy to do.If you know CSS customizing your Wordpress themes will be a breeze. So I recommend you learn some basic CSS (you have a great tutorial on w3schools.com.)Also if you know how to code in PHP that would be great in order to customize plugins.But wait, wait...I lied to you a little. These days most of the plugins and themes can be customized easily in Wordpress alone. But for even enhanced functionality knowing CSS and PHP is great but not mandatory.
4. Here's a great tip if you need help in customizing a theme or plugin on your blog: Ask the theme owner! I was surprised when I found that most owners respond very fast when I ask for help regarding their creations.But please...if the answer is available using simple Google search then the chances for you getting a response are smaller. So first do a search on your problem before asking for an advice.
5. Don't add some customizations that aren't needed or won't benefit your visitors nor you (like adding a custom admin login page, what's the point in that?.) Before adding a new functionality to your blog ask yourself: Is this going to help my visitors or is only going to make me look cooler? The pros are doing the first thing while the noobs are more doing the second so...you decide.

How to Add a Lightbox Effect to WordPress

1. Log into your WordPress dashboard. Click 'Plugins.'
2. Click 'Add New.' Type 'Lightbox' into the box and click 'Search.'

3. Click on 'Install Now' next to 'Simple Lightbox.' Click on 'Activate Plugin.'
4. Click 'Settings' beneath 'Simple Lightbox.' Check the box next to 'Enable Lightbox Functionality.'
5. Review the options pane to select the options you want for the lightbox. For example, if you want the lightbox to appear on archive pages with images, select 'Enable on Archive Pages.' If you want to enable it on pages, select 'Enable on Pages.'

How to Have Autostart Music Play When They Enter Your WordPress Blog

1. Click the 'Plugins' section on the left side of the WordPress dashboard to expand it and then click 'Add New.'
2. Enter 'WPaudio MP3 Player' in the search box and press 'Enter.'

3. Click 'Install Now' under 'WPaudio MP3 Player' on the result page. Answer the prompt by clicking 'OK' and then click 'Activate Plugin' to finish the installation.
4. Open the 'Settings' menu on the left side of the dashboard and click 'WPaudio.'
5. Click the 'Convert all MP3 links' check box if you would like the WPaudio plugin to display a sound player every time you like to an MP3 file. This setting is retroactive for your previous WordPress posts.
6. Remove the check from the 'Allow WPaudio notification' box if you do not want the creator of the plugin to be informed when you use it to play an MP3 file.
7. Click the 'Save Changes' button.
8. Create a new WordPress post, or open the 'Posts' menu and click 'Edit' under the name of the post that you want to play music in.
9. Place the cursor at the location where you would like the embedded sound player to appear in your post.
10. Type '[wpaudio URL='http://website.com/song.mp3' text='Song Name' autoplay='1']' in the line of text, where 'website.com' is the location of the MP3 file and 'song.mp3' is the file name. You can enter anything you like after 'text=,' such as the name of the artist, album and song.
11. Save or update the post. Visitors who view the post will see the embedded audio player, and the player will begin playing the recording automatically. If the post is currently on the front page of your website and you have not defined a custom excerpt for the post, visitors will also hear the recording when viewing the front page of your website.

How to Make a Facebook Connect for WordPress

Register Facebook Application
1. Create a new application on the Facebook Developers site (note that you will have to verify your Facebook account to do this, if you have not already done so). Enter your blog name for the site name and your blog URL for the site URL. Set the locale, then click 'Create app.'
2. Enter the text in the Security Check box on the next screen to proceed with the registration.

3. Note the app name, app URL, app ID and app secret provided.
Install Plugin
4. Sign into the WordPress dashboard as the 'admin' user.
5. Download and install a plugin that will create a Facebook Connect.
6. Click Plugins in the vertical menu on the left. Locate the plugin you installed and click 'Activate' under its name.
7. Navigate to the setup options for the plugin you installed. For example, click Simple Facebook Connect under Settings.
8. Copy and paste the values for the app name, app URL, app ID and app secret into the appropriate setup fields for the plugin. Configure the remaining plugin options according to the amount of functionality you want to provide through Facebook Connect.

How to Have Two WordPress Posts on the Same Page

Change Settings for All Pages
1. Log in to your WordPress admin area. Click 'General' from the menu bar at the left side of the screen, then click 'Reading.' This section controls various settings relating to how your visitors read the content of your site.
2. Navigate to the 'Blog pages show at most' option. In the text box next to it, replace whatever number is currently listed with the number '2' (without quotes). This will show two blog posts in all archive and index pages, assuming there are two or more posts to display. Navigation links will also appear, allowing your visitors to browse through older posts, two at a time. Click 'Save Changes' when you're done.

3. You can display these posts in full, or just a snippet. By default, full posts are displayed, so if this is what you want, you don't have to take any further action. If you want excerpts, go to each of your posts and access the HTML editing mode. Type '
' (without quotes) where you want the excerpt to end. On your blog, a 'More...' link will appear, offering the reader the opportunity to read the full post.
Change Settings for Individual Pages
4. Log into WordPress, then click 'Plugins,' followed by 'Add New.'
5. Type 'cbnet Different Posts Per Page' (without quotes) in the Search box and press 'Enter.' Find the plugin from the search results list, and then click 'Install Now,' located just beneath it. When the plugin has installed, click 'Activate Plugin.'
6. Click 'DiffPostsPerPage,' which appears under the 'Settings' menu. When the options screen loads up, you'll be able to customize the pages as you please. Check the box of the page you want to edit, then type '2' (without quotes) in the relevant column. Click 'Save All' when done.

How to Change the Title in a WordPress Template

1. Open your browser and visit the main WordPress website (see References).
2. Type your WordPress username into the 'Username' box, your password into the 'Password' box and click 'Log In' to sign into your account.

3. Click 'My Blog,' followed by 'Dashboard' from the top of the screen.
4. Click 'Posts' from the 'Posts' box on the left side of the screen.
5. Click the 'Edit' button beneath the listing for the post you want to edit. Change the title of the post by changing the information in the 'Title' box on screen. Click 'Update' to finish changing the title of your WordPress post.

How to Update WordPress 3.0

1. Back up the WordPress database that manages your website. A common method is to log in to your Web host account, access the cPanel and click the 'Download a MySQL Database Backup' link to obtain the gzip (gz) file. The backup process saves all of your posts in the event you need to go back to a previous Wordpress version.
2. Log in to your WordPress account and click the 'Plugins' link on the left. Click the 'Plugin' box to check all of your currently installed plugins, click the 'Bulk Actions' arrow, select the 'Deactivate' option and then click the 'Apply' button. Deactivating your plugins is an optional step, but it helps prevent any unnecessary problems during the WordPress 3.0 upgrade.

3. Click the 'Dashboard' link on the left and then click the heading that reads 'WordPress 3.x' is available! Please update now.' Alternately, click the 'Updates' link under the 'Dashboard' heading on the left.
4. Click the 'Update Automatically' button that displays. This action prompts a script to run and when finished, displays a message that your WordPress 3.x version was installed successfully.