All of a sudden, you see your post and the previous posts all are in a different font, or your sidebar doesn’t appear in the right place. Did you just break WordPress? Probably not.

What you most likely did was put code in your post that WordPress either doesn’t recognize or doesn’t like.  That’s because WordPress likes you to do the writing, and leave the formatting up to it. Here is some info on Validation from the WordPress Codex:

Validating a Website « WordPress Codex
Validation errors aren’t limited to your template files. They can also happen inside of a post. When you are writing a post and using HTML, WordPress might not recognize the HTML and convert it to a character entity, or you may have entered it wrong. If you have a page with a lot of HTML coding, validate it to make sure you have it all correct. And occasionally check random posts to make sure everything is still okay from time to time as part of your general housekeeping.

So, if you are trying to write about php code- WordPress will strip it out- thinking you are trying to run code where you shouldn’t. People who write about code, use a plugin to make code quotable.

The main problem is copying and pasting either from other sites, or from Microsoft Word. These pastes can contain all kinds of tags and formating that WordPress has no use for, or doesn’t understand, or conflicts with the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) built into your theme.

If you look to the right of your ? (help) icon in the toolbar- you will see the “Advanced Toolbar” button that will give you access to a whole bunch of formatting (and unformatting options). It’s here where you can underline text, add colors, use different heading tags- or remove formatting or clean up messy code.

So, if you see something looking wonky on your wordpress site, try the eraser tool- and remove formatting, before the panic, and try reformatting using only the tools that WordPress offers. If you are still finding errors- look in code view- and see if there are more than a few things that say MsoNormal, or Table or div or span in your code. Most of those are indicative of formatting problems.

One of the reasons people love WordPress is it’s simplicity. Another is the love that Google gives it. But sometimes doing things in WordPress is a bit of a pain in the butt-until some genius writes a plugin that makes things easy- really easy. Like so easy, I think I’m in love.

One of the things we’ve had on our site for a long time is a booklist where we suggested books that people may find useful. We’re not stupid, so we thought we’d make it easy to buy them from Amazon- and take a cut on the sales as well through the Amazon associates program. There are sites that make a living just off their revenue from Amazon, but, we had to admit that our booklist didn’t get updated often since making links through Amazon was a slow tedious process.

Not anymore! This plugin makes adding Amazon links and product pictures to your site so easy it’s a reason in itself to upgrade your install.

WP-Amazon « manalang
Have you ever wanted an easy way to link to a book, movie, or product that’s relevant to what you’re writing about? Typically, this is a pretty cumbersome task — open up a browser, go to Amazon, look for the product you’re interested in, copy the URL, then paste the link to your entry.

Not anymore. With WP-Amazon, the Amazon product catalog is available right from WordPress. This plugin will allow you to search Amazon as you compose your post or page entry. Check out the demo

This plugin is not only an amazing way to add interest to your site, but to also generate income. There are books and products to go with almost everything you write about.

We also have an affiliate program with iTunes- but that interface is even more complicated, and with Amazon now selling music, I think we’ll start using them for those links as well.

The opportunity to learn everything about the internet that your competition doesn’t want you to know has come again!

You’re a: mechanic, store owner, beauty & skin care shop, audio production expert, chiropractor, dentist, boutique clothing store owner, artist, photographer, historian, politician – and most of all, you’re busy running your business.

You might have a website- do you know who is visiting it? How they are getting there? If they are coming back? Is the website getting customers and paying for itself? If you don’t know, you need to take our seminar.

Maybe you don’t have a website- you know you need to be on the internet, but you don’t understand the difference between a website and an advertisement in the phone book. If you don’t know, you need to take our seminar!

Do you know what RSS is and why it’s important? Do you know how Google “sees” your page and gets new customers to you? Do you know that there are tools and resources you can use to get to page #1 on Google without paying one cent to anyone?

Do we really need to say it again? 

Websitetology is not about making you an expert web developer or a computer science wizard. Websitetology is about giving you the tools and the fundamental understanding of the internet and search engines like Google that put you ahead of your competition. Ask Dr. Edward Gould, of the Gould Chiropractic Wellness Center in Cincinnati Ohio, or the group of audio and video production geniuses at The Studio Files – both went from “Google Invisible” to “Google Invincible” in weeks, just by spending a few minutes a day utilizing what they learned at Websitetology.

So sign up now– we know you’ll become one of our many successful Websitetologists.

Tuesday, 25 March 2008 at Nehemiah University, 750 S. Main Street Dayton OH 45402