If you have no clue what MicroFormats are, don’t feel bad- most people don’t.

A good place to get started is at the site http://microformats.org but if you just want a simple explanation: it’s a way of tagging (identifying) something with a standardized label that makes it easy for search engines to find the correct data- and for you to be able to exchange it in a standardized way.

A perfect example is the vCard standard- which stores your contact data in an easy to exchange format.

The importance of being able to tell what data is, is almost as important as the actual data.

Using Microformats in WordPress | blogHelper

The second approach involves the use of specialised WP plugins to create microformat-ted content right from your admin panel. This seems to be the cleaner and more streamlined method.* The exact steps to take will differ depending on the microformat type and plugin you use. Therefore, I’ll just list the plugins available for WordPress, and a link to relevant documentation (if available):
1. Multiple format plugins:
o Structured Blogging – Supports hReview, hCalendar, hCard, and various other elemental microformats (i.e. XFN, relLicense, relTag, and XOXO).
o WP-Microformats – Supports hCalendar and hCard. Adds buttons for each microformat to your Write Post panel, each of which toggles the relevant popup form.
2. hReview plugins:
o hReview WordPress Plugin – Adds the appropriate form fields (which you can toggle on/off) in your Write Post/Page panel.
o WP-Movie Ratings – Movie reviews published via this plugin are in the hReview microformat.
3. hResume plugin:
o hResume Plugin – Creates a new page for your resume, marked up in the hResume microformat.
4. hCalendar plugin:
o uPress WordPress Plugin – Adds the appropriate form fields to your Write Post panel. Screencast guide for WP 2.0 available.
5. hCard plugin:
o WP Microformatted Blogroll – Creates a new page for your links, marked up in the hCard, XOXO and XFN microformats.
6. MicroID plugin:
o MicroID Plugin for WP – Automatically attaches a MicroID to your blog, each post, as well as each comment. More information on this microformat is available.
7. XFN-related plugin:
o Happy Pals – This isn’t exactly a plugin for the XFN microformat itself, but it does automatically apply CSS classes to any rel attached links (e.g. rel=”friend”), so you can apply custom styles denoting the various relationships in your links.
* Besides plugins, there are custom WP themes with support for the hAtom microformat. A few examples are as follows:
1. Sandbox Theme
2. Strangelove (Modified Kubrick) Theme

You may also be interested in more information regarding hAtom support for WordPress themes.

Another tool for microformating is geotagging- where posts are linked to geographic coordinates. We used the geopress plugin for a real estate site in Dayton.

I’ve mentioned Microformats before on this site, but not in direct relation to WordPress. Microformats are ways to code data for universal interchange- something they should have figured out when computers were first invented- but are just getting worked out now. Just as we have formats for pictures: jpg, tiff, bmp, eps etc. Microformats are formats for data that should be shared.

If everyone used these tags properly, search engines would be an order of magnitude more powerful, being able to coordinate the who, what, when, why and where data into a more powerful results page.

The format that comes first to my mind is the Vcard- a way of sharing contact information. There are many other tags- and this article will help guide you to the others and how to incorporate them into WordPress.

Using Microformats in WordPress | blogHelper

The second approach involves the use of specialised WP plugins to create microformat-ted content right from your admin panel.

GeoPress is another plugin for location data.

Hopefully, when we have more time, we’ll investigate these more and fill you in on how to use these effectively in building a site for business.

All of a sudden, my pretty quicktags bar stopped showing up. It was as if the Visual Rich Editor had been turned off.

I went to the Options>Writing> ” Users should use the visual rich editor by default” check box- and it was checked and nothing.

I searched Google for WordPress Visual Rich Editor not working, and WordPress Visual Rich Editor broken- and found posts about javascript being turned off, and something about WP MU. No help.

Stumbled across an “improved WYSIWG editor” plugin– and downloaded it- and was about to install it- out of frustration- when I read in it’s read me: disable the “use visual rich editor by default” in 2 places! Not just the “Options>Writing” menu- but also under the user menus. AHA! That was the answer- somehow, under my user profile the “Use Visual Rich Editor by default” box has become unchecked.

Checked it- hit save, and voila, my visual rich editor (TinyMCE) was fixed. Hope this helps someone else.