So you want to create a an author page for your WordPress blog? Good, I don’t know why most blog themes don’t already come with one. Fortunately, it’s not too difficult. I won’t bother explaining the code to those of you who don’t know or care about programming ’cause frankly I couldn’t anyway. I’m a designer and front end developer and certainly not well versed in PHP language. But, fortunately for your I am excellent at problem solving, analyzing and just following bloody directions :0)

Sorry I have been so bad with consistent posts lately. I’m working on a couple of WordPress projects that are diverting my attention and which I’ll share with you once they’re up (in beta). Anyway, on one of the current projects I installed the WordPress plugin, AJAXed WordPress, and implemented a trick to compress my CSS stylesheets to decrease load time.

Below are some especially beautifully designed and conceptualized WordPress themes I think you’ll love.

Under Water: Just look at it. This is a well conceptualized, simple and fun WordPress theme. Great use of a background png and one of few times I see a static background with scrolling content not seem amateurish and visually distracting. I also love how the post meta is like a little sidebar for each post.

Recently I’ve had to manipulate my OPML files to get some feeds and a blogroll to work the way I want. I found that there are fortunately quite a few options to get links and rss feed URLs to read and link the way I need and thought I would share these options with y’all. What is an OPML file you ask? Well, let me show you rather than tell you. Add “wp-links-opml.php” to the end of your home page URL for your WordPress blog (example: http://www.wordpresspad.com/wp-links-opml.php). See all that XML code gibberish, that’s your blogroll (list of links) as an outline.

Just thought I’d pass along this resourceful article on WordPress 2.5 from The Blog Herald that lists many websites and blogs talking about WordPress 2.5, helpful hints and opinions. See the post here: WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.5, Security Issues, Plugins Updated, WordPress vs WordPressMU, and More

So I am redesigning my sister’s outdated website (Tayoland.com) that I designed and developed a couple of years back. I’m converting it from a static website into a blog. I thought what better opportunity to play with WordPress 2.5 since my sister is in no hurry for the blog to be done. Using the Simpleton WordPress theme as my framework to layout the new blog website, I was able to also play with the widgets as well since it’s widget ready. I added a couple of extra “sidebars” to the bottom of the theme as well so I can add rss widgets to the bottom of the home page for SEO and practical purposes since the right sidebars are too small for title length text.

My assessments so far is that the new administration area for WordPress 2.5 itself is great. It makes sense and is very user and “newbie” friendly. It’s similar to the Wordpress.com administration area but of course with more admin features.

Not only is a new (and hopefully improved) version of WordPress 2.5 available, WordPress.org has a new website design. Could this be a sign of good things to come with the new installation? The category and slow speed bugs fixed? Well, the only way to tell is to go ahead and download and install the bloody thing, right?

The reason the WordPress PAD was off for a couple of weeks recently is because I was working on a new project dear to my heart. Oh, My! Oakland is a blog, directory and all around homage to the City of Oakland, where I live, work and play. Months and months ago I wanted to create a directory of Oakland businesses because I love Oakland and unlike other major and more organized surrounding cities like San Francisco, Oakland has a scattered web presence as far as websites dedicated to Oakland entertainment, information, business or anything for that matter outside of newspapers and official City of Oakland websites. A couple of weeks ago I decided to take the Oakland Photo Blog I created months back and expand it to a website completely devoted to promoting the positive in Oakland which includes a directory of other websites that are Oakland-centric. using a fabulous WordPress Directory Plugin that is truly impressive and customizable.