Trying to add code to your wordpress post can be one of the most frustrating experiences. That is if you want the code to appear as code in your post.

Say, something like this:

<ul><li>This would have been a bullet</li></ul>

Had this been added to Wordpress normally, it would have appeared as a bullet. But since I’ve used a really cool plugin called ‘Code Auto Escape’, I can add code as code as long as I add pre and code tags around it.

Now you may never need to show html, xhtml, javacript, php, etc code in yuor posts but just in case you do, this is the plugin to get.

Get the Code Auto Escape Plugin

I have been installing and trying out new plugins at this blog. Some have worked out very well while others have not been anything to talk about.

So over the next few days I am going to go over the gems that I have found. Some you can’t live without and some are just a luxury.

However, the best out of the lot is the Accordion plugin. See the tabbed navigation in the sidebar for Categories/Archives/Tabs? Yes, that is accordion. It can display up to 6 tabs for plugins which use li tags. This is necessary as it encloses everything in ul list tags.

However, I have a tweak around that.

If your plugin/function does not produce a nested list like my Tag Cloud, then this is what you need to do.

Go to Design > Widgets
Make sure Accordion is added.

Then click Edit.

For each tab you can add a function like wp_categories(); and so on.

Now let’s assume you want to add the tag cloud function. This means you have to add li tags around it. However, the function only takes php code.

So what’s the magic code? It is:

?><li><? function here; ?></li><?

The logiic to that is you first close the php code with ?> add your li tag, open php code again and add your function. Close PHP code. Close li tags. Begin php code at the end.

In case you don’t get that, don’t worry. It still works

It is really a cool little tool! One which I have been searching for for ages so I am very glad someone finally came up with it.

Click Here to go to the Accordion Plugin Home Page

The one downside of being a web designer is that you are bound to get tired of your own designs and keep changing them way too many times.

As far as this website goes, it is the first change.

Quite different from the first design as well. The colors are muted and it has an overall calming and soothing effect (very important for a blog that will be visited again and again - I hope). If I were to choose an element to represents this design - that’ll be Earth

Now that gives me an idea. May be I will create 3 more designs and get over with the rest of the elements, too

Well one thing’s for sure. I can work straight for 12 - 14 hours and come up with a complete new blog design. No, it won’t work as fast for you as I need to discuss your blog, get the design approved and consult you every step of the way. Consulting myself doesn’t take very long so that takes care of it.

The most important change for this blog is a wider design. Since it is a personal blog, and just an outlet for me as a designer and a writer, I said what the heck.

So what do you think of this design?

Better late than never!

I admit the blog has been up for over 6 months but I just got a bit lazy (ummm read busy).

Finally added my portfolio –> go check it out

I finally took the plunge and upgraded this blog to WP 2.5.1

Since my previous version wasn’t very old, either, this was a pretty smooth transition. All the plugins were still working although some had newer version. This brings me to one of the best features of this version - you can update plugins automatically from inside the control panel by just clicking one link. Oh and you also need to add your ftp info so it can unzip and add the new files. Is that cool or what!?

However, if you upgrade from an older version and I mean a much older version then there might be some changes to be made. For example some plugins might be outdated especially tag related plugins as WP 2.5.1 has its own inbuilt tags option now and a pretty good one at that. For those of you who were using the wp links tag, will need to shift to wp bookmarks.

But mainly it is just little tweaks and so worth the effort. WP 2.5.1 offers a great new interface and some unique and intuitive new features. I’ll say it is a major improvement and one you will notice in an instant.