Virginia Breeze

We have really taken a tour in this effort to install a super plugin for Wordpress. And there is only one thing left to do prior to reaching our goal.

It is time to install Plugin Central by Vladimir Prelovac. So go to this post and locate the plugin. And then use the tools we have discussed in Parts I through IV to install it.

As I have said many times this is a step by step process for seniors or whoever with no background in these things. So please go back and review if you need to be reminded of any steps.

Once Plugin Central and its companion Post-Plugin Library are safely installed and activated in your Plugin file go to the upper left corner of you browser just below the toolbar and click on Dashboard. Now look just below and Dashboard once again in red letters. Just to the right of it you should see Plugin Central. Click on this and the Plugin Central box will open giving you an option to click on and list all of your plugins or only your active plugins.

Now we are going to use this wonderful tool to install NextGen Gallery. Here is the location of the zip file.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/nextgen-gallery/nextgen-gallery.zip

Right click on it and look for Copy Link Location. Left click on this and then go to the Plugin Central/ Easy Plugin Installation box we noted earlier in this post. Below the option to list plugins you will see the area we need. Right click and then paste your zip file in here. Click install plugin and watch as it does its work.

Total Commander is not needed here. In less than five seconds the plugin is installed and ready to use. Or if you are forgetful like me and already installed this plugin you will receive a message that goes something like this “Installation failed. Plugin already installed”.

Oftentimes you do not even need the zip file. Just type in NextGen Gallery and PC will locate it and install it anyway.

Another cool option is to click on the List all Plugins button and get your list of plugins. And then copy/paste any or all of them as you choose into your other Wordpress blogs. This tactic assumes you have installed PC in all your blogs. Just copy/paste into the PC box and click on Install. What could be simpler or easier than that?

It is such a wonderful time saving tool I know you will want to do this. But remember to always backup your database using the plugin we installed in a prior post or one of your own choice prior to any installation.

So you have now installed NextGen Gallery and our mission here is complete. Getting it up and running is a task beyond the scope of this set of posts. However instructions for doing this are in good supply.

Another David has gone into great detail about it. And here is the link.

http://dpotter.net/Technical/index.php/2008/03/04/nextgen-gallery-review-introduction/

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I thought it might be helpful for some other seniors out there who can remember the days before the transistor radio if I went over some of the mistakes I have made lately. It might save you from making them, too. I won’t assume anyone under fifty needs to know this. First of all I figured out why some of my pictures disappear from my blog occasionally in a random manner. It happens when I put them in a different area in my photobucket software. If I try to be neat and tidy up the place by sticking a Virginia Beach photo in the VB file after I am done with it a connection is blown to the blog somewhere. The picture disappears.

Two. Some comments in the comment file were reproducing like rabbits. I assume some sort of spam got past the guard on duty. I kept deleting some of the duplicate copies. They kept returning. So finally I deleting everything because I didn’t know where it was coming from. I dropped an atomic bomb on my comment section. Nothing has stirred since. Perhaps the spam was finally zapped. So please don’t take offense if you see that your comment is gone. It will remain in my heart forever.

I have found two really good templates for my wp.com and wp.org blogs. I like them a lot because they don’t require any work under the hood. And they look nice. But most importantly in my mind is the fact that my pictures fit in them. You may have noticed I like big pictures. They are around 600 pixels across. I want to actually be able to see details. That’s why I got the good camera. I hope it is the same on your end. I try to keep the posts down to four per page so they can load in an orderly fashion. Let me know how it’s going and I will make adjustments.

Thanks to Sadish Bala for creating a wonderful template. For a beginner it is a joy. After going through so many different models I have learned to appreciate a really good one. For example, at the bottom of the page it says older posts and newer posts. That makes it very clear which direction I am going as I work on putting pictures back in the posts. No other template I tried had that feature. Most said previous which means what? Some had nothing at the bottom of the page. I still haven’t figured that out. I highly recommend this considerate person.

And finally I have been exporting the wp.com blog content after every new post and sending it to the wp.org blog content. It seems to work out well. I have two different templates with identical posts inside. The wp.org template is going in one direction because it can. And the wp.com template, thanks to Sadish, is doing fairly well and provides a bit of security within the confines of the wp community. For someone just starting out that is important. I would hate to lose all this work because I did something dumb. And I do something dumb at least once per day.

http://simpleinside.com/

There is something about dropping a new template on my posts that is very enjoyable. The moment arrives when you see your baby in a new dress. Will she look better than she ever has before? These are the questions that older men think about after their wives have gone to bed. It will be difficult to resist the temptation to do it again. But I believe Sadish has made us an offer we cannot refuse.

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