I can't believe the christmas season is almost over! I feel like I've done nothing productive!! Well, I've had to reformat my computer and reinstall all of my software, so that has taken a little bit of time. About a month ago something happening, which I still don't have a clue what, and on the Sunday evening I shut my computer down as normal, and Monday morning it took about 25 minutes to boot up and log in. Despite my best efforts, and even increasing the RAM by 1GB (that was already planned, regardless of login speed!), nothing changed, so I've done a complete format and fresh install, and everything is running along speedily! I'm about halfway through installing software so I should be ready for work on Monday.

I also twisted my ankle pretty badly last week on Friday (Boxing Day / St Stephen's Day). I've spent most of the week with my ankle strapped up and me not being able to walk too far or do much at all. It's been a painful few days, and even now, although I can walk normally, if I twist my ankle slightly it's still very painful

I don't seem to have cleared much off my to do list over the past fortnight! The time off has flown by, which is great as we're both pretty relaxed, something I've not felt in a long time, but of course the anxiousness of pending work that I have to get done next week is weighing on my mind. However, for now I'll just put it out of my head for another day or two!

I've also decided to start creating a post for my posts that I write elsewhere, as they're usually technical or related to WordPress, and whilst I know I've got a page listing them, I'll most likely remove that once I've created a post for each post elsewhere. It's not to boost my post count, but more to ensure that even if I haven't had time to write a post on this site, then the site doesn't look too quiet, plus the posts may be of interest to regular subscribers anyway

Anyhow, I hope everyone's celebrated the new year in style and let's hope this year is a good 'un

Most of it has gone pretty smoothly. I've not only updated to use the new comment pagination (after 25 comments, which is a rarity on my posts!), but I've also still kept my own comment styling and markup, using the comment callback function.

I have spotted a couple of issues or concerns however, but I'm not sure if this is down to the code I've used, so I'll be checking on these more in depth first.

The first is the comment count using the comments_number() tag. I noticed when I first added my updated theme files that one the post I happened to check, there was one comment displaying however the count said 2. On further investigation I did have a second comment on the post but it was unmoderated. Obviously not the outcome I'd prefer, as sometimes I just don't have a chance, or forget to moderate comments, so it would be confusing to some to see perhaps a heading of '4 Responses' yet only one displayed!

The second issue, or not really an issue but a strange finding, is that in the callback function you effectively rewrite your comment markup. You start with a list item so essentially you should finish with a list item. On the codex page for the wp_list_comments() tag, the callback function example has the closing list item tag, however, when you use this code in your theme, you actually get two closing list items. It looks like the template tag automatically adds the closing list item regardless of what you use. Obviously this is strange behaviour as it's assuming that you're using a list for your comments (which you should, but plenty of themes out there don't), and it leaves you with incomplete code in your function, which is not usually the case.

Hopefully the first issue mentioned will be fixed before the final release, and the second is more a case of whether it's considered normal behaviour or not. To me it isn't, and who ever wrote the codex page thought it wasn't either, but perhaps to the WordPress developers it's how it should be!

However, they're only minor issues, and the advantages and beauty of WordPress 2.7 far outweights those that's for sure.

All I'm now waiting for is the release of WordPress MU 2.7 for a couple of sites!

I have taken 5 minutes out however to redo my Blogging Tips Posts page, so that it's now split into the different subjects that I write on there. The latest two posts are also listed below my recent posts on my sidebar over there ->

I've set up a simple database table to hold this info in and when I have time I'll set this up as a plugin as it may be of use to others who write guest posts for various sites, or perhaps writes on a couple of other sites and wants to highlight those posts on their own blog.

So at present it's just work, work and more work. I will try and get back to getting on course with my WordPress CMS posts this week and try and grab an hour or two on Sunday to write a few for the forthcoming weeks.

Kevin's gone one step better in his competition with it lasting over 7 weeks with $1000 in cash being up for grabs for 50 forum users ($200 being the top prize) and then a competition a week giving away a further $500 worth of prizes. You can see the full list of prizes at the Blogging Tips Forum Competition.

To be in with a chance of winning either a cash prize for participating in the forums, or one of the many prizes available, you'll need to sign up to the forum. Besides the whole ongoing competition, the forum is a great place to discuss blogging in general, developing sites with WordPress (and other various blogging platforms), and general money making ideas and marketing methods.

So, if you fancy having a shot at winning a prize or two, pop over to Blogging Tips

I hope that there's content of use from my other blog to my AIS subscribers. A lot of it is technical and/or business oriented so it should be of interest. It also means I only have one blog to maintain with updates to plugins and the core WordPress files, which is always a bonus!

I've redirected all of the feed URLs to the correct URL so no changes need to be made by any current subscribers. Everything's been redirected URL wise so I'm hoping that nothing falls apart! Of course if you do spot anything please let me know

I've noted down my findings so far, the pros and cons of the new WordPress admin. Let's just say I'll be playing with some CSS to override the layout and see if I can improve it for my own liking.

The following is just my own opinion, being a seasoned user of the old WP layout. It's just my observations ;o)

The Bad Points

• On the default installation the menu is all over the place with some items in the usual horizontal menu area, some on the far right and a couple at the top of the page. Thankfully the Admin Menus plugin fixes that and brings it into line.
• On the manage pages it used to list pages in page order which was handy to see the order of your menu on the front end. It's now in ID order
• On the manage posts/pages they used to list the ID number next to the post/page. That's gone, so you have to hover over the title to see the ID in the link.
• On the new/edit post/page the side column has been put below the main box and you can't drag and drop to reorder, so important boxes are right at the bottom, easily missed.
• The timestamp box is hidden on post page and you have to click the Edit link by the 'Publish Immediately' in the box on the right.
• The new/edit post/page page doesn't fill the screen. There's a lot of wasted white space on the right now.
• Whilst most plugins work, plugins with admin sections need redesigning to fit in with new design.
• On the manage post/page list you have to click the post/page name to edit it or click the published/unpublished to view it – not very obviously at first.

The Good Points

• Upload image box neatly hidden out of site
• On uploading, the image can be positioned with css, good for novices (just have to set up the CSS for the classes alignleft and alignright)
• On the new/edit post page there's handy info on the right with last saved time, preview post link comes up in a neat position and after first auto save
• You can delete multiple posts or pages with one click, but then again how many people delete more than one post/page at a time?
• The comment section is nicely laid out.
• Gravatars are built in.

Overall, if I can reposition the layout to suit my own tastes then I can't see the new admin being that much of an issue and easy enough to get used to. The plugins have just visual issues and should continue to work regardless. There's a new gallery built in although I've not really sussed how to use it yet!

So all in all well yeah, it's okay. Just wish they'd not messed with the admin.

Update: Check the compatibility of the plugins used at 2.5 Plugin Compatibility. Of course, not all plugins are listed and that doesn't mean they don't work. Best option is to install WP 2.5 locally or in a hidden directory and check everything's okay there first. Or just go for it and worry about the broken bits later

To briefly explain, the plugin creates the top commentators list by counting the number of comments made per name which is easily forged, by accident or on purpose. It then links the name using the last URL given on that name's comment. So all you need is someone to forge someone else's name and use a different URL and they get a nice little, usually no followed, link from your site.

I'd forgotten about this (my heads pretty fuzzy right now with this cold!) but this morning suddenly twigged about comments sitting in my moderation queue, plus one that I'd actually allowed through. So a quick line change later in the plugin and it's all working again, instead it counts the number of comments made per email not per name, the email address being the one thing no one else can copy.

So big thanks to Jalaj for making me realise this, and if you want the modified plugin you can grab it here – Show Top Commentators Modified.

1. The old theme was quite popular.
2. My sidebar looked quite messy.
3. I don't have the space to rearrange furniture in this house so I'll rearrange my designs instead

This theme is also quite popular but I've added and removed a few bits to hopefully make it a little less obvious. I would do one myself but let's face it, I can't design for toffee Plus I have enough to do in my day without the need for banging my head against a brickwall. So, this'll last for a while.

Thanks to the fantastic Admin Theme Preview Plugin I've had this theme running for a week now, fixing the little issues, adding my own touch. Sure, you can install WordPress locally and get it sorted on that but nothing's the same as when it's on the actual site. I'll be deploying this throughout the whole domain tomorrow or on the weekend, but if you do spot any issues let me know. I think I've fixed everything.

That aside, I've uploaded a few more Rome photos to Flickr, whilst I'm not religious the Cross has to be one of my favourite shots, backlit by the sun.

I created this for use on the various sites we have running WordPress as a CMS. I noticed about 6 months ago that the title attributes used on the Page links contained identical text to the anchor text – a waste of time in my opinion. I only add a title attribute if I think it's needed, which at times it is. After searching high and low I couldn't find anything that did this, so after a bit of studying of the Plugin Codex I realised that there was a way to do it. After a lot of learning of Pattern Syntax I finally cracked it.

It's a pretty simple plugin that just gives you an extra field (custom field actually, but I've put it below the content area) to complete when you add or edit a page to your site. It's not CMS specific as a lot of blogs have additional pages and this will kill off any duplicate title attribute unless you add in your own custom one.

I've tested it on a few sites including sites with and without permalinks, and sites with sub pages as well as top level. It's seemed fine but if you give it a go and find an issue please let me know on the plugin page

Custom Title Attributes

Everytime I edit my What Others Are Saying Plugin Page I've noticed that the character codes are displayed as the true characters (I use the plain text editor before anyone wonders). This means that, providing I remember, everytime I update that page I have to go through the code and change all of the less/greater than signs to the corresponding codes again.

I'm surprised that this happens as I always presumed that the posts and pages were saved in a similar manner, they're saved in the same title and just tagged as post or page, so why would editing one use a different method than the other? If anyone can shed any light on it I'd appreciate it.