Photo LinkLove

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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Safety is a cheap and effective insurance policy. ~Author Unknown

Prepare and prevent, don’t repair and repent. ~Author Unknown

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This is the next in my series of posts for folks who have never blogged before and have some basic questions and a need for explanations that hopefully leave out no pertinent details. Our ultimate goal is to install and make functional a very cool plugin called NextGen Gallery.

The steps we have been taking here are baby blogging steps but I wish I had found something like them last summer when all of my blogging efforts began. Maybe there are some others who are just beginning and missed learning about it all beforehand.

We have covered unzipping and uploading files. And now we are going to begin uploading plugins.

Before we upload NextGen Gallery we are going to add Plugin Central as I noted earlier. This will make all of our plugin chores much easier.

And prior to this we are going to upload one other little beauty. It is called Wordpress Database Manager (WP-DBManager) and I use it prior to uploading anything into my blog. Also it has a setting for automatic backup of the database and I receive a backup file in my email once per day.

Because of the complexities of plugin installation it is imperative to back things up before making changes. And getting in the habit of doing this early is the best way to avoid sad circumstances later on. I am assuming that this plugin plays well with your setup of course. It did with mine.

So here is the download location.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/

Go here and download the file into your computer. Unzip it as we discussed in the earlier post. Put it in your plugin file. Open Total Commander and locate the file. Upload it to your blog. Go to Admin/plugins and activate it.

It’s a very easy process once you have done it a few times. Now click on Dashboard in the very top/left hand corner of your window right below the tool bar in your Wordpress blog. You should see the name of your blog just below it and a few other things just below the name of your blog starting with Write and Manage. To the right of them will be the terms Design and Comments. And then you should see some others based on your individual setup. Database is what we are looking for and click on it when you find it.

Now you will see just below Database a line of terms starting with Database and ending with Uninstall WP-DBManager. The second term is Backup DB. And we should do this as we prepare to install a second plugin called Plugin Central.

But we have run out of time and space once again. Next time we will install Plugin Central. Hopefully I have not left out anything so far.

Bye Bye for now.

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How can you be a sage if you’re pretty? You can’t get your wizard papers without wrinkles. ~Bill Veeck

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Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it. ~Doug Larson

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What? Unzipping the file is a very important part of the process. Nothing is going to happen until you do it. And it took me a long time to figure out how to do this in an effective manner. But after long experimentation I have found two effective ways to make it happen. Both work well. But only one way is free. You have to pay for the other.

Are you still here? Let’s move on. The paying method involves a guy in a cool maroon dress. Actually he is a wizard and he will take care of things in an effortless manner.

http://www.pc-shareware.com/unzipwiz.htm

The second program will do the same thing but it is not quite as intuitive. Still I have used it so we can’t say it is difficult.

http://www.camunzip.com/

Let’s start with this one. Download and open the program. Locate a zip file somewhere and click on it. Immediately the CAM UnZip program will appear with your zip file. In the top/left location it has Extract to: and the place it would like to go with your files. It would like to go to the desktop.

However you can create a file and put it in the file if you would like to do this. Right click on the START button down at the bottom/left of you monitor screen. Click on Explore. Click on your local disk (C:) and look below it until you come to your Documents and Settings files. Click on this and look on the right side of the window. Here are the files contained in Documents and Settings. Go there with your cursor and right click your mouse. Choose new and create New Files. Then click on New Files. You will see a lot of empty space on the right half of your window. Right click on your mouse three more times and create three files called Plugins, Themes and Misc.

Now go back to the CAM Unzip program and click on the half inch square box next to Extract to: and the files that are exhibited next to it. Your file tree should appear. Find C: and find Documents and Settings. Under it find New Files and the other three files you have created. Left click on Plugins and it should appear in the box next to Extract to:

That’s it! The Unzip Wizard has a similar and even easier process but we have run out of time and space. We have reached the point where we can actually unzip NextGen Gallery. I am sorry it has taken so long but I wanted to do this in a way that would demonstrated to someone with no computer knowledge how to do it. Things should go more quickly and perhaps be more interesting from this point. Later.

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks. ~Author Unknown

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What, exactly, is the Internet? Basically it is a global network exchanging digitized data in such a way that any computer, anywhere, that is equipped with a device called a “modem” can make a noise like a duck choking on a kazoo. ~Dave Barry

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In part one we installed Total Commander and set it up so that it should work at this point. Once the username and password are installed all you have to do is click on the program and hit Control plus F to bring up the window with your blog’s name. Then you click on the name you want (if you have entered more than one blog) and hit Connect. Files flash before your eyes and you are ready to upload something.

But let’s be clear about one thing. I don’t know everything about this program. I can make it upload files and install them. Primarily that involves plugins and themes. All we are doing here is going over the simple stuff.

We are not going to install the NextGen Gallery plugin at this point. We are going to install Plugin Central so that almost ALL of our future plugin installations will be much simpler. Plugin Central was created by the guy I wrote about earlier. HIs name is Vladimir Prelovac and he helped me with my blogging efforts. Here is his blog

Vladimir Prelovac Online!

And here is the link to Plugin Central

So let’s begin to upload this plugin into our Wordpress Blog. We may not finish everything in this post because when you try to write down every step and leave out nothing you are going to take up a lot of space! But we will get there soon. I promise!

Hit Control plus F

Click on your blog’s name.

Hit connect.

See your cpanel and files on the left or the right half of the screen.

Double Left -Click on public_html

Double Left-Click on wp-content

Double Left-Click on plugins

Go to the other side of the Total Commander program and you should see your computer files starting with C Drive at the top (or whatever letter holds all your stuff).

You will find the Plugin Central plugin there and Double Left-Click on it. This should send all the other files away and isolate the one you want near the top of the window. Double click on it again and you should see some php files. One step above the php files is where you want to be so go back up one step. As a general rule one step above the php files is the file you want to upload in most cases. So it is good to check that they are actually there. This ensures that later when you go to your admin/plugin area there will actually be something there!

But we digress. You have an isolated plugin sitting there and you want to upload it into the plugin section that you have already opened on the other side. Left-click one time gently on your plugin and then press the F5 key. This will open a window that says Upload at the top. You don’t have to type anything in it if you already clicked one time gently on your plugin. Just click OK and files will once again flash before your eyes.

And you should see the plugin right where you want it on the other side of the Total Commander program and nestled securely with all your other plugins.

Next time I will discuss how you got that plugin from Vladimir’s blog to your computer so that you could do this.

Because we are not going to leave out any steps. That’s why I am doing this. Because there may be another older guy like me out there who would like to start a blog. And he wants to do it on his own domain. He wants to OWN his work. And he doesn’t have a clue how to do this.

When we went to school they didn’t discuss this stuff. I know it is difficult to comprehend how this could be. But believe me.

It was.

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I have tried a lot of different themes on my three Wordpress.org blogs. And I always seem to return to Sadish and his fine themes. They don’t cause me problems and they do some pretty cool things. Virginia Breeze uses his Nigarila theme and as you can see it allows me to show a slideshow in the all important upper right area of the front page. I can also put 1-4 posts up there and give them great visibility. There is also a page of options with this theme and a great deal of versatility in the admin/design area.

I am not sure exactly what you would call the photo presentation. Maybe it is an overlay? I went looking for some clues about this and found this article. The title is The Lightbox Clones Matrix and as you can see there are a lot of different options and descriptions in this area.

http://planetozh.com/projects/lightbox-clones/

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I was very happy to see his Wordpress.com theme Misty Look come to the Wordpress.org side of the street. I am not sure when that happened but I can remember asking Sadish to do something like this when I purchased Nigarila. I was using Sky Blue at the time for my third theme on the news/politics/humor blog NewsLink Briefs. And really wanted the “light box” for PhotoLink Love. The photos there clearly benefit from this presentation.

And so now he has done it. And Misty Look is free! Sky Blue is also free although it was around twenty dollars when I bought it. Nigarila was also about that much. He is always giving great themes away or charging very nominal prices for his work.

And he has many more themes. But these stand out in my mind as the best of his work.

One more thing I should not forget to mention is the ability to import a photo into the header of all these blogs. When I get restless and start thinking about making a change I find this is a very good way to avoid making too much of a change and getting into trouble. My recent experience with the photoblog plugin is a good example of what can happen in that regard. I have many 404 messages now because of it and have learned a valuable lesson.

There is only one wish left on my list of things I would like to see Sadish create. And it is something that I have not ever seen out there in the land of themes. He does not like to repeat himself so maybe he will do it sometime.

Take something like the striking header and font from Sky Blue. Add the author’s box from Nigarila. Use something a little like the side bar in Misty Look. Allow photos up to 650 pixels wide like those in the Sky Blue theme. And add the photo treatment found in Misty Look and Nigarila.

I can imagine one of those large photos overlaying a beautiful page and it would be stunning. It would be unique! It would be so fabulous he might even want to charge twenty five dollars for it!

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http://wprocks.com/free-themes/

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http://wprocks.com/

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http://wpthemeshop.com/

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Update:  I am trying out a new theme by Sadish at NewsLink Briefs in case you go looking there for Sky Blue.

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