Visual Editor in WordPress is Missing or Broken
Visual Button Disappeared from the Word Press Blog Editor
I setup another blog for a friend this weekend. This installation went almost perfect except for one small nagging issue.
Problem Description
When we installed WordPress onto his host and logged in for the first time we noticed the “Visual” button was missing from the WordPress Editor. It only gave him the option to write his posts as HTML, and all the buttons that are associated with Visual Editor were missing as well.
Troubleshooting
We thought it might have been a problem with how the files had been uploaded to his host. His hosting service has a very poor FTP system which errored out three times while we were upgrading to the latest version of WordPress.
We uploaded the files again to make sure nothing was corrupt. Once we had done this we deactivated any plugins that were running to make sure they were not causing issues either.
After looking on the WordPress forums and realizing other people were running into this issue, we checked around for people’s recommendations.
A lot of the advice on the forums was that it was some sort of bug in WordPress, or that you needed to install TinyMCE or TinyMCE Advanced. Unfortunately none of these answers were the “True” answer.
It turns out the problem is much easier to fix than most people think.
Solution
This may vary depending on your situation but what we found was that this was actually an option that needed to be toggled within WordPress itself.
There is a setting in Word Press that allows users to disabled the Visual editor if they choose not to use it.
To turn the Visual editor back on and get your “Kitchen Sink” back you need to go into:
Users > “Your Username” > Visual Editor (At the top of the screen)
Because this was a new installation of WordPress this option had apparently never been enabled (although it is usually on by default). When I create user accounts, it is usually just to give someone access to an existing blog and this has never been an issue.
Near the Visual Editor Option make sure there is a check mark in the box next to “Use the visual editor when writing”.
Once this is done scroll to the buttom of the screen and click the “Update Profile” button. WordPress will now save your user settings and you should now have access to the Visual Editor once again.
Great EntreCard Power Dropping Tips and Information
An experienced EntreCard dropper knows that you can only drop up to 300 cards per day, and this is the max. Once you have hit this limit you need to wait a day before you can drop more cards.
Now 300 cards may sound like a lot when you are new to EntreCard you will soon realize there are many methods people use to “Power Drop” cards. Power Dropping cards means to hit your max of 300 drops in the shortest amount of time possible.
After searching Google and using some techniques and resources other bloggers have mentioned, I have thrown together a very effective power dropping routine that I would like to share with those who are looking to get the most out of EntreCard.
The method I use allows me to drop 300 cards in 30 minutes flat, without violating TOS rules listed on EntreCard’s website. The authors of the EntreCard site themselves have stated that they do not want EntreCard to take away from people working on their blogs.
I actually have two methods I use depending on what I am trying to accomplish that day. I have a speed method which is good when it’s late, or I am in a hurrey and I am also developing a “Power Follow” method to help get even more out of your drops. Let’s cover the Power Drop method first.
Power Dropping
To power drop people will usually compile a list of blogs which load FAST so they can drop as many cards as possible without page load times, or lag. The author of http://www.powerdropping.com/ has come up with a great list of fast loading sites that are work well for speedy drops.
The only problem I had with his list was most of the links opened in the same Window causing me to go back and reload the page. Another resource on his list had links that didn’t change color once they had been visited so it made it hard to tell what sites I had already been to.
I decided to improve on the excellent work they had already done, and created a new Power Drop list which can be located here. New and Improved Power Drop List
My list is an HTML file you can run on your PC, and every link on the list opens in it’s own Window. All the links will also change color once they have been visited, making it very easy to sort out where you have been.
Using this list, I will usually click on 10 links at a time and open 10 new windows. Then I will drop my card on each site, and use the “Alt+F” “Alt+X” command to close the windows. This method is fast! I can usually drop 10 cards in a minute or less. If you are using FireFox you can do the same thing (although I usually open 1 tab at a time because of how they close) and use the “CTRL+W” option to close the tab quickly.
This way you can burn through a list of 300 sites in about 30 minutes flat. Once you get used to opening 10 windows and using the Alt key options to close them things start to really go fast.
The first 25 links on the list do load somewhat slow. They were additions I made because I had open spots on the list after weeding out slow or broken links, You may want to start at 26 and work your way through for the fastest sites. (The other 25 can be used with my Power Follow method to get more return on your drops)
The next method I use I like to call “Power Following” it works in the same way as Power Dropping but adds a little bit more time onto the drop schedule because you are not dropping on completely optimized sites. There is a reason for this, which provides a big benifit that is outlined in the following section.
Power Follow
This method can actually benefit you more than Power Dropping because it gets you a return investment on the 300 cards you drop. I have started compiling a list of self proclaimed “followers” from the “You Drop, I Follow” crowd. There has been some debate as to how well some of these people return your drops but for the most part I have found people tend to be good followers.
The second list that I am working on (which can be downloaded here as a work in progress - “Power Follow List”) has about 150 people who are more likely to drop a card back to you, if you drop one to them. My recommendation would be to use this list for 2-3 days and then do the Power Follow drops from your inbox on EntreCard. This way you will only be dropping to people who have actually dropped back to you, and after 2 or 3 days you should have a good idea of who those people are.
When you drop from your inbox you can “Right Click” on any EntreCard logo you see that has a custom graphic and choose the “Open in new Window” to open several windows just like you would with the Power Drop list. Anyone that does not have a custom logo will need to be clicked on separately as right clicking will not bring up a menu. (Luckily most people have custom EntreCard logos)
This will once again allow you to perform a bunch of speedy drops. Best of all you will get people dropping cards back to you which will allow you to get more than 300 credits a day.
Once you have gone through your inbox and dropped a card back to everyone (who will now drop a card back to you tomorrow) you can work off the “Power Drop” list to finish the other 150-200 drops quickly. You can get a good routine of daily drops back to your account if you use this method.
Additional Ways to Get Credits
Another thing you can do to get more drops back to your account is setup an optimized HTML page for people who Power Drop to use. (And hopefully add to their list)
Because so many of us run Adsense, Referrals, Amazon Widgets, Digg Plugins etc most blogs can have annoying load times when you are trying to power drop 300 cards. Because of this, some users have setup optimized pages off their blog, which are just plain HTML pages that users can bookmark to drop their card to.
If you do this and let people know about your page it is likely that they will add it to their power drop list, which they will go through on a daily basis. The more people that add you to their list the more credits you will get as they drop their card each day.
Good rules to follow when setting up an optimized page are:
01. Create a page just to feature your EntreCard widget. Please do not put ads on this page. It is very annoying and defeats the purpose of doing this.
02. Put a link under your widget so people can get to the main page of your blog. After all EntreCard is about exploring new blogs so give people a way to check out your site if they want to.
03. HTML pages are preferred because they usually load really fast. I have seen some blogs setup an optimized page by keeping ads and widgets to a minimum but for most of us this isn’t possible, so a separate HTML can be very handy.
Please feel free to add Pseudorant’s optimized EntreCard page to your drop list! It can be located here:
http://www.pseudorant.com/powerdrop.htm
That’s about all the information I have for now. I am pretty new to EntreCard myself but I think it is a really great idea for a service. I wanted to share some of the ideas, and things I have been working on since I joined the site.
As always thanks for checking out Pseudorant. We appreciate the support!
How to tell what Font a website is using
How can I figure out what Font a website is using
The other day my fiancée was working on her website and she was looking at other sites for inspiration. She came across a site that she really liked and they were using two different fonts that she thought would look wonderful on her site.
She was messing around with the default fonts that were available to her through WordPress and her style sheet and she told me that she couldn’t find the right ones. I told her there was a trick she could use to figure out what fonts a website was using if she would to like to use them on her website.
The first method I recommended to her, which is the easiest way goes as follows:
Method #1
1. Copy a line of text that uses the font you like from the website you are looking at.
2. Once you have copied the font, use Open Office (or MS Word) or any other program that retains formatting when you paste text into it.
3. Paste the copied text into the word program and highlight it.
4. Go into your text options in the word program, and the font that the program has defaulted to should be the text that is being used on the site you are looking at.
You may want to compare a sample of the text using that font on your site and see if it has the look you desired. If the text matches then you know you have determined the correct font.
There may be some cases where the fonts do not match if the person is using a special font. By default most browsers will display any common fonts but if the website is using a strange font the browser will default to a font that is similar to the one being used.
The other method which requires a little more digging around but can be quicker if you are familiar with HTML. It can be utilized by doing the following:
Method #2
1. “Right Click” on the web page and choose the “View Source” option from the menu.
2. Once you have done this a text editor will open with the HTML from the website being displayed.
3. Click “CTRL+F” to open the “FIND” window in the text program.
4. Type in “FONT” and then click “Search”
5. The text program will now locate every instance of the Font tag in the HTML. This will allow you to determine what types of fonts are being used throughout the page.
Take a general look at all the fonts to get an idea for what font is being used most. Most designers will usually not use more than two types of fonts so it should be easy to figure out which one is being used most.
In some cases the site may rely heavily on a style sheet for setting the font. This is a common practice now a days. Even if this is the case the author or designer will sometimes specify fonts manually for certain areas of the page so the “FIND > Font” method is still a good trick to use.
This can come in handy when people are redesigning their site or trying something new on their blog. It’s really amazing how much fonts can affect the look and feel of a site and choosing the right font can really help you improve the overall appearance of your website.
Thanks for checking out Pseudorant. We appreciate the support.
Totally Useless HTML Element of the Day – The <'em'> Tag
EHH<EM>!… Can I have your attention please!</EM>
Today I would like to talk about the <EM> HTML tag. While searching for information on another apparently useless HTML meta tag, I came across the definition for this HTML element.
The <EM> tag is used to put words in an “Emphasis” style, which strangely enough looks just like italics.
For Example!
There is apparently a distinct difference between the two tags though. The HTML standard defines the <EM> tag as being a “logical style” where the <I> tag is considered a “physical style”.
What this means is that a “physical style directs the browser to display in an italic typeface whereas the logical style directs the browser to display with a distinctive emphasis leaving it to the browser to decide how this is achieved (underlining or distinctive colour might be used).”
(Reference - http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/encyc/em.html - Page is no longer available)
In order to further explain the “Emphasis” tag the staff at the University of Wolverhampton performed several experiments with the <EM> tag in different browsers to see how the tag would be displayed. These were their findings:
“All browsers rendered the text using an italic typeface.”
(Side Note: In all fairness, blogs do happen to use the <EM> tag but they use it to create the effect that you get when you click on the “Italic” button in your editor.)
As always thanks for checking out Pseudorant. We appreciate the support.
Content Management Systems – Joomla
Joomla… JOOMLA… It’s fun to make up words!
What is a content management system? It is basically a program or front-end to a resource like a website, forum, wiki etc that allows a user to focus on producing content without needing to worry about coding or technical considerations. In other words it is a system that manages the content you produce for you.
Why is this significant? Because in the past few years more and more CMS applications have become available which are making it easier for users to produce and distribute their content on the internet. Ok… So what is Joomla then?
Joomla is a CMS system that allows users to create websites, leaving the design and function aspects in the hands of the program. For users who are familiar with WordPress, you have probably heard of Joomla or even used it.
The reason I am talking about it today is because a client of mine needs their website revamped. They used to work with an old site designer who has basically dropped off the face of the planet. I usually just do troubleshooting for this client but they told me they were in desperate need of someone to redo their website.
I told them I would take a look at it but once I saw the site was done in PHP I had reservations about whether or not I would be able to handle to project. I am an HTML designer by trade and have not really worked with PHP much until lately when I picked up WordPress.
After doing some research on the person who originally implemented Joomla on the site and looking into what Joomla was exactly I had a lot more confidence that I would be able to make the new website happen for this customer.
There has been so much added to the site already that I felt it would be pointless to strip out the current infrastructure, so instead I am going to spend the next two weeks becoming familiar with Joomla and all it’s functions and I will pickup where the other designer left off on the site.
For anyone that has not seen Joomla I would highly recommend you check it out. Especially if you are a blogger or a freelance web designer, but have been working mainly with HTML up til this point. From looking around at all the web 2.0 type sites out there, I feel that traditional HTML as we know it is almost dead. Sure it will still be used here and there, and knowing basic HTML will always help, but I don’t think people will rely on it anymore for producing sites. It’s just not practical to do so.
With that being said I should get back to studying about Joomla. I have two weeks to learn it which should be more than enough time but I would really like to be fast and efficient with it, by the time I take on the project. For anyone that is interested in learning more about it you can check out the Joomla website at the following link:
As always thanks for checking out Pseudorant and please check back for more interesting articles and rants about computers and technology!
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