I’ve been tossing around the idea of writing a post explaining how to install/update WordPress via Fantastico for awhile now. While Fantastico is extremely easy to use, learning the process can take a little while. Now that most web hosts have CPanel and Fantastico available to their users, most people should have access to what is basically a two-click install.

If you’ve been wondering how to do this, today Easy WordPress published a post explaining how to upgrade WordPress via Fantastico. The post goes into great detail and includes screen shots, so you shouldn’t run into any problems. Gobala is also offering support for people still learning the installing process and provides some situation where you wouldn’t want to use Fantastico to update your software.

One problem not covered in the post is that Fantastico often takes way to long to be updated. If you find this is the case, you may want to look into using either WordPress Automatic Upgrade (which I often use), or the Instant Upgrade plugin. These plugins can be used immediately upon a new WordPress software release.

If you prefer to upgrade manually, I recommend you check out this upgrading WordPress guide on WordPress Max.

Back in November, it was announced that WordPress 2.4 would be delayed, moving its expected arrival date to January 24, 2008. Now it looks like it won’t be arriving at all.

According to several sources, it looks like the team wants to avoid a rushed release and instead focus on the March deadline for WordPress 2.5. As a result, we will not see a WordPress 2.4 at all, but instead move straight to WordPress 2.5.

It looks like in addition to the (unanticipated) new admin panel and security updates, we can expect some significant changes to the WordPress codebase. Due to the delay, I think this is a good move. I’m not a fan of rushed releases, so a little extra wait doesn’t bother me.

According to the official WordPress blog, it looks like you can now purchase WordPress Clothing, including t-shirts and hoodies from their official store.

I know the Firefox clothing has done pretty well, so I expect WordPress to find the same type of success. I wouldn’t mind sporting the hoodie around town.

Due to the small number of WordPress blogs that have multiple authors, very few WordPress themes seem to come with a custom author page. This means whenever someone goes to the author page, WordPress will by default use your archives.php file, or if that isn’t available, then use your index.php file. This generally doesn’t make for a very nice author page because it just displays that authors posts in the same format as your archives.

In order to create an author page, you will want to make a copy of your archives.php file and name it author.php, then upload it to your site via FTP. Now go into your theme and edit the author.php page you just created. From here, it will vary a little bit depending on your theme, but we basically have to redo the post loop for this page. A typical archive page will call the header, then finish with calling the sidebar and footer. We will be changing the code in between. Here is the code that a standard theme would use between the header and sidebar/footer calls:

<div id="content" class="narrowcolumn">
<!-- This sets the $curauth variable -->
<?php
if(isset($_GET['author_name'])) :
$curauth = get_userdatabylogin($author_name);
else :
$curauth = get_userdata(intval($author));
endif;
?>
<h3>About: <?php echo $curauth->display_name; ?></h3>
<p><strong>Website:</strong> <a href=”<?php echo $curauth->user_url; ?>”><?php echo $curauth->user_url; ?></a></p>
<p><strong>Profile:</strong> <?php echo $curauth->user_description; ?></p>
<h3>Posts by <?php echo $curauth->display_name; ?>:</h3>
<ul>
<!– The Loop –>
<?php if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
<li>
<a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>” rel=”bookmark” title=”Permanent Link: <?php the_title(); ?>”>
<?php the_title(); ?></a>
</li>
<?php endwhile; else: ?>
<p><?php _e(’No posts by this author.’); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>
<!– End Loop –>
</ul>
</div>

This will display the author’s nickname, their website, and whatever is in the description field, as well as a bulleted list of all their posts. Once set up, you can control everything from within your Users panel of your WordPress dashboard. To see a list of other arguments you can get, I recommend checking out the official WordPress Author template.

As an added bonus, if you want your authors name link to point towards the authors page, you can do so with the following code:
<?php the_author_posts_link(); ?>

There has been a lot of anticipation building for WordPress 2.4, which has been in the works for awhile now.  There are going to be several positive changes, but one that has gotten some mixed reviews are the planned changes to the look of the WordPress dashboard.

Though we don’t have a release candidate ready to view yet, Hyper123.net has posted a live preview of the WordPress 2.4 dashboard.   Not every feature included functions properly, but it will give you an idea of what we can expect in WordPress 2.4.

Here is a screenshot of the WordPress 2.4 dashboard:

You can also check out this video walkthrough on Tubetorial.

What do you think about this early look at the change?

[via Weblog Tools Collection]

Now that 2008 is here, why not look back at 2007?  Some blogs have been looking back over 2007, and I’ve been closely tracking some of the WordPress reviews for 2007.    One post that caught my eye was published over at WP Themes Plugin, where they have picked there Top 20 WordPress Themes of 2007.

In looking over the post, it is a pretty good collection of themes, most of which (if not all) are completely free to WordPress users.  If you are looking for a WordPress theme for your new blog, I recommend you check it out.   If you don’t find what you are looking for there, you may also want to dig through my various WordPress Theme Galleries to find the right theme for your needs.   I haven’t counted, but I believe there is well over 100 free and premium themes included in the galleries, which are broken down into categories for easy browsing and include screen shots and links to each theme.

I hope everyone has a happy 2008!