Scotproof

TheRowanTree is a brand new bed and breakfast in Sollas, North Uist, offering quality accommodation within easy reach of stunning beaches. Its two double rooms and one twin/king size are beautifully decorated and have en-suite facilities, and free wireless broadband is offered to guests. Check out the website for further details.

Uist Archaeology, comprising Kate MacDonald and Becky Rennell, now have a website at www.uistarchaeology.com where you can find out about Kate and Becky and the services they offer across Barra and the Uists, view a gallery of archaeological sites and be kept up to date with news and events.

Struan House on the west side of North Uist comprises two self-catering houses and one bed & breakfast, all offering comfortable accommodation with spectacular views of the shallow waters and white sands between Malaglate and the uninhabited island of Vallay. See the new website for more information and to book your stay.

Over on Nice Wee Sites we’ve just launched the Sollas Bookbinding website. This describes the craft of local (North Uist) bookbinder Corinna Krause and gives details of the workshops she runs and how to buy her products. There are loads of pictures arranged into NextGen galleries and using this method to open an entire gallery from a single image.

I went on Corinna’s box-making workshop the other day. She’s an excellent teacher and I recommend it or the bookbinding workshop if you get the chance.

My posts about the NextGen Gallery plugin for Wordpress are attracting a lot of traffic, so I’ve grouped them in a single category for easier browsing:
www.scotproof.com/category/nextgen

Also helpful if you’re using the Language Switcher plugin for Wordpress is to have a dropdown menu in the edit post/page section for inserting the HTML codes for accented characters. Donald Noble’s website has a solution – here’s a breakdown of what it does.

1. In the wordpress/wp-includes/js/quicktags.js file, add the following code before function edToolbar() { (around line 257).

// 2 new functions added by DRN to give dropdown character select
function edInsertChar(tmpChar) {
	edInsertContent(edCanvas, tmpChar);
	document.getElementById('ed_char').value=0;
}
function edInsertCharSelect(){
								//  1/4    1/2    3/4                         ^2     ^3
	var edChars = new Array(
	'auml','euml','iuml','ouml','uuml','Auml','Euml','Iuml',
'Ouml','Uuml','agrave','aacute','egrave','eacute','igrave',
'iacute','ograve','oacute','ugrave','uacute','Agrave',
'Aacute','Egrave','Eacute','Igrave','Iacute','Ograve',
'Oacute','Ugrave','Uacute','ccedil','Ccedil','nbsp','trade',
'copy','times','#188','#189','#190','euro','times','deg',
'#178','#179'
	);

	document.write('<select id="ed_char" onchange="edInsertChar(this.value);" title="">');
	document.write('<option value="0" selected="selected">char </option>');
	for(i=0;i<edChars.length;i++) {
		document.write('<option value="&amp;'+edChars[i]+';">&'+edChars[i]+';</option>');
	}
	document.write('</select>');

}

Note that more characters can be inserted into this list or the order changed – just insert the HTML character codes between single quotes, minus the ‘&’ and the ‘;’.

2. Then, in the edToolbar function itself, add the line edInsertCharSelect(); as shown:

function edToolbar() {
	document.write('<div id="ed_toolbar">');
	for (i = 0; i < edButtons.length; i++) {
		edShowButton(edButtons[i], i);
	}
	document.write('<input type="button" id="ed_spell" class="ed_button" onclick="edSpell(edCanvas);" title="' + quicktagsL10n.dictionaryLookup + '" value="' + quicktagsL10n.lookup + '" />');
	document.write('<input type="button" id="ed_close" class="ed_button" onclick="edCloseAllTags();" title="' + quicktagsL10n.closeAllOpenTags + '" value="' + quicktagsL10n.closeTags + '" />');
//	edShowLinks(); // disabled by default
	edInsertCharSelect(); // DRN addition
	document.write('</div>');
}

The result should look something like this:

You should now be able to select accented characters from the list and drop them into your post, without having to remember the HTML codes.

Wordpress’s Language Switcher plugin for bilingual blogs requires that text is enclosed in language tags, e.g. [lang_en]English[/lang_en][lang_de]Deutsch[/lang_de].

These language tags can be added to the quicktags menu in the edit post/page screen in Wordpress – it’s simple to do and makes life much easier. Here’s how to do it. (Note that this method applies only to the HTML editor, and not to the visual editor.)

1. Open your wordpress/wp-includes/js/quicktags.js file and make a backup copy of the original.

2. From about line 36 you’ll see the code for all the existing buttons. Decide where you want your new quicktags to appear. I wanted mine at the start of the row, so inserted the new code before the code for the first tag (b).

3. Insert the following code, replacing my languages (English (en) and German (de)) with your own and remembering to use the correct two-letter ISO codes. lang_all is for text that you want to appear in all versions, no matter what the language – you might not need it.

edButtons[edButtons.length] =
new edButton('ed_lang_en'
,'lang_en'
,'[lang_en]'
,'[/lang_en]'
,'lang_en'
);

edButtons[edButtons.length] =
new edButton('ed_lang_de'
,'lang_de'
,'[lang_de]'
,'[/lang_de]'
,'lang_de'
);

edButtons[edButtons.length] =
new edButton('ed_lang_all'
,'lang_all'
,'[lang_all]'
,'[/lang_all]'
,'lang_all'
);

4. Save the file, upload to your server and check the edit post/page screen – you should see the new quicktags:

5. As with other quicktags, you just need to highlight your text and click on the button and the opening and closing tags be inserted automatically.

Below are some examples of Wordpress-based websites from the portfolio which I thought would be useful to gather in one place. Click on an image to see a larger version and the website link.

I think they show how flexible Wordpress can be – some are ’static’ websites, one is primarily an image gallery, some incorporate news and articles and others are straightforward blogs. All are run by the clients we built them for, thanks to the simple user interface, and with the arrival of Wordpress 2.7 and automatic software upgrades, ongoing maintenance looks set to become even easier.

Visit wordpress.org if you’re curious.

Now available for download here, and working on this site. Note that previous versions of the theme won’t break in Wordpress 2.7, but that this version (Nice Wee Theme 1.3) can handle threaded comments, a new feature in Wordpress 2.7.

Over on Hebridean Graphics: