If you’re using a Blackberry and would like to update your site from your phone then you’re in luck… WordPress for BlackBerry version 1.4 has been released to BlackBerry App World.

The following features have been added in version 1.4:

• Easier sign in process
• Added support for HTTP authentication
• Improved the app’s ability for bug reporting and feedback
• The file browser now remember the last opened folder

This release contains many bug fixes, including:

• issue when modifying the properties of a picture attached to a post
• startup issue on the splash screen that causing the app freezing
• issue on the Stats view when a post title contains more double quote characters

What does all of that mean? It means you can update your FeO hosted site from your Blackberry… all the rest is just geek speak that is largely irrelevant to what you actually want to do… which is update your site from your Blackberry… right?

So head on over to BlackBerry App World and get the app so that you can update your site wherever you may be…

Several updates to the login process were made this weekend to enhance the security of the sites. You should not notice anything different, but if you’re having trouble logging in please let open a ticket with the helpdesk (http://feoconsulting.com/helpdesk) and it’ll get checked out…

A new helpdesk system has been put into place for FeO customers. This system will allow you to request support or updates to your site and provide you with tracking and status updates for the request.

To open a new ticket go to http://www.feoconsulting.com/helpdesk

You can also track existing tickets from that location.

Here’s another FANTASTIC tool to help your site get better rankings and be easier for your visitors to navigate.

How does it work? Well, I’m glad you asked.

The Keyword Linking tool enables you to automatically link to a URL for a given keyword or phrase, much like sites like Wikipedia do. Every time a keyword occurs in a post on your site, the Keyword Linking tool automatically generates a link to the page you define. This is huge for building pagerank within your own site.

How to use it:

1. Login to your site admin panel.
2. Look for the “Keyword Linking” option under the “Posts” menu on the left side of the screen. Click on that link…
   
3. The instructions are very straightforward.
   
   All you have to do is enter the Keyword that you want to use into the “Keyword” field, the link that you want that keyword to go to into the “URL” field, and click “Save”. There are some “fancy” options there too, just in case you’re feeling froggy, but the basics will get you started.
4. Post-specific links: You can override the global keyword settings in each post. See the bottom of your “Post” page for the same type of form with the same options for “special” linking on that post only.

Note that these links can be internal to your site, or external links to other sites. If you’re linking offsite though, make use of the “Use Nofollow” option to only send pagerank to sites you intend to.

Happy Linking!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I’ll be doing some updates to the core code over the Thanksgiving weekend. This update will plug a minor security issue that only applies to site that have “untrusted” users posting to them. So for MOST sites, this is not an issue, but I’ve tested the code update and in the interest of keeping things as up to date as possible I’ll be applying it across the board.

As with any code changes though, there could be issues, so if you see anything strange on your site please report it right away.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

A core update was made over the weekend that will allow you to embed videos from sites like YouTube, Google Video, even Myspace, and quite a few others into posts and pages on your site. When you add them they should something like this:

(poor Pavelec…)

Anyway… When adding/editing a post or page you should notice a few new buttons on the toolbar:

Buttons on your toolbar to embed video in your post or page

Clicking on one of those buttons will bring up a dialog box like this one:

This one is for YouTube, but they’re all pretty similar… You just need to have the URL of the video you want to put on the page and paste that in the box. Note that it must be the FULL link, such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szwjh4ogCkM in order for it to work. You can set the dimensions if needed or just leave the default.

This is different from “uploading” a video to your site in that the file you’re embedding stays on YouTube/Google/whatever and does not actually get copied to your site.

A few other things:

1. The person viewing your site must have Flash installed… so currently that will leave out most mobile devices.
2. Your site must have a certain core file reference in place. So if you embed a file and it only shows you an image but not the full file then you’ll need to let me know so that I can update your site files.
3. Please remember that you are embedding files from OTHER sites. So if they don’t look good, are slow to download, look grainy… whatever… it is the site that you are embedding FROM, not your site, that is causing an issue.

Have fun!

Edit: For those of you who aren’t aware, my friends and I are Thrashers fans. The clip above shows “our” rookie goalie, Ondrej Pavelec, basically falling apart during a recent game against the Capitals. Not a good day for an otherwise spectacular player. That being said… Here is another clip from a game just over a week after the one above…

As an improvement to the Page admin section; You can now add “tags” to Pages just as you add them to “Posts”…

The “Post Tags” option is now available on the right side of the “Page” administration pages (yes, that sounds a little weird…). When you create a new page, or edit an existing page, you can now apply “tags” them. This will help your page be found if you’re using the Tags widget or the Related Posts widget in your site. Both of these will help your users, and the search engines, find content on your site a bit easier… So if you aren’t using either of those you might want to consider adding them to your theme.

Blip me an email if you have questions.

Over the next several days/weeks there will be some updates to the core site code and some new features added, and old features changed, in the administration interface. As updates are made you’ll see them here.

As always, if you have any questions or problems (or just want to say how great all of this is…), don’t hesitate to drop an email: adminhelp@feoconsulting.com

Access to the default login file “wp-login.php” has been removed for security reasons. Please check your email for information on the admin login procedure or contact wp-loginhelp@feoconsulting.com for additional information.

Thanks!