Now Reading Reloaded plugin installed!

A couple of years ago, I came upon the Now Reading plugin (for Wordpress blogs) by Rob Miller. Some blogs are using it to show books they've read or planning to read and I wanted it for my Wordpress blog too. It looked so good! Still do.

I was a newbie in HTML at that time so I didn't know how to install it successfully. The instructions looked easy but somehow, something was not right somewhere. So I gave up. I would go back to the plugin some time after that to try and make it work but no luck. Last week, I tried again. Still doesn't work.

Anyway, I was lucky to find a similar/updated/modified version of the same plugin and it's called Now Reading Reloaded by Ben Gunnink. I spent almost a whole day working on and doing some tweaking to the plugin to make it look 100% okay on my blog. You can see how my Library page looks like now. :)

Mind you, it wasn't easy to make it look proper. I had to make adjustments to the plugin's templates so that the pages didn't look broken up. I Googled many times for tips, tricks, anything that would give me an idea on how to fix the problems.

Thank goodness I found this blog, davidedwardsphotos.com and read how he tweaked the plugin. The blog Planet Mediocrity helped me too. I also found good advice from the support forum related to this plugin.

You may visit the abovementioned websites should you need help in installing this plugin. :)

Plugins I'm Using In My Wordpress Blog

Using plugins for your Wordpress blog can really make your blog look good, function better than before, help you attract readers and so much more. This is why I love Wordpress plugins so much! I enjoy searching for new and interesting plugins, and then downloading them and finally testing them out. I'm ecstatic whenever a plugin works perfectly without giving me any headaches.

However, some plugins just decide to make my day more exciting by creating a few problems here and there. Thus, I have to crack my head and figure out what went wrong. When it FINALLY works normally, I breathe a sigh of relief or rather, exclaim 'YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' like a deranged person.

Anyway, what I'd like to ask is what kind of plugins that YOU are using for your Wordpress blog? Like I mentioned earlier, I'm always interested in new, unique, exotic plugins. So, why not tell me your favourite plugins or plugins that nobody should live without?

Here are the plugins that I'm using now for my BooksLoveMe.com blog:

Admin Drop Down Menus
Akismet
Better Comments Manager
Contact Form
Feedburner Feed Replacement
Filosofo Comments Preview
Highlight Author Comments
Similar Posts
Social List
Subscribe Remind
Subscribe to Comments
What Would Seth Godin Do
WP Admin Bar Reloaded
WP Categories and Posts

There. I've listed out the plugins that I'm using right now and some of them I've been using since I started my Wordpress blog. What would I do without them? Sigh...

Missing Pages!

I bet you've gone through this before, where you borrowed a book or two from the library and one of them have some pages missing! Yeah, that's just what happened to me. I borrowed a book related to my class and was saddened to find that the pages jumped from page 14 to page 29! Looks like I've got to borrow another of the same book again.

Why do these people tear pages off the book? It does not even belong to them in the very first place. Some people don't even return the book, which is terrible. Well, at least if you borrow a book, please bear in mind to NOT tear out pages that you like. Photocopy them! That should be the way, isn't it?

By the way, last night, I installed more plugins from WordPress for my book blog, Books Love Me! One of them is inserting our signatures at the end of each post, which is so nice.

However, I can't seem to get rid of the black border around my signature and it's placed in the centre. I have to do a few things(not sure what!) to remove the border and also to place it at the left hand side. Anyone willing to help? Thanks in advance!

New Look For Booksloveme.com!

Yup, it's a whole new look. Just changed the theme because I found another site using my usual theme. So, I happened to find this nice, new one and decided to take the plunge and changed it!

Oh, I'm not without problems anyway. After upgrading my WordPress version and installing the new theme, now all the apostrophes(') are gone. They've been replaced by mindless characters. For example:

This is the second time I’m reading something by Noel Streatfeild. The story starts with Harriet Johnson who’s not feeling very well and doesn’t look very well either. She’s nearly ten years old but she doesn’t have the energy and vivacity of normal ten-year-old kids.

And now, I suppose I have to edit EVERY single one of my posts! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! How long will that take, huh? It seems like forever to me. If there's another way, I'll gladly try it. As long as it's easier and faster!

Related Posts Problem!

What in the world is wrong with my Related Posts plugin in my Books Love Me blog??? Why is it that some of my book reviews have no related posts? Only a handful of posts have some posts listed under the Related Posts heading. How does it work in the first place? How do they list them out?

Well, it's some minor problem for me anyway but it still bothers me. I'm sure I did what I had to do, that is, inserted all the right codes at the right places. This related posts stuff took me a long, long time to get it right. I had to ask for help, too, as usual. That's my motto. When I can't figure it out after a while, it's time to call for help! That's how it was when I was doing Mathematics in school!

Now, I'm going through each post to check which ones do not have any related posts. So far, I noticed that most of my older posts did have related posts. The most recent posts do not have any related posts listed. Does it mean that I have to wait for the posts to be older? Sounds like a pretty weird theory!

I'm currently reading Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and it'll take a while for me to finish it off! I'm in KL now and using my auntie's computer. I did not know she had an Internet connection. When she told me that she had one, I was somewhat ecstatic! I can check my blogs and and my e-mails! Haha! Clearly, I can't live without the Internet. Very sad, I know.

All right, it's the end of this post!

Sitemap In My WordPress Blog!

My new blog just got better. =D Now, all my worries of the categories in my blog are over because I’ve added a sitemap plugin. I got this nifty plugin from here.

At first, I had some difficulties trying to get it right. I kept asking the plugin creator, Ronald, questions and he patiently answered them all. So, after many, patient attempts, I finally got it all right. Boy, was I relieved when the sitemap page looked as fine as ever.

I downloaded so many plugins and I’m still eager for more. =) Hey, plugins are nice! I don’t remember having this much fun and cracking my head up figuring out where to download this file, that folder, what to edit in the HTML part, etc. At least I’m learning new things then later, everything becomes easy for me.

Okay, I have one more plugin that I need to figure out how to use it. I’ve asked several plugin creators a few questions but all they asked me to do was to read the instructions. Of course I read the instructions! I just did not understand them that well and that’s why I’m asking them in the first place.

Never mind. I have a brain and I’m going to use it even if it feels like exploding from thinking too much. =p

Cracking My Head Over The WP Plugins

Good morning everybody! How’s your Saturday coming along? So far, my Saturday is fine, just waiting for breakfast to come home. Haha!

I’m not really sure what I plan to do today. I do know I intend on writing more paid posts and catching up on my reading. I’m currently reading my ‘Undomestic Goddess’ book by Sophie Kinsella. Yes, I’m totally enjoying the book because it’s so funny! I wonder why I’ve never tried reading any of Kinsella’s books before. She writes under two names too. Sophie Kinsella and Madeline Wickham.

Another thing I know I’ll enjoy doing is doing some touch-ups on my new blog. I still have lots of WordPress plugins to experiment. I’m wondering if Blogger has such websites too, offering useful stuff for Blogger? Anyone?

Well, I plan to try and figure out how to use the Multi Column Category List and Book Reading plugins. The instructions may sound like a piece of cake but no, I think there are more codes to crack.

Good luck to me!

So Many Plugins for WordPress!!!

Wah lau weh… WordPress has so many plugins! There is one extremely long list at Weblog Tools Collection and it was quite difficult to choose which ones I like. So, I thought I would just download the ones that stand out from the others and see if I really them enough to keep them.

I’ve been receiving spam comments lately. It’s irritating when I open up my e-mails to find that I have spam comments in my new blog. I thought they were new comments and honestly, I was pretty excited. Just imagine my disappointment when I found out that those comments were actually advertising things like mobile phones, porn sites, etc.

Well, I was browsing through the Weblog Tools page and I came across 3 different kinds of plugins that can block out spam comments. I just installed one and am hoping for the best. I have enough spam mails in my Yahoo and I certainly don’t need anymore in my new blog.

Truly, there are endless of plugins available for WordPress blogs that it is quite impossible to use them all. Yeah, I am kind of excited now because I have just discovered the page with the list of nifty plugins. Haha! I’m beginning to think WordPress is a whole lot better than my old faithful Blogger. Have no fear, Blogger, I’m not leaving you.

Okay! I’m off to write another post! =D