Oops – I’m clearing out the daily Twitter updates on my blog and I realize I deleted a post I wanted to keep.  I imagine there is a plug-in you can install on WordPress that helps you recover a lost post or page, but it was too late.

I do have an XML sitemap, which is in turn registered with Google’s Webmaster Tools,  so I went to Google and did a site search to find it.  Fortunately,  I knew of a unique keyword to use in the search.  Here is the search string:

Site: timmcnabb.com stlscooterguy

The “Site:” operator narrows your search to just the specified domain.  Anything that follows the domain is searched for within that domain.  Bingo!  The original link was a 404 (naturally) but Google had a cached version of the page.  I clicked on the cached link.  Once on that page, I was able to “view source” and locate the exact HTML code of my post, right down to the images.

After that, it was a fairly simple matter of creating a new post and pasting that code into the new post on the HTML tab.

Now, I am glad in this situation that I was able to recover my post, but it does remind me to be circumspect in my blog posts.  Even if I go off on a rant, hit “publish” and then think better of it a few days later,  if Google gets hold of it, your “oops” may live long after you delete your mistake.  Today is May 30, the cached version was just from May 26.

A document crossed my path the other day.  It was a scathing letter sent to the management of a local firm.  Crabby customers are part of life, and many times the anger is justified, but in this letter the business owner expressed not only contempt for management, but some very contemptuous opinions about their own client base.  Those familiar with the characters involved were mightily amused and had a good time pointing out the incandescent foolishness of the sentiments in the letter.

This letter was 12 years old, and it occurred to me that had this been sent as an email last week rather than last decade, the writer of the letter might have seen it plastered all over the blogs and forums in their community.  In my opinion the reaction would have had somewhere between a serious to devastating impact on the business, particularly if a local competitor decided to make an issue out of it.

The recipients of the angry broadside were responsible and professional enough to keep the offensive remarks to themselves and redacted identifying information.  However, imagine if the person receiving the nasty indictment was less professional.  The world is full of hotheads.  Having borne the brunt of irrational fury from supposedly college-educated professional businesspeople, I can see someone being mightily tempted to get a little payback.

The takeaway.  Never write down and send anything you would be embarrassed to see on a local blog, forum or email sent all over the country.   The web never sleeps and it never forgets.   To paraphrase Shakespeare, The Evil that men do is cached by Google…

I am posting this for my own reference and that of my clients.  Originally from LenaShore.com

Adding links to files in your WordPress pages and posts is just as easy as adding images. Follow these instructions below to add links to your own files.

I need to upload my file.

1. Login to your admin area.
2. Navigate to the page or post you want to insert the link/document.
3. Place your cursor where you want the link to appear.
4. Click the “Add media” icon next to “Upload/Insert”. (It’s the last icon that looks like a sun right above your editing tools)
5. Choose “Select Files” and find the file you want to upload from your computer.
6. When it is done uploading you will see a small thumbnail of your file and some areas for you to fill in.
7. In the “Title” area, choose the title of the link you want displayed.
8. The “Link URL” should already be filled in, but if it isn’t click “file URL”
9. Select “Insert into Post”.

I have already uploaded my file.

1. Login to your admin area.
2. Navigate to the page or post you want to insert the link/document.
3. Place your cursor where you want the link to appear.
4. Click the “Add media” icon next to “Upload/Insert”. (It’s the last icon that looks like a sun right above your editing tools)
5. Navigate to the “Media Gallery” Tab
6. Select the “Show” link that is next to the file you want to link to.
7. In the “Title” area, choose the title of the link you want displayed.
8. The “Link URL” should already be filled in, but if it isn’t click “file URL”
9. Select “Insert into Post”.

These instructions are assuming you are using WordPress 2.7.x

I put together this cheat sheet for my web clients who are using WordPress to maintain their own sites.  In addition to the default tools, it includes some of the tools from the TinyMCE Advanced Plug in . Feel free to pass it around, just spell my name right.

I have my clients embed Picasa Slideshows into their blogs and webpages as an easy way to put photos on the web.  However, sometimes you can’t get just the right size photo, and you have black bars or black borders on your nice slideshow.  

What to do?

When you embed your code, you see what looks like a bunch of gobbledygook. Within this code look for the following:

RGB=0×000000

That number is the hexidecimal code for the color black. To make it white, change “0×000000″ to “FFFFFF”. For other colors, visit colorschemer.com.

Double-check the code, it may need to be changed twice.

Click for Printable Version (Acrobat)

Your default font on your website ought to be Arial or Verdana. San-Serif fonts are easier to read online (Microsoft did very long studies to determine this fact) than serifed fonts like Times or Garamond. Fonts with serifs (the curlicues you see at the ends of the stroke of the letter) are easier to read in print. Don’t ask me why.   If you wrote an article in Microsoft Word and just paste it into WordPress, you may find that your page or post are in Times, not Arial. This happens because the editor in WordPress recognizes the formatting tags that are copied over from your Word document. Here is a sample pasted directly from Word:

Vestibulum urna metus, porttitor eu, cursus ac, porta molestie, turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Nulla nulla neque, elementum id, hendrerit vitae, dictum vitae, ante.

In the code, you will see tags like this:

<span style=”font-family: Garamond;“>

To remedy this, go to your editor toolbar and click on the “Kitchen Sink” control. You should see an icon that looks like a clipboard with a little “w” and square. Copy your Word text and click on the editing window. Click this icon, and a window will pop up. Paste your text here then click “Insert”. It will paste your text cleanly.

Vestibulum urna metus, porttitor eu, cursus ac, porta molestie, turpis. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Nulla nulla neque, elementum id, hendrerit vitae, dictum vitae, ante.