I really love the Mandigo theme I had been using (and may yet go back to if this theme doesn’t work out). Its got a nice look, and behind-the-scenes its hugely configurable, with an option screen that lets you tweak the look and behaviour without needing to know any PHP or CSS. Its great theme if you’re just starting out.

For now I’ve gone with Daleri Sweet as my new theme.  I quite like the layout and split column approach to the right hand sidebar.  I have tweaked it slightly, to add in the borders around images, and a separator between the post content and the sidebars.  I’ve also added in a nice new image resizer, so clicking on the pictures in posts will show the full size version in a swish new way

So, thoughts on the new look?

The management interface has also been coming on leaps and bounds since 2.6.  I’m really liking things like the quickpost window on the main dashboard (although since I tend to use Categories, I’m not using it much).  The whole thing looks a lot more professional these days, with options grouped into various expandable categories.

Anyway, slightly rambling, but the main point is that the new upgrade functionality has made my life easier

A couple of my categories have been bugging me for a while. I always felt the line between the Computing and Technology categories got a bit grey quite a lot. With tagging coming in, I thought the distinction was even less necessary (with my idea being that the category should provide an overall feel for the topic, and then the tagging provides more detail). Out of the two, the Computing was more used, however I figured Technology provided more of a “catch-all”, so unfortunately it meant more work for me, as I’ve removed the computing category and moved all those posts under Technology.

I also thought I’d spruce up the links. I’ve tried to add in most of my favourite sites, and sub-divide them into appropriate categories. I’ve also added some of the podcasts I listen to. I do listen to quite a few of the BBC and Guardian podcasts, but I thought it’d be more interesting to list the ones I listen to which don’t come from a big company (as much as I enjoy Digital Planet, Tech Weekly etc).

I’ve been going back through the old posts, and its interesting to watch myself get more used to how things are done with the blog. I’ve got a better grip on WordPress’ file handling, upgrade procedures, using CSS for formatting images etc. Its definitely been handy as a learning experience for me, as well as providing a platform for me to spout my fairly inconsequential fanboy rants about things

I’m quite enjoying not just posting, but also administering the blog as a hobby now, so I don’t see my posts slowing down much over the next year hopefully (famous last words). Hopefully I’ve provided some mild entertainment or discussion for others reading and commenting as well

I’m still not convinced by it, but that I think is partly because I’m used to just using my categories. I’m trying to ensure that I at least include the categories of a post as tags, but a big problem I’ve got with tagging in WordPress 2.3 is that its hard to keep track of which tags I’ve already used.

The good thing is that this is one area that’s been addressed in WordPress 2.5. I installed the release candidate to get a look at it, and while for readers there’s not a huge difference, once you go behind the scenes as the blog admin, its had some big makeovers that I think will make a big difference. Primarily of interest to me at the moment is that the tag field now prompts you with existing tags when you start typing in that field. Magic.

Since WordPress added tagging, I’ve been eyeing it suspiciously. What does it offer me that my categories don’t?

Honestly, I’m still not sure, but I’ve decided to try and add some tags to my posts none-the-less. The strategy I’m trying to take is to use the tags to further breakdown the main content of my posts beyond the categories. So if I make a post talking about something Linux-y, it’ll go under the general computing category, but then have tags like Linux and Ubuntu.

I’m hoping it makes searching better or something, or at least, the tag cloud should prove an interesting view at how the content I’m posting is skewing over any given time. I’ve gone back and added tags to the last month or so’s worth of posts to get things started. I may go back and further tag older posts, but that’ll depend on how bored I am. I also want to go back and sort out some of the older file handling from my early posts, so while dull, I may roll the two jobs together.

Tagging will probably depend on how I feel to any particular topic though. Site Admin posts, while categorised will probably remain un-tagged, unless I feel there’s something particularly interesting in them.

With WordPress adding tags a release or two ago, I thought I should start adding them, and by extension, add the tag cloud widget to my sidepanel. However, I’ve also been aware that the length of the sidepanel was increasing, so I thought I’d give a 3 column layout a whirl.

Feel free to leave feedback as to whether or not its better. But if you think it sucks, don’t panic. It may not be permanent

Wasn’t a huge issue, but just something that was annoying me

Well, after viewing the blog in IE, I noticed the javascript error icon coming up when the blog was loaded. So at least I now I’m closer to figuring out what’s wrong. I know its not the theme files, as they’re freshly updated. So it must be something else causing the problems…

I did really like it, but I’d rather have a consistent look for my posts, so I’ve switched it off for now and reverted to HTML links where a larger version of an image is available.