Got Blog? Software and Services

[pzarquon]

Are you a blogger? Thinking of becoming one? What tools do you use and why? What else is out there?

There's blogging software, stuff that requires an installation on your PC or on a webserver. Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.org), Movable Type (http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/), and Expression Engine (http://www.pmachine.com/ee/) are some of the big ones, but there are dozens of smaller, sometimes specialized packages using PHP, Perl, Ajax... anything you like. The sky is the limit when you roll your own, but the downside is often the installation, configuration, and upgrade hassles.

Then there are blogging services. Sites that host your blog, and let you publish your stuff through a web interface, anytime, from anywhere. You may lose some customization abilities, the ability to tinker, and even risk losing your stuff to a shutdown or crash, but on the other hand, they're easy to use, and often come with a whole community of other users ready to devour your writings.

For blogging services, Blogger (http://www.blogger.com) is the 800-lb. gorilla, acquired by Google and on the verge of a major upgrade. Of course, with everyone addicted to MySpace (http://www.myspace.com), the blogging features built in are also immensely popular. The folks behind the Wordpress software launched Wordpress.com (http://wordpress.com/), where you can have a Wordpress blog without dealing with PHP and servers. And the folks at SixApart are all over the map. In addition to Movable Type software, they run Typepad (http://www.typepad.com/), a paid service, they bought LiveJournal (http://www.livejournal.com/), which has a distinct community and format, and they're about to unveil Vox (http://www.vox.com) (which I mentioned testing here (http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=9702)), which will be free and include all sorts of bells and whistles (that users of other SixApart products had to pay for, or don't even have available).

Of course, there are hundreds of blog hosts... some were existing sites that added blog features, others are kind of bloggy but actually offer different or additional content or formats. Xanga (http://www.xanga.com) has a devoted following, Multiply (http://www.multiply.com) is like the swiss-army-knife of personal publishing (and thought to be the model Vox is copying)... there are blog sites just for Grateful Dead fans, just for sci-fi nerds, just for politics...

It doesn't help that "blog" (i.e. weblog) covers all kinds of content, from personal journals to political analysis to industry news to multimedia. It could be anything.

Whatever your interest, whatever your style, whether you want to run your own or use a blog host, there's something out there for you. So let's talk blog... not just what you write (or would write), but how you get it done.

[Konaguy]

I got into blogging in October 2005 and blogging away since then. My impetus
was I can only write one letter to the editor a month to the papers. I felt constrained by that rule.Hence my foray into blogging. On top of that I'm
deeply concerned about the future of this state.


Blogger (http://www.blogger.com) has been decent blogging service.
I took the plunge and upgraded my Blogger account on Monday to take advantage of the new beta services Google is introducing. Thus far I've been pleasantly impressed.

[Menehune Man]

Thanks for starting this thread! And thanks to pzarquon and Konaguy for all your advice thoughout my journey's aboard the Hawaii Threads Boat.
I really do enjoy being a part of this family.

I'll study up and am excited about learning the ins and outs of Blogging before "I jump in with both feet".
I want to make it turn out well and interesting to others too.

Mahalos!

[scrivener]

One of the very early free services was Diaryland (http://www.diaryland.com), which has been free from the very beginning and, while not as bell-y or whistle-y as some of the newer services, has always had a place in my heart for the spirit that launched it.

[1stwahine]

I started Blogging by accident. I was new to the Internet and happen to come across HawaiiStories.com. I submitted an application to Ryan on why I wanted to Blog. The rest is History. On August 5, 2004 ~ Lynn's Lair was Born. Word Press has changed since I first started. It is much easier to use and the "Spam Karma" is awesome! ;) http://www.hawaiistories.com/lynn

Being part of HawiiStories.com gives you an opportunity to be featured everytime you post a story. Every post is also automatically listed on the Main Page of HawaiiStories.com!!!

I also own my own Domains. AuntiePupule.com and TutuPupule.com. Both are from GoDaddy.com. It's easy to use and the services are great. I've had no problems.

Blaine is my Webmasta for both.

Currently, I have three Bloggers under my wings. I do it as a service cause it was done for me when I started out. Something like Fast Forward.

TutuPupule.com is still not launched. I haven't decided what I'm going to use it for. :p

Blogging gave me the opportunity to leave my Legacy for my grandson, Antonio. Now theres Kiana too. It has blossomed into something much bigger than I ever imagined. I recieve emails from all over the world. Making people laugh seems to be my talent Online. My naughtiness, eccentric behaviors (Bi-Polarness), Rants and Raves has gained me quite a number of readers!

Auntie Lynn

P.S. I would like to add. I don't write everything about My Life. Somethings are ment to be kept PRIVATE. :D

[mel]

I had a blogspace at Blogspot for the longest of time, but it was only in May of this year that I decided to use it a lot. Now I have 2 blogs there:

Mel's Internet Universe Weblog (http://macprohawaii.blogspot.com/)
Mel's Internet Universe Flickr Blog (http://macpro-flickr.blogspot.com/)

My question on the Blogspot blogs are:

1. Will I lose my current layout and formatting if I upgrade to the new Blogspot services? I noticed that once you change, they won't let you go back to the old format. I already have a gmail account and I also notice that going to the login page almost forces me to change by having that account and password set as the default over my current one with a different username and password.

2. Are we going to lose any of our archived content with the switch?

It is a good thing that I started as late as I did on that site without having to worry about 1 to 3 years worth of archived blog entries.

Besides Blogspot, I am also still fiddling with a couple of Wordpress set ups on 2 of the domains I currently run. Wordpress is as easy to use for the enduser (blogger). It is dealing with some of the formatting that is kind of troublesome, like trying to get rid of the default text on the title banner and using a logo graphic instead. I am also having that problem with Blogspot.

And yes, pzarquon, I still have the code to fix this stuff in WordPress, but frankly I haven't had time to try it yet. Has anyone created a Kubrick-like template for WordPress that already ditches the default title banner text?

[pzarquon]

One of the very early free services was Diaryland, which has been free from the very beginning and, while not as bell-y or whistle-y as some of the newer services, has always had a place in my heart for the spirit that launched it.Ah, yes, Diaryland. A bit maligned for the whole 'bunnies and kittens' thing, but definitely a veteran in the personal publishing space. There was also Diary-X, a less 'bunnies and kittens' service started by a friend of mine... but a catastrophic server crash killed it instantly, leaving thousands of melodramatic adolescents without their volumes of outpourings.

Diaryland is most definitely a diary host, rather than a blog host (which makes sense, since it predates the word 'blog' and the whole weblog content model). While that's great for what it is, it doesn't support interoperability and interactive features that most other systems do, like feeds, trackbacks, and API support.
I would like to add. I don't write everything about My Life. Somethings are ment to be kept PRIVATE.Considering what you do freely share, Aunty, I shudder to think what it takes to cross the line into unwritten territory!
Will I lose my current layout and formatting if I upgrade to the new Blogspot services? [...]Are we going to lose any of our archived content with the switch?I don't think anything will disappear, and I don't think anything will change insofar as your blog's presentation. While there is a substantial conversion going on, it's largely behind the scenes. Konaguy made the switch with his blog (http://aaronstene.blogspot.com), and while he changed his template, it looks like all the goodness is still there. Here's a tour of the new version (http://www.blogger.com/beta-tour.g).
Has anyone created a Kubrick-like template for WordPress that already ditches the default title banner text?This only requires taking two lines of code out of the 'header.php' template -- the ones that displays the title and subtitle. But if you want something that looks the way you want right out of the box, there are several (http://themes.wordpress.net/), several (http://www.alexking.org/index.php?content=software/wordpress/themes.php) free 'drop in' themes that can get you going instantly.

[Konaguy]

One big change when I re-built my blog was the blog postings are now instanteous (unlike when my account was through Blogger). Whew..I changed my template. But what a huge pain..I had to fix the text formating on my new and old blog postings :(.

[Menehune Man]

I've gotten some ideas together and would like to make my Blog "Menehune Man's World" in 3 sections:

1) My World... Adventures, encounters, failures and triumphs.
2) My Thoughts... My view of the world through rose colored glasses.
3) My Poetry... The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Is there a way to set one up so there's different departments?
Or are all a continuous linear string of posts like "My Space"?

Please bear with me, I know so little about computers. I have self learned quite a bit over the past 2 years.
From being a complete illiterate to the "Menehune Man" in all it's glory.

[1stwahine]

Please bear with me, I know so little about computers. I have self learned quite a bit over the past 2 years.

I was wondering why you Bold all the time. :eek:

Menehune Man, You can make your Blog anything you want it to be. When I first started blogging, Ryan told me, your Blog is your "Living Room" on the internet! I took him seriously. :p hahahahaha

To give you an idea ~ check out some Blogs at our sister website. http://www.hawaiistories.com

Good Luck

Auntie Lynn

[pzarquon]

Is there a way to set one up so there's different departments? Or are all a continuous linear string of posts like "My Space"?Most decent blogging setups (which does not include MySpace -- ugh!) allow categories that can then be browsed independently. So, you could have a blog with categories or tags related to personal stuff, geek stuff, work stuff (not recommended!), food stuff, whatever. Easy as pie. Actually, probably easier.

[Bard]

I used WordPress for quite a while, but got tired of maintaining it myself, and I had a lot of friends on LiveJournal to whom I'd like to have "friends-only" entries. So I moved over there now. Both seem like fine ways to keep up with people, though I haven't gotten the time to build something to vacuum my entries off LJ and copy them locally, for my archiving and to show on my own web site :o

[idvfilms]

I like Blooger for the ease of use and setup..but I also really enjoy Wordpress

[Eric]

I've been blogging at HawaiiStories.com for almost 2 years now -- hard to believe it's been that long. Ryan has been super helpful in hosting me and the other HawaiiStories tenants and giving us WordPress tips.

One thing that I worry about sometimes is backups. What if something bad happened and the host server had a complete meltdown and lost my blog entries? I don't keep backups of my stuff; maybe I should. Are there blog-specific tools for that?

A friend of mine who's kept online journals for years, and who has suffered more than once migrating from one publishing platform to another, now uses Movable Type so that she can store the originals of all her journal entries locally in her very own MySQL database and publish directly from there. That way she has archival copies, and they're easily portable to other platforms without laboriously copying them over one entry at a time. You realize the importance of this once you accumulate your first few hundred entries. :rolleyes:

[Bard]

Eric, one way is to get a blog that has an RSS feed (WordPress included) and then subscribe to your own feed using a newsreader type application on your computer. Vienna is a good one for Macs, not sure what the good one is on PCs right now. You can usually set it to keep copies indefinitely. Restoring them after a crash is something else... maybe Movable Type would be a good idea after all :D

[Menehune Man]

Okay, I've created "Menehune Man's World" with BetaBlogger. First question so far...
I still haven't been able to figure out how to create "Catagories" or "Tags" to put, arrange my Blogging? 1- My world (daily happenings) 2- My thoughts (about this world and all of us in it) 3- My poetry (yeah, I know).

Please help if you can?!!

[Menehune Man]

Okay, I've created "Menehune Man's World" with BetaBlogger.

I discovered that they're called labels and have now created the 3 that I wished for. So here I go! Menehune Man's World (menehunemansworld.blogspot.com)

[tutusue]

[...]One thing that I worry about sometimes is backups.[...]
With the exception of the home page, my entire web site (http://www.reelserviceshawaii.com) is a series of pages at blogger.com. Ryan set it up that way so that I can easily maintain it instead of bugging him to do it!!!

The longest page is my dad's tribute page which, if printed, would take about 45 sheets of paper! That one is written in Word and copied and pasted into Blogger. My original Word document becomes my back-up, in a sense. It, along with everything else on my computer, get's backed-up to 3 external hard drives. There would be no way I'd be able to reconstruct that page...or have the time to do it. And, it would be devastating to lose it.

[tikiyaki]

HT's own Pomai inspired me to start my own blog with his "tasty Island" blog. Being that I love food, I followed suit and it was a good jumping off point. It's nice to have a place to rant and rave, write about a great restaurant or event I went to in the past week, music, or whatever.

I'm still getting used to the whole dashboard thing on wordpress...html coding is definitely NOT my specialty. My computer geekery is in the form of music and audio software.

[Menehune Man]

I discovered that they're called labels and have now created the 3 that I wished for. So here I go! Menehune Man's World (menehunemansworld.blogspot.com)

Along with the first three, (My Poetry, My Thoughts, My World) I've added My History. It'll be my life story, as best I remember it and with alittle literary leeway thrown in. the very first installment of "From how I became..." is on my site. Check it out! Aloha, MM

[christa]

someone stopped me just yesterday and said "hey christa i thought you took, like, thousands of pictures, but i went to your blog and there's hardly any... like 4 per month"

i was shocked to realize that some people might not be CLICKING those little pictures to see the rest. now i'm trying to figure out if using a blogger service would be better but it's a lot to shift over but having your own "non-blog-powerd" blog is.... blogdicilous. i want to be bloggerrific.

ryan any ideas?

ps: one of my favorite hawaii blogs is auntie lynn's.
there's some others too. photo blogs.
if they are done right they can become quite addictive even if you don't know the people. :)

[pzarquon]

Christa, switching to a CMS -- whether hosted on your own domain (since you have a domain!) or on a service like Vox.com or Google's recently revamped Blogger -- has many advantages. Primarily it will save you the time of coding pages and updating links and the like, but it also offers readers some benefits ranging from feeds they can subscribe to and monitor easily to search features and easier navigation. So, I'd definitely consider it.

Since photos are a large part of your blog, you definitely might want to find a way to better integrate or showcase them. I, too, took a second or two to figure out that the thumbnails you post actually go to a full entry with dozens more larger photos!

One way might be to set up a Flickr account, then use their web widgets to automatically display the latest photo additions on any page on your site. This might separate your photos from the narrative, true, but some folks might just be after the photos anyway. ;) You can still incorporate those photos into a blog post, but also have your photo collection neatly organized and displayed independently. I do/did this with my personal journal site. It's also how I try to suggest folks do it when I host them at HawaiiStories. Write posts via WordPress, upload photos via Gallery, linking the photos in the blog as needed.

Again, though, a lot of the services integrate photos relatively well.

[Linkmeister]

I've pretty much stopped uploading photos to my blog altogether; I just use Flickr to store them and then use Flickr's "blog this" widget to get them onto my blog.

[Menehune Man]

I've pretty much stopped uploading photos to my blog altogether; I just use Flickr to store them and then use Flickr's "blog this" widget to get them onto my blog.

Okay, why? What is the advantage? Is there a limit to uploading directly to Blogger Beta?
I think I'll be using lots of photos on my Blog so this enquiring mind wishes to know. Thanks!

[Linkmeister]

Okay, why? What is the advantage? Is there a limit to uploading directly to Blogger Beta?
I think I'll be using lots of photos on my Blog so this enquiring mind wishes to know. Thanks!

In my case, it's because I have a 100mb maximum capacity on the server my host rents me for $75/year. The fewer photos I can put on there, the more space I have for my deathless prose. :D Photos take up way more space than text.

Otherwise I have to upgrade to the next level of capacity at more cost.

I should add this is Movable Type on a private hosting company; I haven't a clue what Blogger or Blogger Beta is doing for hosting. Is it free? If so, don't worry about it. If it ain't, worry. ;)

[Menehune Man]

Thanks! Yes, Blogger Beta is free. I'll investigate if there are any limits on photos. I also need to find out if there's any time limit for storage of my posts. Questions... questions. But I'm sure enjoying myself!

[adrian]

I'm probably one of the few who uses his own website as his blog (http://www.evenworse.net).

[jungbum]

Do you pay for blogs that has own url? (ex: xxxx.com, instead of xxxx.blogspot.com)

I have a myspace, but I'm tired of keeping it updated. I'm looking for a blog which I only can write. :)

[Eric]

One thing that I worry about sometimes is backups. What if something bad happened and the host server had a complete meltdown and lost my blog entries? I don't keep backups of my stuff; maybe I should. Are there blog-specific tools for that?I went and took a good look at the WordPress control panel for my HawaiiStories blog, and guess what. Manage > Backup is right there. D'oh! So much for my keen powers of observation. :p

[pzarquon]

Do you pay for blogs that has own url? (ex: xxxx.com, instead of xxxx.blogspot.com)You pay for domain names, so yes, there is a cost element. But having a subdomain on a service (blogspot.com, vox.com) isn't all that bad. Some of the most popular blogs out there are still run on Blogger.
I have a myspace, but I'm tired of keeping it updated. I'm looking for a blog which I only can write.Well, no matter where you keep your blog, it'll take effort to keep updated! As for a blog which only you can write? I'm not sure what you mean. Who else can write in your MySpace blog?

I don't even consider what MySpace provides to be a blogging service, except for the fact that they call it that, and since everyone uses it, it's a blog by default.

[blueyecicle]

Since I use my blog as a sort of diary myspace works well because it's just like a little book w/ pics. I am not serious enough to set up a blog so I just use myspace to vent.

[Linkmeister]

I went and took a good look at the WordPress control panel for my HawaiiStories blog, and guess what. Manage > Backup is right there. D'oh! So much for my keen powers of observation. :p

Another redundant method which I use: write your entries in Notepad, then copy & paste into your blog entry form. That way you've got two copies in case the blog entries disappear. 'Course, the thought of recreating the blog entry-by-entry for any length of time (in my case, nearly five years) is beyond daunting... :eek:

So if you're really worried, do that in addition to making regular backups of the blog from WordPress.

[tutusue]

I have a tribute blog to my dad using blogger.com. I ftp it to my web site. PZ taught me everything I need to know! ;)

[1stwahine]

Hui! Fellow Bloggers!!! I got the following article from Leo Lakio this morning. Something to really think about. Personally, I don't worry about being sued. I write the Truth. Plus, I no moa nuttin to be sued.:p

http://www.usatoday.com/printedition...over03.art.htm

Auntie Lynn

[Leo Lakio]

Plus, I no moa nuttin to be sued.:p You don't have what is referred to by the legal profession as "deep pockets."

[1stwahine]

You don't have what is referred to by the legal profession as "deep pockets."

I no moa "HOT pOCKETS" either. :p HAHAHAHAHAHA

I love ya!:D

Auntie Lynn

[pzarquon]

As folks fall in love with Google Reader (http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=10640), which gives you an easy way to track your favorite favorite sites, Christa asked:ryan do you have any advice on how i can .... make an rss.... for my site?Well, any modern content management system and blog tool creates syndication feeds automatically: WordPress, Blogger, pMachine/Expression Engine, and all the Six Apart tools (Movable Type, Typepad, LiveJournal, Vox). And, yes, you can find feeds at sites like Flickr, del.icio.us, and (ugh) MySpace, among others.

But if you're still hand-coding your web pages, creating an RSS/XML index of your updates has to be done manually. It's no picnic -- feed syntax is tricky and validators are merciless -- but it's possible. Dear Ian Lind does his by hand (http://www.ilind.net/ilind-rss.xml) -- though his "feed" only contains one post at all times.

Here are a couple of overviews of what's going on and how to "roll your own":

Making An RSS Feed (http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2175271)
Headline Syndication Overview (http://www.webdevtips.co.uk/webdevtips/developer/rss/index.shtml) (and a utility to give you a head start (http://www.webdevtips.co.uk/webdevtips/codegen/rss.shtml)).

Once you get your basic RSS file coded and validated, updating is relatively simple. You'd just remove the oldest "item" from the bottom and paste a new one at the top, changing the various elements (title, date, summary). But it's just one more manual step along with all the other manual coding you're doing, which can get old very quickly.

Christa, you've got your own domain, and you're trying to get away from MySpace (good idea)... so installing a tool like WordPress seems like the perfect solution for you. You could of course move to a service, or use a service like Blogger to publish the content on your site, but I know the need to run everything yourself. Let me know if you need ideas or help moving in this direction.

[manoasurfer123]

PZ -

When you get a chance can you check out www.yapta.com
It's only in it's Beta Mode...

However, I'm curious about the possibility of this new "Service" that maybe starting soon.

Your thoughts and insights are always good.
YapTA! -- whatever consumer market it is going after -- certainly doesn't lack bravado. A description on the Web site says that the seven-person company "plans on being a major piece" of everyone's life.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/283066_yapta30.html

[christa]

This free online service converts any web page to an RSS feed on the fly.


http://feed43.com/

[1stwahine]

Hmmm...I guess I'll put this important information here.

Online Publishers Off the Hook for Libelous Comments, Court Says http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31

"If you allow comments on your site, breathe easier. On Nov. 20, the Calif. Supreme Court decided that online publishers cannot be sued for posting or distributing libelous material written by others.

"Plaintiffs who contend they were defamed in an Internet posting may only seek recovery from the original source of the statement," wrote Justice Carol Corrigan in the court opinion.

So far, this precedent applies only to lawsuits filed in Calif. -- but that state's Supreme Court is considered highly influential on media law, so it may well carry weight around the US."

Hmmmm....das why only write da TRUTH dat can be backed up with FACTS!;)

Auntie Lynn

[mel]

I hastily took the plunge this weekend and converted my Hawaii Radio & Television Guide (http://www.hawaiiradiotv.com)site to Wordpress, and now I am in some kind of apickle.

My webhost had a nice installation feature built in for this but I did not like the Kubrick templates they offered, so I downloaded and installed the template called "Cutline". It looks nice and has the potential to offer plenty of features.

I have some of this stuff figured out like how to swap out the banner photos, but what's getting me is this.

For the sections on the left and right columns called "SEARCH", "ADMIN', "CATERGORIES", "RECENT ENTRIES" and "ARCHIVES", how can I add more sections but have them look the same as those default ones? I'd like to add sections for "PAGES", "LINKS" (replacing the ugly default "Blogroll" which does not fit the rest of the sections and on Firefox shifts to the right to its own column, which makes the damn thing look ugly).... I am surprised the template tool does not offer us to create additional sections and have them look the same as the defaults. Anyone know how to do this easily, or do I have to go to the raw file somewhere and edit with a text editor?

I would like to know before I get too deep with this. The old stuff that used to be on the site is backed-up and if I can't get this Wordpress thing going at least I can dump the old stuff back to where it used to be. As of now, all of it is in a sub-domain of my main domain.

So any of you Wordpress experts have instructions?

[pzarquon]

Sounds like you're working with "Widgets," which are the movable modules you manage via drag-and-drop under the "Presentations" tab in WordPress. I'm surprised they don't match the rest of the site. "Cutline" is a great theme, by the same folks who did the theme for my current blog, so I wouldn't have expected such prominent formatting quirks.

How exactly are these elements not matching? Wrong fonts? Alignment? Overlapping text or other glitches? I thought that if I wanted my "Archives" on the left or right, I'd just drag it over and click save and pau. Hmm.

Have you experimented with a couple of other themes? They're a snap to switch between, and it could be one way to troubleshoot your "Widgets."

[mel]

Thanks Ryan. It seems for me the options offered in the PRESENTATION tab are limited to only three: THEMES, THEME EDITOR and CUTLINES OPTIONS. The themes tab makes it easy just to switch between the 3 themes I have available... Classic and Kubrick and Cutline 3 column, the first 2 installed by default by my webhost and the last installed by me.

Cutlines opiton only offers me the option to activate the ARCHIVE page which I did but still get an Error 404 when I click ARCHIVE at the top navigation area of my blog. I guess I have to create and archive page (though I have an Archive sub-domain that has all of the older pages from my site).....

Theme Editor presents me with editing options for various aspects of the blog, but all are command line with a note at the bottom of the so-called editing window that states, "If this file were writable you could edit it." Duh?

Why offer this option if I have to go back and manually hack every page in HTML and re-upload them by FTP to the right directory? I'm not that great at writing code and I am afraid I'll probably mess something up big time. And that it won't work when you want to easy to use GUI at the front end to work. Arrgh!

You mention drag and drop widgets. Where do I drag and drop the widgets? Sounds easy but I don't see an obvious page in that PRESENTATION TAB to do that. I do see the left column and right column page codes that exist as separate files to manually hack offline and make it the same as the default.

When I used the LINKS option from the dashboard, the links and title worked but they were thrown to another column to the right of the right hand sidebar. Needless to say it made the page look ugly and I deleted it.

So right now I have kind of a half functional blog thing but not with all of the features that I had up front for the old pages. Plus I want to put my Google ad blocks back in too. That helps pay for the hosting.

I guess I need to read the many docs that are online for Cutline as well as their extensive message board there and hope there is an answer.

I like the look of Cutline from all of the themes offered by Word Press. I utlimately want to get it running right and then just spend time worrying about updating only the content and not worrying about layout and the look of the thing... Trying to get away from doing this stuff in the old fashioned HTML banging way.

[pzarquon]

Thanks Ryan. It seems for me the options offered in the PRESENTATION tab are limited to only three: THEMES, THEME EDITOR and CUTLINES OPTIONS.Interesting. There should be a 'Widgets' selection between 'Themes' and 'Theme Editor.' Perhaps 'Cutline' doesn't support the WordPress widgets standard? Er, wait. I'm using Cutline for Hawaii Blog. And I definitely see 'Widgets' in there. What version of WordPress and Cutline are you using? Have you verified they're the latest versions available?
Cutlines opiton only offers me the option to activate the ARCHIVE page which I did but still get an Error 404 when I click ARCHIVE at the top navigation area of my blog.Yes, the way 'Archives' are managed with the Cutline theme specifically is unusual. There is another step or two that mixes management of archive links using the 'Pages' framework. You'll want to read the documentation for this one.
Theme Editor presents me with editing options for various aspects of the blog, but all are command line with a note at the bottom of the so-called editing window that states, "If this file were writable you could edit it." Duh?This is a permissions issue. When properly configured, WordPress as a script should have the same rights of your web server user, and all the files and folders in areas managable by the script should have the correct permissions. I think the command in shell is 'CHMOD 755' or something like that.

When correctly configured, you can edit the HTML and PHP of almost every part of your site inside the WordPress editor. If not, though, WordPress can't change files, just show them to you. In which case, yes, you'd need to go in via shell or update via FTP.
When I used the LINKS option from the dashboard, the links and title worked but they were thrown to another column to the right of the right hand sidebar. Needless to say it made the page look ugly and I deleted it.Interesting indeed. These all sound like unusual quirks of your install or version. I should note that the 'core' version of Cutline is two columns. The three column version -- with two sidebars -- is definitely fussier. I set it up to have both sidebars on the right of the main content column, though I see you're putting the sidebars on either side instead.
I guess I need to read the many docs that are online for Cutline as well as their extensive message board there and hope there is an answer.Yeah, that's a good plan. Some WordPress themes are just thrown out there and the developers are never heard from again. The folks behind Cutline are pretty active, as are its many users.

Switching to a CMS is definitely the way to go, and will save you lots of time and get you writing more often in the end. Getting everything set up, though, definitely brings some short-term pain!

[mel]

Yes, I agree CMS is the way to go. It's the getting there in this instance that is the hard part.

For example I just put in one link from the LINKS option that is offered and now that link is in its own column on the right side... in Firefox. However in Safari it is place in the same column. However the title text and link itself do not match the content above it for that column as well as the column to the left.

I am now thinking about using Cutline with the single sidebar. I think there is one somewhere. Hopefully if I change to that what little I already did with this one won't be lost (like banner picture, the first 2 posts and the new static page).....

Oh well have to go to work today and then jet off to the Big Island tonight. I'll hopefully have some time this week when I am there to mess around more with this stuff.

For the few of you who still access the Hawaii Radio & Television Guide (http://www.hawaiiradiotv.com) site, please bear with me while I work this stuff out. Mahalo!