• What the multisite features mean to both users and developers
• How to enable Multisite once you’ve upgraded
• How to add and customize custom menus on your site
• How to add a custom post type

This talk will be aimed at both users and developers. Even if you don’t know a thing about coding, Aaron will show you the basics to help you understand these three changes. If a beta version of 3.0 is released before the meeting, we will work off of that. Otherwise Aaron will use the latest trunk version of WordPress. As this will be a development version, things can and will change before 3.0 is released, but this should give you an idea of what to expect. If you have any questions or suggestions on specifics that you would like to see covered, please comment on this post. See you on the 18th!

http://aaron.jorb.in
twitter: twitter.com/aaronjorbin

———
As always, we’ll meet at Webtrends (851 SW 6th Avenue) from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
RSVP on Upcoming.

I updated plugins at the same time I updated to 2.8.5 on TechnoEarthMama, and  All in One SEO Pack was one of those with an update. Some people have gotten 502 errors recently after updating this plugin; I got one when I tried to go to the plugin’s admin screen to update options. I simply deactivated and reactivated the plugin, and everything was fine after that, but if it’s still not working for you,  Devin Price tweeted a post on the WordPress.org forums which offers another solution. It does require editing the plugin. Also, don’t forget that there’s a radio button you need to click on the All in One SEO Pack settings page to enable the plugin (in addition to activating the plugin through WordPress).

Finally, if you’re interested, you can find out more about the changes coming in WordPress 2.9 over at ShanKrila (thanks to Kelly Guimont for the tip).

Named after trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker.

~

Fixes over 790 bugs.

~

Faster; both admin interface and database have improved performance.

~

One-click theme installation.

~

New CodePress editor for themes and plugins.

~

Plugins are no longer divided into active and inactive sections (although are marked as such)

~

Widgets are easier to use

Widget editing on the fly

Drag and drop widgets between sidebars; edit all sidebars simultaneously

De-activate widget but save settings.

The full list of features and fixes in 2.8, including developer features and a new Widgets API: http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_2.8

So you’ve got a blog, and after browsing through hundreds of free WordPress themes online you’ve found one that you like. But it’s not quite perfect. You don’t like that orange color. Or the titles are too big. Or it’s typeset in the wrong font. It’s okay, but it’s not yours. If only you knew just a little about Cascading Style Sheets, then you could tweak things to your hearts desire.

Good news! It’s not that hard. I’ll show you how to get started tweaking an existing WordPress theme. I’ll start simple and explain the basics of CSS selectors and properties. Then I’ll show off some some tools that make it easy to figure out what part of the code you need to change. I’ll go through several real world examples looking at how to change fonts, colors and spacing. Then I’ll show how to add icons or background images to an element. I’ll also try to highlight some common pitfalls and things to look out for. I’ll also be around to try to answer specific questions about how to fix something on your site. Already know some CSS-fu? You should come too and help people out and correct anything I might say that’s wrong.

I personally have come up against this in a few different ways so I am pleased to get more knowledge on this subject. It seems like it could go both ways though: Once I know even more about customizing my site will I ever blog or will I just continually monkey around with the layout? I can’t wait to find out! I want to reiterate Nathan’s invitation to anyone with strong CSS-fu to show up and help out. See you then!