Today I Learned About WordPress Category Templates

Today I learned about category templates in WordPress. There is a simple, yet rarely used feature, that allows you to display content based on a specific category. For example, if you have 10 categories, with ID’s 1-10, and you want to show your visitors something different for each of these 10 categories, you can create files with this naming convention:

category-1.php, category-2.php, and so on.

When the URL http://mydomain.com/category/coolcat is entered into the browsers address bar, and WordPress sees a category request made, it looks for a category-x.php file in the main template folder. If one exists, that will be used over the default template file. If a template file isn’t found for the requested category, the next file that WordPress looks for is category.php. This is another template default file that can be applied to all categories that don’t have their own template. If a category.php isn’t found, then the default template file is used.

One thing I discovered while trying to get category templates to work, I was entering http://mydomain.com/coolcat and expecting the category template to display. But as you may know, WordPress was trying to find a Page named “coolcat”. I struggled with this for a week, and after ripping out the small hair follicles on my head, it dawned on me I was entering the wrong URL. Remember, /category/ must precede the category name, or it just doesn’t work.

Here is a link to the WordPress Codex explaining category template.

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Kindle Is Convenient But Not Always The Best Choice

I know that’s a bold statement, not cost affective. Why am I saying that? Let’s look at a few things. Utah author Brandon Sanderson (who, by the way is finishing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series), has The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, Book 2) for sale on Amazon in paperback for $7.99. The Kindle version of this book is, $7.99. No savings, and I don’t get a physical book. Why is that important?

In my opinion the Kindle is a great Green appliance. It allows you to read a book without killing trees and eventually ending up in a land fill. However, I like the ability to resale, or even donate, a book once I’m through. With a Kindle book, you can’t. I’m also at the mercy of the Kindle having a power issue, and then I can’t read a book. And the Kindle doesn’t have limitless storage, which limits my library.

I guess I’m struggling paying eight bucks for a digital book. I believe the digital version should be a lot less. I know many Kindle books have a cheaper price than their paper counterpart, but those books tend to be older. Give us new releases for at least half the cost since it should only take half the effort to produce, stock and ship.

I really like the Kindle. In fact, I love the iPhone version (iTunes link). It’s convenient, and I find I’m reading more because I have the book with me all the time.

If you’re an Author, and I know this may buy me some heat here, urge your publisher and Amazon to reduce the price of your digital works. I know I will.

Share with us your view on Kindle books, and if you have one, either the Kindle device or the iPhone application and how you like it.

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Now You Can Access Google Tasks In Mail, Calendar and Mobile Applications

Finally, Tasks are part of the Google calendaring application. The Task feature has been available for a while now, but it wasn’t available as part of the calendaring system, where I believe most people want and need to use a task management system.

As is typical with Google, it’s not a flashy part of the calendaring system. Looking at the image below, you can almost miss it if you weren’t paying attention.



Just like adding a calendar event, when you click on a time line or day box, a bubble window pops up, giving you the ability to add an event or a task. Once you have entered the text for your tasks, you will immediately see the task show up on the day you want the task due. You will also see in the Task pane on the right of the calendar, you can see it in a pane on the right of GMail, and as you can see from my iPhone I was able to see the task immediately.







So as it stands today, Google has basically made tasks available across all the application you would expect to see it, GCal, GMail and in mobile applications.

One feature I hope they implement soon are multiple task buckets. You can create tasks on the iPhone in a sort of bucket, but all calendar and mail task entries end up in the default task list. That isn’t a big deal, but I have tasks separated into groups (like things I do every Monday as an example).

There are several actions available when you have the task list pane open. You can edit, indent, sort, and several more. You will find the actions at the bottom of the task list.

This is a great step for this feature. I use tasks all the time, now I can see them across all my Google apps.

[Update: 05/14/09]I wanted to make a small change to this post. It appears that you can move a task to another list once you have created it. There is a small drop down at the bottom of the bubble form when you are editing a task that lets you move it to a new list. Didn't see that before. That drop down list should also be on the new entry form. Hello Google?

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Beautiful Views

This was the best view!

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The Importance Of People Versus Technology

People are where it's at. Technology is just a vehicle.

Today is April 1st. Typically people see today as the start of Spring. A time to renew. A time to access our plan for the year, and make some course corrections.

PodCampSLC 2009 just wrapped up a few days ago. Having the opportunity to meet people I have only interacted with through technology was awesome. I think it is vitally important for people to meet face to face. You can't hide behind a screen. Venture out. Meet up. There are so many things going on out there, you might even discover some new friends.

Things are sort of back to normal. I don't think I'll take on such a huge project again with as little help as I did. The community is bigger than that, and the community deserves to be more involved.

Check out the PodCampSLC website for updates on this past camp and to stay current with upcoming events.

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