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iWPhone: WordPress plugin renders for iPhone
I run my personal site using WordPress, and one reason I like using it so much is that (although this is hardly exclusive to WordPress as a content manager) is all the great plugins available for it. On another site I ran under WordPress, I loved using the WP-Print plugin-- it automatically creates a "printable" version of each page on your site. All of the printer compatibility, none of the actual work.And now, someone's cooked up an iPhone version of that same plugin, where you simply install the WP plugin on your blog (for WordPress 2.2.1), and instantly you can see all your posts formatted specifically for the iPhone. Instead of creating a whole other, "mobile" version of your site, you can simply put in this plugin, and you can get a link that will reformat your content for the iPhone or iPod touch. Very excellent.If you run a WordPress blog or site and were thinking about creating a version of it for the iPhone or iPod touch, your work is done. Download the iWPhone plugin from Content.Robot, install it, and you're set.Thanks, Philapple!
Retro MacOS Wordpress Theme
We don't usually cover Wordpress theme on TUAW, but I think we can make an exception for the Retro MacOS Wordpress Theme. Wordpress, in case you aren't familiar with it, is a very successful blogging engine which allows users to apply various themes to change the look of their blogs. Stuart Brown decided to try his hand at creating one, and he used System 6 as his inspiration. The result is a Wordpress theme that'll bring a smile to any Mac user's Finder (Ha! See what I did there?).You can see the theme in action here.
More ecto 3 details, a screenshot and roadmap revealed
Adriaan Tijsseling, developer of the Mac OS X version of the ecto blogging client, has been teasing us with sneak peeks and development details for some time now, but he's just posted another more revealing screenshot of ecto3, along with more details and a basic roadmap. Adriaan has touted ecto3 as a complete rewrite from v2, ushering in a new plug-in architecture that should make the app far more extensible. Also on the notable changes list is the replacement of the rich text editor by Editable WebKit, a new, more WYSIWYG feature of the engine that is used to power Safari, many other browsers on Mac OS X and even HTML rendering in Apple Mail. While Adriaan doesn't have any kind of ETA for a shipping version or even a beta just yet, it does sound like development is wrapping up well. Since support for different blogging platforms has moved to the plug-in format as well, he still has to build support for the latest Blogger (yes, it'll be in ecto3) and WordPress. As a final note, it's always nice to hear a developer using their own product, as Adriaan is using ecto3 "heavily" to try and catch as many bugs and problems as he can before unleashing it in one form or another on the masses.
BlogMate - blogging with TextMate on steroids
TextMate has a basic, built-in blogging bundle that provides some decent features. You can use a variety of syntaxes (HTML, Markdown, etc.) to pen your next digg-worthy post, and the bundle also has rudimentary support for retrieving posts from your blog to edit. It's not bad, but it isn't stellar either.Todd Ditchendorf's BlogMate plugin, however, is stellar.As a blogging interface for TextMate, the first thing you'll notice is that BlogMate isn't simply a bundle - it's a full-blown plugin, offering a palette with all sorts of control over your MetaWeblog-compatible blog (for now BlogMate has only been tested with WordPress, but in theory it should work with any of these blogging systems). As you can see, BlogMate can keep track of a configurable number of past posts, hook into your categories and even display previews with pictures of your posts. BlogMate can also handle multiple blogs for those who can't stop at just one (I'm looking at you, Scott McNulty).Setting up BlogMate is a breeze, though I should probably mention at this point that it is a beta product, so I echo Todd's sentiment of backing up your blog's database just in case. Creating a new post is as easy as opening a new TextMate document and typing away, but there's a major difference from the Blogging bundle here: you don't need to insert a post title; you do that when you actually finish the post and click BlogMate's 'Send Post' button. Managing posts is one area where BlogMate really shines, as editing a post is as easy as writing one - simply double-click any post in your list (and you can configure BlogMate to pull down more than the default 10 posts) to open it with all formatting preserved. Deleting a post involves nothing more than selecting a victim and pressing delete. While you don't get some of the finer features of other blogging clients, BlogMate is already a pretty powerful plugin for the rocking swiss army knife text editor that is TextMate. Todd has done a great job here, and I hope enough interest builds to help make BlogMate worth everyone's while. If you're done reading and you're itching to get blogging, you can grab a copy and peruse more instructions and details from Todd's site here.
iTheme: OS X WordPress Theme
I know a lot of other Mac users join me in being fond of the WordPress blogging platform. Well N.Design Studio has released a cool WordPress theme called iTheme that takes its visual cues from OS X, right down to the green zoom buttons, which collapse and expand your sidebar widgets. The widgets can also be re-arranged by dragging the title bar. I installed iTheme on one of my personal sites, and it works as advertised.iTheme has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution license and is a free download from N.Studio Design.[Via Digg]
Make your own PSP-compatible blog
Long before I started to write on PSP Fanboy, I had a personal blog, and I worked hard to ensure that it was PSP compatible. Now, there's an easy WordPress plug-in for bloggers that will automatically detect and render a PSP-formatted version. Cool, no?WordPress is one of the leading blog platforms out there, so if you're already blogging, this might come quite in handy. If any of you have PSP-formatted blogs, feel free to share them here![Via Joystiq]
WordPress 2.0.6 supports HTML quicktags in Safari
We typically don't post about updates to WordPress (that's Download Squad's job), one of the most popular install-it-yourself blogging platforms available, but this latest v2.0.6 is a little different. Amidst some security updates and other goodies for plug-in and theme developers is HTML quicktag compatibility for post authoring in Safari. As you can see in the screenshot Safari users can now enjoy more powerful editing in WordPress post and page creation windows. Though this isn't quite full rich text/WYSIWYG editing, there are plenty out there who would make the argument that you shouldn't be blogging that way with WordPress in the first place.Text formatting aside, this should offer the Safari-slinging WordPress users out there some browser-hopping relief when drafting their next diggable post.
On TextMate extras
Like me, there are probably a lot of fresh new TextMate users out there in the audience thanks at least in part to MacHeist, so I thought it would be pertinent to point out a few helpful resources Allan Odgaard (TM's developer) maintains at macromates.com. Of course the searchable mailing list and IRC channel are handy for getting your discussion on, over which TM user Brett Terpstra just shared a WordPress templating bundle he's created - quite possibly a good addition to that theming workflow we just blogged. Another powerful resource is the TextMate wiki, which houses a plethora of learning tools and resources such as a bundle repository if you're looking for some features or a language not included by default, as well as an RSS feed for bundle changes. Of course, what text app would be complete without user submitted themes? Last on my resource roundup (but by no means the end of what's available) are a few TextMate plugins, including a WebMate plugin that turns TM's Web Preview into a full-fledged WYSIWYG HTML editor based on WebKit. There's a lot more from where all this came from, so dive in or simply get your feet wet with this swiss army knife of text editors.
Develop a WordPress theme on your Mac
I'm going to tell you a secret, that I hope we can keep between us: I am a big fan of blogs and blogging. I love to write and I love to read, so blogging is a natural extension of that (and I hope my level of enjoyment makes its way into my posts here). WordPress is the hottest blogging tool out there. It is open source, dynamic, and all the cool kids use it. Sadly, while content is king, people also love a pretty face.Circle Six Blog has a great post up that outlines Brett's workflow for designing WordPress themes locally on his Mac. He lists a number of useful apps that we have covered on TUAW and includes some good general web design tips.
Wordpress to ecto plugin
It's the general consensus of most Mac users I know that ecto is the blogging client of choice. One thing I find very important about casual blogging is being able to quickly and easily go from viewing content to posting content. This is done in many online blogging environments by javascript bookmarklets, and ecto offers the same thing. Simply click the link in your bookmark bar, and a window pops up ready for a new post. Chris Barna decided to go one better and integrate this functionality directly WordPress by way of a plugin. Once a user has installed he wp-ecto plugin on their site, readers will see, along with any other social bookmarking icons so common on many sites today, a little ecto icon. Pressing this brings up a new post within ecto complete with title and URL already filled in.
MarsEdit 1.1 is available
Just three weeks after the release of MarsEdit 1.1fc1 (an coincidentally during MWSF), MarsEdit 1.1 has made its way out into the wild. MarsEdit is a weblog editor that works with a number of systems, like Movable Type, Radio UserLand, TypePad, WordPress and more. Changes in 1.1 include: Suppor for Technorati tags Edit by date Brand new keyboard shortcuts (cool) You can now download more than 30 posts at a time, lifting a previous limitation There's more, of course, and you can get the full feature list here. This version is also a universal binary, as well as a free upgrade for all registered owners of MarsEdit 1.x. A single license will cost you $24.95US. MarsEdit requires Mac OS 10.3.9 or greater, and is Tiger compatible.
