Does this include you?

If you are using WordPress, yes it does.

Contact your web host to ensure phpMyAdmin is updated immediately.

If you are self-hosted and manage your own server, update phpMyAdmin immediately.

If you are using WordPress or phpMyAdmin and MySQL on your computer through WAMP, MAMP, XAMPP, Instant WordPress, DesktopServer, BitNami or any of the other ways you can install WordPress on your computer or a stick (USB), update phpMyAdmin by using the patch or check the install technique’s site for updates.

If you are using WordPress.com, don’t worry. This does not apply to you or your site.

The flaw affects phpMyAdmin versions 4.7.x prior to 4.7.7. Hopefully, your server/web host company has been updating phpMyAdmin all along and you don’t need to worry, but even though this is a medium security vulnerability, it is your responsibility as a site owner and administrator to ensure that your site is safe. Don’t just rely on GoDaddy, Dreamhost, or whatever hosting service you use to take care of these things for you. Sometimes they are on top of these before an announcement is made public. Other times, they are clueless and require customer intervention and nagging.

Now, what is phpMyAdmin?

MySQL is an open source database program, and phpMyAdmin is the free, open source tool that makes the administration and use of MySQL easier to manage. It is not a database. It is a database manager. You can easily search and replace data in the database, make changes, and do other maintenance and utility tasks in the database.

Every installation of WordPress requires PHP and MySQL along with a variety of other web-based programming packages and software. Most installations by web hosts and portable versions of WordPress add phpMyAdmin to manage the WordPress site. It is not required for WordPress to work, but don’t assume that it is or isn’t installed. CHECK.

To find out if phpMyAdmin is installed on your site:

1. Check with your web host and ask. Don’t expect their customer service staff to know for sure. Make them check your account and verify whether or not it is installed, and if they’ve updated. Push them for a specific answer.
2. Check the site admin interface (cPanel, Plesk, etc.) to see if it is installed.
3. Log into your site through secure FTP into the root (if you have access) and look for the installation at /usr/share/phpmyadmin or localhost/phpmyadmin. Unfortunately, it could be anywhere depending upon the installation as these are virtual folders, not folders found on your computer, so it must be assigned to a location.
4. If running a portable installation of MySQL and/or WordPress, follow the instructions for that tool and download and install all patches to ensure phpMyAdmin is updated to the latest secure version.

“It’s that time of year when the world falls in love…”
The Christmas Waltz by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn

I’d like to think that New Year’s thinking includes bringing back the love to your blog. You might not think that, but let’s go with that belief as we continue with this year’s Blog Exercises.

This is the year of the journal. Many thought it was last year, but it is this year as sales of the blank, dotted, lined, and designed journals continue to rise in the book industry due to the Bullet Journal and other related journaling and diary-writing techniques and tips flood the web. More people than ever are blogging, sharing their thoughts and opinions through social media platforms with the world, and documenting and tracking their life on paper, hopefully leaving a legacy of memoirs behind.

As the United States and many other countries around the world age, preservation of experiences, opinions, perspectives, and thoughts on their daily existence become precious. As the old saying goes, “When a person dies, it’s lie losing a library.” Let this year be the year you preserve your own library’s worth of knowledge.

Yes, it is time to reboot, restart, and get to some kick ass blogging. Make it now. Make it good. And start sharing.

As a reminder to all, blogging does not require a blogging. Blogging is the process of publishing and sharing your thoughts, experience, knowledge, expertise, and discoveries with the world online. You could be using a blog, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever publishing platform you desire.

Today’s blog exercise involves doing that reboot and restart by setting your blogging goals.

Now, there is a caveat to this exercise. Neuroscience has discovered that if you want to succeed, don’t tell anyone about your goals. I know this goes against the grain of blogging’s purpose, but according to a study by Gollwitzer, Sheeran, Michalski, and Siefert published in May 2009 issue of Psychological Science, as reported in Psychology Today, if you want to achieve your goals, don’t share them.

The researchers identified two types of goal choices: identity and career. A career goal is one that advances a person’s working life and decisions. An identity goal influences a person’s concept of who they are, their identity, to be a good parent, to eat better, volunteer and contribute more to society, be a better spouse or partner, be a better child and caregiver to older parents, exercise more, learn new skills, tasks associated with changing or reinforcing behavior, attitude, and self-identity.

They suggest that when people announce an intention to commit to an identity goal in public, that announcement may actually backfire. Imagine, for example, that Mary wants to become a Psychologist. She tells Herb that she wants to pursue this career and that she is going to study hard in her classes. However, just by telling Herb her intention, she knows that Herb is already starting to think of her as a Psychologist. So, she has achieved part of her identity goal just by telling Herb about it. Oddly enough, that can actually decrease the likelihood that Mary will study hard.

Gollwitzer and his colleagues provided evidence for this point. In one clever study, they had students interested in becoming Psychologists list two activities that they would perform in the next week to help them achieve that goal. Half of the people handed what they wrote to the experimenter who read it over and acknowledged reading what they had written. The other half were told that the exercise of writing down their intentions was given to them in error, and that nobody would be looking at it. The following week, all of the participants were contacted again and were asked to remember the goals they had written down the previous week and then to write down how much time they had spent on those activities. The people whose goals were read by the experimenter actually spent less time pursuing those activities than the people whose goals were not read. A number of follow-up studies were presented as well that ruled out other explanations for this finding.

The article suggested that it is best to “let actions express your intentions louder than your words,” which is our starting point.

In 2017, Angela Duckworth and Katy Milkman began a cross-industry research project called “Behavior Change for Good.” Explained in a Freakonomics podcast episode, which intends to follow their progress, people “repeatedly make decisions that undermine their own long-term well-being,” so how can science study the problem of self-destructive behavior to help behavior change for good, thus permanently influencing us to make positive and “good” decisions that impact our lives and the social experience.

One of the participants in the “Behavior Change for Good” conference, Wendy Wood, professor of psychology and business at the University of Southern California, explained that science is good at changing behavior in the short term, but not good at changing long-term behavior. She gave the example of the five-a-day fruits and vegetables government program to encourage healthy eating:

This was really successful in one way. It was a tremendously large-scale intervention. It was successful at changing our knowledge. We now know that we should eat more fruits and vegetables. It had no effect on behavior. In fact, consumption has gone down since the program started.

Danny Kahneman, an award-winning psychologist and author from Israel, spoke at the conference, citing the work of Kurt Lewin, a German-American psychologist who developed the concept that people’s behavior is “driven by two main external forces.”

There are driving forces that drive you in a particular direction. There are restraining forces. Which are preventing you from going there. The notion that Lewin offers is that behavior is an equilibrium between the driving and the restraining forces. You can see that the speed at which you drive, for example, is an equilibrium. When you are rushing some place, you feel tired, or you’re worried about police. There is an equilibrium speed…Lewin’s insight was that if you want to achieve change in behavior, there is one good way to do it and one bad way to do it. The good way to do it is by diminishing the restraining forces, not by increasing the driving forces. That turns out to be profoundly non-intuitive.

He goes onto explain that instead of asking “How can I get him or her to do it?” reframe the question to define the obstacles. “Why isn’t she doing it already?”

It turns out that the way to make things easier is almost always by controlling the individual’s environment, broadly speaking. By just making it easier. Is there an incentive that work against it? Let’s change the incentives. If there is social pressure? If there is somebody who is against it, I want to influence B. But there is A in the background, and it’s actually A who is a restraining force on B. Let’s work on A, not on B.

…It seems to be that it’s a natural thing to do. That is, when you want to move an object, you move it. When you want to move somebody, you try to move them. But the idea of looking at the situation from that individual’s point of view, which is the only way that you can find restraining forces, that is really not very natural. It is primordial. It is very basic that when we want things to move, we move them.

Years ago, I learned that if others want you to change, you won’t change. You will resist. At least, until it is your idea. Yet, many of us want to change, we have to change, it can become a moral and physical imperative that we change our thinking, our lifestyle, our work habits. Still, the change is temporary, which is why most people give up on New Year’s resolutions within less than three months. Unless the desire for change is our decision, a choice made over and over again in a way that persists in our decision making, we lose focus, and we give up.

I learned that if you reframe your thinking from “I’m on a diet” to “I’m a person who would eat salad,” your brain shifts and becomes that salad-eating person not a consumer of fried foods. Once ingrained, you become that kind of person rather than someone struggling with changing eating behaviors.

Years ago, a friend had tried AA over and over again and couldn’t stay off the booze for more than a few months. Life would get complicated, and the excuse to drink would be the solution. I suggested he try saying “I’m a person who would drink soda” as part of his decision-making process when confronted with the need to take a drink. He was allowed to be more specific and replace it with a brand named soda or water, as long as he went through the motions of drinking something rather than resisting drinking. Ten years later, I heard from him out of the blue as our lives changed and shifted away from each other. He told me that he makes that decision even today, ten years sober, and thanked me. I’d say that was a pretty good testimony as to its effectiveness.

It’s a small thing but think about this for a moment. Everyone wants us to do something. Our families, our employers, clients, neighbors, governments, advertisers, doctors – the list is long. Each one benefits by changing those around them to their way of thinking, action, or behavior. The project “Behavior Change for Good” is just one of many diving into what motivates us to change, especially persistent change. The “Behaviour Insight Team” (the Nudge Unit) from the UK government and “Social and Behavior Sciences Team” (SBST) governmental unit associated with the US Federal Government are just a few studying this to determine how the federal government can influence human behavior for public policies. Both of these groups and their work were highlighted in another Freakonomics podcast episode. All these groups want us to change, they want to modify our behaviors, sometimes for our own good, sometimes for the good of society, sometimes for their own greed.

What’s been found recently and redundantly by these research groups is that people respond best to nudges not head pounding, which they called behavioral nudges.

…the most effective message was one that was personalized and that highlighted that even small investments today can lead to very large gains in the longer term.

How are behavioral nudges used? Marketers have already been using them. Ask a yes or no question. Remind people. Make only one point, not ten, in your arguments or proposals. Streamline and simplify the decision process and more people will actually make a decision. When I look at the “I’m a person who would…” reframing in the decision-making process, it is a clear behavioral nudge.

My mother was a how-to book addict. I teethed on them. I learned early at the printed knee of Dale Carnegie and others about how to succeed in business and life with extraordinary effort but simple steps, broken down into manageable bites, an excellent educational foundation for a blogger. I also watched my family deal with a variety of bad habits and addictions in spite of all the wisdom around them, which encouraged my continued fascination with behavioral science, marketing, advertising, and the science behind behavior modification. Here are my conclusions:

1. If you want to change, act like you’ve already changed.
2. Write it down. Review, modify, and reflect upon it frequently and regularly.
3. Break things down to their smallest steps and move toward big goals in small increments.
4. Be specific. “Blog more this year” isn’t specific. “Publish 3 posts a week” also isn’t specific enough. “Write and publish 3 posts on how my cat influences my blogging, 4 posts on how social media motivates my blogging, 2 posts on fake news blogging, 6 posts on finding inspiration on road trips…” That’s specific. Get out your editorial calendar and start scheduling deadlines to be even more specific.
5. Do it because it is 1) the right thing to do, and 2) because it is the right thing for you to do. Make that your reward, not chocolate.
6. Remove temptations. Seriously. Temptations are distractions.
7. Reframe thoughts and choices. Every day, every hour, every minute, make a decision with the following statement: I’m the person who would…

Which brings us to your blog exercise today.

Your blog exercise is to write down your goals for your blog this year. Don’t tell anyone unless you need their help, and be specific with what that means.

Be specific.

Break things down into small doable increments or steps.

Remove all temptations and distractions. Add an app on your phone and computer for setting self-imposed deadlines and work hours, and another to turn off all notifications during your writing/blogging times. Clear off your desk and put only the tasks you need to do today on it, and set it up before you quit working each day so it is ready for you the next.

Tell yourself two things at least once every day, or at least when faced with decisions:

1. I’m the person who would blog…
2. I’m the person who would…

And report in on how you are doing. I don’t want to know your goals, but I do want to know your progress, as I do with all of these blog exercises and challenges.

Here are some resources to help you understand more about how the mind and behavior change works.

• The Science of Accomplishing Your Goals – Psychology Today
• The Neuroscience of Perseverance – Psychology Today
• Big Returns From Thinking Small – Freakonomics
• How to Be More Productive – Freakonomics Freakonomics

You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is an ongoing challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles. You may join us at any time, but I recommend you take a moment to visit past blog exercises to help invigorate your site.

On your site, you should be paying attention to:

• Most Popular Posts: Are your most popular posts related by topic? If so, there is clearly a driving interest in that topic. Consider writing more. If not, then what about these are interesting enough to keep bringing in traffic on a regular basis? If they aren’t consistent over time, why are they your most popular posts? Analyze them to help shape your future posts.
• Click-Throughs: What links on your site are they clicking to leave your site? Where are you sending them? Why? Is it for more information because you haven’t helped them enough, or is it because you are the key referring source to help them further? Analyze your clicks and evaluate where people are going after leaving your site. If it is intentional, fantastic.
• Where are They Coming From? Where are your readers coming from? Which country? Which language? If enough of your reader aren’t fluent in your language, consider how you write for them.
• Search Terms: What search terms bring people to your site from search results, and what words do they use to search for content on your site? Are you serving up content on these topics?

There are many stats that don’t matter unless you are currently developing your website. Honestly, no one cares which browser your visitors are using, the size of their screens, or operating system. What matters is if a good majority of your visitors are using smartphones to access your site. Then your site better be mobile-friendly, then you can forget about that stat again.

Bounce Rate is a funky stat to fuss over. Many digital marketing experts emphasize monitoring this stat, an indicator of how long someone stays on a web page before they leave. The longer someone stays on your site or on a web page might be important, but not if they opened it, got a phone call and wandered off, or left the tab open and forgot about your site. If you are an online delivery service, you want the shortest bounce rate EVER. After all, what does someone want to know from an online delivery service? Where’s my package and when will I get it? The faster the site delivers that information, the better the customer feels, thus a tiny bounce rate is the goal. Look at the bigger picture. If you publish a post with the goal of sending people to a valuable resource, you want a short bounce rate. Always explore this stat with common sense and a bigger picture understanding of your goals.

Learn which stats on your site matters, then explore stats from beyond your site.

Stats you should be paying attention to that don’t come directly from your site but from your industry and the blogging, social media, and web publishing industry in general, include:

• Popular Keywords: Research the most popular keywords on your topic or in your industry. Are you covering these topics on your site?
• Most Popular Sites: Who is your competition and how do you compare to them? Called a competitive marketing analysis, consider using one or more of the tools listed by Orbit Media Studios, Mention.com, and Kast.
• Industry Reviews and Updates: Every industry has an umbrella group or representative organization. They typically publish annual reports on the state of their industry, and most include statistics associated with blogging, social media, and digital marketing. An example is Stikky Media’s Social Media and the Tourism Industry Statistics, exploring the data around travel and social media.
• Blogging and Social Media Stats and Trends: The blogging and social media world is constantly shifting and changing. Facebook used to be the hottest place for college and university students. Today, the largest demographics for Facebook are 50+ and long out of academia. They are there to track what’s happening with their children and grandchildren, while the youngsters are off to SnapChat and other social media networks. Here are some recent stats and trends on blogging.
  • Why Blog? 52 Incredible Blogging Statistics to Inspire You – Express Writers
  • Top Blogging Statistics: 45 Reasons to Blog – Writtent
  • 15 Business Blogging Statistics That You Should Know – Fit Small Business
  • 24 Little-Known Blogging Statistics to Help Shape Your Strategy in 2017 – Impact BnB

Here are some articles to help you learn a little more about the stats on your site.

• 6 Digital Metrics You Should Be Watching – Mashable
• 17 Statistics to Monitor on Your Blog – ProBlogger
• 10 Vital Stats for Blog Health—and How to Track Them – ProBlogger
• 5 SEO Stats That Are Crucial to Monitor – SEMRush
• 11 Google Analytics Metrics Bloggers Should Track – Business2Community
• 7 Social Media Metrics that Really Matter—and How to Track Them – HootSuite

Your blog exercise is to learn more about the stats on your blog and off your blog and integrate them into your decision-making process for your blogging.

If people are coming to your site for specific information, serve it.

If the industry in which you blog is shifting and changing, follow the trend. Be ahead of it if you can. Bring those topics to your post content.

Where are people in your industry hanging out online? Are they on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, or where? Go there. Check out what they are saying. Interact there. Share your insights on your blog. And bring them back to your blog, your sandbox, to play.

There is much data found in web stats. Which matters to you? Which influences your blogging? Which do you need to help you achieve your goals?

You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is an ongoing challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles. You may join us at any time, but I recommend you take a moment to visit past blog exercises to help invigorate your site.

“I don’t want to.”

“Sure, you do.”

“Nah. Don’t want to.”

“This is a chance to improve your blogging.”

“Uh-huh.”

“This is a change to improve your writing skills.”

“Nope.”

“You will do it because I said so. Got it?”

“Okay.”

Writing dialog brings conflict and conversation to your blog. It could be a conversation with someone, multiple people, or an inner conversation, a debate between you and yourself.

There are many ways to incorporate dialog into your blog posts. Above is one example. Another is incorporated into the narrative.

Dialog improves the pacing of a post, adds conflict, drama, and, if presented well, can actually speak for your reader.

Here are some tips for writing dialog on your blog.

• Punctuation Matters: The spelling cops aside, punctuation is how you add inflection. Don’t force it with italics or bold. Use question marks and exclamation points when necessary to add emphasis to dialog. The statement “I hate you” is changed from a cold hiss to an angry shout with an exclamation point.
• Don’t Tell the Reader How the Dialog Sounded: Use of the word “said” is good enough for the most famous authors, and good enough for you. ‘”I hate you,” she said.’ That’s a strong statement. You don’t have to tell us that she shouted or shouted angrily – repetitious as shouting usually indicates anger. Show us how the person is speaking by their motions, their body language, and the words you put into their mouths. Use vocal descriptions, known as dialog tags, sparingly, like spice in a recipe.
• Use Italics Sparingly: By using italics, you are instructing the reader how to read. Use these carefully. Italics represent air quotes and emphasis in English on the web, and too many spoil the emphasis. ‘She said, “He went that way.”‘ This example tells a story with its emphasis. “I don’t know!” This is overemphasis as the exclamation point is enough to show us how they said that word. Too many italics, it might sound like too much Valley Girl speech for most readers, like?
• Dialog is Conflict: The best writers know that conflict must be in everything they write, fiction and non-fiction. Same applies to blogging. The more interesting a post, the more likely it is to offer conflict. Conflict is exciting. It can happen between characters in your post, between you and yourself, between you and another blogger or website, or between you and the reader. Find moments to create tension and energy between characters in the dialog. Look for disagreement, differences, debates, argument, and places to get offensive or defensive on a topic.
• Dialog Has a Goal: Your site isn’t a place for talking heads. Make the dialog matter. Make it make your point. Make it have purpose and goals. Ask yourself if the post makes sense if the dialog is removed or does it need it to convey your message? Does it strengthen or weaken your argument or position? Does it help? If it doesn’t, get rid of it. If it does, tighten it up to ensure it makes a difference.
• Start in the Middle: Dialog doesn’t need much storytelling to get to the point. Start in the middle and skip all the irrelevant stuff (“How are you?” “Fine.”). Put us in the middle of the conversation with just enough information through their words to let us know what is happening.
• Let the Characters Tell the Story at Their Pace: Dialog gives you the opportunity to provide information to your readers at a different pace. It might be fast or slow, but let your characters set the rules. Hand information over slowly, with each spoken revelation. Consider even teasing the reader a little before your characters tell all. Don’t drag this out. Do let them set the pace of revelation.
• Make Your Characters Sound Different: Nothing is more boring that two talking heads. Make sure your characters in the dialog are known and recognizable. This doesn’t mean one has to speak with a lisp or accent. Words are a part of a person’s character, the words they choose, the way they are presented and spoken. Make sure the readers know who is talking, and who is talking to whom or what.
• Dialog has Rhythm: There is rhythm and pacing in dialog. There is also pattern. One person may talk more than the other. One may have a stronger tone, the other a softer tone. One thinks rationally, the other might not. Sentences may be long speeches or short staccato snaps. Look for repeating patterns, the vocal music of the dialog. Say it out loud to hear it, and ensure the rhythm and pattern are there.
• Keep Dialog Concise: Long soliloquies are not usually appreciated, nor read, on a blog. That’s your job. When you choose to convey your message with dialog, keep the spoken paragraphs short, the descriptive narrative even more concise, and let the words tell the story.
• Dialog is a Virtual Play: Act out the scene with the dialog. Say it out loud. Does it feel right? Do you know who is speaking? Which character has an ulterior motive? Which one is telling the truth as they know it? Where are they? Is this a bedroom or courtroom? Even with a few words, make the reader see and hear the action before their eyes.
• Leave the Impression of Dialog: This isn’t a real speech or discussion. It is one that tells your story, helps to make a point, adds some spice to your blogging techniques. Don’t write it as if it is real. Give the impression of sincerity, of authenticity. The more it sounds real, the less it probably is, but the faster the reader will understand and appreciate it.

Your blog exercise is to include dialog in your next post.

Let one or more characters make your point. Not the whole point of the post, but enough to start it out with some chatting, discussion, debate, argument, or difference.

There are many articles on the web with tutorials on writing dialog in fiction and storytelling to explore if you need more help.

Remember, we need to know:

1. Who is speaking.
2. The purpose of the dialog.

You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is an ongoing challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles. You may join us at any time, but I recommend you take a moment to visit past blog exercises to help invigorate your site.

WordPress has long had the ability to generate a list of posts in a Page or post with a bit of code in the archives() template tag. This and the Display Posts code are available as shortcodes on WordPress.com and WordPress self-hosted sites using the Jetpack WordPress Plugin.

What’s the difference?

The Display Posts Shortcode

The Display Posts Shortcode allows you to lists posts on a Page or post based upon specific parameters.

This is an example of a list of the last 10 posts published on this site. The list will change as more posts are added.

[display-posts posts_per_page="10"]

• Vulnerability in phpMyAdmin Requires Immediate Patch
• Blog Exercise: New Years Reboot, Restart, Kick Ass
• Blog Exercises: Which Stats Matter
• Blog Exercises: Blog a Conversation
• WordPress School: What’s the Difference Between the Display Posts and Archive Shortcodes
• Blog Exercises: What Do You Mean By That?
• Blog Exercises: Are You Trending?
• WordPress School: Shortcodes
• Blog Exercises: Ingredients of a Well-Designed Site
• How to Avoid the New WordPress.com Interface

The Display Posts Shortcode allows following parameters, the elements used to generated the content:

• author
• category
• date_format
• ID
• image_size
• include_content
• include_date
• include_excerpt
• offset
• order
• orderby
• portfolio_type
• post_parent
• post_status
• post_type
• posts_per_page
• tag
• taxonomy, tax_term, tax_operator
• wrapper

The Archives Shortcode

The Archives Shortcode creates an index list of your posts based upon its parameter options.

Here is an example of the archives shortcode listing the last 10 posts I’ve published on this site. This list will change in the future as I continue to publish more posts.

[archives limit=10]

If handled right, this list should match the first example above.

The parameters for the archives shortcode are:

• type (yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, etc.)
• format (drop-down menu, unordered list, etc.)
• limit (number of entries)
• showcount (post count of each archive entry)
• before (show text before each entry)
• after (show text after each entry)
• order (sort order ascending or descending)

The archives shortcode offers fewer options than the display posts shortcode, yet, you can make both shortcodes do the same thing.

If they work the same, which one should you choose to meet the needs of your site?

What’s the Difference Between the Two?

Archives is a simple structure. It permits display of posts in a list set in chronological or reverse chronological order. You may group the list by type, sorted by year, month, week, etc., or change the format from an HTML list to a drop-down menu, but there isn’t much more you can do.

Display Posts allows more control over the display of the posts. Yes, you can duplicate the list to match the archives shortcode, but you have more choices.

Both shortcodes are dynamic, changing as you add new posts to your site.

If you have multiple contributors on your site, you can list posts by author.

If you are working on an article series, consider using the display posts shortcode to list the posts for the unique tag you are using to represent the article series.

If you want to create a site map on a Page, you may offer it sorted by category, tag, and with or without the featured post image and excerpt. See the example use of both shortcodes on my Site Map. Can you tell which shortcode examples I used?

The archives shortcode produces a list. Display posts shortcode can reproduce that same list, but adds more flexibility in the programming options.

Let’s explore a few more possibilities with the display posts shortcode, which you cannot do with the archives shortcode.

NOTE: The above shortcodes list posts only. To list Pages, see the List Pages Shortcode and Site Map Shortcode.

Display Posts with Excerpts

The display posts shortcodes takes the simplicity of the archives shortcode and extends its features and abilities. For example, this is a list of the most recent five posts I’ve published in the Blog Exercises category featuring an excerpt, the first 100 words or so of the post.

[display-posts category="blog-exercises" posts_per_page="5" include_excerpt="true"]

• Blog Exercise: New Years Reboot, Restart, Kick Ass - “It’s that time of year when the world falls in love…” The Christmas Waltz by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn I’d like to think that New Year’s thinking includes bringing back the love to your blog. You might not think that, but let’s go with that belief as we continue with this year’s Blog Exercises. […]
• Blog Exercises: Which Stats Matter - In this ongoing series called Blog Exercises, let’s explore the stats that matter, the ones you should be paying attention to on your site and off. On your site, you should be paying attention to: Most Popular Posts: Are your most popular posts related by topic? If so, there is clearly a driving interest in […]
• Blog Exercises: Blog a Conversation - In this ongoing series called Blog Exercises, today you will blog a conversation. “I don’t want to.” “Sure, you do.” “Nah. Don’t want to.” “This is a chance to improve your blogging.” “Uh-huh.” “This is a change to improve your writing skills.” “Nope.” “You will do it because I said so. Got it?” “Okay.” Writing […]
• Blog Exercises: What Do You Mean By That? - Standing with a group of bloggers at a conference recently, someone said something and another blogger asked, “What do you mean by that?” I don’t remember the topic, but I loved the response. This was a person who wanted to know more. They didn’t want to just assume they knew what the other was talking […]
• Blog Exercises: Are You Trending? - In social media, trending are topics attracting the attention of most of the people, thus popular. Unfortunately, trending topics are self-feeding, an accident along the highway where everyone wants to slow down and take a look. Then they want to tell others about it so they can look. Walking by a student glued to their […]

If your WordPress Theme and your site uses featured post images, you may add the parameter to display the post image next to the post title and/or the excerpt, creating a magazine effect.

[display-posts category="crafts" posts_per_page="-1" image_size="thumbnail" include_excerpt="true" wrapper="div"]

In the above example, notice that the thumbnail images are not the same size or shape. One of the images is vertical rather than horizontal, and others are smaller than the thumbnail size specifications. If you choose this option, ensure your featured images are standardized sizes for a consistent look.

Also notice that one of the parameters adds a DIV around each item in the list. By default, the shortcode puts the list in an unordered HTML list. By changing the wrapper parameter to div, the bullet is removed and CSS may be easily used to style the post excerpts and images.

List Related Posts by Tag

Wish to add a list of related posts to the bottom of a post? Find the tags related to this post on your site and include them in the display posts shortcode such as:

[display-posts tag="tag1, tag2, tag3" posts_per_page="10"]

This is an example of using the display posts shortcode to showcase posts by related tags.

• WordPress School: What’s the Difference Between the Display Posts and Archive Shortcodes
• WordPress School: Shortcodes
• WordPress School: Google Maps
• WordPress School: Video
• WordPress School: Contact Page
• Blog Exercises: Start Here Guides
• Blog Exercises: Random Editing Day

Assignment

Your WordPress School assignment is to experiment with simple uses of the display post and archive shortcodes.

Listing posts within the context of a post article or on a Page for reference is another way of easily promoting related content, article series, categories, specific tags, or other groups of content.

Your options include:

• Create a list of related posts by tags at the bottom of a post.
• Create a site map on a new Page on your site.
• Experiment with either list to add excerpts and featured post images. Remember, the post must use the featured post image to be visible in the list.

I’ll have more on various ways to use the display post shortcode in a future WordPress School exercise, helping you explore all the various ways to showcase your content on your site with a few bits of easy-to-use code.

This is a tutorial from Lorelle’s WordPress School. For more information, and to join this free, year-long, online WordPress School, see:

• Lorelle’s WordPress School Introduction
• Lorelle’s WordPress School Description
• WordPress School Tutorials List
• WordPress School Google+ Community
• WordPress Publishing Checklist
• How to Give Feedback and Criticism

I don’t remember the topic, but I loved the response. This was a person who wanted to know more. They didn’t want to just assume they knew what the other was talking about. They wanted to know, they wanted to understand, and if you heard the tone in their voice, they needed to know more.

“Know more” is a treasure box for a blogger just waiting to be opened.

In this ongoing series called Blog Exercises, let’s explore the concept of that question from a blogger’s perspective.

Bloggers Want to Know More

For the past twenty years or more of blogging, I’ve found a common personality trait in those who persist over the long term in blogging. They always want to know more. It’s a psychological need. There is always more information, more data, more statistics, more people to talk to, more to learn about a subject. They are never happy with surface information. They want more. They need more.

I’ve found that those that lean into the “more” in their blogging not only persist longer, but they are often blogging their passion. Anyone can talk about anything for a while, but to talk about it daily for five or more years, you have to have a passion for the subject matter.

Your blog exercise today is to discover what’s in your treasure box that makes you want to know more.

What do you never find boring? What topics do you enjoy discussing, sharing, investigating? Think big and small.

We all have tiny passions, hobbies, special interests, things that keep us interested for a while. But what persists? What turns your head when mentioned in a crowd? What gets you excited a little more than usual, eager to talk about?

Ask yourself what you could talk about every day for five years and not get tired of talking about. What would that be?

Then ask yourself, “What do you mean by that?”

See where the answer leads.

You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is an ongoing challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles. You may join us at any time, but I recommend you take a moment to visit past blog exercises to help invigorate your site.

Walking by a student glued to their computer, I asked, “What are you looking at?”

Without lifting her eyes away, she replied, “What everyone else is looking at.”

That’s a good definition of trending.

You might think that today’s blog exercise is to find a trending topic and blog about it. You could, but the exercise today is to look at your own trends.

In a lovely response to my blog exercise on naming your favorite things, the author of Tony’s Texts wrote about his favorite things. In response to my appreciation for his essay, he responded with “it made a nice change from the darker posts I’ve been writing.”

Tony, who calls himself “Honest Puck,” noticed that his site was trending towards the darker side of the force. He admitted he was attracted to that blog exercise as a safety rope, grabbing on to move towards the lighter ways of the world, more fun, silliness, laughter, and joy.

As I work on the ebook of these Blog Exercises, I can spot my own moods even though I worked hard to keep “me” out of the equation. You never really can, but I tried. Still, I could see the ebbs and flows of life events shadowed in my choices, my own emotional trends.

Your blog exercise is to check your site for your own trends.

Are your emotions telling on your site? If you want them to be obvious, that’s fine. If you don’t, can you still tell what mood you were in when you wrote that post?

Sometimes we publish posts filled with happiness, a bit of joy in the world, yet in our hearts we are grieving, fearful, or experiencing an emotion counter to the desired expression we need to convey. This conflict might be invisible, or might be shouting to the world that you are in two minds about the emotional context of the post.

Sometimes we run along a track of the same crap mood every day, day after day, and it shows, in our work, and our blogging. For a short while, most people accept such emotional drifts, but after a while, even the best get boring.

Check your site’s trending moods recently and in the past. Consider editing some posts to mix up your moods, or notice when they are trending a little faster to adjust so you aren’t playing the same note over and over again.

You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is an ongoing challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles. You may join us at any time, but I recommend you take a moment to visit past blog exercises to help invigorate your site.

WordPress shortcodes are abbreviated code placed into the WordPress Visual or Text Editors that expands into a larger code structure. As we continue with Lorelle’s WordPress School free online course, it’s time to explore the basics of WordPress shortcodes.

The following is the embed code for a Google Map, pointing to one of my favorite local museums, The Rice Northwest Rocks and Minerals Museum in Hillsboro, Oregon:

<a href="proxy.php?url=https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d2792.809130780463!2d-122.94987648443889!3d45.57427677910247!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x54950456e76e254b%3A0xdfad5d11bde5b6cc!2s26385+NW+Groveland+Dr%2C+Hillsboro%2C+OR+97124!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1502560000052">https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d2792.809130780463!2d-122.94987648443889!3d45.57427677910247!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x54950456e76e254b%3A0xdfad5d11bde5b6cc!2s26385+NW+Groveland+Dr%2C+Hillsboro%2C+OR+97124!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1502560000052</a>

When the post or Page is saved, WordPress.com automatically converts it to the embed code for Google Maps like this:

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d2792.809130780463!2d-122.94987648443889!3d45.57427677910247!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x54950456e76e254b%3A0xdfad5d11bde5b6cc!2s26385+NW+Groveland+Dr%2C+Hillsboro%2C+OR+97124!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1502560000052&w=600&h=450]

This is what you see in your Visual or Text/HTML editors. Doesn’t look like a map, yet, does it?

When the post is previewed or published, you will see the map like this:

The map is not a screenshot. It is interactive. Zoom in and out and move around on the map. The Google Maps shortcode taps into the Google Maps API allowing a live section of the map to be embedded on your site to help people find locations and directions.

Google Maps are a great way of providing instructions to the location of a store or company on a Contact web page. They are also fun to embed in a post about a favorite park, hike, fishing hole, vacation spot, or even create a custom map that charts your travels, hikes, or a specific route for shopping or exploring.

NOTE: Google Map embeds are tricky. You need to search for the exact address and use that embed code. If you search for a business name, you may get an invalid server request from Google Maps. Also note that WordPress.com has made it easier to use shortcodes by skipping the extra code and converting links and embed codes automatically to shortcodes. This may require saving your post as a draft twice before you can see the results on the front end preview of the post or Page.

Shortcodes allow the user to add content and functionality to a WordPress site without knowing extensive code or digging into the programming of a WordPress Theme or Plugin. With the shortcut of a shortcode, WordPress users may add all sorts of customization features to their site.

There are a variety of shortcodes in the core of WordPress. WordPress Themes have the ability to enable or disable these, and add more, as do WordPress Plugins.

Let’s experiment with the Archives Shortcode.

1. Add a New Page to your site. Title it “Site Map” or “Archives.”
2. Type in [archives].
3. Preview, then publish the post when ready to see a listing of all of the published posts on your site in a list.

Check out my site map as an example of what’s possible.

What You Need to Know About WordPress Shortcodes

Shortcodes come with WordPress out of the box, and also with WordPress Themes and Plugins. These snippets of code allow the user to add functionality to their site without touching the code.

The PHP code that enables the functionality, and adds the ability to use the abbreviated code to generate that functionality on the site, is called a function.

At its core, this is the function found to generate all WordPress Shortcodes:

//[foobar]
function foobar_func( $atts ){
	return "foo and bar";
}
add_shortcode( 'foobar', 'foobar_func' );

The attributes, represented in this abbreviated version by $atts, are the instructions as to what the shortcode is to do.

In the expanded form with functionality, I’ve called the shortcode “elephant” and set up two attribute values, “trumpet loudly” and “stomp.”

// [elephant foo="foo-value"]
function elephant_func( $atts ) {
    $a = shortcode_atts( array(
        'foo' => 'trumpet loudly',
        'bar' => 'stomp',
    ), $atts );

    return "foo = {$a['foo']}";
}
add_shortcode( 'elephant', 'elephant_func' );

Depending upon what “foo” and “bar” represent, the results would be “trumpet loudly” and “stomp.” What these represent are HTML code, modifications to HTML code, and initiates the programming such as generating a list of all the posts you’ve published as an archive list.

Right now, you aren’t at the stage where you can program shortcodes and add them to WordPress Themes or create WordPress Plugins, so I’m not going to dive into these much deeper. You need to learn how these work and how to use them on your site, and the more you use them, the better feel you will have for what a shortcode can do on your site.

WordPress.com offers a wide range of shortcodes to add functionality to your site. To learn about how to use these, see Shortcodes — Support.

Here are some examples of shortcodes to experiment with on WordPress.com.

• YouTube Shortcode
• Audio Shortcode
• SoundCloud Audio Player Shortcode
• Galleries and Slideshows Shortcode
• Instagram Shortcode
• Archives Shortcode
• Blog Subscription Shortcode
• Contact Form Shortcode
• Google Maps Shortcode
• Recipes Shortcode

More Information on WordPress Shortcodes

• Shortcodes – Support – WordPress.com
• List of Shortcodes available for WordPress.com sites
• Shortcode – WordPress Codex
• Shortcodes for WordPress.com
• Gallery Shortcode – WordPress Codex
• WordPress Shortcodes: A Complete Guide – Smashing Magazine
• How to Add A Shortcode in WordPress? – WPBeginner
• 7 Essential Tips for Using Shortcodes in WordPress – WPBeginner
• Getting Started With WordPress Shortcodes – Envatotuts+

Assignment

Your assignment in these WordPress School exercises is to experiment with WordPress shortcodes, specifically the ones available on WordPress.com.

I’ve listed some examples of shortcodes on WordPress.com above, and you may find more in the WordPress.com list of Shortcodes.

Your assignment is to use shortcodes to add features to your site.

• Create a Page called “Site Map” or “Archives” and add an archive list shortcode.
• Add a Google Map to a post or Page using the Google Maps shortcode.
• Add a gallery to a post or Page with the gallery shortcode, testing the various options (parameters) to get the look and feel you like best.
• Add a recipe to a post using the recipe shortcode.
• Find another shortcode with a variety of features to experiment with. See how many ways you can change the look and feel of the content. If you wish, blog about your discoveries with screenshots or examples in the post. Let us know about it in the comments below so we can come inspect your work.

This is a tutorial from Lorelle’s WordPress School. For more information, and to join this free, year-long, online WordPress School, see:

• Lorelle’s WordPress School Introduction
• Lorelle’s WordPress School Description
• WordPress School Tutorials List
• WordPress School Google+ Community
• WordPress Publishing Checklist
• How to Give Feedback and Criticism

What a marvelous question!

We brainstormed all the elements that make up a web standard site, and mixed in personal preferences of the students along with lists from a wide variety of online articles that attempted to set the criteria for what defined a well-designed site.

Here is our list, related topics grouped by the students.

• Readability:
  • Clean easy-to-read, original content.
  • It is both a pleasure to view and read.
  • Consistent topical content.
  • Content is well organized, grouped by categories and tags.
  • Headings within the content are used well and simply designed.
  • Paragraphs are short not long.
  • Black colored font (not gray or shades of gray or black).
  • Black letters on white background or white letters on black background, or black letters on pastel colored backgrounds ONLY.
  • Content fonts at least 11 pt. tall.
  • Lists are clearly identifiable with bullets or numbers.
  • Nested lists are well-designed with appropriate whitespace indention.
  • Little or no unrelated content.
  • Avoid too many links. You don’t have to link every word longer than 6 characters.
  • Citations and blockquotes are designed to separate others’ words from the author’s.
• Identity/Branding:
  • Original content.
  • Clear purpose, goals, and mission.
  • The design and branding is consistent across every page of the site.
  • The first, second, and third impression convey the same information and message on what the site is about.
  • The branding (header art) is the same on every page.
  • Calls-to-action are clearly identifiable and lead to no more than 3 clicks to conversion.
  • You want to get to know this person or company and do business with them.
• Multimedia:
  • Images are original, in focus, and not FX’d up.
  • Images are aligned within the content so the words either wrap around the images or the images stretch across the content column with words above and below.
  • Images are large enough to SEE without overwhelming or competing with the content.
  • Image file sizes are small for fast downloading, but appropriate to viewing without distortion.
  • Images complement content and design.
  • Images are original, not stock photos.
  • No gratuitous or useless images. All images must be relevant.
  • All images created by others feature proper citations and credit links.
  • Videos and music does not autoplay.
  • No more than three videos on a web page.
  • Video plays on the page and does not force the visitor to go to another page.
• Design Elements:
  • Familiar, easy-to-read fonts.
  • No more than 3 font styles on a web page, two is better.
  • No clutter. Every pixel counts.
  • Design complements content.
  • Consistency, in design, layout, content structure, and graphics.
  • None or few ads.
  • Colors are complementary, not clashing, and few, nor more than four colors to a web page.
  • Minimalism, a clean, open design with whitespace and no crowding of content.
• Usability:
  • Navigation is immediately recognizable and easy to use.
  • Key navigation follows standardized forms and web standards.
  • Sidebars are clutter-free and everything in them is important and critical to the purpose of the site.
  • Visual hierarchy, navigation that shows us menus and submenus without clutter or confusion, and specific and related categories and subcategories.
  • No pop-ups or interstitials.
  • Loads fast.
  • Content loads first, then branding, then images.
  • Responsive and mobile friendly.
  • Familiar layout. You know where everything is and you don’t have to hunt for links to key information.
  • Designed to not make us think.
  • You know where you are and who you are with at all times.
• Web Standards:
  • Legal policies are in place and easy to find.
  • Links open web pages. They do not force web pages to open in a new window or tab.
  • Links are in properly formed HTML structure for readability, not link dumps, pasted in links.
  • No autoplay anything or movement.
  • All downloadable material is clearly marked as what it is (PDF, MP3, DOC, etc.), with instructions on how to download it.
  • The About web page tells us what the site is about and who the author is, and why they are doing this.
  • The Contact web page features an easy-to-use contact form for connecting with the author, and there is not a single email address to be seen.
  • Compliance with web accessibility with clear and specific link anchor text, images with descriptions for the blind and visually impaired, and browser keyboard shortcuts for common navigation areas.

It’s a great list. Not complete, but organic. It really reflects many of the most desirable and hated elements in a web design.

Most Important Characteristics in Web Design

A few points the students fiercely debated are worth separate discussion from the list.

Room for the reader: There must be room for the reader. While harder to identify, the students agreed that anything that got between the reader and the website content had to go. That meant ads, interstitials (pop-ups), busy designs, too many colors, too many fonts, etc. Clutter and interference.

Harder to identify were the tiny things that get between a reader and the content, as well as the goals of the site. Many thought it was the lack of whitespace, resting places for the eyes and the reader’s thoughts compared to crowded content and designs. Others thought it was the details that mattered, the little things that lack consistency or become cluttered such as poorly pasted content from word processors, misspellings, grammar errors, not cleaning out comment spam, inconsistent use of headings, using bold for headings instead of the headings tag, forcing font styles and colors, too many bolds, too many italics, little things that add up to a message that says the reader isn’t paying attention to details and doesn’t care enough to keep their site clean and proud.

“Pride.” That word kept coming up as we dove deeper and deeper into what made a web design worthy. “It looks like they care enough to do their best,” a student explained. “If they care, we care. When we care, we feel a relationship with the blogger. When they care, we know they are thinking about us.”

Boring: The students realized that boring was better. All the glam, glitz, special fonts, bright colors, animated gifs, all the busy so many inexperienced web designers add to their site aren’t worth it. Keep it clean and simple, easy to read and easy to use.

People want information. They want entertainment. They want to read, watch, or listen. They don’t want to have their senses assaulted. To quote another student, “So keep the design boring, dude, and the content exciting.”

Your blog exercise is to review this list, and possibly find your own lists on the web that clarify a well-designed site.

How does your site measure up?

If you are too close to your site, too vested in the design and layout, ask some friends to be honest. Or ask people you don’t know well to give you feedback. Show them the list and ask them to check off which elements apply and which don’t. Get feedback on how you are doing.

Every single one of these design elements and content considerations are choices. There are no requirements. But if a bunch of college students studying web development, design, and blogging are thinking these things, and other experts are offering this advice, shouldn’t you take it a bit seriously?

Make a list of the things you need to change on your site to make room for your readers and to keep it a bit boring.

You can find more Blog Exercises on Lorelle on WordPress. This is an ongoing challenge to help you flex your blogging muscles. You may join us at any time, but I recommend you take a moment to visit past blog exercises to help invigorate your site.

What it continues to do is make my students and clients have fits of frustration, hair-tearing, and tears.

Let me be clear. I am not personally or professionally against improving the interface of WordPress called Calypso. It needs improvement. Unfortunately, during the development stage, the majority of work is done in the “classic” interface known today as the WP-Admin. People become familiar with it, trust it, and enjoy the simplicity once they learn a little of the lingo (what’s a Page, post, and media), yet, when they encounter the new interface, they are confused, frustrated, and lost.

Those starting to use WordPress need quick access to Themes, Widgets, Settings, Pages, etc., and the new interface, unless you are careful with what you click, may switch back and forth between the new and the classic interface seemingly without warning, causing no end of confusion. Once they get the site set up, the new post interface is “good enough” for them, as most of my students admit, though they rush back to the classic interface as soon as possible.

It makes no sense to them. It takes longer to load, doesn’t work well when not connected to the Internet, It might be a “clean” interface, but they can’t find categories, tags, post scheduling, preview links, and sticky post buttons without hunting around the screen. Younger and older people HATE the lack of contrast in the font and screen colors. If they are working near a window or in a bright light situation, they complain they can’t find their way around the screen because they can’t see it. Older people complain they get headaches working with it because it is so “dim” – their word not mine. If there was a higher contrast alternative, the complaints might be fewer.

Having met some of the designers behind the new interface, I understand their intentions and goals. I adore their passion and commitment to improving WordPress. I just wish they could wear Vaseline-coated glasses, work in brightly lit rooms, and approach WordPress from the perspective of someone having never seen it before.

Until then, I have to deal with frustrated clients and students, and you must know there are alternatives.

UPDATE: I’ve just been informed by a WordPress.com moderator that the WP-Admin link does not appear at the bottom of the My Sites menu for “new” users, only “old” users, which means that WordPress.com now offers different interfaces for the new and classic interface and the length of time you’ve been using the service. Makes no sense to me but I’ll be teaching a new batch of students in a few weeks, and we’ll see how they do.

Use the WP-ADMIN

The classic WordPress interface is now called WP-ADMIN.

To open it directly use example.com/wp-admin/.

I recommend you bookmark it and add it to your visible bookmark toolbar on your browser or memorize it. If you get lost, just type in wp-admin at the end of your URL and hit enter. AH, back to familiar lands.

To access it through the new interface:

1. Click My Sites to access the dashboard screen or bring up the right side drop down menu.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the right side menu. Look for WP Admin, and click.
3. It will force open a new window or tab.
   • If your browser is set to switch immediately to a new tab or window, find the previous tab you were just on and close it.
   • If your browser is set to open new tabs and windows in the background, close this tab and switch to the newly opened tab.
   • If all this tab switching and forcing makes you crazy, and it does, right click on WP-Admin instead and choose to Open Link in New Tab.

Forcing links to open in a new tab without warning the user is a violation of web standards and international laws, but the small box with the arrow shooting out to the top right is a long-held standard indicator that a link will force open in a new tab or window.

Still, it is a useless thing to do and leaves people unfamiliar with how a browser and links work with multiple open WordPress interface tabs, which leaves them confused and lost, not knowing where they were when they switch away and come back. Personally and professionally, I believe the link to the WP-Admin should open in the same page. Those who wish to force open new tabs already know how to do so, so let them.

To avoid accessing the new interface, stick with the WP-Admin access and NEVER click the EDIT link on the front end of your site. It automatically redirects to the new interface now.

Also, ignore all nag screens that tell you to switch to the new interface. For a while, such a switch made it difficult to switch back to the classic edit interface, so don’t. Seriously. Don’t.

If all this tab-switching and clicking is too much work. There is an alternative.

Using a Browser Script

Browser scripts are bits of code that react when you visit a web page or site. They will not work on other sites unless programmed to do so. For example, there are browser scripts that stops autoplay of the most common videos. There are browser scripts that stop autoplay of music on websites that annoy us. There are also browser scripts for Gmail, Facebook, and more.

And for WordPress.

Among them is a script called WordPress.com edit post redirects that automatically redirects the new post edit interface to the classic when you click EDIT from the front end of the site (the design view that other people see).

To use the Edit Post Redirect, install Greasemonkey Add-on for Firefox or Greasy Fork Add-on for Chrome first. Restart your browser if necessary. Then install the WordPress edit post redirect. It will automatically install the one appropriate for your browser.

When you land on the new post edit interface, it will redirect automatically to the classic post interface. It is fairly instant for cable users, and takes a moment for dial-up Internet users.

For more specifics and step-by-step instructions, see “How To Force A Redirect To The Classic WordPress.com Editor Interface – Diary of Dennis.”

Be warned that you may have to reinstall the script from time to time as WordPress makes changes in their redirect process for the new interface.