For example, while writing this post about Zemanta, it suggested the LINK – Zemanta, and the accompanying copyright image that you see here.  All I did was click on them and they were automatically put in the right place on this post.

Now, TELL me that isn’t just the coolest thing?!?

• text widgets

• HTML editor

• theme Editor

So, if you use those three areas of your blog, you need to know a thing or two about HTML.  Remember – whatever you put in those areas will go directly to the web – it will not get filtered and published by your friendly WordPress engine.   Now, unless you know HTML, you really should NOT be using the html editor in the add-new post screen.  And unless you know css AND html, you should not be tweaking your theme through the theme editor.

The text widgets are something that all of us use to one extent or another to put stuff in our sidebars.  We use it for our RSS / feed subscribe buttons, for our twitter buttons, and for any other image or text that we want to put in there.  Unfortunately, those text widgets will break your blog.  Let’s go through the <p> tag to use it properly, and prevent a mishap with an unruly sidebar.

Lesson #1: the <p> tag

If you’ve used a word processor, you know that if you press <enter> key on your keyboard, you get what is called a “hard return”.  This creates the space between paragraphs.  If you press the <shift> and <enter> keys, you get a soft return (on a mac, I believe it is <ctrl> and <enter>).  It just moves the curser to the next line without an extra line.

The <p> tag stands for “paragraph” and is used in HTML to create a hard return. If your theme is styled correctly, it will create a space between your paragraphs.  To USE html tags, you need to know one thing: What you start, you must finish, without exception.  This is especially true if your theme is written in xhtml.  If you open a paragraph with <p> then you must close it with a </p>.

Note: If you are typing away and press “enter” and get a new paragraph on your screen – that is a word processor type of function.  HTML is NOT a word processor.  If you want a new paragraph, you have to wrap your text in <p> </p> tags.

For example:

<P> This is my short paragraph. I am using some shortcuts to show you how to write a paragraph.  For some editors, I really should code the punctuation instead of typing it like I am now. </p>

If I did not use the closing </p> tag, then the internet would assume that everything for the rest of that page was in the same paragraph.  So if you forget to close your sidebar <p> tags, then your sidebar MAY swing to an unexpected position.  If you want to be sure that you don’t get weird sections all over your page, be sure to close the html tags that you use.

I’ve also seen some people use <p> like a page break or section break.  This is the WRONG use for it.  When some web browsers are reading this type of html it will read it wrong, and your page could be read or displayed with weird sections.

This post is part of a series on Desperately Seeking WordPress called, “Save the Sidebar!”  Click here to go to the beginning of the series:

We’ll cover how to create section breaks and page breaks in our next tutorial:  Sidebar Fix #2: the <br> tag.

• 10 Tips to Keep posts Organized
• How to Add pictures and Buttons
• How to Add Twitter
• Making it easy for readers to subscribe
• Finding and Using an Avatar

And on WordPress.Org:

• Using Threaded Comments

Sooooo.  Have you done a page?  or Two?  Do you need help with any of them?  Ask away, I’ll answer them in the comments or in a future post!

So, Day 14 of 31 DBBB at Problogger: Go to the mall and observe marketing trends, the ways the display, creativity, color are used.  Perhaps do some people watching too.

Okay, so I tried this.  I spent an hour at the mall, but my ADD wouldn’t let me observe what was going on… there are way too many sparkly and shiny things to drag me in.  Apparently I’m a sucker for marketing and sales techniques.    I sat down at the food court, and could only think of how I was going to avoid the Dairy Queen ice cream shop.  Uggg.

How did it work for you?

Some observations, (obtained through much psychotherapy):

• spring colors were everywhere: purple and green
• every store had different lighting according to the audience: children’s stores were bright and sun-light-ish.  Mens stores were darkish and indirect, incandescent lighting, teen stores were more florescent.
• Things looked as if they were refreshed, racks pulled closer to the door every day – I suppose the point is that it was kept fresh and clean, and relevant.
• print media outside of the store (signs and maps) drew people into the store
• personally I’m more comfortable entering a store when the staff are occupied, and not staring at me.

Any relevance to blogging?  What did you figure?