This is part one of a test/review of the MarsEdit blog editor. So far so good - I set up two of my blogs with little trouble. So far - I haven’t yet tried to post, and when I’m through typing these words, I shall hit submit and we shall see!

More on MarsEdit to come…

I found an awesome new service today while I was testing live help applications - it’s called LiveLeader. I installed the free version, which you can view in the left sidebar if I am online. If I’m not online, there won’t be a box. This is the free version - with the paid version that I will probably get, I can have an offline icon, and I can also customize the chat window.

Click to view a list of LiveLeader features - they are far too numerous to list here. Suffice to say that it’s browser-based Ajax, very clean and elegant, with prices ranging from a very reasonable ZERO dollars per month, to $29.95 per month for multiple-domain accounts.

It was very easy to use in WordPress - I just used a text widget to embed the single line of Javascript. I give LiveLeader five flowers!

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I built an Amazon store and stocked it with the latest WordPress and blogging books - check it out! I didn’t use a plugin, but instead made a modified template file and included my aStore in an iframe. I’ll make a video or screencast tutorial soon on how to do it - it was super easy!

I am also getting VERY CLOSE on completing the Tickled Pink theme - you should expect an announcement in the next few days. I don’t know if I”ll submit it to the Theme Codex or not - or even whether they will accept it, but I’ll have it available for download soon. I have to finish the accompanying Simple:Press theme, Pinkish, as it will be part of the package.

I’ve also got another theme in the works that uses NextGEN Gallery - right now it’s just a bare outline in Photoshop and I’ll have to flesh it out but it won’t be long before it’s a nice theme for a gallery or portfolio site!

And - nothing to do with WordPress or with the Gardens, but: Congratulations to Senator Barack Obama on winning the Democratic nomination!

SimplePress is faster and better now with the 3.1.1 build. This release was mostly about optimization, and the crew at Yellow Swordfish did a great job with the back end. Still there are a few new features that make SP even better than before!

I’ll be shutting down during the upgrade. I’ve finished upgrading my other WordPress sites, and ran into minor problems with my server config that might mean display oddities in the forum, but stay tuned, we shall be beautiful again soon!

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I’m happy to present my first WordPress tutorial video. I must apologize for the quality and hope that will improve as time goes on.

This tutorial guides you through a basic 5-minute installation, and shows you exactly how to change the default prefix and user login of WordPress - a little extra protection against those who might wish your beautiful site harm! Enjoy!