Thanks to the good folks at Bitnami, the entire process is remarkably easy and straight forward. The final result will be a completely functional WordPress installation that you can use as a development and testing environment. As a huge added bonus, it doesn’t even take very long to set up.

Let’s jump right in!

1. The screenshots used in this guide are from a Mac, however, Windows users will have absolutely no trouble following along as the software is the same on both platforms.
2. If it’s not already installed on your Mac or PC, download and install VirtualBox. VirtualBox is an app that lets you run other operating systems on your computer, in a virtual environment. That means you can have a second and completely different operating system (like Linux) running on your computer without having to reboot or alter your existing operating system at all. The installation is super straight-forward, mostly you’ll just click “Next” a bunch of times.
3. With VirtualBox now installed, download the .OVA file from here. The file is approximately 730MB so the download may take a few minutes depending on your Internet connection speed.
4. Launch VirtualBox and select File and then Import Appliance…



5. Navigate to the Bitnami .ova file that you downloaded back in step #3. Select that file and then click the Open button.



6. Back on the Appliance to import screen, click the Continue button.



7. Click the Import button on the Appliance settings screen.



8. Wait a few moments for the import to finish.



9. Now you’ll be taken back to the main VirtualBox window. Select your newly added bitnami-wordpress entry from the list in the left column of the window, and then click the Start button.



10. Your virtual device will start up for the first time.



11. You’ll be presented with a screen that says to wait a few minutes – so do exactly that, just wait a few minutes. It may seem like nothing is happening but your device is being setup in the background.


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12. Then screen will update and just as promised, you’re now able to view your login credentials etc. Even better – you’re done setting up VirtualBox. Yep, it was that easy. On this screen you’ll find a URL – likely something along the lines of http://192.168.x.x – enter that URL into a web browser on your Mac or PC.


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13. Ta-da, there’s WordPress! You now have WordPress up and running inside of a virtual machine on your computer. You can interact with WordPress exactly as if it were being hosted on a server somewhere else on the Internet. For example, add /wp-admin/ to the end of the URL you were provided in the previous step.


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14. Enter the username and password that were also provided back in step #13 to sign into your new install of WordPress on your Mac or Windows PC.


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15. At this point you can run updates, install themes and plugins – everything you’d be able to do with a “normal” WordPress installation. A good starting point might be to take a look at 7 “Must-Have” plugins for WordPress.


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16. When you’re done working in WordPress, close the VirtualBox machine. When you want to work in WordPress again, just launch VirtualBox and start the bitnami-wordpress entry again. That’s all there is to it.

The post How to Install WordPress on Your Mac or Windows PC appeared first on Simple Help.

Let’s jump right in!

1. Start out by installing Simple History as you would any other WordPress plugin.



2. Once it’s installed, don’t forget to Activate it.



3. From the Settings section of your WordPress menu, locate and click Simple History



4. Review all of the settings, but make sure that both on the dashboard and as a page under the dashboard menu are selected



5. Now that you have the plugin installed, activated and ready to go – visit your WordPress Dashboard. You’ll see a new ‘section’ titled Simple History (probably at the bottom of your Dashboard). As you’ll see, the only ‘events’ displayed so far relate to the Simple History plugin itself. Going forward, all of your WordPress activity will be listed here.



6. You can also view a ‘full page’ version of events by locating the actual Dashboard entry in your WordPress menu, and then clicking the Simple History link.



7. Now let’s pretend some time has gone by. As you can see in the screenshot below, Simple History has detected all sorts of activity on my site.


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8. It also groups similar events together. Just click the link…



9. … and the menu expands, showing each event.



10. The information you gather with Simple History can be used in all kinds of ways. One thing I learned (quickly) is just how often people try to gain access to WordPress itself – hundreds of times per day! I have since lowered the permissions for certain accounts so that even in the worst case, an intruder will still only have very limited access to WordPress.

    It can also be very helpful to know the IP address being used to try and gain access – particularly those that try over and over again to get into your site. By editing your .htaccess file you can stop those people from even trying.

If you’re interested in really boosting your WordPress site, be sure to check out our guide on must-have plugins for WordPress.

The post How to Monitor Your WordPress Site Activity appeared first on Simple Help.

If you don’t have Windows Live Writer already installed, download it now. If you need any help downloading, installing or setting up Windows Live Writer, see our tutorial How to use Windows Live Writer – Getting Started post.

WordPress plugin for Windows Live Writer

After you have installed and tested that your are able to publish to your WordPress blog using Writer, the first order of business should be to install the WordPress plugin for Writer. This plugin allows you to manage comments, posts, and a lot more. Download the Writer plugin by right-clicking here and selecting Save Link As….

To complete the installation copy this WordPressPlugin.dll file to C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Writer\Plugins in your Windows installation. If Writer is installed elsewhere you may have to use a different path.

Manage Comments

Launch Writer after installing the plugin. You should be able to see a new Comment Management button on the right sidebar of the application. The Comment Management section of Writer allows you to view and moderate comments made on your WordPress blog. Click on this button to launch the comments module. In the window that pops up you should be able to view pending, approved, and spammed comments. You can also approve or mark comments as spam here. This module can be your one stop shop to manage the comments on your blog. Note that you need to be connected to the Internet for this feature to work.

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Categories, Tags, and more

Another useful bunch of features that the WordPress plugin for Writer brings are support for categories and tagging. You can set categories and tags for your blog posts. Writer imports the current set of categories from your WordPress blog and allows you to select any from the list. You can also add some more categories to the list if you like. The same with tags.

To add a category click on the category box, this will show you the window like in the screenshot below. At the bottom of the window you will see an Add Category box. Enter the name of your new category there. Pick a parent category if you like. Hit Add when you are done.

Schedule a Post Using Windows Live Writer

The WordPress plugin for Writer also allows you to schedule posts. Say you have written a blog post and want it published at a later time and date. This feature is supported by WordPress. The plugin gives access to the scheduling feature to users right out of the Writer interface. To enable this for a post check the box at the bottom right of your screen that says Set publish date. Alternatively you can click on the drop down arrow next to the Set publish date box at the bottom right hand side of the Writer window. You will see a calendar pop up. Pick the date on which you want the post to go live.

The post Using Windows Live Writer to Update WordPress – Advanced Features appeared first on Simple Help.

Windows Live Writer is a desktop tool that allows you to easily post blog entries, edit and manage old ones, and also manage comments on your blog. The great thing about this tool is that it supports a number of open source blogging environments such as WordPress. Windows Live Writer comes packed with some very useful features such as a fully equipped WYSIWYG blog editor and an offline mode. The offline mode is extremely useful as it allows you to write blog posts even when you don’t have connectivity to the Internet. You can sync Windows Live Writer with your blog when you get connected and upload your posts. Let’s look at how to get Writer setup and running so that you can use it to write blog entries to your WordPress blog.

Download Windows Live Writer

The first step to get started with Windows Live Writer is to install it. Writer is part of Windows Live Essentials, a pack of offering from Microsoft which includes photo and movie software, instant messaging, e‑mail, blogging, and other stuff. You can get all of it if you like, or just Writer. Head over to the Windows Live Writer website and hit the download button. After you download the installer execute it. You will asked a few questions and then asked if you want to install all the software in the pack, such as the toolbar and messenger… Select your options and then click OK.

Get Started

1. Before we go ahead and configure Writer we need to make sure of one setting in the WordPress blog. Log into WordPress with administrator privileges and navigate to Settings -> Writing. Under the Writing section you will see Remote Publishing. Here make sure that the XML-RPC option is checked.


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2. With the installation done we can proceed to setting up Writer. Launch the application from the Start menu. Go to Start -> All Programs -> Windows Live -> Windows Live Writer and launch it.



3. You will be presented with the setup screen. Add your WordPress blog here. If you are not presented with the Add Blog pane go to Blogs -> Add blog account in the menu. On the first page choose the Other blog service option and click Next.



4. In the next window enter the web address of your blog, and the username and password of the user that you’ll be composing and publishing your posts as. You might want to check the Remember my password option here. Click Next.



5. Writer will now start checking to make sure it can log in correctly into your WordPress setup. It will then ask you if it can make a temporary post to your blog to test if all is working well. Click Yes to proceed with that. This attempt enables Writer to figure out what theme settings you have setup on your blog. don’t worry, Writer will remove its temporary post immediately.

Start Blogging

1. Your setup should now be done. You can now begin blogging. You will be presented by a page that looks like the screenshot below. Start by entering your post title and some text.


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2. The Writer editor has three modes – Edit, Preview, and Source. In the Edit mode you can write your blog in WYSIWYG mode, in the Preview mode you can see what the post will look like on your blog, and the source mode is the HTML source code version of you post.


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3. To insert images into your post go to Insert -> Picture and select a picture. You can resize the image or figure out its placement.


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Publishing Blog Posts

Once you are done writing your blog post you’ll want to publish it to your blog. To do that, click the Publish button at the top left of the Writer window pane. If you have setup Writer to save your password it will publish the post automatically, if not it will ask for your password.

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There you go. That’s how you can blog from your Windows desktop or laptop. I’ll be back with some more tips on blogging with Writer soon.

The post How to Use Windows Live Writer to Update WordPress appeared first on Simple Help.

First up, download and install MWSnap. Install is a bit misleading – you just unzip the file and then run it – so you may want to unzip it to a permanent location – like your Program Files folder, and then make a shortcut to it.

1. When you start MWSnap for the first time, you’ll be prompted to specify which language you want to use. Make your selection and then click Ok.


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2. The main MWSnap window will appear. Hover your mouse over the items in the Toolbar to become familiar with some of the options and settings. For the sake of this tutorial I’ll show you how to take a screenshot of a “window” – which can be any open program or item that takes up space on your screen (the Task Bar, System Tray etc). Select Window/menu as the Snap type, and then click Snap window/menu.


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3. Move your cursor over all of the open ‘windows’ on your screen. Notice that when you pick a certain program or item, it will be highlighted in red. The highlighted section indicates what you’ll be taking a screenshot of, if you click your left mouse button. Once you’ve found something you want to take a screenshot of – click your left mouse button.



4. The screenshot you just took will appear in MWSpan’s “preview” window. From here you can save the file, add a frame to it, add a cursor to somewhere on the screen, flip/rotate etc.


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5. From the MWSnap menu, select Tools and then Hotkeys. Here you can customize exactly how you want your screenshot (MWSnap) hotkeys to be. Once you learn them, you’ll have MWSnap minimized to the System Tray and taking screenshots will become second nature to you.


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6. Select Edit and then Add cursor. Note the whole slew of cursors you can add to your screenshots. All you have to do is select one, and then click inside the ‘preview’ window where you want the cursor to appear.


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7. To check out some of the MWSnap settings, select Tools and then Settings. The General tab allows you to set things like autostarting with Windows, display settings for the MWSnap icon in your system tray, and various warnings.


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8. Select the Auto-saving tab. Here you can specific what format you want the screenshot to be automatically saved as (hint: change from the default of bmp), the default auto-save folder (hint: change from your C:\Program Files\MWSnap to something more easily accessible).

   You can also change the default file name for each auto-saved screenshot, add numeric suffix’s (so that each file has a unique name) etc.


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9. Select the Fixed sizes tab. This is a new one to me, I’ve never had a need to create a series of screenshots based on a fixed size, but I can think of a few pretty good uses already. Anyway – here you can customize or create new “fixed size” regions to use in MWSnap.


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10. Play around with it a bit to discover even more features and settings.

The post How to Take Great Screenshots in Windows appeared first on Simple Help.

Depending on which web hosting provider you’re using, you may or may not have a number of plugins “included” with WordPress by default, and you almost certainly won’t need or want them all. Review each of them and delete the ones you’re not going to use.

Something to always keep in the front of your mind – the more WordPress plugins you’re using, the slower your site will be. It’s highly recommended that you keep your WordPress plugins to a minimum.

This is a list of plugins that in all likelihood you will want to use, with some exceptions based on your specific goals.

1. Akismet Anti-Spam

Before I do anything plugin related on a new WordPress web site, I install and activate Akismet. It will protect your site from so much spam it’s absolutely unreal.

As you can see in the screenshot below, Akismet has blocked over two million spam comments from appearing on this site. That’s crazy.

2. Classic Editor

This plugin falls into the “maybe not everyone will want it” category, it’s very much a personal preference. While creating content/writing posts in WordPress, the default method is to use the Gutenberg editor – which is a somewhat new addition to WordPress. There was more than a little controversy when it was introduced as it’s not exactly loved by all. I still don’t quite understand how it’s supposed to make it easier to write, but if you like it by all means keep using it! If you prefer to compose your posts in the “old” editor, you’ll want to install the Classic Editor right away.

3. Yoast SEO

You probably do need an SEO plugin. It doesn’t have to be Yoast SEO, but that seems to be the most recommended SEO plugin in 2020. Other commonly recommended SEO plugin is All in One SEO Pack. I use and prefer Yoast. There are too many features to list, but in a nutshell it helps make sure that people can find your content when they search the web. If you don’t install Yoast or another SEO plugin that creates a sitemap, you’ll absolutely want to install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin to make sure your site has a sitemap.

4. W3 Total Cache

This is another one that you’ll want to review and decide for yourself if your site needs a caching plugin. If you’re using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) you probably do not need or want a caching plugin. If you aren’t using a CDN, a caching plugin is probably a good idea – in almost every case it will increase the speed of your site. W3 Total Cache is the most popular one right now, but WP Super Cache is a commonly recommended one as well. When I used a cache, it was W3 Total Cache (now I use Fastly as a CDN instead).

5. Autoptimize

Autoptimize is a must-have if the speed of your site is important to you. Google puts heavy emphasis on site speed when it comes to deciding where to put your site in its search results, and Autotimize does speed up your site. You’ll have to spend some time researching which features you want to enable, but the end result will see a bump in your site speed. You can use a tool like Measure to see what works and what doesn’t.

6. AMP for WP

This one is a bit tricky. Adding AMP to your site has benefits and drawbacks. If you decide you want to have AMP versions of your pages, AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages is the way to go. I did a ton of research on AMP for this site, and I landed on this plugin. I’m very pleased with it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that once it’s setup and configured, you can pretty much forget about it. If you decide you want to have ads on your AMP pages, Advanced AMP Ads will help you enormously.

7. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is the tried and true plugin for adding a “Contact” page to your site. Tons of features, it’s not going to slow your site down, it’s frequently updated, and it’s free. It’s the most popular Contact Form plugin for WordPress for good reason.

Honorable Mention

If you ever notice strange behaviour on your site, you may want to use Simple History to monitor WordPress.

That sums up my list of must-have WordPress Plugins – are there any critical plugins you think I’ve missed?

The post 7 Must-Have WordPress Plugins for 2020 appeared first on Simple Help.