How To Set Categories On WordPress Pages

I have a site, CoachGuiden, where I list coaches and needed to be able to set categories on the coach pages. I found Ninja Page Categories and Tags which is a plugin that solves my problem. CoachGuiden is in Swedish but you’ll be able to see how the plugin works anyway.

On the individual coach-pages, see Bengt Wendel – Key Coaching as an example, the coach categories are listed at the bottom. Clicking on any category will bring up a list with all coaches that are in that category.

I then created a main category page, Coach per kategori where all coach categories are listed and clicking on any of them brings up the coaches in that category.

How to connect Google+ with Evernote

I am no avid user of Evernote but I want an easy way to save some of the things I read in Google+ somewhere else. +Brian Caldwell posted Share Google+ Content Directly Into Evernote:

1. Open your Evernote desktop application and click…
Mac: Evernote Menu >> Account Info
or
Windows: Tools Menu >> Account Info

2. In Account Info locate your special evernote email address and copy it (you can save it to an Evernote note for future reference)

3. Login to Google+, click the Circles tab and create a new Circle

4. In the Circle creation dialog window…
Name your Circle “Save 2 Evernote” or something you will remember
Click “Add a new person” and paste your unique Evernote email address into the text field
Click “Add ‘EvernoteEmail@m.evernote.com’ by Email”
Click “Create Circle with 1 member” to complete the Circle creation process

5. Share Content: Whenever you want to save something to Evernote, simply share it with the “Save2Evernote” Circle that you just created.

The post has a link to Brian’s shared Evernote-post, there are some images too if you need to see more how it’s done.

How to create your own vanity URL

Google+ creates long numeric user ID’s and has – at least at present – no way to select your own vanity URL (like your name or nick).

That opens up for services like gplus.to which offers you to create a nick or vanity URL for your Google+ account.

If you have a domain of your own and can modify your htaccess-file then it’s easy to create your own personal vanity URL’s. You simply add code like this:

Redirect 301 /me/gplus	https://plus.google.com/google+idhere
Redirect 301 /me/facebook	http://www.facebook.com/bengt.wendel
Redirect 301 /me/twitter	http://twitter.com/BengtWendel

The code above gives me short links like these:
Google+: http://bengtwendel.com/me/gplus
Twitter: http://bengtwendel.com/me/twitter
Facebook: http://bengtwendel.com/me/facebook

Venn and Euler diagrams

I find it easier to think in images or graphics, it helps me see how things or topics relate to each other. Mind maps are great but at times I want a single image to show just a few things together. Triangles are easy, three things are related but still separate. Below are two other diagrams that help me sort things out.

Venn-diagrams

A friend mentioned Venn-diagrams. I have seen them before but was not familiar with the name. It’s a great way to show how things relate to each other and that they overlap.

Venn diagrams normally comprise overlapping circles. The interior of the circle symbolically represents the elements of the set, while the exterior represents elements which are not members of the set.

For instance, in a two-set Venn diagram, one circle may represent the group of all wooden objects, while another circle may represent the set of all tables. The overlapping area or intersection would then represent the set of all wooden tables.
Source: Wikipedia Venn diagram

Euler diagrams

Euler diagrams are useful in other contexts. The quote below comes from Wikipedia, Euler diagram. The image below that quote is a great example that includes sets, subsets, intersections and disjointness.

Euler diagrams consist of simple closed curves (usually circles) in the plane that depict sets. The sizes or shapes of the curves are not important, the significance of the diagram is in how they overlap. The spatial relationships between the regions bounded by each curve (overlap, containment or neither) corresponds to set-theoretic relationships (intersection, subset and disjointness).

Each Euler curve divides the plane into two regions or “zones”: the interior, which symbolically represents the elements of the set, and the exterior, which represents all elements that are not members of the set. Curves whose interior zones do not intersect represent disjoint sets. Two curves whose interior zones intersect represent sets that have common elements; the zone inside both curves represents the set of elements common to both sets (the intersection of the sets). A curve that is contained completely within the interior zone of another represents a subset of it.

Digg Digg Social Buttons

WordPressI have tested several plugins for social bookmarking but found many of them far too bloated and big. The functions included in Jetpack are too basic, otherwise that would have been a great option since I have Jetpack installed already.

I ended up with Digg Digg which has a really nice floating option. It’s set up to only show on pages and singe posts. I changed the positioning of the floating buttons, from -120px to -85px.

For current plugins at this site: see WordPress Plugins I Use.

SugarSync

I have started to use SugarSync – File Sync & Online Backup.

Access all your data anytime, anywhere, from any device. Now get your own Personal Cloud! File sync and online backup for all your devices including PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and more!

SugarSync gives we what I need in terms of online backup and file sync, between computers, iPad and iPhone. So far I’m on their free account (4.24 GB) but will upgrade when needed.

SugarSync’s online backup, file sync, and sharing service makes it easy to stay connected. With SugarSync you get secure cloud storage for all your files — documents, music, photos, and videos.

I used Dropbox before but after their security claims fell to pieces I decided to switch.

LibreOffice personal productivity suite

LibreOffice is a free Open Source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. It that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base.

OpenOffice is controled by Oracle (previously by Sun) and I don’t really like that. LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice but without Oracle. I’m going to switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice.

The LibreOffice review at TechWorld says:

The LibreOffice project came about late in 2010 when it became increasingly uncertain what Oracle’s intentions were for OpenOffice.org, which it acquired after purchasing Sun. LibreOffice is overseen by the Document Foundation, which includes open source luminaries such as Red Hat, Ubuntu and even Google.

Linux.com has a Review: Hands on LibreOffice 3.3.

Week calendar for iPhone

The standard calendar application for iPhone does not have a week view, something I really miss. Today a friend suggested that I’d take a look at Week Cal and it’s great.

Week Cal gives a great overview of a week and it uses the same calendar data as the standard calendar application so no extra syncing is needed. I sync a Google calendar with my iPhone and it works perfectly both ways.