Thanks to a cool little plugin from iThemes called Easy Theme Upgrades the process just got a little easier. Easy Theme Upgrades installs like any other plugin and once activated adds an option to Upload of the Install Themes area of the backend which allows you to upgrade the existing theme. If that sounds a bit confusing have a look at the screen shot below. (click image to enlarge)

Once the plugin is installed and activated this is how you upgrade your theme:

1. Download the latest zip file for your theme.
2. Go to Appearance > Add New Themes and click the Upload tab at the top of the page.
3. Select the zip file with the new theme version to install.
4. Select "Yes" from the "Upgrade existing theme?" option.
5. Click "Install Now".

How is this different from the standard WordPress upgrade feature? If you select the "Upgrade existing theme?" option the plugin will automatically zip your current theme and place it in your Media Library from where you can download it if you wish.

iThemes plans to have the plugin housed at the WordPress Plugin Directory but for the time being you can get it directly from their site.

How many times have you loaded up with widgets then change themes only to find some of them stuck or even inaccessible? This means reverting back to the previous theme, clearing the widgets, switching themes and re-adding the widgets. Not a very convenient process in my book. Fortunately there is an alternative.

Justin Tadlock, the creator of many wonderful WordPress themes and plugins, wrote a nifty little plugin called Widgets Reset. It does exactly what the name implies. Once activated it will reset your widgets to the default settings. In other words it wipes the slate clean. This means you no longer have to revert to a previous theme and clear your widgets one by one which makes it a huge time saver in my opinion.

A word of caution is in order. When Justin says this plugin will reset the widgets to their default settings he means it. If you have any important information contained within a text widget for example you might want to save it prior to deploying the plugin.

You can download Widgets Reset from the official WordPress Plugin Directory. More information available from the official release page at Justin's blog.

In this post I'll share with you a brand spanking new plugin that pushes the envelope even further. Front-end Editor is a plugin that, you guessed it, allows you to edit your posts or pages right from the front end. I don't know about you but there have been several times in the past where I composed a new post, proofread it a few times then hit that publish button only to discover I somehow missed a typo upon reading the finished product. This meant returning to the back-end to load up the post again to edit it. With this plugin running all you need to do is double click somewhere within the post body and an edit box appears. This is accomplished through the use of some javascript magic. Here are a couple of screenshots to show you what I am talking about.

After publishing and reading my post I just noticed a typo! (click to enlarge)

Not to worry, I just double click within the post and voila! (click to enlarge)

You can also edit post titles from the front-end. While the plugin works fine as is the author plans to increase its functionality in a future release by including a WYSIWYG editor and the ability to edit tags and/or categories. This plugin is sure to be a hit as it makes editing posts and/or pages so much easier. You can grab your copy of Front-end Editor version 0.5 here.

I have to admit I'm one of the rare cyber dwellers who has not yet been pecked by the Twitter bird. It seems everyone I know has a Twitter account and they all follow each other around religiously. Oh sure I visited the home page a couple of times out of curiosity but I never understood why so many people swear it's the best thing since sliced bread. I think part of my problem lies with the fact I just don't have time to tweet. In fact, due to my work schedule it is all I can do to update this site nevermind logging in to Twitter to inform the world of what I had for dinner that evening. That is however until now.

Twitter LiveBlog is a nifty little plugin that allows you to post to your WordPress blog via your Twitter account. According to the plugin's author Mashuqur Rahman, or as he prefers to be called Mash, you can

• Start a liveblogging post using a Twitter update.
• Add to the liveblogging post using Twitter updates. Each Twitter update will appear as a separate line in the post with a timestamp.
• End a liveblogging post using a Twitter update.

How cool is that? This just may be the kick in the pants I need. I might yet even become a Twitterholic. Seriously though, I can actually see the usefulness of Twitter now that I can use it to post quick informational updates to my site. A Twitter version of asides if you will. You can find the Twitter LiveBlog plugin at the WordPress Plugin Directory while the release page may be found over at the home of Mash. You can also read a great review and see a sample post over at WindowsObserver.com.

Guess where I am off to?