Creating Your Online Notepad with WordPress

The power of WordPress lies in its versatility; you can use it to create almost any type of website without feeling too much pressure. The vast majority of internet applications can be achieved on the WordPress platform through various extensions. Its only weaknesses might be execution efficiency and the difficulty of secondary development.

I have struggled for a long time with the issue of notepads, feeling overwhelmed by tools like Evernote, MaiKu, Google Notepad, Google Reader, Foxnotepad, etc. In the end, I decided to just create my own using WordPress.

My requirements are actually quite simple: It must meet the need for quick summaries! Whether on a PC or in mobile life.

Fortunately, this requirement is easily achievable.

Below are some basic methods I’ve summarized to achieve this requirement:

Platform Setup:

1. Adding a Microblog/Notepad Application to an Existing WordPress Blog:

There are countless methods, but the one I’m introducing is a very lazy approach:

Create a new category named “Microblog” and note down its numerical ID.
Copy the page.php file from your theme folder and rename it to microblog.php. Add the following comment at the very top of the file:
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<?php /*Template Name: Microblog*/ ?>

Insert the following code before div class="entry":

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<?php $lastposts = get_posts('numberposts=3&category=410'); foreach($lastposts as $post) : setup_postdata($post); ?>
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<div>
  <?php the_date(); ?><br />
  <?php the_content(); ?>
  <?php _e('by'); ?> <?php the_author(); ?>
  <?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1 Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?>
  <?php edit_post_link('Edit', ' | ', ''); ?>
</div>
<?php endforeach; ?>

(Note: The “numberposts” in the second line represents the number of entries to display on the page, and the number after “category” is the ID from the first step.)

Function Expansion Usage:

Reference 1: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_posts

Reference 2: http://www.wordpress.la/codex-get_posts.html

In the backend, create a new page titled “Microblog” with blank content, select the “Microblog” template, and save it.
Add <?php query_posts($query_string . '&cat=-410'); ?> before <?php if(have_posts()) : ?><?php while(have_posts()) : the_post();?> in index.php and archive.php. The number 410 is still the category ID from above, and the purpose is to exclude microblog posts from the homepage and archive pages to avoid cluttering the page.

2. Adding a Microblog/Notepad Application to a New WordPress Blog:

Actually, after introducing the first method, there’s no need to explain how to set this up in a new WordPress environment.

However, unlike integrating it into an existing platform, a new WordPress site has no theme restrictions, so you don’t need to mess with templates as described above. Simply create a new WordPress site.

Create a new WordPress site.
Download and install the p2, GTD, or any other theme you think is suitable for a microblog/notepad.

Quick Publishing:

1. Email Publishing:

WordPress’s email publishing is undoubtedly one of the most convenient ways to update. However, the WordPress.org platform has not done well in this regard for a long time, while the .com platform is more user-friendly. I once gave up on email publishing in frustration and went to WordPress.com to mess around.

The plugin needed for WordPress email publishing is Postie. Since it’s entirely in English, you can refer to this tutorial by Daoweng: http://www.spiaas.com/mood/650.html

After configuring email publishing, the next step is to publish conveniently from your phone.

For BlackBerry, I recommend using the Berrymail service. For other phones, please search for the most convenient email solution.

Sending emails on a BlackBerry is faster and more convenient than sending text messages, that’s for sure. If there’s a faster way to take notes on a phone than sending emails, I’d be speechless.

For PC, the quickest email publishing method is the Firefox plugin Emailthis! or Emailyourself. Both allow you to quickly summarize text on the web and send it to a specified email address.

However, due to email security issues, it’s hard to set up a button in the browser to directly save summaries from the web like MaiKu or GReader. But fortunately, on PC, we have an even faster method than Emailthis.

2. Other Quick Publishing Methods:

I won’t mention Windows Live Writer; it’s slow, involves many steps, and doesn’t meet the requirements. Using WLW is no faster than using Word. Save a Word blog template to a shortcut, paste, and you can publish, which is much more convenient than WLW.

The client I recommend here is still a browser plugin: ScribeFire

Configure your site information in ScribeFire. Whenever you encounter something you want to note down, simply right-click and select “Scribefire” to publish, then click confirm.

Another recommended browser plugin is: QuickFox Notes

After configuring the information, right-click the text you want to save and select “Send to Quick Notepad.” Then right-click the content again to enable email publishing to your blog.