I am testing the Subscribe2 plugin for WordPress … more info

ver. 4.1 corrects the problems below! The re-publishing trick still applies, though. Pages or Posts that are simply re-edited and saved will not generate a notifier email. To have an email sent, one must save as draft, and then re-publish.

Regarding PAGES

Presently it seems that ver 4.0 of the plugin (in WP 2.3.1) sends a message with blanks for the TITLE and POST content when a page is edited. Subscribe2 works fine when publishing a new page, or when re-publishing an existing page.

• The trick then for editing a page is to save it as “draft,” then re-publish when all edits are completed!
• Unresolved issue: When creating or editing any page, it will generate an extra email with blanks - but at least a proper one will be sent in addition for a new or re-published page!

Regarding POSTS

These fields also work fine when dealing with a new post. … Edits of existing posts, however, generate no email (even when timestamp is changed)!

BUT! … As with pages, one can employ the same trick: save the post as draft, then republish, and a notifier email will be sent!

N.B. For wordPress in general: “Private” Pages are equivalent to Drafts. “Private” Posts can be seen only by registered users who are logged in.

Currently for those who have paid the big bucks for MS Word/ MS Office, there are two ODF converter projects. You need the ODF converter to be able to read and write the ISO standard document formats. Despite Microsoft’s efforts to force their competing OOXML “standard” upon the world, ODF is preferred. Think of a world where one could use the word processor, spreadsheet, or presentation application of your choice, and seamlessly exchange data with anyone!

Since I do not run MS Word, I cannot personally vouch for how these ODF converters compare. There are some reviews out there: some like Sun’s plugin, others the Sourceforge effort. (Let me know what you think!)

These projects may be found:

Sourceforge OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office
http://odf-converter.sourceforge.net/index.html
(N.B. This one requires some rigamarole where you have to save newly opened ODF as DOCX before you can resave it as ODF! Must be because MS is involved! This might be a reason to try the Sun plugin first?)

Sun ODF Plugin 1.x for Microsoft Office
look for “Spotlight — Sun ODF Plugin 1.1 for Microsoft Office Available Now as a Free Download” under
http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/index.jsp
download link (must set up Sun account) is on that page

I encourage all Microsoft Word users to install one of these plugins, and use the ODF format for sharing files with other users. … Of course, if you don’t want to hassle with MS Office, just use OpenOffice.org, or another option!

Did you know that you can use RSS to read the “headlines” of posts in this or any other Blog?

If you are using the Firefox web browser, look for the icon . You can usually find it in the address bar above, as well as in the side bar under Subscribe. (It may be a different color, but the design is usually quite similar.) Click on the icon, and it will give you the option to “Add Live Bookmark!”

I like to add my “live bookmarks” to the a folder in the main “Bookmarks Toolbar Folder.” Then I can just click on that folder and slide my pointer down over the desired feed (”live bookmark”). The feed will then expand to show all the lastest posts on that blog or RSS-enabled site. I can click on any “headline” and go right to the posting!

There are other special programs that can collect your RSS feeds, but I like the convenience of reading them right from my Firefox browser.

Linux News: Distros: Stretching the Education Dollar With Linux

Though by no means an exhaustive list of distro possibilites, this article mentions a few distributions and how they might help educational organizations save.

Steve Hargadon, of the National Educational Computing Conference is quoted at the conclusion: “Ultimately, open source will win, because it provides a more compelling model for how we share information — and it will have a huge impact on education.

Links of particular interest:

• K12LTSP - K12 Linux Terminal Server Project: http://www.k12ltsp.org/ … see also general LTSP
• Edubuntu (Linux for Young Human Beings): http://www.edubuntu.org/
• OpenSuse Educator, in openSUSE for Schools: http://en.opensuse.org/Education#openSUSE_for_Schools