Most of the time when you upgrade WordPress, things go smooth. All your preferences and plugin settings remain intact and you are left poking around the new dashboard features.

There are times however, when the upgrade does weird things to your settings. If you use the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin, rolling back the installation is much easier than trying to restore the files and database manually.

When most things are fine, but certain things like the graphical editor disappears, you really want to keep the upgrade and get the editing buttons back. I ran into that problem on StockMarketMasters.com. Then when writing this article, I saw that the menu disappeared on this site too. It was really annoying because not only did the buttons vanish, the editing screen showed all the formatting tags.

The first place I looked was in my account settings to make sure the "Disable Visual Editor" box was not checked. To make sure it was not set in the database, I checked the box, saved the settings, unchecked the box and saved again. Still no change to the editing screen. I also thought it could be a browser add-on in Firefox, since that is my default browser and there are a lot of plugins installed. However, the same thing happened in Internet Explorer. What a frustrating ordeal that was!

Then I downloaded and installed a fresh copy of Dean’s FCKEditor for WordPress. I thought WordPress came with FCKEditor installed by default, but it is actually one called "TinyMCE". After a lot of research on the issue, I saw that one fix was to delete a file for the TinyMCE JavaScript cache. My setup has no file like that anywhere, probably because I use a custom uploads folder instead of the WordPress default "uploads".

After activating the new FCKEditor, I edited the options, first by setting it to the "Basic" toolbar. That had no effect since it was meant to show the WordPress default menu bar. So I went back in and changed it to the "Default" toolbar, with the "Office 2003" skin and opened a post to edit.

That is when I saw 6 rows of buttons show up. It appears that the "Office 2003", "Default" and "Silver" skins are the same. At least now there is a menu to choose the options from and the option to edit the source, without all the formatting codes showing up.

If you know of another option to restoring the WordPress graphical editor, post a message below and let us know!

Some major improvements have been made to WordPress. Version 8, code named “Baker”, incorporated some updates that will help bloggers get things done quicker. In addition, over 790 bugs were fixed. Some of the most dramatic changes are described here.

Other areas, such as the plugins, have a completely different view. Instead of the plugins being categories on screen, they are now combined all together in one list, with the active plugins being shaded. To see only those needing updates, a link at the top will let you trim the list to show just those.

Another area is in the widgets. Previously, you would have to make your changes to either individual sections, or all of them, then save all at once. Now however, each widget is saved on its own with changes viewable immediately on your site.

You can now have multiple copies of the same widget, drag and drop widgets between sidebars and save inactive widgets so you can save all their settings for future use.

Theme installations were also improved. You can now browse the entire theme directory and install a theme with one click from within your WordPress dashboard. If you make edits or tweaks to themes or plugins from your dashboard, the new CodePress editor now has syntax highlighting, where it previously had a plain-text editor.

The new Screen Options on each Dashboard page allows you to do things such as adjust the width to your monitor size. Smaller screens can have 2 columns, where wide screens can view the dashboard in 4 columns. This helps with faster navigation.

To see the entire list and watch a video of all changes, updates, and fixes, visit the WordPress Codex.

I highly recommend you upgrade all of your WordPress installations today and start managing your blogs easier and faster.

Each WordPress blog should be unique so it is set apart from all the others. There are literally thousands of WordPress themes available, both free and paid. What sets them apart is the the creativity you put into them. Graphics, colors and the photos you use all define what will ultimately be your unique blog.

WordPress themes used to take me 3 days to build. Lead capture pages took me several hours. Both required hard coding the changes, creating or modifying graphics, adjusting the style sheets and anything else the client wanted on their site. The Website Managers blog took me 3 days to code all the changes and get the graphics just right.

Lately I stumbled on Artisteer Theme Generator. After installing the program, looking through all the options and building a test template, I saw that all the manual coding was no longer necessary. Sure there may be some things that can use minor tweaks, like certian areas in the style sheet, but the bulk of the design is mostly point and click.

There are some areas that need improving, because when I chose certain colors or other options, the display converted to having no layout design at all. Clicking the undo button brought everything back into shape so I could choose another option, which turned out better for the site anyway. You can see my first live design at Stock Market Masters.

Using the Artisteer Theme Generator, you can design both blogs and lead capture pages. Each one takes me about an hour from start to finish.

It has been a long time since I got excited about a program and this one impressed me with how it has most of the controls I need to make unique designs, including using my own graphics. Keep in mind that Artisteer Theme Generator will design the template, not multiple pages. Once you design the template and put it on your site, activate it on your blog and the entire site will switch to the new theme. For static HTML sites, export the design to HTML and use a copy of it to design the other pages.

For blogs, there will still be some areas, such as footer links, to edit. Your widgets will all remain in place though, so there will be nothing to adjust in the sidebars.

You can also design templates for Joomla! and Drupal sites. Take a look at your own site, think about how often you wished you could find a better design, then go get the Artisteer Theme Generator and make one you will be happy with. Keep in mind that if you download the free trial, the words, “Free Trial” will be plastered all over the background and graphics. Upgrade to the full version and make a fully functional design for your site.

If you are wondering about whether I am going to change the design on this blog, the answer is not yet. I am happy with this one – so far. It is unique and has a lot of my own work in it. Go create a design that you can be proud of using Artisteer Theme Generator.