I'd be interested in finding out why that isn't done any more, so if you have suggestions as to how I might raise that question, I'd be obliged.

I really think this is a theme-by-theme case, to be honest. I know that the themes we're developing in-house are all based on _s and it, as well as many, many themes today just use body_class to spit out classes on the body. I imagine that this issue rarely comes up for self-hosted blogs, and for managed hosting like WordPress.com, we want to keep our code as clean and as close to how Core is handling it (so not programming in extra classes on the body as much as possible).

Sorry I don't have a 100% perfect answer for you, but I'll mark this resolved; please feel free to open up another thread if you run into any more problems. Have a good one.

I remember that, in the past, some themes included the category class in the body tag as well. I'd be interested in finding out why that isn't done any more, so if you have suggestions as to how I might raise that question, I'd be obliged.

Thank you for looking into this.

Here is the site: http://mainedoeupdates.wordpress.com/
Here is a category archive: http://mainedoeupdates.wordpress.com/category/programs/social-studies-updates/
Here is an single post in that category: http://mainedoeupdates.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/cross-discipline-literacy-network-registration/

I would like to have a category specific widget appear on both the category archive and single post in that category.

This works on the category archive, since the class "category-social-studies-updates" appears with the body tag and can be inherited by the sidebar (aside).

However, on a single post, that category class appears in article rather than body, so it cannot be inherited by the sidebar widget. Therefore, I don't know if we can hide or display that widget based on category.

Hope that helps.

Perhaps that explains why I am finding the application of category classes to the article tag pretty standard.

I'm pretty sure this is a Core thing, not just a WordPress.com thing. For example, the output of a single post in Twenty Twelve will give classes directly from post_class(). It doesn't matter what theme you're using; classes for categories will be added to primary post wrappers if post_class() is used.

Cheers.

Perhaps that explains why I am finding the application of category classes to the article tag pretty standard.

However, perhaps others have had this particular need and know of a theme which doesn't follow that protocol.

Are there any ways to use a non-inherited class in a different part of the CSS? Alternatively, are there any themes that place the category CSS class in the body tag rather than the article tag? (I've been looking with no success thus far.)

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
    <p>Tweet<br>
    Author <a href="Permalink">Timestamp</a></p>
</blockquote>

...it would be nice to have this:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
    <p>Tweet</p>
    <span class="tweet-author">Author</span> <span class="tweet-permalink"><a href="Permalink">Timestamp</a></span></p>
</blockquote>

The backtick is to the left of the number one on most keyboards.

</p> <blockquote><p> <p>TWEET<br /> AUTHOR <a href="#">TIMESTAMP</a></p> </p></blockquote> <p>

It would be nice if one could have some more options for styling. I am thinking of something like:

</p> <blockquote><p> <p class="tweet">TWEET</p><br /> <p class="tweet-meta"><span class="author">AUTHOR</span> <span class="timestamp"><a href="#">TIMESTAMP</a></span></p> </p></blockquote> <p>

What exact steps did you take to change the colour of your text? If you want to change ALL the text on your site, that's more complicated than just changing a word here or there. That's getting into web design and CSS editing.

Write your post and the button to Save as Draft is in the sidebar to the right of where you're writing. Hit the big Publish button when you're done. Once you've Saved the post at least once as a draft, you can look above the Write box and you'll see a link to Preview the post. Save again before you hit that link.

Second, if you need a little extra help, I recommend finding a recent copy of Lisa Sabin-Wilson's book "WordPress for Dummies". It mostly deals with the regular WordPress software, but has a few chapters at the beginning on WordPress.com specifically. You can find an online excerpt on Google Books.

I don't understand kitchen sink, 1,2,3 in bigger type? I tried to change the colour but it didn't work.

I do know about zooming and magnifying as a reader, but it's very tedious as the text disappears into the margins and you have to keep fiddling with the scroll bars, just like the old days.

I really do not understand why designers can't make the text bigger to begini with. As I said, they're not saving ink or paper!

Why on most websites is text so small and lines so long? (against typographical design guidelines) - we are not saving ink or paper!

It's important to know that we all have the ability to increase or decrease font sizes to improve readability on any site we visit. If you have difficulty reading the text on any site click to locate the keyboard shortcuts you can use to increase or decrease font (text) size on the site.

Much of what I want to communicate already exists. Can I cut and paste from my existing material AND upload documents?

You can copy and paste however if you are doing so then go to Settings > Writing and select “ ___ WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically” and then scroll down and click “Save Changes.”

When copying and pasting text from elsewhere use either icon 5 or icon 6 in Row 2 of the visual editor http://en.support.wordpress.com/visual-editor/#pasting-text

Will everyone in the world be able to read it, or can I hide my identity except from those I tell about it? What is a private blog?

See here for the 3 options you can choose from when it comes to blog visibility ie. public or private.

Just jump in, you'll learn as you go!

Take the advice above and make a few Posts and see how you like it - just remember that Google is forever so maybe don't write something you would be embarrassed if it showed up next year.

If you don't like a Post it is easy to change or delete - Most people's personal blogs change direction over a period of time -

And finally - blogging or having a web site is not for everyone - don't worry about some of the fine details and the way a site looks - this is not a time to be OCD with the way things look. Try it -

And yes, that reminds me to schedule some more seminars.

Probably the best thing is to just find a theme you like the looks of, and one that is fairly simple and get to blogging, and as gain experience if you want to change themes, you can do that at any time.

Web designers are not graphic designers so they don't know about line length and such, and few user do either. People come here all the time wanting to make their sites 1200px wide so they can post large images, but then they put in the text to go along with it and people have to pack a lunch just to make it through one line. It drives me batty.

On the web though, the feeling is that people are getting used to reading longer lines now and where 500px was the norm a few years ago, "they" (whoever they are) are saying 750px is about the maximum.

Font size can be adjusted by the reader by zooming in or out on a particular site with their browser, so font size on the actual site is not as critical as it is with print where you can't zoom in or out (well, you can use a magnifying glass I suppose).

Here are a couple of resources for you to start out with, and Raincoaster was (probably still is) doing some online webinars on blogging and such.

http://en.support.wordpress.com/introduction/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-started/
http://learn.wordpress.com/
http://raincoastermedia.com/blogging-for-beginners-from-zero-to-technorati-in-7-hours/

The best advice is to get started. If you're not aware of something, then obviously you don't need it. The single biggest mistake I see beginners make is failing to actually do anything until they feel they understand blogging completely. You never will. Just get used to it.

Here is the best guide for beginners: http://learn.wordpress.com

Staying completely anonymous is not an easy thing. Some tips are: never ever use the same email for your blog as you normally use in day to day life. Don't blogroll your friend's blogs, or comment on them. Don't post links to your blog on Facebook or other social networks.