I have actually done this once before, but it didn’t seem any easier the second time.  If only for the sake of my own remembering, here’s how it’s done.

First of all you need to add a plug-in of sorts to WordPress. I say “of sorts” because it’s more of a hack than a plug in proper. Many thanks to Site 2nd for this though. You can download Site 2nd’s modified CSV Import Script here.

Site 2nd has modified this script from one by Zac Preble. You can read Zac’s instructions here. But you are also going to need a few Excel tricks. So here’s some full instructions. I hope they make sense to you.

First of all, upload the modified CSV Import Script into /wp-admin/import/  (NOT into your plugins folder).  Now in your WordPress admin , look under Tools, Import. You will see a lot of options for importing data including one that wasn’t there before - CSV, or Comma Separated (I’m not sure what the “V” is for !).

Now in Excel you need to prepare or modify your data.  You are going to need some columns. The first are going to be as follows:

wp_title   wp_post_date    wp_category   wp_content    wp_tags

If you need custom fields, you can add some columns on the end with any names you like Apples, Pears, Oranges, etc … these will be the keys for your custom fields.

Fill your data under these columns. If you are familiar with WordPress it should be fairly obvious what goes where. Just one thing. The date has to be in this format, and it has to contain a time.

2009/01/30 12:00:00

It’s a bit of a B***er but Excel doesn’t have an option to covert dates into the this format. I had to change them all by hand.

Tags should be comma separated. In the data I received, they were all under separate columns.  I had to create the tags under the wp_tag column by copying them from the other columns. I did this using an Excel formula. It’s like this:

=A2 &”,” & B2 &”,” & C2

Let’s break that down.

= means, well, equals. It tells Excel that this is a formula.

A2 is the first cell that I want to copy over into the column called wp_tags.

&”,” puts a comma after the first tag

& B2 copies over cell B2

Then, to make this formula work the whole way down the column called wp_tags, you have to grab the bottom right corner of the cell where you wrote the formula, and drag it all the way down. In the next row the cells A2 B2 C2 should be converted to A3 B3 C3 etc.

Now we are going to have to do something similar at the end so we can grab all our data and dump it into a text file with the extension CSV. This is the file that we will actually upload into WordPress.

I did this by creating a final column and copying all the other columns that I needed, over into it, and separating the data not with a comma, but with a Pipe | as per Zac’s instructions.

The formula I used looked like this:

=A2 &”|” & B2 &”|” & C2 &”|” & D2 &”|” & E2 &”|” & G2 &”|” & H2 &”|” & I2 &”|” & J2 &”|” & K2 &”|” & L2 &”|” & M2 &”|” & N2 &”|” & O2 &”|” & P2 &”|” & q2 &”|” & r2 &”|” &CHAR(10)

You should now recognise that the way to copy a cell is write:

A2

and for subsequent cells:

& B2

etc.

To add in a pipe separator write:

&”|”

At the end, you need to encode it all correctly for text with:

&CHAR(10)

Drag this formula all the way down the column as before. Now block and copy the whole column into a text file and save it with the extension .CSV. You will find that all your data is nicely dumped without any trace of spreadsheet formula. You just have a lot of data separated by pipes |.

You may fine some inverted commas in between the lines of your data entries. Just get rid of those with a quick search and replace in your text editor.

This isn’t all yet, though. Your CSV file needs a header. This will also be pipe separated and the same as in your spread sheet so it will begin

wp_title|wp_post_date|wp_category|wp_content|wp_tags|

And then have some more headings if you need custom fields

wp_title|wp_post_date|wp_category|wp_content|wp_tags|apples|pears|

Just put the header in first row of your text file above all the post entries.

Now you are ready to upload.  But just try this out the first time with a couple of entries. If it uploads incorrectly, you don’t want to spend an afternoon deleting hundreds of posts.   That’s when it gets really frustrating.

Go to WordPress, Tools, Import, CSV, and upload the file. The wheel should spin. It show the files it is uploading. It should wish you a nice day. You should then find the imported posts and see that all the data, including tags and categories has been entered correctly. I have to say, I didn’t get it right first time. Or second time,…. actually I lost count of how many times I tried. But I got there in the end. So it can be done. I hope you have swifter luck.

Who is the Prime Minister of Great Britain?
Input interpretation:
prime minister of United Kingdom
Result:
Gordon Brown
Basic information:
official position | Prime Minister\nstart date | June 27, 2007 (1 year ago)
Sequence:More
November 1990 to May 1997 (6 years) | John Major\nMay 1997 to June 2007 (10 years) | Tony Blair\nJune 2007 to present | Gordon Brown
Government structure:
prime minister | Gordon Brown
Personal information:
full name | Gordon Brown\ndate of birth | 20 February 1951 (age: 58 years)\nplace of birth | Glasgow,Glasgow City,United Kingdom
Timeline:
Timeline

Who is the speaker of the House of Commons?
Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.

What’s on at the Odeon Cinema Marble Arch?
Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.

Personally I wouldn’t give £5 for it. I don’t think Google is going to fork out zillions for something that isn’t quite sure yet.

Here are the latest tweets.

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storynory: The story behind the story of the Wicked Uncle http://bit.ly/VhwIu (expand)
half a minute ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

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gaileroy: @TheNDM I parked mine listening to storynory.com and then opened the bottle of red.
2 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

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MiramarMike: Today is brought to you by Podcast Updates with new Storynory.com, The Perfect 10, Jon Richardson and @wossy http://ff.im/2Ny0k
2 days ago from FriendFeed · Reply · View Tweet

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erima: Totally digging the Storynory podcast (children’s stories read aloud) http://storynory.com/
2 days ago from Tweetie · Reply · View Tweet

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CelleCast: The Wicked Uncle cellecast now live! Listen/Interact by ph:415-707-3017 http://cellecast.com/storynory/
3 days ago from CelleCast Talkback · Reply · View Tweet

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JaminLietze: Free audio stories 4 kids http://storynory.com/ Thanks @sharpjacqui
5 days ago from Twitterrific · Reply · View Tweet

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storynory: I meant this url http://bit.ly/7Zlyy (expand)
7 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

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storynory: Storynory has a picture with every story, and some have specially commissioned sets http://bit.ly/7Zlyy (expand)
7 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

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jessrisser: http://storynory.com/archives/ has audio stories for kids but no pictures. So sad…
7 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

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storynory: @JennieTanner Thank you ! I’d never thought of our listeners as a giant back up before. There’s a new story every week.
8 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet · Thread Show ConversationHide Conversation

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JennieTanner: @storynory Don’t tell my son! I think I’ve downloaded most of them already! If u lose ur archive u can always contact me!!
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storynory: @JennieTanner There are over 150 stories on the storynory
9 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

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vppartners: @p2173 Try Storynory - brit voice not too annoying. Probably best for 10 and under - free! http://ow.ly/4YXC
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CelleCast: The Monkey and the Boar cellecast now live! Listen/Interact by ph:415-707-3017 http://cellecast.com/storynory/
10 days ago from CelleCast Talkback · Reply · View Tweet

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anaed: Lauren hyper and annoying in room with her listening to storynory, meditations next!
11 days ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet

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MarleyGang: @RebelLemming Thanks!!! I just found a bunch of classics from storynory.com too. Going to the site now!
11 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

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JennieTanner: How many stories are there on the Storynory website?
11 days ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

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storynory: @PockhuhnFilm Great, I didn’t know you could catch storynory on Blip.FM - but it’s good to know.
13 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

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PockhuhnFilm: listening to “Little Red Riding Hood - Storynory” ? http://blip.fm/~5akqt
13 days ago from Blip.fm · Reply · View Tweet

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sophiegreen: @storynory I’m sure there could be some storynory goodness in that!
13 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

Wicked Uncle sells children’s toys. It’s not aimed at kids, or even at parents, but at uncles and god parents who are terrible at remembering birthdays. It remembers the date for them, and even suggests a selection of gifts suitable for the child’s age.

I met Wicked Uncle’s owner, Mike O’Shea after a mutual friend put us together. We thought it would be nice to do something together and so I wrote a story about a Wicked Uncle which you can listen to here.

The uncle in question is more irresponsible than wicked, but all the same, you probably wouldn’t want him to look after your kids for the weekend. Mike’s previous business, Splendour.com, which sells lingerie, was probably just a touch more wicked.

But today is my birthday. And a neighbour very kindly offered to take me up in his helicopter. How could I resist? It was a beautiful day, and we flew along the Thames from Kew to Canary Wharf and back, first ducking under the Heathrow flightpath at 1000 feet, and then over Houses of Parliament and quite a few landmarks.

A short while ago I knew nothing at all about helicopters. I still don’t know much, but I can tell you that we flew in a Robinson 44 and you can read all the latest news about it here.

And here is a another pic from my mobile phone.

City of London Gerkhin

I did a quick search for Storynory and I was truly amazed. My tweets were there, but also a regular flow of people saying “just listening to Storynory”. Oh wow ! I’m delighted.

Three reminders about blogs.

1. Big institutions cannot find the authentic voice needed to run a successful blog. The fake blog (RedRag) would not have rung true.
2. You can’t just start a blog and expect that people will take any notice of you. It takes time, hard work, networking, and consistency for a blogger to build up a following. There was never any chance that a new fabricated blog would burst onto the scene and make waves. It would have gone unnoticed because it hadn’t taken time to grow roots and branches into the blogging scene.
3. The blogosphere is one giant lie-detector. Information in blogs that count is peer reviewed by the rest of the blogosphere. Lies and fabrications always out. It’s a myth that blogs are a good place to spread unfounded rumours. Get an unfounded rumour on the BBC (as New Labour used to do in its youth) and it becomes The Truth. To get a story established in the blogosphere, it has to stand up to vigorous cross-examination and testing.

A lot of people have a lot of trouble understanding what blogs are about - and they always will. I don’t think that governments or large companies are ever really going to “get it”.

Some publishers - such all of Penguin’s children’s imprints from America - are not sending editorial teams this year. They only have the marketing people here. But those publishers that I’ve met say that they have been busy selling international rights for their books “to the usual people”.

I find that publishers are saying that they are “fascinated” to learn about all things “digital”. That is a real turn-around from two year ago when they were faintly polite about some guys with a website (Storynory).

The coming London Book Fair has an particular emphasis on digital publishing, with talks and seminars. Amazon has led the way with Kindle - the tool for easy-on-the-eye digital books. They’ve also bought Audible, which is a sort of Amazon for downloadable audiobooks. AudibleKids sponsors Storynory, and publishers are interested in that link, because in hard times they might not be so keen to give away a free CD in the back of a picture book. It’s more attractive to sell some downloadable audio.

It doesn’t seem so long ago that publishers were a bit sniffy about the internet, and not too happy using email. They were like the people who worked for BBC TV and didn’t realise that the BBC’s internet site had a bigger audience. Newspapers went through the same process, at first despising online publishing, and then, as their paper sales plummeted, realising that both the audience and the advertisers were living in a different universe. Now the papers with a future are those that have invested in digital - and it’s The Telegraph that’s leading the way in the UK.

I believe that publishing and digital are finally coming together. I also believe that free is the way forward - and that advertisers will start to look at buying slots in digital books. But that will take a while yet, because it will horrify traditional publishers, and besides, they don’t yet have advertising departments. Talk about culture shock !

Our ability to continue operations past the end of this year (2008) is in question. We do not want any of you, or any of your shows to be negatively affected by this uncertainty and so we are encouraging you to begin taking all necessary steps to secure your data or begin moving to another hosting provider.

The truth is that podcasting isn’t profitable enough to support more than one or two major service companies. As far as we are concerned, Libsyn is the only game in town. They offer unlimited bandwidth and cost-effective hosting for audio and video based on the amount you upload and store every month - and they make a profit out of it. Through their parent company, Wizzard Media, they arrange sponsorship deals for podcasts. Wizzard is listed on the Nasdaq, and Libsyn seems to be a rare instance of a company that hasn’t lost its user-friendly start-up ethos after selling up to a bigger company.

Unfortunately, not many other podcasting service companies are going to survive the downturn.

He or she was using a screen reader, which reads text off the screen. Obviously audio stories appeal to blind users, but they also need to be able to find their way around the text and links of the site. And that means designing with basic accessibility in mind - like not putting text into images, or at least using a good image replacement technique like Gilder / Livin. Currently our header has no text behind it, but I’m going to fix that in the new Storynory design.

Anyway I’m pleased to say that the user said that it was easy to find the way around our site.

One thing you are supposed to do is to put navigation sidebars below the main text in the markup. The idea is that the user doesn’t listen to the screen reader repeating the links again and again. I’m wondering about this. Surely it’s important to be able to find the navigation quickly…. ? Just thinking about this.

Our audio stories are already popular in Korea. We syndicate them to a site run by Koid, Korea’s Telephone directory. It’s called Speak 114.