How-To:

First off I add the Redirect To First Child Template to the Theme. What this does, is look for the first Child of a Page, and redirect to it. (To controll which Child is the first, I use the plugin My Page Order.) I then create a Page for each of the languages I want, employing the Redirect-Template on them. I then add what is to be the main menu items for each language, and add them as Children of their respective language Page. If the site has any subnavigation, I simply add these as Children to the Child-of-language-Pages. Follow me?

This gives me a rough navigation along the lines of:

• ENGLISH
  • Main Page
  • Products
  • About Us
  • Contact
• GERMAN
  • Startseite
  • Produkte
  • Wir über uns
  • Kontakt
• FRENCH
  • Page principale
  • Produits
  • A propos de nous
  • Contact

(Apologies for poor translation, if any, had to use Google Translator.)

Then I add the code for the navigation to the Theme. We can’t simply use wp_list_pages() for this, as it will simply output a list like the one above. Instead we use this script where we want our navigation to appear:

<?php
// CHECK IF WE ARE ON A PAGE
 if(is_page()) {
 $currenttitle = $post->post_title.'</a>';
 $subpages = wp_list_pages('title_li=&echo=0&sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&child_of='.$post->ID);

 $id = $post->post_parent;
 $sidebar_title = get_page($id);
 if($sidebar_title) {
 $prevpageparent = $sidebar_title->post_parent;
 }
 rewind_posts();

 if($subpages) {
 $pages=wp_list_pages("title_li=&echo=1&sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&echo=0&child_of=".$post->post_parent);
 $pagelisting = str_replace($currenttitle, $currenttitle.'<div id="submenu"><ul>'.$subpages.'</ul></div>', $pages);
 echo $pagelisting;
 }

 elseif($post->post_parent && $prevpageparent>'0') {
 $parent = $post->post_parent;

 $id = $post->post_parent;
 $myquery = new WP_Query("page_id=$id");
 $currenttitle = $myquery->post->post_title.'</a>';

 $subpages = wp_list_pages('title_li=&echo=0&sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&echo=0&child_of='.$post->post_parent);

 $pages = wp_list_pages("title_li=&echo=1&sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&echo=0&child_of=".$prevpageparent);
 $pagelisting = str_replace($currenttitle, $currenttitle.'<div id="submenu"><ul>'.$subpages.'</ul></div>', $pages);
 echo $pagelisting;
 }

 else { wp_list_pages("title_li=&echo=1&sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&child_of=".$post->post_parent);
 }
 rewind_posts();
} else {
// WE ARE NOT ON A PAGE, BUT A POST, CATEGORY VIEW, ETC
// SO WE HAVE TO DEFINE THE DEFAULT LANGUAGE MANUALLY AT THE END OF THE STRING
 wp_list_pages("title_li=&echo=1&sort_column=menu_order&depth=1&child_of=1");
} ?>

Line 40 is important; if we’re not on a Page the script can’t traverse back to it’s source (the Page that defines the language), so we have to manually put in the ID for the language Page we want to use as default, f.i. ENGLISH, at the end of child_of=.

Also note that this script is custom made to show vertical navigation, with any subnavigation positioned directly below its Parent both when the Parent is active and when the Child is active, like this:

• Main Page
• Products
  • Software
  • Hardware
  • Upgrades
• About us
• Contact

It can be shortened and/or modified for other needs and types of navigation.

A few notes:

• It’s easiest to add the links for each language into the Theme manually. If you want to use flag icons, or simply text links, you can simply add: <a href="<?php echo get_bloginfo('home').'/english/'; ?>">English</a> and so forth.
• If you want the ENGLISH > Main Page to be the default Front Page, simply go to Settings > Reading in WP-admin and set Static Page: ENGLISH to display as Front Page.
• And most important: This won’t take you from the English Product Page to the French Produits Page by clicking the flag. When you change language, you will be redirected to the Front Page of the selected language!

I will show you two options; displaying related Posts based on either Tags or Categories. Put the code in your single.php where you want to display related Posts. Right above <?php comments_template(); ?> is probably the best place.

The following will display the five most recent Posts which share the same first Tag of the Post:

<?php
$tags = wp_get_post_tags($post->ID);
if ($tags) {
	$first_tag = $tags[0]->name;
	$args = array(
		'numberposts' => 5,
		'tag' => $first_tag,
		'exclude' => $post->ID
	);
	$related = get_posts($args);
	if($related) {
		echo <div id="relatedposts">';
		echo <h4>Related Posts</h4>';
	  	echo<ul>';
		  foreach ( $related as $rel ):
			echo <li><a href="'. get_permalink($rel->ID) .'" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to '. $rel->post_title .'">'. $rel->post_title .</a></li>';
		  endforeach;
	    echo </ul>';
	    echo </div>';
 	 }
}
?>

If you don’t use Tags, or simply just want to find related Posts based on Category, the following code will do that – displaying the five most recent Posts from the first Category of the Post.

<?php
$cats = get_the_category();
if ($cats) {
	$first_cat = $cats[0]->cat_ID;
	$args = array(
		'numberposts' => 5,
		'category' => $first_cat,
		'exclude' => $post->ID,
	);
	$related = get_posts($args);
	if($related) {
		echo '<div id="relatedposts">';
		echo '<h4>Related Posts</h4>';
	  	echo'<ul>';
		  foreach ( $related as $rel ):
			echo '<li><a href="'. get_permalink($rel->ID) .'" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to '. $rel->post_title .'">'. $rel->post_title .'</a></li>';
		  endforeach;
	    echo '</ul>';
	    echo '</div>';
 	 }
}
?>

The upshot of using this method, as opposed to a plugin, is that you have complete control and can display and style the related Posts as you see fit.

In the category.php of your Theme (if you don’t have a category.php you can duplicate index.php and rename it), add this line above the Loop (which usually starts with <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>):

<?php query_posts('orderby=title&amp;order=ASC'); ?>

You can extend this by adding links for which sort type you want. In your category.php add this where you want the links to appear:

<p>
 Sort by:
 <a href="<?php echo str_replace(('?'.$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']), '', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']); ?>">Date</a>
 | <a href="<?php echo str_replace(('?'.$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']), '', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']).'/?sort=title'; ?>">Title</a>
 </p>

This will display like this: Sort by: Date | Title

Then use this code above the Loop:

<?php if($_GET['sort'] == 'title') query_posts('orderby=title&order=ASC'); ?>

But there are ways around this. The plugin Custom Query String Reloaded lets you set a different numbers of Posts for everthing from the frontpage, to archives and categories.

You don’t need to use a plugin, however, if you know your way around your Theme-files. To change the number of displayed Posts, you simply need this little code snippet:

<?php query_posts('posts_per_page=5'); ?>

Insert it above the Loop in your template-files, and change the number to the number of Posts you want to display. Remember to use Conditional Tags if you want different results on different pages. For example, if you want to show five Posts on the frontpage only, you add this code above the Loop in your index.php:

<?php if(is_home()) query_posts('posts_per_page=5'); ?>

The Loop (usually) starts with the line <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>, so insert your code above this.

This can be used in practically every template-file that deals with multiple Posts; index.php, archives.php, category.php, and so forth.