Immediately below the title tags:

<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title() ?></a></h2>

Add the following:

<p class="articleAuthor">By: <?php the_author(); ?></p>

Tweak the look in the stylesheet using the class .articleAuthor {}. More information concerning the_author() can be found in the WordPress Codex.

For Grid Focus users, here is a quick way to integrate the 468 x 60 AdSense image / text banner ad.

<div class=”adsenseBanner”>
<!– your adsense code –>
</div>

1. Create a new template file – for this example I’ve created adsense.php and pasted the code below + your unique AdSense script.

.adsenseBanner {
float: left;
margin: 30px 0 5px 50px;
}

2. Add the following CSS to style.css.

<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/adsense.php’); ?>
<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/second.column.post.php’); ?>
<?php include (TEMPLATEPATH . ‘/third.column.shared.php’); ?>

3. Reference the template file in index.php, single.php, and page.php above the calls for the second and third columns.

Previous themes would use the following within the loop to identify posts:

<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" class="post">

Adding support for sticky posts requires dynamic classes using this function:

<?php post_class(); ?>

If there is a specific class that you would like the function to include, you can add it as a parameter: post_class(‘customClass’).

Sorry for not including this feature out of the box by default. These releases are meant to be backwards compatible for WP 2.6 users as well.

Sometime in December 2008, WordPress version 2.7, will be released to the public. For information on the bug-fixes and enhancements in this version, see Changelog for 2.7. Currently, WordPress version 2.7 Release Candidate 1 is being tested.

Some of the new welcomed features are threaded comments, pagination, and the ability to upgrade WordPress directly from within the admin Dashboard.