Anyways, this is what i do when i set up a new WordPress installation (make sure you do that before you start to publish, otherwise all your links which are already spidered by Google etc. won’t work anymore):

Make sure your FTP programm shows hidden files (settings depend on your program, you’ll figure)
Create a file called htaccess (note: put no dot in front of it yet) in your wordpress directory
Right- or control click the htaccess file and change its chmod permission to 666
Change the filename of the htaccess file to .htaccess (now the dot came to play, yay)
Browse to your WordPress dashboard and find the permalink menu (under Options in versions below 2.5, under Settings since version 2.5)
Change the permalink structure how you fancy it

Or take a look at the Wordpress codex page regarding this matter, they might be better at explaining this stuff.

Manuel, Æstheticrew’s last blog post..DIY: Expressive Words

Actually, I did try exactly that, but it kept telling that it didn’t have permission to write to my .htaccess file or there was no file to write to. So, I had to create the .htaccess file–which is what caused my site to crash. It is all fixed now, but if you know of a good tutorial out there that can help others that encounter the same problem, I’d be very happy if you shared it.

Why didn’t you go to wp-admin.php, choosed Options > Permalinks > Custum structure > enter: /%postname%/? Or was creating and the setting of permissions (chmod) of the .htaccess file a problem?

If you need help, mail me. Manuel

Manuel, Æstheticrew’s last blog post..DIY: Expressive Words