Hi, I have installed WP and selected the option to have permalinks as post name. After doing this I am told to update .htaccess file, which I do. But regardless, the individual post names will not work. Any ideas on why that could be? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Make sure the .htaccess is writable by the server. Temporarily change the .htaccess file to 666 and then save the settings inside wordpress and then revert back to 644.
Are you using a addon like Dean's Permalinks Migration or Advanced Permalinks? If you are disable both of these, go to permalinks in Wordpress, reset to default and save. Load your blog and make sure it is loading pages properly. Then once that is working, go back and enter /%postname%.html and it should work. I have experienced this many times... and most of the time the addons are too blame. If this fixed it but you still need the plugins for 301 redirect old permalink structure send me a PM and i'll try and help you get that fixed too.
Today I started to manage the old blog, 2-3 years of age. All pages are indexed by search engines. Many of the post names and addresses are worthless. I'd like it to be keywords. If now I change the address and the names of articles, there is trouble with indexing?
Use the redirection plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/ And configure it to 301 redirect the old permalinks. However, play it safe and check properly if the plugin works out for you as per your needs.