WordPress Plugins

Some useful plugins:

• Allow PHP in Posts and Pages – allows you to write php code in posts and pages.
  Note: the readme page tells you that you need to use a shortcode to make it work, i.e. the normal php code will not execute, need to use shortcode. Always read the read me files!
• CKEditor For WordPress – allows you to change the default WYSIWYG editor from TinyMCE to CKEditor!
• Column Shortcodes – allows you to format your content into columns.
  Note: the [ ] button appears, it shows all the columns you can create.
• Custom Headers and Footers – change header and footer from defaults page by page as you desire.
• Disable Comments – Removes comments from pages, posts, and/or media files. Really useful if you want your website to be a more traditional website, and not a blog.
• Display Posts Shortcode – Within a page or post, you can display a list of posts (e.g. display – posts category =”thingy”) so only posts that are category “thingy” are displayed. It can also be modified further (e.g. display – posts category=”thingy” and excerpt="true").
• Duplicate Post – allows you to duplicate a page or post. Useful in creating a copy of a page that is/was time intensive to create.
• Excerpt Length – Used to specify the length of the excerpt. Usually used to increase the length of the excerpt.
• Easy Contact Forms – if you don’t want to write a php script to do this, this plugin does it with a simple drag and drop.
• FitVids for WordPress – if you are going to put movies on your site, this sizes video to fit the container size.  Overrides the default settings of Vimeo and YouTube.
• Google Analytics for WordPress – allows you to install Google analytics and allows you to put it in the area you specify. You can also tell it to not include activity from specific people e.g. you as an administrator.
• Google Language Translator – invokes the Google language translator (the plugin automatically translates the content based on what the visitor desires).
• Google XML Sitemaps – important for SEO, helps Google know the structure of your website. Google will do this regardless, but if you do it using this plugin, it creates the sitemap faster and better than Google would.
• jQuery Image Carousel for WordPress – e.g. Stanford home page with images that the user can arrow over and advance.
• Lux Vimeo – if using Vimeo this one is good and clean, automatically includes all Vimeo info.
• Modernizr – IE 9 and earlier versions of IE don’t understand HTML5 and CS3 commands. This is a set of java scripts that ‘tricks’ these earlier versions of IE into understanding the new commands.
• Nice PayPal Button Lite – this allows you to make money using PayPal.
• Post Duplicator – basically the same as duplicate post. One of them says ‘clone’ the other says ‘duplicate’.
• s2Member – A really useful e-commerce tool, very complex. Can restrict user access to your content based on 4 or 5 levels of access criteria. It takes about 1 ½ hours to set up, need to set up main page, welcome back member page, establish pay pal account, etc. Main use is for subscription sites.
• Search Everything – WP search function only searches content, this plug in allow you to search the entire site, including titles, posts, pages, etc.
• Simple Local Avatars – good for member-oriented site, it allows users to have their own avatars.
• Social Media Widget – like many other such plugins, it allows the developer to easily create links to social media.
• Spider Event Calendar – allows you to set up calendar on your site. The free version limits you to a certain look and feel, the paid version allows you to modify CSS.
• Unique Headers – another version of custom headers and footers.
• WordPress HTTPS – allows you to force the web browser to use https throughout your site.
• Wiziapp -  This plugin allows you to quickly turn your site into a smartphone application.
• WordFence Security - This plugin works to fix common holes, stop automated attacks and strengthen user credentials.
• WP Float – This plugin keeps an object stationary with respect to screen coordinates as the user scrolls up and down.  
• WP Include File – allows you to, within a page or post, include content that is someplace else -- for example, adding complex php code that you want included on that page. It is a very useful tool in web design.
• WP Lightbox 2 – works as a picture pop up with graceful transition to large image while keeping muted page in background. Before installing, check to see if your theme already has a lightbox feature already (read your readme file for the theme – many themes already have a lightbox feature).
• WP Mobile Edition – this plugin allows you to create and use a totally separate theme for mobile devices completely separate from the theme used for desktops.
• WP Super Cache – this plugin goes thru all php and java script and creates a static html version of webpage. Very useful in creating a faster load. Visitor gets a static but very fast loaded version of the site. Note: you can set up the server to update cache at a specified frequency.
• WP User Avatar – another plugin used to allow visitors to create and use their own images as an avatar.