Archive for WordPress
Essential Plugins for WordPress
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the features that makes WordPress so powerful and popular is the sheer number of plugins (chunks of php code that make WordPress do fancy things) that are available for free that will do just about anything your imagination can come up with.
I love comparing notes with other designers and bloggers to see what everyone else is using. Here are just a few of the favorites that have been mentioned recently:
- Randa Clay shared her 5 new favorite plugins today – among them a slick new featured content gallery and cforms.
- Blog for Profit launched a new design recently and was kind enough to include a list of plugins installed as well – definitely a few I need to check out.
- Jeff at Performancing has started something new – with new plugins being released daily, Jeff is putting together recaps of the plugins launched the previous month. September’s plugin roundup can be found at Performancing.
- I like the list of 11 plugins every site should have at Yoast – the iPhone plugin just looks cool!
- Looking to really push the edge of the WordPress envelope and use it as a very powerful CMS? Check out this list of 20 plugins to really transform WordPress into a full featured CMS.
My list of essentials you ask? I like All in One SEO, Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, Akismet, WP Super Cache, and Comment Luv (which I will be implementing soon)
Testing info – Compiling questions for 640-822 or 70-236 can be hard for a 70-640 student who has only heard of complex tests like 640-863 and 642-436.
So, what plugins do you consider essential for your site? Join the conversation because I always love comparing notes with others in the field!
Can’t Login to WordPress? Try This.
Posted by: | CommentsSo, I was going about my daily business of logging in to my WordPress admin panels to moderate comments and suddenly I could not login to one of them. Now I KNOW my user name and password were correct, but it kept returning me to the login screen with no error message. If I deliberately put in the wrong password I would get an error message.
Immediately I searched to see who else has had the error and how to fix it. It seems to be a fairly common problem, actually, and it seems to be triggered by upgrading your WordPress version while still LOGGED IN on your account.
How I Fixed It
- Login to your WordPress site via FTP (need help? check my FTP tutorial)
- Back up all of your plugins to your local drive
- Delete all of the plugins in the plugins directory on the server
- Try logging in to WordPress again via the dashboard
- This should fix the problem immediately (I got a message that said my database needed to be upgraded and had WP do it automatically for me – it took less than 10 sec.)
- Once you log back in, re-install your plugins ONE AT A TIME, logging out after each one
3 Essential Steps to Take Before You Upgrade:
- Back up your database
- Disable your plugins
- Log out of your account
I really hope this helps someone else, as I know how frustrating it is to troubleshoot these random issues!
TinyMCE Advanced Plugin Makes WordPress Even Better as a CMS
Posted by: | CommentsWordPress makes a great CMS thanks to its easy to use interface. As a designer it is a relatively quick way for me to put together a scalable, easy to maintain, and attractive web site for clients. For my clients, WordPress offers an interface that most of them can handle based on their experience with the basic MS Office products.
I have one client who like tables – not the HTML-based tables – but tables to display data. She needed to be able to add a table of data to a page without having to know anything special. The current TinyMCE interface doesn’t accommodate tables so I headed to the WordPress Codex to find out if there was a plugin to make adding tables easier. I found TinyMCE Advanced and it works GREAT!
When you install and activate the plugin, you can then go through and add the additional WSIWYG buttons that you or your clients use or rely on most. The table buttons were essential to my client’s needs – now she can easily insert a table, add rows, merge cells, and display her data the way she is most comfortable with.
The other additions include: Advanced hr, Advanced Image, Advanced Link, Context Menu, Emotions (Smilies), Full Screen, IESpell, Layer, Media, Nonbreaking, Print, Search and Replace, Style, Table, Visual Characters and XHTML Extras.
What other plugins have you discovered that give WordPress additional usability for the non-HTML fluent user?
