I’ll be lurking in the #blogchat discussion tonight on #twitter and the topic of discussion is “favorite blog plugins”. After thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized it’s hard to identify my favorite plugins–I use a lot of different plugins on different sites depending on a lot of variables. However, in the spirit of sharing, here are some of my favorites/most used blog (WordPress) plugins — in no particular order:

- Akismet: What WordPress user wouldn’t list this among their favorites? Just look in the sidebar on this site to see the number of spam comments it has protected this site from–and compared to a lot of sites, I don’t really attract that many spammers. This is one of those plugins you just install, configure, and forget…it just does its job. So although I don’t think about it a lot, it is a great, free plugin and deserves recognition for doing what it does, very well.

- WP Touch: This is a great plugin that makes creating a mobile version of your WordPress blog very easy–and the free version does have a lot of features. I’m using the free version of this plugin on this site–check it out on your smartphone. I like this plugin so much, it is the only plugin where I have actually purchased the Pro version for use on another client site.

- Tweet Old Post: Okay, I know the true Twitter evangelists out there may cringe at this one–how dare I install something that will “auto post” to my Twitter account. Well, get over it, because I do…on more than one Twitter account…and I love it Great little plugin…if you haven’t checked it out, take a look.

- Blackbird Pie: A cool little plugin that I don’t use a great deal, but provides a nice way to insert tweets directly into my blog posts. The plugin adds an icon to your WordPress visual editor and all you need do is retrieve the twitter url or id and use the icon on the editor to add it directly to you post…see and example below:

MT @MackCollier: Tonight at #Blogchat 9 ET we'll be discussing favorite blog plugins. Here are mine: http://t.co/AotvT3fj

February 19, 2012 7:32 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@LisaPetrilli

Lisa Petrilli

Those are just a few plugins I use and like….I use dozens of others I like just as much, but will save those to share at another time.

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The video in this post is a follow-up to the last video I published here about creating a members only WordPress blog. In that video I briefly demonstated a WordPress plugin that allows you to upload a csv file of and create tens of thousands users in a matter of minutes. In this video, I demonstrate how to create that csv file of users with MS Excel. The video is a bit long…I’m sure given a lot of planning and thought I could have demonstrated this in under 10 minutes, but since I can now upload videos of unlimited length to YouTube, and since I no longer have the time to spend hours on creating these, my videos will tend to be a bit longer these days. The upside is, in this video, you should not only learn a thing or two about WordPress, but you may pick up a few Excel tips that could come in handy in several different applications–I demonstrate the use of the “text to columns”, “concatenate”, and “past values only” functions in Excel that are extremely useful. Anyway, enjoy.

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If you don’t currently have your WordPress blog configured to render on mobile devi ces, then watch this video for directions on using the WPTouch plugin. In only a few minutes you have configure your blog to render very nicely on a variety of smartphones.

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I haven’t tried the plugin below yet, but it looks pretty promising for those brave individuals looking to put together their own personal computing platform and get off the outdated, clumsy, LMS’s. About the only things people use an LMS, like Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai, etc., for is a document repository, gradebook, discussion board, electronic assignments, and maybe quizzes/exams. With just a little work, you can create your own learning platform in WordPress that will beat any LMS out there.

Features

1. Easy to use and simple
2. Students access all their grades from one site including grades from previous terms
3. Faculty can manage their grades from one site
4. Faculty can notify students of new grades through a customizable email message
5. SSL enabled – all information is transmitted securely
6. No personal information is stored. Grades are indexed and accessed based on the Temple email address of the student.
7. Manage all your grades on your computer using the convenience of Excel and then when you are ready to distribute, make the grades available to students in a few easy steps.
8. An integrated course administration page provides a simple gateway for viewing, managing, uploading, and email.
9. The plugin is automatically enabled for use in multi-site / network implementations of WordPress
10. LDAP enabled, all users are authenticated using your local LDAP credentials

Download here: http://community.mis.temple.edu/plugins/community-gradebook/

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I was helping a real estate agent move and clean up some problems with his WordPress site this week. He also wanted a better way of listing properties. After looking around a bit at different themes, I stumbled across the WP-Property plugin…in a word…very nice. Okay, two words

If you’re looking for a nice, easy way to list properties, check it out…with a little creativity you could probably think of lots of other uses for this cool plugin as well.

http://twincitiestech.com/plugins/wp-property/

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Note: The following is made available under GPL from http://codex.wordpress.org/GPL. It may be edited a little from its original form, but probably not a lot. There is no guarantee this information is accurate…use at your own risk.
—————————————————–

Delete Old or Unwanted Plugins — Keeps Your Site Running Well and Increases Security

Many times a plugin doesn’t fit your site or you don’t need it, but you leave it there just in case. These tend to pile up in your Administration > Plugins Panel, making your plugin list long and cumbersome to scroll through. If left there long enough, they might become obsolete with the new WordPress versions and they could get outdated and cause problems–including security vulnerabilities. Check your Plugins list often and clean out the stuff you know you won’t use.

Begin your Plugins housekeeping by visiting the plugin author’s site to see if there are instructions on how to uninstall the plugin via the Plugins panel on the left side of the screen. Some plugins require adding tags and code to your Template files while others require modification of the WordPress administration files. Be sure and read through the plugin’s uninstall instructions to remove each of these modifications so your site will not have errors when the plugin is turned off.

If no specific instructions for uninstalling exist, then read through the installation instructions to check for modifications, if applicable, and reverse their changes, if implemented. If it has been a long time since you used this plugin, you still might have left its modifications in your template files and forgotten them. Carefully remove them.

To remove a plugin, make sure the plugin is deactivated from the Administration > Plugins Panel. Then you can uninstall in that same area. For some plugins, there may be left-over files in your plugins directory even after you uninstall using the admin interface. It’s always a good idea to look in your plugins directory to ensure the plugin files are gone…if not, then delete them.

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How to Install a WordPress Theme Using FTP or Cpanel

How to Install a WordPress Plugin Using FTP or Cpanel

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