This image shows a list of some of the most popular Wordpress plugins.

Installing WordPress Plugins

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In my last post I talked about  installing WordPress themes. Themes help you quickly change the look and feel of your website.  But what if your site needs a feature that isn’t built into WordPress?  Well today we’re going to learn how to add features to our blogs by installing WordPress plugins.

What the Heck is a Plugin?

This image shows a list of some of the most popular WordPress plugins.

Some of the most popular WordPress plugins help you improve your SEO and add interactivity to your blog.

A plug-in is a WordPress module that adds features to or otherwise enhances your blog.  They can do literally anything that a clever programmer can think up. Installing WordPress plugins can make it simple to publish maps, display attractive image sliders, provide e-commerce features, and even increase your search engine visibility.

Like themes, plug-ins come in two flavors: free and premium.  Most free plug-ins are available on the official WordPress Plug-in Directory. Like themes, you shouldn’t use free plug-ins that come from other sources. Plugins in the Directory have been vetted by the WordPress community and are usually updated frequently.

Finding a Plug-in

There are thousands of free plug-ins available in the WordPress Plug-in Directory.  You can search the directory through the website or through the WordPress Dashboard:

  1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard
  2. Under the Plug-ins menu click Add New.
  3. On the Install Plugins page you can search for plug-ins by keyword, or you can use the Featured, Popular, and Newest.

Don’t forget: there are also premium (paid) plug-ins available from a variety of companies such as Woothemes.  When I first started using WordPress I had an aversion to paid plug-ins.  Why should I pay to add one simple feature to a system that’s already free?

That mentality changed when I started using WordPress professionally. Sometimes installing WordPress plugins from the WordPress Plugin Directory won’t provide exactly what you’re looking for. (I’m looking at you, Every Free Slider Plug-in Out There)Sometimes times it’s faster to pay for a feature rather than to build it yourself or work with a half-baked plugin. In these situations don’t be afraid to go premium.  I use numerous premium plug-ins including Nivo Slider and payment gateway extensions to Woocommerce.

Installing WordPress Plugins

There are two methods for installing WordPress plugins. The first is to search for the plugin through the Install Plugins screen and clicking install. The second is by uploading the plugin and then activating it.

Installing WordPress Plugins through the Install Plugins Screen

Installing WordPress plugins through the Install Plugins screen is the simplest way to install plugins from the WordPress Plugin Directory.  Search for the plugin through the Install Plugins screen then click install.

  1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard.
  2. On the Dashboard menu click Add New under the Plugins menu.
  3. Search for a plugin.  You can do this by typing in a plugin name or a keyword into the search field and clicking Search Plugins, or by exploring the Featured, Popular, and Newest links, or by clicking any of the tags in the Popular Tags area.
  4. Once you have located the plugin you would like to install click Install NowDepending on the configuration of your website, you may be prompted for your FTP username and password.  Enter them if prompted.
  5. After the plugin is finished installing, you can make it active by clicking Activate Plugin.

Installing WordPress Plugins by Uploading through the Install Plugins Screen

Installing WordPress Plugins by uploading through the Install Plugins screen is the simplest way to install plugins from outside the WordPress Plug-in Directory. These steps assume that you’ve already downloaded the ZIP file containing the plugin.

  1. Log into your WordPress Dashboard.
  2. On the Dashboard menu click Add New under the Plugins menu.
  3. Click the Upload link.
  4. Click Choose file and select the ZIP file containing the plugin. Click Install NowDepending on the configuration of your website, you may be prompted for your FTP username and password.  Enter them if prompted.
  5. After the plugin is finished installing, you can make it active by clicking Activate Plugin.

Uploading Plug-ins via FTP

  1. FTP to your WordPress site and navigate to wp-content/plugins/.
  2. Extract the ZIP file containing your plugin.  It should contain a single directory named after the plugin.
  3. Upload that directory to wp-content/plugins/. 
  4. Log into your WordPress Dashboard.
  5. Click Plugins on the Dashboard menu.
  6. Locate the plugin you just uploaded and click Activate.

Post Install Configuration

After installing WordPress plugins many will require some sort of configuration after you activate them.  For example the Akizmet spam filter plugin requires that you enter an API key (a code that identifies your account with them).  Most plugins will provide a notification at the top of your dashboard that they require configuration.

Summary

Plugins do for your blog’s function what themes do for it’s form.  They can make your blog more than just a blog, and few WordPress sites ever reach their full potential without at least a couple of key plugins.  Remember: only install plugins from the WordPress Plugin Directory and from reputable developers of premium plugins.  Once you locate a plugin you’d like to use on your blog you can install it directly through the Dashboard or by uploading it via FTP, but you’ll still have to activate the plugin in the Dashboard once you finish.

Thanks for reading! In my next couple of posts we’ll cover how to add content to your blog in the form of posts, pages, media, and links.

This is the Wordpress Theme Management Screen. You can use it to install new themes and to customize themes that are already installed on your blog.

Choosing and Installing WordPress Themes

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There are two ways to customize  a WordPress site: plugins and themes.  Generally speaking, plugins are used to add functionality (maps, image galleries, etc.)  and themes are used to change a site’s public appearance.  This article is about how to choose and install a WordPress theme.

Selecting a Theme

There are thousands of themes available for WordPress and  they come in two flavors: free and premium.  Free themes are just that: you can use them free of charge.  Only use free themes from the official WordPress Free Themes Directory.  If you download a free theme from another source (or worse yet, use a pirated copy of a premium theme), there’s a pretty good chance that it will contain malware that will infect your website. You can search the Free Themes Directory without ever leaving your WordPress Dashboard by clicking the Appearance Dashboard link, then clicking the Install Themes tab.

Premium themes are available from numerous companies.  I’ve personally used themes from Woothemes and ThemeForest and find them both to have high-quality themes and great support. As somebody who works closely with code however, I’m partial to Woothemes.

For more information on how to safely choose a WordPress theme, check out this article over at WPSecurity.

Installing a WordPress Theme

Once you’ve picked out your WordPress theme it’s time to install it. Themes are installed one of two ways: through the WordPress Dashboard or via FTP.  Free themes from the Free Themes Directory are easily installed through the WordPress Dashboard.  Premium themes and themes from other repositories (you’re not using other repositories, are you?) can be uploaded either through the WordPress Dashboard or via FTP.

Installing a Free Theme via the WordPress Dashboard

  1. Begin by logging into your site’s dashboard.
  2. Click the Appearance link on the dashboard menu and it will bring up the Manage Themes screen. This screen displays all of the themes that you currently have installed and gives you a convenient way to switch between them.
  3. At the top of the screen click the Install Themes tab. This screen provides the ability to search the Free Theme Directory, select a theme, and install it without ever leaving your WordPress Dashboard.
  4. You can find a theme using the search and filter features, or browse Featured, Newest, and Recently Updated themes.
  5. Once you’ve located the theme you’d like to install, click it’s Install link.
  6. Click Activate to tell WordPress to use this theme to style your site.

Uploading Themes

If the theme you want to install isn’t in the Free Theme Directory, download the ZIP file for your theme to your computer and upload it to WordPress using one of the following two methods:

Uploading a Theme Through the Dashboard

  1. Log into your site’s WordPress Dashboard.
  2. Click the Appearances link on the Dashboard menu.
  3. Click the Install Themes tab.
  4. Click the Upload link.
  5. Click Choose File and select the ZIP file containing your theme.
  6. Click Install Now to upload and install your theme.
  7. Click Activate to tell WordPress to use the theme to style your site.

Uploading a Theme Via FTP

  1. Extract the files from your theme’s ZIP file.  The ZIP should contain a single folder named after your theme.
  2. Connect to your site via FTP.
  3. In your FTP client, browse to the root of your WordPress installation, then browse to wp-content/themes.  You will see a directory listing for all of your installed themes.
  4. Upload the folder extracted in step 1 into the themes directory.
  5. After the upload completed, log into your site’s WordPress Dashboard.
  6. Click Appearances on the Dashboard menu.
  7. You should see the theme you just uploaded.  Click the Activate link below the theme to tell WordPress to use it to style your site.

Summary

Installing a new theme is a quick way to add some flair to your website.  Just remember to install theme only from trusted sources.  In another lesson we’ll talk about how to customize themes from within the WordPress dashboard and, later, how to get your hands dirty and customize your theme by editing it’s code!

Multiple Editors in WordPress

I wanted multiple editors in a custom post type that I’m developing in WordPress. I spent my Tuesday cobbling together a solution from articles I found online such as How to Use Multiple WordPress WYSIWYG Visual Editors, Supporting Multiple Visual Editors over at the WordPress Support forum, and a bunch of other links that came up first when I was researching.  I got my multiple editors, but without the Visual/HTML tabs, and without the Media Uploader.

I started my Wednesday morning by finding wp_editor(). This function, introduced in WordPress 3.3, will output all of the HTML needed and enqueue all of the appropriate scripts and styles needed for any number of editors.  Unless you have to support older versions of WordPress, don’t waste your time writing your own solution, just use this amazing built-in function.

Disable Breadcrumbs in Woocommerce

I’m amazed that this isn’t an option within the plugin’s configuration, but you can disable breadcrumbs in Woocommerce by adding the following line to your theme’s functions.php: