I haven’t done one of these in a while, but I wanted to point out a handful of new plugins I’ve started using recently.
- Better Comments Manager is another of those plugins that’s been added to my list of essentials for any WordPress installation. It adds a tab to your dashboard that allows you to view your comments with a host of new options. You can edit, delete, or unapprove comments and easily mark comments as spam, if necessary. You can also post a new or threaded reply right from the dashboard with an AJAX-powered interface. A single mouse-click will also filter comments to display only the comments for a given thread. It’s a powerful new comment interface that should be a must-have for any WordPress user.
- WordPress.com users are familiar with the Dashbar that appears on their site whenever they’re logged in that gives them instant access to most of their primary functions in an instant. The Dashbar plugin now gives this same toolbar functionality to self-hosted WordPress installations. It provides access to the dashboard, write panel, and editing ability for the last five entries from your site’s front page.
- There’s been some buzz recently about the new wordpress.com application that’s been added to Facebook. Well, the FacePress plugin updates your Facebook news and mini feeds every time you post a new entry to your self-hosted WordPress installation. It’s a pretty slick little plugin and makes it that much easier to integrate Facebook and WordPress.
- MyDashboard provides a cleaned-up dashboard interface that lets you pick and choose what elements you see when you log into your admin panel. There’s no documentation yet on how to create custom gadgets to add to this plugin, but as soon as there is, I’ll be looking to further customize this slick little plugin.
- The Custom Write Panel provides the power through the use of toggle buttons and custom fields to create a series of customized write panels. It lets you remove some of the clutter and adds the ability to post specialized news items.
These are a great group of plugins. I urge you to give them a try and beef up your WordPress experience.
followed a link here to download your wp theme. stayed to read your writting. very interesting. im a huge harry potter fan as well. but since i have yet to read the last book or see the movie i wont peep into your harry forum. it might ruin the ending for me. :-( i bookmarked this site. have a good day!
Thanks, MaryJane. I hope you’ll stick around awhile. :)
I dont know why but the comment form isnt remembering me like it did with the other theme. :-( Also when i clicked on wp plugins link to comment on it it opened up the comments from the harry potter post. Weird huh.
I was looking at the mydashboard plugin today and i think the author posted a tutorial on how to add gadgets to it. Ill double check to make sure and let you know.
I’m not sure what to tell you about the theme ‘remembering’ you. That’s a cookies issue, local to the computer you’re using. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the theme itself. And the link issue you mention is another oddness that’s probably local to your computer, since I just checked all the links and they go where they’re supposed to.
Yeah, I’ve already built a small gadget for the myDashboard plugin. It’s actually just a port of an existing plugin. The entry is actually only a few places above this one, I believe.