Dec
16
A few plugins to try
December 16, 2009 | 1 Comment
Plugins are a great way of extending the functionality of your blog and here are a few that you may find useful. For some basic information and some instructions on how to install plugins, read this post.
Scissors
Scissors is a really useful plugin that gets around the problem of having to resize images prior to uploading. Once you’ve installed this plugin, you will get some new buttons on the media uploader including Crop, resize and rotate. Thus, you can upload images to your blog straight from your digital camera and resize them in WordPress ready for use. Invaluable for teachers who keep forgetting to resize before uploading!
The extra buttons Scissors gives you in the media uploader
I Like This
Another really simple plugin that adds a bit of sociablity to your site. Once you’ve installed the plugin you will see a small heart at the bottom of each post with a plus sign alongside. Clicking on the plus sign adds an affirmation that you like the post. Useful when you don’t want to take the time to leave a full comment.
PollDaddy
The Polldaddy plugin requires you to set up an account at PollDaddy in order to use it. Once installed you can create and mange polls either on the PollDaddy site or, better directly from within a blog post. The button appears next to the media uploader star above the toolbar.
Polldaddy toolbar button
When you click on the button it allows you to create polls and use up to 20 different poll designs. Note that to have unlimited responses to polls and many more designs you need to get a Polldaddy Pro account which does cost money. For most purposes the basic free account will do.
Polldady poll creator page
Picasa Gallery
If you have a Picasa account to manage your school’s photos, then this neat plugin will allow you to add a customisable gallery to the sidebar of your blog. Here’s one in action on my triathlon blog (top righthand widget).
This is just one of many gallery plugins available (234 at the last count). Others exist for Flickr, Photobucket and Phanfare (Green Park and Aintree Davenhill, take note).
There are just a few plugins that are working now on some Creative Blogs sites. If you find another really useful one, please share it either in the comments below, or on the forum on Ning.
1 Comment so far
Would also highly recommend Simple:Press Forum an easy plug in to add a forum to your blog! What a fun idea. All easy to control who has permission to do what etc!
Mine is here now: Http://2cj.southwarkprimary.net/forum