In this post, we recap the newest cool and useful (oh, and free!) WordPress plugins added to the WordPress Plugin Directory. This month’s plugin roundup includes everything from a way to limit image file sizes to a way easily add Facebook reviews.
1. WP Dashboard Notes
By Jeroen Sormani
Plugin Description: Working with multiple persons on a website? Want to make notes? You can do just that with the WP Dashboard Notes plugin. Create beautiful notes with a nice user experience.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Clever little plugin for adding lists or text notes in the WP Dashboard.
- Remind yourself or clients of helpful information very easily.
- Add a background color to make notes stand out.
- Add your first note by clicking “Add Note” in the top admin menu by “Howdy.”
2. Custom Login Page Customizer – Login Designer
By Rich Tabor from ThatPluginCompany
Plugin Description: You shouldn’t have to hire a developer to customize your website’s login page. That’s why I built Custom Login Page Customizer – Login Designer plugin, the best login customizer plugin for WordPress. While Login Designer is not the first WordPress plugin designed for styling custom login pages, it offers an unrivaled live-editing experience unlike any other.
Nathan’s Notes:
- The plugin description claims an unrivaled live-editing experience. I have to agree.
- Choose from 3 basic themes and tweak to get your desired result.
- Adding a branded login screen is a nice touch to a client site. Hard not to like this one!
3. Ultimate Facebook Reviews – WordPress Plugin
By Omar Kasem,OmarK.me
Plugin Description: The Ultimate Facebook Reviews – WordPress plugin displays your Facebook page reviews in a beautiful way with a lot of options to customize the reviews as you like. Display in a slider, create unlimited shortcodes, widgets and WP REST API URLs.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Powerful way to display Facebook reviews directly on a website.
- Customize the display template and even hide reviews below a certain star threshold.
4. Some Other Great Options for Review Sliders
By LJ Apps
While we can’t really demonstrate these on the Plugin Roundup because of the need for API keys and privacy issues concerning individual businesses, these review sliders for various networks could be a powerful addition to a website.
Nathan’s Notes:
5. BlossomThemes Toolkit
By blossomthemes
Plugin Description: The BlossomThemes Toolkit plugin is a lightweight and safe plugin that generates 12 much-necessary custom widgets. This plugin is optimized for BlossomTheme’s themes but also works great with other themes.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Some really nice widgets here for posts and social media. View the plugin page above for a full list.
- Most work well without any additional styling.
6. Protect Pages & Posts
By BWPS
Plugin Description: The Protect Pages & Posts plugin protects the content of your WordPress pages and posts. When writing a private post, you only want to share it with some people. This plugin helps you just that. Other people can only see your pages or posts only when you share their private URLs.
Nathan’s Notes:
- The interface works on post list pages. Find a new column added to the display.
- Check on protected and copy the URL. The page or post becomes inaccessible other than via that link.
- Could be a helpful way to share content with appropriate users without the need for a password.
7. Shortcode for Google Street View
By Chris Hickman / Metroplex360.com
Plugin Description: The Shortcode for Google Street View plugin adds a shortcode for embedding Google Street View content into your WordPress Site. Embed directly, or embed a thumbnail that opens a tour as an overlay. In any editor within WordPress, you’ll see the lovely pegman next to insert image. Click this little guy to open a simple interface to find your tour, set the start position and insert your tour into your site!
Nathan’s Notes:
- Makes adding an interactive Google Street view fixed to a static point.
- You’ll need to add a Google Maps API key to make this plugin work (it’s free and simple to create).
- Could be a nice addition to contact pages or other location-oriented pages.
8. Link to WordPress Files
By BWPS
Plugin Description: In WordPress, linking text to an external URL or existing content is a piece of cake, but not to your Media files. Now with The Link to WordPress Files plugin, you can easily link any text in your article directly to your Media Files with a click. You no longer need to go to Media. Simply choose and copy the file URL, then come back and insert it into your content.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Adds a button to TinyMCE that will let you select a Media Library item and add its link to the content area.
- Could be a little tricky for new users, but makes linking directly to PDFs and other media much simpler in the long run.
9. Limit Image Sizes
By DNA Code
Plugin Description: With the Limit Image Sizes plugin, you can limit the image sizes being registered on your website (and save disk space!)
Nathan’s Notes:
- Adds a menu item under Media that allows you to see at a glance all the images sizes defined on your site.
- Each image size can be independently disabled, superceding the code that created it.
- Note, this plugin will not delete image sizes that you disable. You’ll need to use a plugin like Force Regenerate Thumbnails for that.
10. Publish Control This Month’s Good Idea or Bad Idea Plugin #1:
By Matthew F. Fox
Plugin Description: The Publish Control plugin provides you with a confirmation dialog when creating new posts in WordPress to avoid situations like this.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Simply adds a confirmation popup when you hit publish to make sure you really want to publish.
- Could be annoying for some or a real help for others.
11. Chrissy This Month’s Good Idea or Bad Idea Plugin #2:
By GeroNikolov
Plugin Description: The Chrissy plugin will make your website more interactive! She will provide your visitors with the ability to just mention the name of the page which they want to visit from the menu and she’ll bring them there.
Nathan’s Notes:
- OK , it’s a little creepy but also a pretty cool application of the Google Speech Recognition API.
- Definitely not perfect, but an interesting application of technology
12. Hello SabanThis Month’s Obligatory Hello Dolly Clone
By Nathan Ingram
Plugin Description: When the Hello Saban plugin is activated, your login page background will be replaced with a nighttime photo of Bryant-Denny Stadium and the WordPress logo with the Alabama logo. Upon logging in, you will be greeted with a rousing Rammer Jammer and you’ll notice quotes from the greatest college football coach alive on your dashboard pages Hello Dolly style.
Nathan’s Notes:
- Roll Tide!
- My first WordPress plugin – which proves that anybody can create a plugin? 🙂