You probably guessed that these would be WordPress plugins if you don’t need to know how to code. While you do not want to run an over abundance of plugins on your WordPress site, a handful of plugins won’t slow down your site.

1. Drop Caps

Sites covering certain topics might need to have a fancier look to them. For example, a site about web design would likely have a more well designed and detailed look than a site about animal chew toys. In this case adding what is known as a Drop Cap will make the writing a little classier looking.

A Drop Cap adds a large first letter in the first word if the first paragraph on the page. I am sure you have seen something like this in your travels around the web. The Drop Caps plugin lets you choose where you want the Drop Cap to show up (i.e. only on single blog posts, archive pages, feed, etc.)

2. Simple Pull Quote

Personally, I like when sites accentuate important parts of an article I’m reading. I can scan the article and see if I want to take the time to read it thoroughly. Using a Pull Quote can add a nice addition to headers and bullet points.

Adding a Pull Quote is super easy. When the plugin is installed and activated, you can highlight the text you want to show up in the quote and click the new button in your WordPress text editor. Alternatively, you can add [pullquote] highlighted text here  [/pullquote] around the text to get the same effect.

3. Readability

One of the things that separates one site from another is how easy it is to read. Text, distracting ads and other elements of your site can take away from the readability of the content. What the Readability plugin does is lets the reader click a link to see the article in a lightbox-like popup window.

There aren’t a lot of adjustments to the Readability plugin. You can adjust what displays as the name of the link on your page and the minimum word count on the single page for the link to appear.

4. WP Google Fonts

Adding a font to WordPress isn’t the easiest thing to do. And let’s face it, the choices are kinda lame in most themes. Using the WP Google Fonts plugin, you can add fonts from the Google directory to your WordPress site and there are a lot of them in there.

You can change the fonts for the body text independently from the H1 headlines and blockquotes. Keep in mind though, in some cases the CSS for the theme may override the plugin.

Conclusion

Even if you aren’t a master of WordPress, you can still look like you know a little something. These plugins make it super easy to add little details to your site to set it apart from the millions and millions of sites on the web.

What are your code free tips to make your site stand out to your readers?

Image credit: intro image

Related Posts:

• How to Turn Your WordPress Site Into A Forum With SimplePress
• 5 Useful Ways To Protect Your WordPress Login
• How to Add Dynamic Widgets To Your WordPress Blog Without Meddling With The Code
• How to Add The Facebook Send Button to Your WordPress Site

1. Download, extract and place the simple-press folder in the “wp-content -> Plugins” folder. In the dashboard, go to the Plugins section and activate the simple-press plugin.

2. Once you have activated the plugin, go to the Forum section and click “Perform Installation”.

The installation will create a “sp-resources” folder under the “wp-content” directory. This is the forum-specific folder and all the configurations files, custom plugins and themes will be placed in this folder. It will also create the necessary database table to hold the forum data. Lastly, it will create a “Forum” page where you can view all the forum activities. Once it is installed, you can go to http://yousite.com/forum and view the forum in action. This is how it looks like with the twentyeleven theme:

3. On the Forum section, there are tons of things you can configure, from Groups, SEO settings, Moderators, Users, Users permission, Maintenance to install custom plugins and themes. If you have experience in administering a forum, you will not have problems handling these options. For those who have never handle a forum, there are also “Help” buttons on each section so you can easily click to view the instructions for configuring the options.

4. The forum has a “default” theme. You can download new themes from the SimplePress site (only 3 basic themes are free). To install the theme, first place the theme in the “wp-content -> sp-resources -> forum-themes” folder. Next, in the WordPress dashboard, go to “Forum -> Themes” and select the new theme.

Conclusion

As can be seen above, it is very easy to integrate a forum into your WordPress site. With a few clicks, you can get a forum up and running. I have tried bbPress previously and found that it requires more configuration than SimplePress. For that, I really appreciate what SimplePress has done to make the whole setting up process a breeze. On the other hand, bbPress has better support and there are tons of plugins (free and useful) that you can use. And if you are a developer, it is much easier to modify bbPress code than SimplePress since it is more similar to the WordPress structure. SimplePress is free to download and use, but there is absolutely no support for the public. You will need to sign up as a member (with a subscription fee) to receive support, access the documentation and download custom plugins and themes. One thing though, you won’t be able to view what custom plugins and themes they have until you have signed up as a member. I am not sure how many of you will sign up for a membership before you know what they have to offer, but for sure, they won’t get my business based on the non-existent information on their site.

What do you think?

SimplePress

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1. Google Authenticator

The Google Authenticator plugin makes use of the Google Authenticator mobile app to provide a two-factor authentication login to your WordPress site.

Note: Before activating Google Authenticator, make sure that you have enabled two-factor authentication in your Google account and installed the Google Authenticator app in your Android, iPhone or Blackberry phone.

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, go to the “Users -> Your Profile” section and you should see the Google Authenticator settings.

Check the box beside “Active” and save the changes. Next time you login, it will prompt you to enter the secret key. If you failed to enter the correct code, you will not be able to login.

Google Authenticator

2. One Time Password

One Time Password allows you to login to your WordPress without using your real password. It generates a list of passwords that you can use to login to your site. These passwords are valid only for a single session, so even when the password is stolen, others won’t be able to login to your site. This is particularly useful if you are travelling but need to login to your site in a cybercafe.

Once installed and activated, go to the One Time Password section to generate your password list. Enter a passphrase and click the “Generate” button.

Print out the generated password list and bring it with you wherever you go.

When you need to login, it will show a sequence number. You just have to match the sequence number with your password list and enter the password accordingly.

One Time Password

3. WP Login Security

WP Login Security works via the IP address. It first requires administrators to register or whitelist their IP address. Next, it will detect the IP address whenever the administrator logins. If the IP address is not recognized, it will send an email to the administrator with a link that contains a one-time key.

A good thing about this plugin is that there is little or no configurations required. You just activate it and it is good to go.

WP Login security

4. Login Lockdown

We have mentioned Login Lockdown before in our previous post on WordPress security. We are going to mention it again here because it is truly a useful plugin. What it does is to records the IP address and timestamp of every failed login attempt. If more than a certain number of attempts are detected within a short period of time from the same IP range, then the login function is disabled for all requests from that range.

Login Lockdown

5. WP Firewall 2

This plugin is not directly related to the login field, but it protects your site by investigating web requests to identify malicious attack. It is able to stop the attack before it causes damage to your database.

After activating, you can find the configuration options under the Firewall section. The default options are often good enough for everyone and you seldom have to make any changes.

WordPress Firewall 2

The above mentioned methods are only some of the ways to protect your WordPress site, don’t forget to check out:

• 11 Ways To Secure Your WordPress Blog
• How to Increase Your Website Security And Performance With CloudFlare
• How To Connect To Your WordPress Account Via Secure FTP

Related Posts:

• 4 Awesome Typography Plugins to Help Your WordPress Site Stand Out
• How to Turn Your WordPress Site Into A Forum With SimplePress
• How To Add SSL Security To Your WordPress Blog
• How To Configure Facebook Two-Factor Authentication

1. Conditional Widgets

As its name implies, Conditional Widgets is a plugin that allows you to define a conditional rule for each and every widget.

After you have downloaded and activated it, go to your Widgets page and add the widgets you want as per normal. What is different now is that within each widget, there is an option for you to configure when the widget should appear in the blog (refer to the screenshot below).

You can get it to show/hide on the Home page, certain categories, or even certain pages. It also supports sub-categories and sub-pages. You just need to define the rule for the parent category/page and their sub-categories and sub-pages will follow suit.

One thing though, it does not allow you to configure on a per-post basis.

2. Widget Logic

Widget Logic is less intuitive than Conditional Widget, but it gives you the flexibility to define where the widget should appear. Widget Logic make use of the WordPress conditional tags to determine where the widget should appear. For example, if you want the widget to appear on a post with post id 46, you place the conditional tag is_single(46) in the Widget Logic field.

Widget Logic

3. Section Widgets

The way that Section Widgets works is slightly different from the above two, but it is also the most powerful among the three. Other than the conditional logic, Section Widgets also allows you to create a tabbed sidebar without having to write a single code.

After the installation, go to “Themes -> Section Widget“. This is where you can customize the look and feel of the tabbed interface. It comes with 25 UI themes for you to choose. If none of them caught your eyes, you can even define your own style.

In the Widget section, instead of adding a conditional logic to each and every widget, you will have to add the “Section” widget to the respective sidebar in order for it to appear. Each Section widget comes with two part. The upper part is where you define the condition (which page/category to appear) and the lower part is the HTML code to display.

To add a tabbed widget, drag and drop the “Section (tabbed)” widget to the respective sidebar. Similarly, the top section is where you define the logic and the bottom is where you create tabs and add content to it.

While Section Widget is very powerful, it does have one caveat – it doesn’t integrate with other widgets. If you have a custom widget (say the custom menu) that you want to show conditionally on your blog, you won’t be able to do that with Section Widget.

Section widget

Which method do you use to add conditional widgets to your WordPress site?

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What the difference between LIKE and SEND button?

When you click on the LIKE button, it will be posted to your wall and publicly announce that you LIKE a particular piece of content, be it your friend’s status update, an article, a fan page, or even a site.

When you click on the SEND button, a dialog box will appear and you can enter your Facebook friends’ names and type a personal message. The content will then be sent to your friend’s Facebook Inbox.

Adding the SEND button to your WordPress site

In order to add the SEND button, you must be using the Facebook’s XFBML code in your site. The iFrame version does not work at all. If you have not added the XFBML code, follow the instruction here to implement it to your site.

Next, copy the following code and paste it to your theme file (must be within the loop) where you want the SEND button to appear:

<div id="fb-root"></div><script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script><fb:send href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" font="arial"></fb:send>

To get the SEND button to show up beside the LIKE button, replace the existing LIKE button code with this code:

<div id="fb-root"></div><script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#appId=12345678&amp;xfbml=1"></script><fb:like href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" send="true" width="450" show_faces="false" font="arial"></fb:like>

Remember to replace appId=12345678 with your own Facebook appID.

Alternative method: via plugins

If you have difficulty understanding the method above, the best way to implement the Facebook SEND button is via a plugin.

1. Install the Facebook Send Button WordPress Plugin.

2. Activate the plugin

That’s it. This is a simple plugin that automatically add the SEND button to your single post/page. No configuration required.

Other plugins you can use include: Facebook Like Button for Dummies, Facebook Send Button By Teknoblogo.com, Facebook Like and Send (2 in 1)

What’s your view on the Facebook’s SEND button? Is it adding more value to your site?

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Why is there a need for a faster site?

Rather than discussing the benefits, let’s talk about the disadvantages. A slow loading site can affect the user experience of your visitors. Most people don’t wait more than 10 seconds for the site to load. If your web page does not load up in 3 seconds, they will leave.

Additionally, a slow landing page can also impact your conversion rate and also ranking in Google search. If you want to have a high ranking (in Google search results), you got to have a fast loading site.

Adding the Analytics Site Speed tracking feature manually

The new site speed tracking feature tracks your site loading speed and allows you to find out which page is fast/slow, how does it varies across geographies or browsers.

If you are using WordPress and you Google Analytics code was added manually, you just have to insert one more line of code to implement the site speed tracking feature.

Open your theme file where you place the Google Analytics code (most probably is the header.php). Insert the code

_gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);

under the line

 _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

The resulting code will be:

<script type="text/javascript">
 var _gaq = _gaq || [];
 _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);
 _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
 _gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);
 (function() {
   var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
   ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
   var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
 })();
</script>

Save and replace the file in the server. That’s it.

Adding the Analytics Site Speed tracking feature using Plugins

If you are using a plugin to add your Google Analytics code, most of them (as of this post) are not updated to include this new feature yet. You can either wait out for the developer to add the feature or disable the plugin and add the code manually.

To add the code manually, you just have to go to Appearance -> Editor and load the header.php file. Add the Google Analytics code (with the site speed tracking feature) just before the </head> tag.

Viewing Your Site Speed Analytic

The site speed tracking feature is disabled by default. Once you have added the code, it will take several hours to show up on your Google Analytics page. Go to My Site -> Reports -> Content. You should see a new entry “Site Speed” under the Content section.

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Here are 4 useful techniques you can use to customize and bring out the best of the WP Admin Bar.

1. Remove existing links from WP Admin Bar

1. Navigate to your theme folder and open the functions.php file with a text editor.

2. paste the following code to the end of the file:

add_action( 'wp_before_admin_bar_render', 'remove_admin_bar_links' );
function remove_admin_bar_links() {
        global $wp_admin_bar;
        $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('comments');
}

The code above will remove the “COMMENTS” link from the Admin Bar. It works by using the functions $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu(ID). By providing the ID of the links that you want to remove (in this case, the ID is COMMENTS), you can remove any links from the Admin Bar.

Here are some of the ID that will be useful to you:

• my-account-with-avatar / my-account: Links to your account. The ID depends upon if you have avatar enabled or not.
• my-blogs: My Sites menu. For network mode only
• edit: Post/Page edit link
• new-content: Add New menu
• comments: Comments link
• appearance: Appearance menu
• updates: Updates link
• get-shortlink: Shortlink to a page

2. Adding custom links to the WP Admin Bar

To add your own links to the Admin bar, append the following code to your functions.php.

add_action( 'wp_before_admin_bar_render', 'add_admin_bar_links' );
function add_admin_bar_links() {
        global $wp_admin_bar;
       $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array( 
		'id' => 'Google', 
		'title' => __('Google'),  
		'href' => 'http://google.com' 
	));
}

The example above add “Google.com” as a link in the Admin Bar. You can, of course, customize it to your liking. Things that you need to take note is the ‘id’, ‘title’ and ‘href’

id: the identifier for the link
title: the name that appear on the Admin Bar
href: the url the link is pointing to.

You can also create a submenu with the code below:

add_action( 'wp_before_admin_bar_render', 'add_admin_bar_links' );
function add_admin_bar_links() {
        global $wp_admin_bar;
       $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array( 
		'id' => 'Google', 
		'title' => __('Google'),  
		'href' => 'http://google.com' 
	));
       $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array( 
		'parent'=>'Google',
		'id' => 'GoogleAnalytics', 
		'title' => __('Google Analytics'),  
		'href' => 'http://google.com/analytics' 
	));
}

This is how it looks like:

3. Show the login form if user is not logged in

By default, the Admin Bar will only appear for logged-in users. If, however, you want to make the admin bar visible for everyone and make it show the login form if the user is not logged in, you can use the WordPress Admin Bar Improved to enable this functionality.

4. Disable the Admin Bar totally

Some of you might dislike the admin bar and wish to remove it totally. Here’s how you can do so.

1. Login to your WordPress dashboard and go to your profile tab.

2. Under the “Show Admin Bar” section, uncheck the option “when viewing site” and “in dashboard“. Save the changes.

If you are managing a multi-authors blog (or in network mode) and you want to disable the Admin Bar for all your authors, in your functions.php file, copy and paste the following code;

add_filter( 'show_admin_bar', '__return_false' );

This will disable the Admin Bar sitewide.

What other tricks do you use to customize the WP Admin Bar?

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• How to Customize Your WordPress Administration Area
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Now if you are keen to implement the Facebook comment system in your site, here’s how you can do so:

Static site

If you are running a static website, adding the Facebook comment system is easy.

1. Go to Facebook comments social plugin page.

2. Enter the URL of your site, number of comments to show and the width of the comments. Click the “Get Code” button.

3. Copy the code and paste it to your site where you want the comment to appear.

4. Next, still in your site, paste the following code to anywhere between the <head> and </head> tag

<meta property="fb:app_id" content="{YOUR_FACEBOOK_USER_ID}">

Replace the “{YOUR_FACEBOOK_USER_ID}” with your own Facebook ID. This will allow you to moderate the comments.

5. Lastly, paste the following code to just before the <body> tag.

<script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script>

That’s it for implementing Facebook comment on static website.

WordPress

The easiest way to implement Facebook Comment in your WordPress site is via plugin. One of the more promising plugin is Facebook Comments for WordPress.

1. Download, install and active Facebook Comments For WordPress.

2. Before you can use it, you need to register a Facebook application and obtain the app id. Go to http://www.facebook.com/developers/createapp.php and register a new app. Once you have registered the app, copy the Application ID and Application Secret.

3. Back to your WordPress dashboard, go to the Facebook Comments settings page and paste the Application ID and Application Secret into the first two fields.

4. From here on, you can configure the plugin to your liking. The default language for comments is set to “Afrikaan”, so make sure you change that in the settings before you make it live. Once done, click the “Update Option” button.

Go to your blog and you should see the commenting system in action. If you are using other commenting system like Disqus or IntenseDebate, remember to deactivate them, else you will see two comment system in your blog.

Now, a quick poll, how many of you will switch to Facebook comments system?

Take Our Poll

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Open your Google Chrome and type “about:plugins” in the URL bar.

Scroll down the list until you see the option “Chrome PDF Viewer”.

Click the “disable” link beneath it.

That’s it. From now on, whenever you click on a PDF link, it will prompt you to download the file instead of displaying it in the browser.

To restore the PDF Viewer feature, just follow the same steps and click the “Enable” link.

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Do you know that the WordPress administration area can be customized according to your needs? You can hide the features you never use, change the logo in your WordPress login screen and do a lot more creative things right inside your WordPress blog’s backend.

There are some advantages of customizing WordPress’s admin section. First, you can remove the features that are not at all required and get rid of unnecessary UI clutter. Second, you can handle permissions and access of sections more easily, if you have more than one user associated with the blog (multi-authored blogs are a good example).

Here are some useful WordPress plugins which can be used to customize your WordPress’s blog’s backend:

Ozh Admin Menu

The problem with WordPress’s default navigation structure is that the links are not quickly accessible. You have to click through the small arrow beside each section to expand it and then click the link of the page you want to go to.

If you prefer simple things and want a minimalist navigation in WordPress admin area, install the Ozh Admin menu WordPress plugin. This plugin changes WordPress navigation structure such that all admin links are available in a neat horizontal drop down menu. Saves a lot of screen space !

Adminimize

If you are the administrator of a multi-authored blog, there are some sections which you may want to hide from specific users or authors. For example: You might want to hide the Post URL slug in the Write Post panel for all authors. The Adminimize plugin let’s you completely customize which sections, widgets and panels are available to specific users of your blog.

There are 5 different roles available e.g Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor and Subscriber. You can select the required checkbox against any link of the WordPress admin area and choose to hide or show it to that specific user role. Should you create new roles later, the selection checkbox for that specific user role will appear in the Adminimize option panel.

Overall, this is a great plugin to customize which functions are available to different users of your blog.

Admin Quick Menu

The Admin Quick Menu plugin lets you add external links within your WordPress dashboard. You can define a set of custom URL’s which you want to access without having to leave your WordPress blog’s backend. Typical examples may be Google Analytics, Google Webmaster tools, Feedburner, Twitter and so on.

The best thing regarding this plugin is that you can choose which user levels have the ability to access the custom external links. For example: You can choose to let only the administrator have access to the external links, pretty handy when you want to keep an eye on external services directly within your WordPress administration area.

Pre Publish Reminder

The Pre publish reminder plugin adds a sleek reminder column in WordPress “Write Post” panel. This can be used to notify blog authors about important points, notes that they should follow before publishing an article. You can always edit the reminders and format the reminders from “Manage reminders” section of WordPress admin area

Disable Specific Dashboard Widgets

The first thing which users notice after logging in to WordPress admin area are the dashboard widgets. Although, a user can hide a widget from “Screen options” but you can use the following functions to completely remove dashboard widgets within WordPress admin area:

function remove_dashboard_widgets(){

global$wp_meta_boxes;

unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_plugins']);

unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_recent_comments']);

unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_primary']);

unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_incoming_links']);

unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_right_now']);

unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_secondary']);

}

add_action(‘wp_dashboard_setup’, ‘remove_dashboard_widgets’);

Just paste the above code in your theme’s function.php file and the dashboard widgets will be hidden from all users of your blog. You can refer to WordPress’s official documentation article for more information.

Replace The WordPress logo With your own

If you want more branding options, it’s a good idea to replace the WordPress logo with a custom logo of your site. Simply paste the following code in your theme’s functions.php file:

add_action(‘admin_head’, ‘my_custom_logo’);

function my_custom_logo() {

echo ‘<style type="text/css">

#header-logo { background-image:url(‘.get_bloginfo(‘template_directory’).’/images/custom-logo.gif)!important; }

</style>’;

}

Remember to save your custom logo image in the theme’s image folder e.g wp-content/themes/theme-name/images and name it it custom-logo.gif.

Further reading on WordPress customizations:

• 11 ways to secure your WordPress blog
• 8 ways to improve your WordPress blog’s loading time
• 9 Plugins which new WordPress users must install on their blogs

Do let us know your favorite WordPress admin customization in the comments section.

Image credit: [lee]

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W3 Total Cache is one great solution to speed up your WordPress site, but it requires plenty of technical configuration that might put new WP users off. For those who want a turnkey solution, here are some of them that can achieve the same effect without you having to do much tweaking.

1. Cheating With The Codes

One of the major problems that can hog down your page load is the code mess – especially in the absent of a plugin called WP-Minify. Once enabled, this plugin will combine and compress JS and CSS files to improve page load time.

Here’s a quote of the developer’s explanation on how the plugin works:

WP Minify grabs JS/CSS files in your generated WordPress page and passes that list to the Minify engine. The Minify engine then returns a consolidated, minified, and compressed script or style for WP Minify to reference in the WordPress header.

The more CSS codes/Java Scripts that you use, the more saving that you can get. You can also exclude some files from the process – if you really know what you are doing. But please note that this plugin is not for the faint of heart. Playing with codes always comes with some risk.

2. Cache the whole site

Another way that you can do to speed up the loading time of your pages/sites is to make the process go to a shorter route. You can do this by creating caches of your pages.

Usually, after a visitor make a page request (read: opening a page), the request will be accepted by the server, then the server will load the data from the database, and back to the server before the client finally get the data (read: the page loaded). The length of these process will result in waiting time for the visitor and bandwidth usage for the web owner.

But if you use caching plugin like WP Super Cache or Quick Cache, the route will be shortened into: visitor request – server – back to visitor, because all the data has already been cached and there’s no need to visit the database to fetch them.

Since WP Super Cache has been discussed many times before, let’s look at the alternative: Quick Cache.

The disadvantage is that visitor will not always get the latest version of the page, but that won’t be a problem unless the page is always updated each and every second (which is rarely happened). The advantage of this method is a huge saving on bandwidth and server resource, so much that this is a favorite way for blog master to survive from Digg attack.

Again, this one is also not for the faint hearted as there are so much settings that one should go through. Beginners are advised not to go beyond the “Easy” step.

3. Flirting With The Image Files

And the major bloat to every blog is images. Most blogger will just link videos from video hosting sites like YouTube, but images are commonly uploaded to the blog server. Ten images of 100 Kb on a page equals to 1 Mb of loading size.

That’s why it’s highly advisable to always reduce the size of every image that you want to upload to your blog. There are many image manipulator that you can use to achieve this such as SmushIt – part of YSlow Firefox addon, ImageOptim for Mac, and Photoshop.

But even the reduced-size images still eat up bandwidth. Here’s the part where Dropbox comes to the rescue. Instead of uploading images directly to your blog server, you could put your images in your Dropbox public folder and link the post to that image. This method means more work but worth the hassle, because it will decrease bandwidth use and improve loading time. Plus, if you have to move your blog to another host later, you will save a lot of headache as you don’t have to move your images.

As I’ve mentioned before, these are only few of the many ways that you can use to lighten the load and speed up your WordPress blog. Also check out our other article on speeding up your WordPress blog. If you know other methods, please share them using the comment below.

Image credit: Nathan Eal Photography

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• How to Add Dynamic Widgets To Your WordPress Blog Without Meddling With The Code

1. Digg Digg

Digg Digg is a WordPress plugin that allows you to generate social media/sharing buttons for your site. It comes with plenty of customization options, and one of them is the ability to make your sharing bar floating.

In the backend, you can configure whether the social sharing bar is shown on the Home/Posts/Pages/Category and should it be displayed horizontally or vertically. The floating sidebar option is not enabled by default.

One good thing about DiggDigg is that it comes with a lazy loading setting that delays the loading of the social sharing button by 5 seconds. This will allow your page to finish loading first before the buttons are displayed.

The cons? It requires you to manually adjust the css positioning of the float bar, which means you can’t make it live immediately upon activating the plugin – unless you don’t mind the sharing bar floating at the middle of your content. In addition, if the end user screen resolution is 1024px and below, the sharing bar will be completely hidden. If you depend solely on this to get your content across various social sharing site, you are going to miss out on the small screen users.

2. GetSocial

GetSocial adds color to the floating bar so that it looks more colorful and vibrant.

As compared to Digg Digg, you are given lesser configuration option in the backend. You can’t change the css and there is only a section for you to adjust the positioning of the sharing bar. However, there are two advantages that it has over Digg Digg: the ability to add custom social sharing button and the ability to unhide itself when the user’s screen size is small.

When the user’s screen resolution is 1024px or less, the sharing bar will hide itself and show only a small “Share” strip. When you mouseover the strip, the sharing bar will pop out, allowing the user to share the content.

3. Sharebar

Of the three, my personal favorite is the Sharebar. While it does not comes with a CSS editing option, it does provide useful features that are not found in the abovementioned two plugins. You can configure to use big/small buttons for the share bar and you can even add your own buttons

The best thing about Sharebar is the ability to shrink itself into a small horizontal bar under the post title if the user’s screen is less than 1000px. Also, the plugin just works from the moment you activate it.

What are you still waiting for? Go grab one of these 3 plugins and start getting the floating share bar on your site now!

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Register Twitter API Key

Before you start to do anything, you will have to first register a Twitter API key at http://dev.twitter.com/apps. With the API key, you will be able to embed your @anywhere on your site.

1. Go to http://dev.twitter.com/apps. Sign in with your Twitter username and password.

2. Click on Register a new application

3.  Fill up the form. You can give the application any name you want. There is only one thing to take note: in the Default Access type, select Read and Write.

4. Once you have register your app, you should see your API key in the next screen. That’s all you need for now.

WordPress @Anywhere Plugins

Now that you have gotten your Twitter API key, let’s look at the available plugins that you can use to embed @anywhere to your site.

1. Twitter @Anywhere Plus

This has got to be the most comprehensive @Anywhere plugin in the whole list. It is well implemented and contains the most features. All you need to do is to activate the necessary options in the Settings page and it will automatically configure itself to show up at the right place.

Features that it supports include:

• Auto linkification: All @username text will be converted to Twitter link
• hover card: Twitter info will pop you when you hover over the link
• Tweetbox: Send a tweet right from your site. Useful for retweets feature.
• Retweet button
• Follow button
• Insert custom tweet box with shortcode
• URL shortening – bit.ly

One thing that is lacking in this plugin is the ability to place code outside the content area. If you want to place a tweet box at your header, footer, or even sidebar widget, this plugin does not allow you to do so.

Pro: Easy to use and it just work.

Con: Not able to embed @Anywhere outside the content area.

2. Anywhere

This is a very basic implementation of @Anywhere. At the moment, it only supports auto-linkification, hover card and Tweetbox.

Like the Twitter @Anywhere Plus plugin, you can customize your Tweetbox to appear before or after content. There is also the manual option that allows you to place tweetbox anywhere within the content, but there is very little documentation/instructions on how to use it.

Pro: Simple

Con: Limited features and lack of usage instructions

The Hacker Way – Adding the @Anywhere code manually

There are many reasons why adding the Twitter @Anywhere code manually is a better idea than using a plugin:

1. Lesser overhead, using lesser system resources.

2. It is easy to implement. Even any newbies can do it on their own.

3. You can customize it to appear anywhere you want in the site. It is not restricted to the content area only.

Adding the javascript

Open your theme functions.php file and paste the following code to the end of the file.

$api_key = "Replace with your API key";
wp_enqueue_script("twitter-anywhere", "http://platform.twitter.com/anywhere.js?id={$api_key}&v=1");
add_action("wp_head", "twitter_anywhere");
 
function twitter_anywhere()
{
        echo '<script type="text/javascript">';
	echo 'twttr.anywhere(onAnywhereLoad);';
	echo 'function onAnywhereLoad(twitter) { twitter.hovercards(); }';
	echo '</script>';
}

Save and upload to your server. You have just implemented the Hover cards feature in your site.

To add a Tweet box, paste in the following code at the location where you want the Tweet box to appear.

<div id="tbox"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
  twttr.anywhere(function (T) {
    T("#tbox").tweetBox({
      height: 100,  //change the height
      width: 400, //change the width
      defaultContent: "Place your tweetbox content here"
    });
  });
</script>

Isn’t it easy?

A quick trick: Adding hover card to your Twitter icon

If you have a Twitter icon on your site, you can embed a hover card to it.

In the above code, replace the function twitter_anywhere() code with the following:

function twitter_anywhere()
{
        echo '<script type="text/javascript">';
	echo 'twttr.anywhere(onAnywhereLoad);';
	echo 'function onAnywhereLoad(twitter) { twitter.hovercards(); twitter("#hovercard").hovercards({username: function(node){return node.title;}}); }';
	echo '</script>';
}

Next, add in the attributes id=”hovercard” and title=”@your-twitter-username” to your Twitter icon. It should look like

<img src="url-to-twitter-icon" id="hovercard" title="@your-twitter-username" />

For more information, check out the Twitter @Anywhere documentation for more detail.

Did you embed Twitter @Anywhere to your site? If yes, which ways do you use?

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For those who are still unaware, the new Open Graph protocol and the social plugins are set of tools newly launched by Facebook that allow you to integrate Facebook deeply into your site and make your site more “sociable”. Things such as the “Like” button can now be easily added to your page and enable your users to share your content in their Facebook account.

How do I add a “Like” button to my site? (The easy way)

To add a “Like” button, simply paste the following iframe code to any part of the page (or the location where you want it to appear).

<iframe src=”http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowTransparency=”true” style=”border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:px”></iframe>

To change the setting of the “Like” button, go to this Facebook Like button page, customize the setting, grab the iframe code and paste it to your site.

Alternatively, install the Like plugin which can automate most of the basic stuffs for you.

Is that all? What if I want more?

You asked for it. So here you are, the method to integrate Facebook deeply into your site (and turn your site into a social graph).

There are basically two ways to implement Facebook social plugins in your site:

1. iFrame
2. XFBML

I would recommend using XFBML as it allows you to access to the whole wide range of plugins. The following method will be done using the XFBML protocol.

1. Register a Facebook app

Don’t worry, we don’t need you to learn programming and whip up an ad. All you need to do here is to register for a Facebook app (In short, just fill up a form and submit it).

Go to Facebook Application Creation page and create an app (you’ll need to login to your Facebook account).

Once the application is created successfully, you will see your application dashboard. Record down the Application ID (you will be using it later).

2. Adding custom <html> tag

Now, go to your Theme folder and open the header.php file. Change the <html> tag to the following:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:og="http://opengraphprotocol.org/schema/" 
xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml" <?php language_attributes(); ?>>

3. Adding custom meta tags to your <head> tag

Still in your header.php, add the following line in between the <head> </head> tag.

<meta property="fb:admins" content="USER_ID"/>
<meta property="og:title" content="<?php wp_title(' ',true,'right'); ?>"/>
<meta property="og:site_name" content="YOUR SITE NAME"/>
<meta property="og:type" content="blog" />
<meta property="og:image" content="URL TO YOUR THUMBNAIL IMAGE"/>
<meta property="og:description" content="<?php bloginfo('description'); ?>"/>

Note:

• Remember to change all the CAPS field to your site setting in the meta tags.
• To find out what is your Facebook USER_ID, go to http://graph.facebook.com/your-username. You will see your FB user ID.

• Check out this page for full explanation of the meta tags and other meta tags that you can include

4. Adding of javascript sdk

To make use of the XFBML, we need to add the javascript SDK to your <body> tag.

Add the following lines right after the <body> tag.

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>
  window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
    FB.init({appId: 'YOUR APP ID', status: true, cookie: true,
             xfbml: true});
  };
  (function() {
    var e = document.createElement('script'); e.async = true;
    e.src = document.location.protocol +
      '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js';
    document.getElementById('fb-root').appendChild(e);
  }());
</script>

Now, you will need to replace “YOUR APP ID” with the application ID that you have created just now.

5. Choose the social plugins that you want to use

Go to the Facebook social plugins site, you will see a series of tools that you can implement in your site.

Like button: Show a “Like” button on your site. The most commonly used plugin.
Recommendations: Show users personalized suggestions for pages on your site they might like.
Login with Faces: Allow the users to sign up to your site with their Facebook account. it also shows a list of the user’s friends who have also signed up for your site.
Comments: Allow users to comment on your site. The comments will also be posted back to the users Facebook wall.
Activity Feed: shows users what their friends are doing on your site through likes and comments.
Like Box: This is previously known as the Fan box.
Facepile: Shows profile pictures of the user’s friends who have already signed up for your site.
Live Stream: Lets your users share activity and comments in real-time as they interact during a live event.

6. Configure the social plugins

Choose the social plugin that you want to use on your site. In this example, I will use the “Like” button since it is the most commonly used among all.

Click on the Like Button link

Configure your “Like” button settings. Leave the URL field blank. Click on the “Get Code” button at the end to grab the source code.

Highlight and copy the XFBML code

Paste it to the places (either in the widgets area or the single.php file) where you want the “Like” button to appear.

Do the same for any other social plugins that you use.

That’s it!

Implementing of social plugins in MakeTechEasier

“Like” button for every post entry

Like box in the sidebar

Recommend box in the post footer

References

Here are some useful links for your reference:

• Facebook OpenGraph protocol
• Facebook Javascript SDK
• Facebook Social Plugins
• Facebook Application Dashboard

If you find this post useful, don’t forget to “Like” it and share it with your friends. Do let us know in the comments how have you make use of the social plugins in your site.

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So is Google Docs – one of the best online office applications available till date. Google docs lets you create documents, spreadsheets, presentations and drawings and stores them in your Google account, so that you can access the documents from any computer.

If you love using both the above services, why not use Harmony – a simple Outlook add-in to integrate both the services and manage Google docs documents from the desktop.

Manage Google Docs Documents from Microsoft Outlook

1. Download Harmony Add-in for Microsoft Outlook

2. After you have installed the application, start Microsoft Outlook and you will see a new sidebar has been added to the interface as shown below:

3. Enter your Google account credentials and hit the “Sign in”button. The application also works with Google Apps accounts, along with normal Gmail accounts.

4. Once you are logged in, you will see the entire list of documents stored in your Google account in the Outlook sidebar.

Editing Your Existing Google Documents from Microsoft Outlook

1. To edit a document, click the “Actions” button and select “Open” from the menu options.

2. This will open your Google docs account in the “browsing pane” of Microsoft Outlook. Sign in again with your Google account credentials

3. Once you are signed in, the selected document will load inside Microsoft Outlook’s browsing pane as shown below:

4. Now you can edit the document as you normally do inside Google docs. You can add images from your computer or from a web URL , add texts, paragraphs, create spreadsheets and possible do everything that you do inside Google docs while working from the browser. Once you are done editing the document, hit “Save and close” and the changes will be saved to the document.

Sharing a Google Docs Document from Outlook

If you frequently share documents with a group of people, this feature would be immensely helpful. To share a document, select the document from the harmony sidebar in Microsoft Outlook and click “Actions”.  From the options available, select “Share” as shown below:

This will open a pop up window. Enter the email address(s) of the people with whom you want to share your Google document.

As you can see, the add-in window shows live suggestions of email address from your Google account and thus it won’t be a problem if you do not remember the exact email address of collaborators or friends. Once you are done adding collaborators to your document, you can choose whether the person can edit the document or can only view it. You can set this role by clicking the “Role options” as shown below:

You can use the rename option to rename the document and the star option to mark the document as a starred item.

Creating a New Google Docs Document from Microsoft Outlook

Creating a new document is also easy, just click the “New” button and select the type of document you want to create.

If you want to upload an existing office document, click the “Upload” button and navigate to the document location in your computer. Once you have created the document, the application will open the Google docs editor in the browsing pane of Microsoft Outlook and then you can add and edit text as you normally do inside Google docs.

Conclusion

The Harmony add-in for Microsoft Outlook is a must have for web workers who use Outlook and always needed a way to edit, share and create Google docs documents from their email client. This is useful because you do not have to open a new browser window just for sharing or editing a Google docs document. Please note that unlike emails, you can not create or edit a Google docs document offline – you will need an active internet connection to fetch the documents in Microsoft Outlook. Overall, the application seamlessly integrates Google docs with Ms- outlook and there are no flaws or drawbacks found as such.

Do you use any tool to access Google docs documents from desktop? Do you use any other Outlook plugin to add to your daily productivity ? Please share your ideas and suggestions in the comments section.

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The latter option is not recommended as it will increase database size and the resource loading time. Hence, you have to find and fight your way to prevent spam comments in WordPress. This article describes some of the proven techniques which can be used to reduce WordPress comment spam.

Before we go any further, let’s understand what exactly is a spam comment.

A spam comment is a comment which is posted automatically in blogs, websites, forums etc by automated bots, scripts or software. Some people use scripts and automated bots to target high traffic websites for posting comments. Typically, a spam comment is full of irrelevant keywords and hyperlinks and does not care about the discussion or article where the comment is posted.

In short, a spam comment is an evil form of shameless self-promotion and trying to get quick links for traffic or SEO.

If you are getting lots of spam comments in your WordPress blog, here are some techniques which can help:

1. Install Akismet WordPress Plugin

Akismet is considered as the best WordPress plugin to reduce comment spam. The plugin checks each and every comment, pingbacks and trackbacks submitted in your blog and runs critical checks on the Akismet web service to determine whether the comment is a spam or not.

In addition to blocking spam comments and bad links, Akismet shows a stats page where you can see more details on the amount of comments blocked, accuracy, dates etc.

2. Close comments on Older Posts

Using Akismet is good but overtime you will find that Akismet is blocking hundreds of spam comments every week. You have to delete those spam comments manually, which is really a boring job. If you want even more control over the spam comments, consider blocking comments on older posts.

Spammers target posts which receive good traffic and you can automatically close comments on posts which are certain days old. Login to your blog’s administration area and go to Settings > Discussion. Next, select the checkbox “Automatically close comments on article older than” and enter the number of days in the text box (for example 90).

This ensures that the comments are closed on any article which is older than the number of days specified by you.

3. Ban Spam IP Addresses

Wp-Ban is a useful WordPress plugin which can be used to blacklist IP addresses who try to post spam comments in your blog. The plugin checks the IP address of the commentator and if you have already specified the same IP address in plugin settings, the commentator is shown a custom banned message.

Once you activate the plugin, keep an eye on the IP addresses of the spam comments. Next, add the IP addresses in the plugin blacklist and bingo! You will find that the number of spam comments are reducing as IP blacklist increases.

This plugin should be used with caution. If you blacklist an IP address, any visitor coming from the same host name would not be able to view your blog. Use this plugin to blacklist certain IP’s if they appear too frequently and post vulgar comments in your blog.

4. Use a Custom WordPress Function to Ban Empty Referrers

On most of the occasions, spam commentators never visit your blog and you can use this principle to drastically reduce comment spam.

Log in to WordPress administration area of your blog and go to “Theme Editor”. Select your blog’s theme and open the functions.php file for editing. Paste the following code:

<?php
function verify_comment_referer() {
    if (!wp_get_referer()) {
        wp_die( __('You cannot post comment at this time, may be you need to enable referrers in your browser.') );
    }
}
add_action('check_comment_flood', 'verify_comment_referer');
?>

The above function checks the “referring source” of the page on which the comment in posted. In case of spam comments, if the referring source is found to be empty the comments are never allowed to be posted and thus you do not receive any spam. Thanks to Internet Techies for the tip.

5. Use Recaptcha WordPress Plugin

As mentioned by Google in their Webmaster central blog, the Recaptcha WordPress plugin is one of the best ways to prevent WordPress spam comments in your blog. The concept is really simple – anyone trying to post a comment have to see a graphic and type the words matching the graphic. The spam bots do not have eyes and mind and thus can’t see and read those graphics. Hence they can’t post those intrusive comments.

The recatcha plugin serves the purpose well, but it has a major disadvantage. The regular commentators of your blog would have to fill up the catcha when they try to post a comment. This may appear discouraging or confusing to the visitor and he may refrain from posting comments altogether. Many popular blogs use Recaptcha, but I am not a fan of this plugin as this may offend the regular commentators.

Switching your comment system to Disqus or IntenseDebate (From the editor)

In MakeTechEasier, we have switched our comment system to Disqus and I guess it is worth a mention here.

Disqus is a third party comment system and moderation tool for your site. There are several benefits in using Disqus. First, they integrate closely with Askimet to reduce spams. Secondly, it help you to reduce your database size as all the comments are stored in their server. Thirdly, it integrates with Facebook, Twitter and OpenID so your readers can easily log in with the minimum hassle. Last but not least, it is free.

When you have a site with huge traffic counts and spam counts, you will appreciate how easy Disqus makes your life.

Those were some (if not all) of the techniques which you can use to prevent spam comments in your WordPress blog. What techniques do you prefer? Do you use any WordPress plugin which I may have missed out? Please share your ideas in the comments section.

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Using the Web Site

When you log in, you will see a search page like you would see for any search engine. It has the current trending topics, if you wanted to check out what is popular on Twitter.

When you search for something, then the search results are shown in the image below. On the left-hand corner, you can decide what timeline you want to choose from. Also, you can select if you want to search the web, photos, or actual tweets. However, viewing the web allows you to view the tweets as well because the listing has the tweet below.

If you decide to log in with your Twitter user ID and password, you will see a home page that shows all of the things that you have posted on social media networks, how many times people have tweeted the same link, and information, like your web site, that Twitter account is associated with.

On March 3rd, Topsy introduced alerts. You can get search results right to your inbox.

Adding a Topsy Button To Your WordPress Site

Like Tweetmeme, Topsy allows you to place a retweet button on your site. If you are using a WordPress site, there are two ways to add their button on your site: WordPress plugin and Javascript version.

The Topsy WordPress plugin is easy to install. After installing the plugin, you will go to Settings to customize the button. One thing that I like about Topsy, that I haven’t seen with other retweet buttons is that it gives you a wide range of options on where to display the retweet button. If you don’t want it on all your pages, then you can pick-and-choose which ones you want to place them on. You can also add your own CSS.

I like the fact that you can change the color scheme to fit your site/blog. Also, that if you delete or update your blog, you are able to notify Topsy, and they will be sure to reflect that on their end. Very useful.

The trackback feature is pretty nifty because you can create trackbacks if someone leaves a comment. Not sure if I like this “Only create trackback comments from influential tweeters.“ How can they know that? If I have a technology-type site/blog, the people I find influential are going to be different if I had a fashion site/blog. This is what it states on their site: “On our website, roughly the top 0.2% most influential of all Twitter users are tagged “Highly Influential”, and “Influential” tags appear for the top 0.5% most influential Twitter users.” I would love to hear from Topsy creators to figure out their calculation.

Topsy is an interesting search engine and application. I like the layout and the search display on their web site. It’s also great that they have a user profile that allows you to see how your tweets are doing. However, with Google and Yahoo! partnering up with Twitter and having tweets as part of their search results, Topsy has to find a way to keep things interesting. Their WordPress plugin is one of the most flexible ones that I have seen when it comes to retweeting buttons. However, this “influential” tweeter trackback feature kind of threw me off. Overall, Topsy has potential.

Have you used Topsy retweet button on your site?

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Take this as my letter to WordPress (and Matt Mullenweg) and I seriously hope they can add the following features to the core in the future.

Let’s begin!

1. Database Backup/Export/Import

Being a database driven CMS, I am surprise that the default WP installation does not come with a way for you to backup your database. The Export feature is almost useless as it contains only contain your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags and none of the database settings that you have painstakingly set up over the years. And if you have a big blog (with tons of content), I can assure you that the Export feature is not going to work very well.

With a native database export/import function, it will be easy for the end users to backup their database and also to migrate to another server without any loss of settings.

Currently, the plugins that allow backing up of database include WP-DB-Backup and WP-DBManager

2. Contact Form

Contact form is a simple, yet essential component for every website, yet WordPress doesn’t think it is important enough to include it in the core. End users who need to create contact forms have to resort to plugins like Contact Form 7, cFormsII to create contact form for their sites. Most CMS come with this contact form creation capability, so why not WordPress?

3. Disable display of wp version in the meta tag

Everyone knows the risk of placing your wp version in the <head> tag, except for the WordPress team. Instead of removing the versioning from the meta tag, they make it appear automatically (whether you like it or not) since WP2.5 and does not provide an easy way for you to remove it. Can you imagine installing a plugin just to remove the wp-version tag? What a waste of resources.

To remove the wp version from your meta tag, you can add the following hook to your theme’s functions.php file

add_filter( 'the_generator', create_function('$a', "return null;") );

or use the following plugins: WP Security Scan or Secure WordPress

4. Changing of wp table prefix during installation

WordPress uses wp_ as the default database table prefix and we all know how dangerous that can be. Most people don’t change the table prefix simply because they don’t know how to, or they are not able to (if installed via Fantasico). Yes, I know, you can change the table prefix in the wp-config.php file before installing, but how many people really do that? In my opinion, during the installation process, there should be a field for the users to specify their preferred table prefix.

For those who wanted to change their current wp table prefix, here’s how you can do it.

5. More control over the user roles/capabilities

Have you ever wondered what is the differences between an Editor, Author and a Contributor role? I would appreciate if there is a small paragraph within the User section that explains the capabilities of each role, or a simple link that points to the WordPress documentation site.

In addition, there are plenty of time when we need to limit (or expand) the capabilities of a particular role and there is no way to do that in the native WordPress installation. Users have to use the role-manager plugin to change the capabilities of each role.

6. Choose your own admin username

The default username for administrator is, as you have guessed it, admin. Is it so difficult to let the users choose their own administrative login name during the installation process?

7. Support for mobile devices

WordPress.com realized the importance of mobile visitors (more than 60 million page views come from mobile phones per month for WordPress.com blogs) and have activated a mobile theme (to be more precise, the WpTouch plugin) for mobile users. The mobile support feature is integrated into WordPress.com and users can choose to enable/disable the mobile theme in the settings.

Isn’t it time for the users of self-hosted WordPress to get the same treatment too?

Those who want to activate mobile support for your WP blogs can install the plugins: WPTouch, WordPress Mobile Pack and wp-pda

What’s your say? What other features do you think should be included in the WP core?

Image credit: Peregrino Will Reign

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GIMP has two different types of plugins, Script-fu and Python-fu. Right out of the box, you can add Script-fu plugins. To add Python based plugins, there is some additional steps and add-ons needed.

Get Some Plugins

To find more plugins than you can shake a tick at, go to the GIMP Plugin Registry. The different plug-in scripts are tagged pretty well so you can type in the keywords for what you are looking for in the search bar to the right side of the page.

When you find something that catches your eye, download it by clicking on the link usually at the bottom of the page. The file should end in [.scm].

How to Install

Installation is super simple. Locate the downloaded file and drag it to this folder C:\Program Files\GIMP-2.0\share\gimp\2.0\scripts. If you have GIMP open, simply refresh the scripts by going to Filters then Script-fu and click on refresh scripts.

1. Pencil Draw

Pencil Draw is a a pretty cool effect. It is fun for the occasional profile picture. In a nutshell, the pencil draw plug-in traces the outline of the main shapes and fills in the open areas with a gray shading.

To use this effect, select the area you’d like to change then select Pencil Draw from the filters menu.

Before:

After:

2. Auto Rotate

Auto Rotate is a handy plug-in to fix your photographic faux pas. If you need to straighten a picture quickly this is is what you have been looking for.

All you need to do is trace a  line in the picture using the paths tool. Go to the tools tab and scroll to and click on Auto Rotate.

The middle picture shows the line.

Before:

During:

After:

3. Motivational Poster Maker

I know you have all seen these online, funny pictures with an even funnier caption underneath. This plug-in gives you an easy way to create them.

Load a picture into GIMP. Click on Filter then Moti-Maker. In the pop-up, you can fill in the caption, then add something clever to go in the second line.

Before:

After:

4. Phoca Save Icons

Whether you make icons for your website or your desktop, or you simply need to resize a picture to multiple sizes; this is you will love this plug-in. With one click, you can save your final product to the 8 different sizes listed below at the same time.

- 512 x 512px
- 256 x 256px
- 128 x 128px
- 64 x 64px
- 48 x 48px
- 32 x 32px
- 22 x 22px
- 16 x 16px

5. Draw Arrow

This may seem like a really simple tool. However, if you do not have it in your arsenal of tools, it will be missed.

Using the Path Tool, make a line. The first point will be the head of the arrow, the second is the end of the tail.

When you click the Arrow option in Tools, you will see all kinds of settings to tweak the size and shape of the arrow.

What plugins have you added to GIMP?

Intro image: alternatePhotography
Image credit: missbossy, Dan Dickinson

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Since a lot of web designers and web workers use Firefox, it makes sense there would be a multitude of extensions to test the SEO of a site. Even if you don’t actively do much to insert keywords into your site, it isn’t a bad idea to know how to do the basics.

1. KeywordSpy SEO / PPC Plug-in

KeywordSpy works in conjunction with your favorite search engine. Once the plug-in is installed, you will immediately notice the difference when you search. Searching for anything will display a bunch of additional links and options are added under the site description. Some of the new additions are: Rankings, number of links to the site, organic and PPC keywords.

If you need more information, one of the 3 paid options could be purchased. According to the list of client who use this service, you would be in the company of some heavy hitters like American Express, IBM and Toyota. That means it must be good right?

2. SeoQuake

Seoquake has similar options as KeywordSpy. The layout in the search window is a little more cramped, the logos for the sites whose information is being displayed makes it a little easier to decipher. If you like, SeoQuake allows you to save and download the information to CSV (comma separated values) file for you to view later in Excel.

One thing I really like about this plug-in, is just under the main Google search bar now resides a [related keywords] link. If you would like a better idea of phrases or keywords a competitor is using, simply click on [more keywords]. You will be whisked away to a page with plenty more.

3. SearchStatus

SearchStatus seems to be the easiest on the plug-ins so far. It is very straight forward and least invasive. Your Google searches still look as they did before.

If you want to put SearchStatus to work, you can Ctrl (or right) click on the icon in the status bar. Doing this brings up a contextual menu with all of your options. These features will stay turned on as you move from page to page.

For example, say you wanted to see all of the nofollow links on a site. Turn this option on in the menu and where ever you go these kinds of links will be highlighted.

SearchStatus will highlight the keyword you are searching for, as well as telling you how many times it is used on the page. Sometimes it is a good idea to see how your competitors are working these words into their content.

4. KGen

KGen, short for keyword generator, is a sidebar pop out which makes it stand out from the others. This plug-in’s sole purpose is to display the keywords on a specific page. The words are ranked by the number of times they are repeated and the weight of the word.

5. Foxy SEO Tool

Foxy SEO Tool is fast becoming my favorite plug-in. It seems to have the best mix between tools and usability allowing access to the search options one of two ways.

The first is via the toolbar. I am personally not a big fan of addon tool bars, but when you are using Foxy SEO Tool for multiple searches, it does make things easier. Click on the menu you want to see and out comes the drop down with all of your choices for that menu.

The second option is the standard Ctrl (or right) click contextual menu option. This option is handy to take a quick look at something that catches your eye.

6. SEO for Firefox

I have used this extension for a while. I find it to be very handy when I am looking for information on a site I am working with or checking out a competitor. It is easily toggled on and off by clicking the icon in the status bar.

When its time to use SEO for Firefox, you can access it by Ctrl (or right) clicking and working your way over to the options. The feature that sets this SEO for Firefox a part from the rest is the SEO xray.

What makes this option so great is it shows the incoming, outgoing, nofollow, Meta keywords, HTML tags and all kinds of other stuff in a pop out window. Then if you want to see the keywords, there is an option for that as well.

What kinds of tools do you use to better your search engine rankings?

Image credit: Jeffrey Beall

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