One of the great things about WordPress is that you can extend it with all kinds of
functionality with WordPress Plug-ins. There are hundreds of plugins that you can use,
but here I’d like to list a few of the essential ones.
In WordPress 2.7 and above you can search for and install new plug-ins from within the
WordPress Admin UI. In the past, you had to find them in the Plug-in directory,
download them, and then upload them to your WordPress installation. WordPress 2.7+
simplifies this process a lot!
Here are a few of the essential plug-ins that you’ll want to install on your new website.
OpenHook
Another powerful feature of the Thesis WordPress theme is the ability to add “hooks” to
customize where things appear on your site.
You can add something just before your header, or just after. Just before your sidebar
content, or just after your footer. You get the idea.
To do this, you need to know a little bit about coding PHP. There is an excellent tutorial
that Sugarrae made called Thesis Hooks for Dummies.
WP-DB Backup
You should install this plugin, because you can use it to instantly back up your
WordPress database to a ZIP file and download it.
Even better, you can tell it to back up your WordPress database on a schedule - once per
week for example - and email it to you. It’s a great way to back things up automatically.
To get this plugin, just go to your Plugins menu and select Add New, just like you did
before, and search for WP-DB-Backup.
functionality with WordPress Plug-ins. There are hundreds of plugins that you can use,
but here I’d like to list a few of the essential ones.
In WordPress 2.7 and above you can search for and install new plug-ins from within the
WordPress Admin UI. In the past, you had to find them in the Plug-in directory,
download them, and then upload them to your WordPress installation. WordPress 2.7+
simplifies this process a lot!
Here are a few of the essential plug-ins that you’ll want to install on your new website.
OpenHook
Another powerful feature of the Thesis WordPress theme is the ability to add “hooks” to
customize where things appear on your site.
You can add something just before your header, or just after. Just before your sidebar
content, or just after your footer. You get the idea.
To do this, you need to know a little bit about coding PHP. There is an excellent tutorial
that Sugarrae made called Thesis Hooks for Dummies.
WP-DB Backup
You should install this plugin, because you can use it to instantly back up your
WordPress database to a ZIP file and download it.
Even better, you can tell it to back up your WordPress database on a schedule - once per
week for example - and email it to you. It’s a great way to back things up automatically.
To get this plugin, just go to your Plugins menu and select Add New, just like you did
before, and search for WP-DB-Backup.
