Untitled by Sixth Lie (c) 2009 on Flickr
I tend to go a little mad as far as WordPress plugins are concerned. After searching through WordPress’ directory of plugins, I decided to search online. All I wanted to know was if I was missing out on any plugins that have been developed for WordPress specifically with the needs of writers and editors in mind. I mean, there are plugins for membership sites, for website designers and graphic designers, for those selling ads/products via affiliates, for corporations but there didn’t seem to be either a) an obvious way to use some of the more commonly known ones to make it easier for writers/editors in particular or b) anything developed that could revolutionize the way writers and editors get to use WordPress.
So I decided to make a list of plugins that do or can be used to help editors and writers really promote themselves and their professions via WordPress sites the way designers and others can do.
If anyone has a problem as a writer/editor that they would like to see solved with a plugin, leave a comment. If anyone has a spectacular idea for plugin useful to writers/editors, leave a comment. If anyone has actually developed a plugin with writers/editors in mind, leave a comment and I will link to your plugin download page and use it myself.
Note: When I say “writers/editors” I am referring to those who actually write and edit text for a living and run WordPress sites for themselves or their organisations. I am not referring to the inherent roles for users that come with WordPress of “author” or “editor”.
The list starts below.
After The Deadline
This is a plugin that proofreads each post/page for you after you have written it but before you have published it. It highlights words and gives you the proper spelling/grammar options (via a mouseover popup in the edit window) as well as the choice to ignore suggestions and words once or always. It allows you to choose the kind of grammar mistakes that it scans the post/page for on your profile page. This is smart because this then allows multiple users to set it according to the kind of grammatical errors that they make – it can be individually configured.
It does however require you to sign up to the After the Deadline website in order to get an API key to get it to work but this is a painless simple process. The plugin was developed by Automattic, who are also responsible for bbpress, WordPress itself, P2, Akismet, IntenseDebate, Videopress, PollDaddy, Gravatar, BuddyPress, Ping-O-Matic and GlotPress.
Download After The Deadline here.
FD Word Statistics
This plugin allows you to see readability statistics for the posts/pages you write while you write them. After scanning the text, you can see the Flesch-Kincaid rating, the Gunning-Fog rating and the Flesch rating for your posts. Knowing how readable the current text helps you to edit it so that your audience can understand it.
If running a site geared at kids for example, this plugin would help you determine if the language you used was too hard for kids to understand since two of the measurements give you an estimation of the years of education your readers would need to understand the text. It’s also unobtrusive – it sits next to the word count and does not demand that you edit the text before publishing just to make it more readable.
Download FD Word Statistics here.
WP License
This plugin allows you to configure and display a Creative Commons license graphic on your website. The license for the content on this site is in the footer if you want to scroll down for an example. The license is important as you are declaring quite loudly whether or not you want your content published elsewhere or used as part of another work. This is an important plugin for writers if they are putting up samples of their creative or professional work as I have done on this site. It means I have legal backing as I have restricted my content via the license to only be used/viewed on this site or sites I give the rights to. There are other plugins that do much the same job but you should pick the one that works best with your version of WordPress by searching the plugin directory for “license”.
Download the WP License here.
FD Footnotes
This plugin allows you to insert pretty footnotes into your posts by using simple and straightforward shortcodes. It works with WordPress 2.0 and up. There seems to be an issue with how it behaves when images are inserted into the top of the post but apart from that, it’s a pretty nifty way of allowing for footnotes/referencing in posts. Fantastic for nonfiction/fiction and academic writers. Or even perhaps for editors as a means for pointing out errors. The CSS can be altered so the footnotes section can be moved around to elsewhere in the post box.
Download FD Footnotes here.
Thesaurus
This is pretty self-explanatory. It will pop up and give you suggestions for words that fit the context of what you are writing.
You can download Thesaurus here.
Post your suggestions for writer/editor/journalist geared WordPress plugins in the comments and I will add them in the next post.
