This is a first post that benefits directly from my helping my wife with her niche site.
I’m using WordPress to design a rather static web-site, and as a result I end up heavily customizing an existing WordPress theme.
For some time I searched for how to make it resemble a “regular” website as much as possible and was on a lookout for ways to make expandable / collapsible / drop-down’able elements.
These are the 6 plugins that I sifted out:
This is the first plugin that I tried out. It makes your categories become collapsible, once you define hierarchies. This can serve as a great solution for all those blogs that have more than 10 categories for some reason. Just define some main categories as parents, make the others be the children, and you are all set.
Btw, this can easily become a Collapsible Pages Widget if you edit the plugin and replace the wp_list_categories tag with wp_list_pages. This can be used creatively on a static web-site.
Basically this does the same thing as the Collapsible Categories Widget plugin but with your archives. Recommended to those bloggers that place the archives in their sidebars.
What I do recommend, as an alternative, is the plugin I use for Archives:
This plugin can be used on a page or in a side bar. Check out my Archives to see it in action. Very cool.
This is a nice plugin that can make it really easy to do this:
So, I highly recommend this one.
I didn’t try this one yet, but it seems a cool functionality to add to a blog that wants to use tabs. Check out how it works on their download site.
Not for the beginner, as it requires some tweaking, but with enough determination it can be done!
This is a little bit off topic, but it is a must for any WordPress blogger. It makes the Admin menu collapsible.
Just hover the mouse over the menu and access the sub-menu without clicking anything. It will save you lots of clicks and eventually time.
Enjoy!
-Alex
[tags]collapsible, wordpress plugins, static sites[/tags]
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Thanks for the plug about my Admin Drop Down Menu
Ozh’s last blog post..Who Sees Ads for WordPress 2.5
Which would you recommend as the top widget?
@Ozh- You bet. This is THE most useful plugin for me. I would’ve gone insane clicking and waiting for the sub-menu to appear.
@Quit Smoking- Depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. Try the Admin Drop Down Menu plugin for your sanity’s sake. Then try out each of the plugins to see what works for you.
What a resourceful post, Alex. Thanks. I think, Admin Drop Down plugin and Collapsible elements plugin are probably the most useful plugins one can use for WordPress.
@Ozh: Great Work, Man!
Abhinav Sood’s last blog post..A Promising Text Links Market Place: TNX dot Net
Thanks for the round-up. Like the look of the Collapsible Elements plug-in. Would imagine that would be quite good for movie/game spoilers.
Chris’s last blog post..Should You Put Your Blog on a Diet?
Hi Chris!
This is a great idea for using the collapsible elements plugin..
Great “blog diet” post, btw.
Had a play with some of those widgets and I too would recommend the admin drop down one.
STUMBLED!
I have just started blogging, I have only heard of a couple of these, but will check out the others after this post.
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Geoserv’s last blog post..PliggRanker v9.9.0
Thanks Geoserv!
number 4 is pretty cool. i’ve never seen that one before. i’ve been typing my archives out on a page in a long list. i may have to give this one a try. thanks.
Natural’s last blog post..Does Giving Make You Richer?
When using WordPress, don’t do anything by hand before you search for a plugin to do it!
Great information! Thanks for writing this. It is an honor to participate in the discussion.
Thanks for the list! The Collapsible Elements plugin was new to me, and it looks great. I can imagine a 1,000 uses for it.
DR’s Money Management’s last blog post..50 Ways to Make Money Blogging
Indeed, 1000 of uses!!
Thanks for commenting dude.
Do you know if these are all applicable on the WPMU platform? I haven’t installed it yet but I would imagine that there is a chance that they even built in some of these as opposed to making them plugins. Any idea?
Ryan’s last blog post..Goodbye MCSA and MCSE, Hello MCITP-SA
Sorry Ryan, I have no idea.
It’s the first time I even hear about the MU… interesting…
I would imagine it probably does, but just dont know for sure.
Everyone is saying that the WPMU is an awesome product for bloggers and in fact it has a heck of a CMS. Better than most open source stuff. Check it out man. I’m stuck with blogger for now, but I’m considering the switch… We’ll see.
Ryan’s last blog post..Goodbye MCSA and MCSE, Hello MCITP-SA
Well, I only gave it a glance, and it says it can support multiple users. Is that the only difference there is in MU?
I’m am running a couple of static sites using wordpress as the CMS. Basically it provides me with everything I need.
This is some of the stuff that made me switch from Blogger to WordPress.
olivier Blanchard’s last blog post..Obama vs. McCain: How Social Media started to change the game in ‘08
I agree with oliver, there are many plugins like this that make wordpress great and make blogger suck.
Germz’s last blog post..Congratulations Obama, you’re the first black president!
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
hey id like to talk with you about your blog. please email me – thanks.