Shortened links, Embed codes, Short codes and more on episode #79 WP Plugins A to Z

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It’s episode #79 and we’ve got a lot of great plugins to review this week. We’re looking at plugins for widgets, shortened links, embed codes, short codes and more. WordPress enthusiasts unite! It’s time for WordPress Plugins A-Z!

This Podcast Can now be found at WPPluginsAtoZ.com

You can now also find the show by using the new Podcasts app on your Apple device, with the ability to speed up the show to hear John and Marcus knock out 6 plugins in 10 minutes! (Though we do sound rather chipmunk-like) Great app with a really great new way to hear the show streaming to your phone wherever you are without having to download to your device or use iTunes.

>>>>>>>>>>Self Promotion of our businesses here<<<<<<<<<<<<

Coming soon to a computer near you WordPress Training Webinar Do you need WordPress Emergency WordPress support for issues you know when you see the ever favorite White Screen of Death. Or just some questions on how to do something please visit www.johnoverall.com/wordpress-emergency-support/ for some quick tips or request some help.

Plugins Reviewed by John

ZigWidgetClass 0.3.2

Version: 0.3.2
Author: ZigPress
Last Updated: 37 days ago
Requires WordPress Version: 3.1.1 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Downloaded: 1,484 times
WordPress.org Plugin Page »
Plugin Homepage »

The Lowdown:
Ok what I needed here was a specific instance of a text widget to get a css class without a lot of fuss, so after a quick search I found this plugin. This plugin worked out great and simple it was just a matter of adding the text widget and adding the class to the widget and then adjusting the class to what I wanted.

Rating 4 Dragons

Pretty Link

Version: 1.6.0
Author: Caseproof
Last Updated: 137 days ago
Requires WordPress Version: 3.0 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.3.2
Downloaded: 511,856 times
WordPress.org Plugin Page »
Plugin Homepage »

The Lowdown:

What was happening here was I needed a way to track an off site URL that would get me some decent stats. So after looking around I came upon this plugin. I downloaded the free lite version and it worked out pretty nice although I had discovered it off the authors site or so it seems not sure so I asked.. I was not aware there was a pro version until after it was installed again as usual I have nothing against pro versions of plugins in fact I buy many of them. But I dislike it when it is not upfront that what they are describing in their post is a premium version and 3/4 of the plugin does not work until paid for. … So in its limited fashion it is pretty good probably better as pro but I am not purchasing it to track one link. I never did get a response from the developer…

Rating: 3 Dragons dropped to 2 for not being upfront.

upPrev Previous Post Animated Notification 1.4.0

Version: 1.4.0
Author: Jason Pelker, Grzegorz Krzyminski
Last Updated: 497 days ago
Requires WordPress Version: 2.7 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.1.4
Downloaded: 15,830 times
WordPress.org Plugin Page »
Plugin Homepage »

The Lowdown:

This plugins I stumbled upon while looking for something else. What does it do well have you noticed those little boxes that load in the lower right hand corner showing another post on the site. Sort of like if you read the NY Times site and you see additional story box pop up. That is what this plugin does. You can set it to make the box appear after scrolling down the page from 0% to 100% although it is usually best to set it at about 75 to 90%. This plugin I added to what is to be my new theme as a way to promote additional info on my site to visitors. You can also customize what will appear in the box by using short code in your post although I think it can use some refinement in its use. Better yet have a way in the plugin to control what appears. at the moment all it does automatically is show the next posts in that particular category. However I still think it will be pretty useful.
Rating: 3 Dragons

Plugins Reviewed by Marcus

Shortcode Usage
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/shortcode-usage/

List the posts and pages where a specific shortcode is used.

Requires: 3.4 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-25

Have you ever been in a situation where you have site with lots of content, a theme with lots of shortcodes and you have no idea where those shortcodes are used and if it is safe to remove any of them?

With this plugin you can search through all content and list the posts, pages and CPTs that use a specific shortcode, with direct links to edit each post.

Marcus' take: This one did the trick quite well on an older site with shortcodes being used by obsolete plugins.

Rating: 4 Dragons

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Embed Code Generator
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/embed-code-generator/

Allows you to add an “Embed This” code to posts that contain infographics or any other graphical content you wish to allow people to share.

Requires: 1.5 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-23

Tired of trying to incorporate an embed code for your infographics that actually works? Worry no more! Embed Code Generator is a free WordPress plug-in that allows you to add an “Embed This” code to posts that contain infographics or any other graphical content you wish to allow people to share.

Marcus' Take: Good plugin if you want to highlight specific code for the end user to embed. I was working on a “top 10” site that needed to be able to feature the embed code so that participants can place a badge on their web site. Without having to hand-hold someone on what code to use, I opted to use this plugin, which really looked nice on the site instead.

Rating: 3 Dragons

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Friendly ResponsiveSlides Slider

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/friendly-responsiveslides-slider

Requires: 3.0 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.4.1
Last Updated: 2012-7-23

From the author: @viljamis made an amazing jQuery slideshow plugin called ResponsiveSlides. you can find it at http://responsive-slides.viljamis.com/. From a responsive-web-design point of view it's a fantastic, light-weight, easy-to-implement image slider (well, it's a fader not technically a slider) that “just works”. I've turned up and just WordPress-ified it a bit.

Marcus’ Take: I needed a very small footprint for a mobile site that needed a slider. This was a great way to do it, with the plugin less than 1K of overall footprint, this one was what I ended up using.