Your blog runs on the ‘open source‘ WordPress blogging platform. A new university blog has many features already built in such as tagging, password protection, revision history, auto-saving, the ability to add additional users and commenting. However, one of the most appealing things about WordPress is the large community of people creating plugins which extend the default functionality. Your blog has a number of plugins available that might be useful to you. Feel free to use them if you think they might be helpful.
What’s a plugin?
It’s an extra piece of software code that adds functionality to your blog.
What plugins are available?
You can see what plugins are installed by going to your blog Dashboard and clicking on Plugins in the menu bar.
How do I activate a plugin?
Just click on Activate which is to the right of the plugin description.
I’ve done that but it’s not working.
You may need to configure the plugin. Check your Settings menu or the Plugins menu on your Dashboard for any new options. You should also read about how the plugin works by clicking on the title of the plugin listed on the Plugins page. This will typically take you to a web page where the plugin is explained in more detail.
I want to use a plugin but I don’t really understand any of this stuff!
You can read more about plugins or if you want to discuss this further, contact CERD.
I’ve been using a plugin but it’s stopped working!
Because plugins are not part of the core WordPress software, some plugins might ‘break’ when we upgrade to the latest version of WordPress. Usually, the author of the plugin provides an update within a few days. Contact CERD if a plugin you use has been broken for more than a week.
I’ve heard about a great WordPress plugin but it’s not on the list for me to activate.
There are thousands of available plugins and only a few have been installed for use on the university blogs. Generally, a plugin is chosen for the university blogs because it will be useful for a large number of people and is actively being developed by its author. Many plugins are old and abandoned by their author and do not work with the latest version of WordPress. If you find a plugin and have a genuine use for it, do contact CERD and we’ll evaluate it with you on our test server.