Slidedeck is a jquery slideshow plugin for WordPress. For users unable to build a content slider, this might be a nice option. Slidedeck comes in two versions: a free version and a PRO version. The PRO version costs, but you have the ability to customize the plugin further.

Even with just the free version, it is a pretty good jquery slider. You can specify the size, what type of posts (example: recent, featured, or popular posts), and the navigation type.

To implement the plugin into your site, you can either include a PHP generated code snippet into your theme or create a different slideshow for individual posts (example: blog entries with multiple photos.)

If you use this plugin for your content slider, you will have to put the image in your post, and no, not just as a thumbnail, but within the post (grabs the first pic available.) I really would like to see this plugin take advantage of including that option in the future at least for the freebie version. It would make things a lot easier. However, even if there are no images, the text for the post will take up the whole area at least.

Have you tried this plugin?

I have gotten quite a few emails asking me on how I sent an automatic email to those who commented on my blog. First off, it is not just an automatic email, but a thank you email. I wanted to make sure that people remembered my site and knew that I constantly updated it. For those who are regulars, I blog almost on a daily basis.

I use the WordPress plugin called Thank Me Later by Brendon Boshell. It is not your normal auto-responder type email as it really does not sign you up for anything. As the blog owner, you can specify in the plugin settings when the email is sent out and how often. For me, usually it is sent 1 hour after a visitor commented on the site and only once. Others might want to send out once a month.

I think it is a great plugin. Unlike the Twitter Auto-DM (Automatic Direct Message) ability, this tool is great to help your blog visitors feel welcomed. The message that is sent can be customized and you can include links to special parts of your site or your RSS feed.

I think there could be potential to turning this plugin to have auto-responder features. However, I am fairly content as this is a good tool to inform visitors at least once about attracting them back to your website.

Have you tried this plugin?

Digg Digg has come quite a way. The plugin was created by Yong Mook Kim. The plugin is geared for allowing visitors to social bookmark or share the post on social network sites. Some of the sites include:

• BlogEngage
• Delicious
• Designbump
• Designfloat
• Digg
• Dzone
• Facebook Share / Like
• Google Buzz
• Polladium
• Post Comments
• Reddit
• Sphinn
• StumbleUpon
• TweetMeme
• The Web Blend
• Yahoo Buzz

I like the option to allow the social network icons to acts like a fixed background image, just like how Mashable’s posts are set up.

I do want to note that you should watch out in case Digg Digg’s code interferes with your site’s layout. I have had it happen quite a few times running it with the default settings. However, the great thing is that you can manually insert the individual social network buttons if you wish.

This is a plugin that does get updated quite frequently. It is understandable because API with social networks can change. However because the plugin is updated so frequently, it might be best to hold off a week before upgrading. It has been known to not be complete in past upgrades, so be cautious (you should be cautious in upgrading any plugins.)

Personally I use Digg Digg at the top of my posts and then a separate social bookmarking toward the end of my post. I am not quite sold on the Mashable sliding social bookmark feature. Applying this feature without a plugin is actually quite easy.

Do you use Digg Digg?

The Testimonials Manager plugin for WordPress by Gobola Krishnan is a pretty handy plugin, especially if you have a business that likes to share what your clients think about your product.

It holds the ability to enter a name, the person’s site address, a small avatar, and the testimony itself. Users can display testimonies in their sidebar and the plugin generates a testimony page.

For anyone wanting to use this plugin, they will note that the plugin has a credit line published at the end of the page. This can be removed by editing the plugin files. However, with future updates, the attribute will simply overwrite this – putting the credit back up. I had this happen with a client who wanted to use this plugin, but did not want the attribution link on it.

I will note that if the plugin is edited within the WordPress admin panel, that the script will generate another new page. It is a bit of an annoyance, but easily fixed by deleting the newly created testimony page.

As for customizing the plugin itself, it takes finding the correct CSS classes and such, and adding them to the theme’s style sheet. (It might actually take putting up an example testimonial and viewing the source to see what the plugin produces. It might be an easier alternative to looking into the plugin’s files.)

Have you tried this plugin? How has it worked for you?

I really hate to present a negative review. However, I really find it redundant to use a plugin like Validation Helper, which checks how valid your page’s code is after performing a conversion from XHTML to HTML.

One thing I like to point out is that despite it being a plugin with good intentions, it really is not necessary. Anyone can go to the W3 Validator and do a detailed check on their website. It is unnecessary to install and use this plugin as it is an unnecessary process that your site will have to go through.

The plugin only shows the number of errors. It does not go through and give a detailed report. For those who have been working on their site and articles, it becomes a little difficult to pick out what exactly is going on. It might be a missing piece of code, an extra space, or even a mistake in typing.

The W3 validator is a great tool. Even though it is off-site from your WordPress admin panel, it should be bookmarked and used. So, save yourself some unnecessary processes, disk space, and even some time. As a note, the other validators available in the WordPress plugin directory are not too much different from this one.

What do you think? Necessary/ Unnecessary? Needs more features?

SidebarTabs is a plugin created by Newton Horta. For a plugin, this one worked great with what I needed it to do. I could tell the plugin how my sidebar code is set up and also customize the look of within my WordPress admin panel.

Some of the options were styling the tab colors, the links, the background of the widget area and much more. You will have to create a miscellaneous sidebar in your theme’s functions.php to insert the widgets that you plan to use for your sidebartabs.

A great feature of this plugin is that you can create several intances of this plugin. You can also choose to display the widget as an accordion.

I do want to note that I discovered that if you do not label your widgets that you are using for each tab that it might not show up correctly. This depends on how you have set up your theme as well. Some of the newest versions of this plugin may not work well in Internet Explorer.

For a plugin, this is great especially since it was not easy to implement other available sidebar tab plugins without extra work. The options though are a bit basic and I would like to see more options to the styling in future versions as this could potentially be something anyone might like to use.

For advanced users it might be better to use a different option like YETII. A good example of the implementation of YETII is at Anidan Design.

Have you tried this plugin or a different type of sidebar tab plugin or implementation?

There are a lot of Facebook applications out there to help a blogger publish their posts on their fan pages and profiles, but I have not found them very handy. In fact, it took quite a few tries to get it right. I found Simple Facebook Connect. I recently started a new project called FandomNews.com. The front end is not designed yet as I am working with another individual on the backend to get things prepared before even focusing on the front end of the site.

One of the features that the site needed was the ability to automatically post content to the site’s Facebook fan page. I was not havinig any luck getting already existing Facebook applications to work, so I turned to the WordPress end and found Simple Facebook Connect.

This plugin has several features.

- Post to Facebook profile OR fan page
- Adds Facebook Comments
- Adds Facebook auto login
- Like Button
- Widgets for Events, User Status, Live Stream, and Fan boxes

and much more!

This plugin was created by Otto. The instructions to set this up on your site while being able to use the Facebook API is also on his site. I plan to to a simple step-by-step tutorial as a follow up to this article soon. There are just not enough information out there that people understand that even if an application is set it up, the developer will have to to wait until Facebook approves the application.

Requirements for this plugin are PHP 5.2 and WordPress 2.9.1 and above. Also the email address used for both Facebook and the WordPress needs to be the same.

Although I did not need the other frills, the posting part was great. I am thinking of slimming the plugin down to a bare bones plugin… although I will give credit to Otto for his hard work.

Have you used this plugin? Is there a similar one you have used – and does it work right? Are there any reliable and working applications on Facebook that will publish the posts to a fan page and profile immediately?

The WordPress Simple Paypal Shopping Cart is a plugin created by Ruhul Amin for those who do not need a fancy shopping cart, but would like to have something they can customize on their site.

The backend is quite simple and very light. You only have to put in your Paypal email address, specify if you have shipping, a return URL, and products page URL. You can even change the “Add to Cart” button to your own prefered image. Users have the ability to install a widget in their sidebar so the customer knows what is in their shopping cart or they can make a custom checkout page.

The shopping cart plugin operates by placing a shortcode in the content. Simple, right? The plugin can even be used in conjunction with the NextGen Gallery plugin and you can have a little more complex store front.

This script does work! One of the problems some users might face is that the cart might not work off the bat. This could be due to several things:

1. Missing the WP footer or header call to the layout (you should be using it every time.)
2. Your webhost does not have an updated PHP Session. Simply email and request an update.

Of course, there are other shopping cart plugins, but what really impressed me enough to whip up a review was the amazing support. The other was that it was not as bulky as some of the others I have tried out. Ruhul and his moderators at his WPShopping Cart forum were quick to answer questions even on their free plugins. They really are familiar with their work and have even developed a premium version of this simple Paypal shopping cart plugin.

For more documentation on this plugin, visit the page for WordPress Simple Paypal Shopping Cart at Tips and Tricks HQ.

Have you tried this plugin? What are your thoughts?

With so many blogs out there, I keep hearing about people copying material or ripping off graphics. The plugin, WP-CopyProtect apparently takes care of this issue – for the most part. A person can just view the source of the site by going to the browser’s menu and filch the code directly.

The plugin is suppose to prevent selection text and disables the right click on the site. It is a pretty simple plugin created by Chetan Gole. I am all for preventing theft of hard work. However, this plugin is not a necessity. There are ways to disable right click. If you search the words javascript disable right click on Google, you can find really easy code to insert into your theme. Same goes for searching javascript disable select text on Google.

I do appreciate that this plugin is available, but there are far better alternatives. In fact, a lot of places online provide some nifty javascript tools for site owners and come with easy directions for installation. Most of it is just inserting code in a certain place in the theme’s code. There are also ways you can encrypt your website’s code too.

Have you tried this plugin? What other alternatives can you suggest to those not wanting to install yet another plugin?

I came across Revision Diet after looking for a temporary plugin solution for my blog, Blondish.net. For those unaware, I just cute 150 static pages from the site, but I still have over 120 static pages, and over 300 blog posts. Just imagine the number of revisions I have hoarded! It was insane an putting some strain on the allocation I gave to my individual hosting account on my server.

Installation was easy, and using the plugin is really simple. All you have to do is put the number of revisions you will allow your blog to remember. After that, you can eliminate or as the plugin says ‘trim’ your revisions on your blog by simply clicking a button. It takes a moment to do, but it is worth it. For me, I make a lot of revisions – some even months after I wrote the page or post.

Other plugins I have tried, even the popular ones do not have a way to trim out the posts, and as the Revision Diet plugin creator, David Miller noticed, some of the plugins were only hiding the revisions, not removing them completely. While some people do not even like the revision option at all, this is a way to at least limit how many revisions are saved so any accidental deletions will not occur.

Have you tried this plugin? How has it worked for you? Or if not, do you use a similar plugin?