Adding Plugins to your WordPress Blog

I realise that I’ve been talking about WordPress plugins without offering any information on how to add them. Plugins allow you to do a lot more your blog as well as connect to other types of technology like Facebook and Twitter.

When you find the plugin you want, the plugin page will usually tell you up to what versions it works with. Even if your version is not there it doesn’t mean it won’t work but you can save yourself some unnecessary work by checking it.

You can see your current version of WordPress by clicking on the Dashboard under the message You are using WordPress 2.9.2(my current version).

So for the less technical here’s a quick summary.

There are two ways to do this

Manually
The plugins are available from the Plugin directory on WordPress.

Search for the plugin you want to use. Before downloading it check if it works in your version.

Download the plugin and unzip it.

You now need to copy the files to your website. To do this you need an FTP tool or you may have a tool available from your hosting company.

On the website navigate to to the wp-content/plugins directory and upload the files you have unzipped into that directory.

Next login to the administration page of your blog and click on the Plugins option.You will see you plugin on the list.

Click on Activate and that’s it done.

Some plugins require extra steps to get them working successfully but many are quite simple and will work immediately without changing any settings.

Automatically

WordPress will allow you to search for and automatically add plugins. The automatic method does much the same as the manual method with only a couple of easy manual steps.

Login to your WordPress administration page.

Click on Plugins.

Click on Add New from the top.

Use the search box to find a plugin. Usually you can search with a keyword of what the plugin does. For example Twitter will give you a lists of Twitter-related plugins.

Click on the plugin you want. A new window will open with install details. Click on install.

You will now be asked for the address of the FTP server where your blog is hosted. If you don’t know these details ask your hosting company.

Add the Ftp details and save it.

WordPress now downloads and installs the plugin.

When it finishes it will ask you to activate it. Click on the Activate button and the plugin will be activated.

It is at this point that you might have problems if the plugin doesn’t activate. In most cases the problem is that the plugin has not been tested with this version of WordPress. Unless you really want to use this particular plugin and are willing to look at the technical reasons why it won’t work normally it is easier to look for an alternative that does much the same thing.

Deleting a Plugin

To remove a plugin click on Plugins and find the plugin you wish to remove on the list.

Click on Delete.

In order to delete a plugin WordPress will ask you for your connection details as above.

The plugin will now be deleted.