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I have to give tons of credit to a co-worker, Matt Bathon, for creating most of this file. I have added to it and will continue to add to it and edit it, but he put in the time to create the original copy, so kudos to him for this great resource. Be sure to check out his site too!
We constantly find ourselves downloading wordpress and various plugins that we use on a regular basis. Rather than having to “go” to all those download pages, this file brings everything right here so everything we need is in one, easy to use location.
Download WordPress (latest release)
Download the Sandbox theme (blank theme to get you started)
Plugins
Raw HTML
WP-Audio Player
CformsII – Contact Forms
cforms is a highly customizable, flexible and powerful form builder plugin, covering a variety of use cases and features from attachments to multi form management, you can even have multiple forms on the same page!
The Excerpt Reloaded
Based on the_excerpt, the_excerpt Reloaded, when a post does not contain an excerpt, displays the contents of the post (typically abbreviated), which can be customized on which HTML tags to allow, length of the excerpt (in words), “more…” link, and filtering type. The plugin’s function the_excerpt_reloaded() must be used in The Loop.
Google XML Sitemaps
This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.
HeadSpace2
HeadSpace2 is an all-in-one meta-data manager that allows you to fine-tune the SEO potential of your site. Visit the HeadSpace page for a video demonstration.
WordPress Mobile Edition
WordPress Mobile Edition is a plugin that shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile device.
MobilePress
MobilePress is a WordPress plugin that will render your WordPress blog on mobile handsets, with the ability to use customized themes. The plugin also allows specific themes for specific devices / mobile browsers, such as iPhone, Opera Mini, Windows CE Mobile and other generic handset browsers.
The plugin also allows WordPress theme developers to create custom mobile themes for WordPress blogs using the MobilePress plugin. Therefore, theme designers can create specific iPhone themes or generic themes. Think of MobilePress as an enabler for WordPress on mobile.
MobilePress also features Mobile SEO which detects Google and Yahoo mobile search bots. These mobile search bots will see the mobile version of you blog which allows your blog to optimized and indexed on Google and Yahoo mobile search.
NextGEN Gallery
NextGEN Gallery is a full integrated Image Gallery plugin for WordPress with a Flash slideshow option. Before I start writing the plugin I study all image and gallery plugins for WordPress, I figure out that some of them are really good and well designed, but I missed a simple and easy administration back end to handle multiple galleries and albums.
Lightbox 2
Used to overlay images on the current page. Features ‘auto-lightboxing’ of image links. Use this in conjunction with the NextGEN Gallery plugin.
***Note*** This plugin is based on the popular jQuery lightbox design but uses the prototype js framework. Therefore, in order for this to work alongside jQuery, you must include the jQuery.noConflict(); script and adjust main.js accordingly (change all $ to jQuery).
WP-Polls
WP-Polls is extremely customizable via templates and css styles and there are tons of options for you to choose to ensure that WP-Polls runs the way you wanted. It now supports multiple selection of answers.
Redirection
Redirection is a WordPress plugin to manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This is particularly useful if you are migrating pages from an old website, or are changing the directory of your WordPress installation.
Sociable
Automatically add links to your favorite social bookmarking sites on your posts, pages and in your RSS feed. You can choose from 99 different social bookmarking sites!
WordPress.com Stats
There are hundreds of plugins and services which can provide statistics about your visitors. However I found that even though something like Google Analytics provides an incredible depth of information, it can be overwhelming and doesn’t really highlight what’s most interesting to me as a writer. That’s why Automattic created its own stats system, to focus on just the most popular metrics a blogger wants to track and provide them in a clear and concise interface.
Exclude Pages
This plugin adds a checkbox, “include this page in menus”, which is checked by default. If you uncheck it, the page will not appear in any listings of pages (which includes, and is usually limited to, your page navigation menus).
Pages which are children of excluded pages also do not show up in menu listings. (An alert in the editing screen, underneath the “include” checkbox allows you to track down which ancestor page is affecting child pages in this way.)
Yoast Breadcrumbs
This plugin allows you to add breadcrumbs to your theme.
