After having installed and set up WordPress, most users run into difficulties related to the user interface or the navigation scope offered. These WordPress features were rather limited initially, but with several add-ons in the form of plug-ins, many of these shortcomings have been rectified to a large extent. The plug-ins have aided in enhancing the quality of the WordPress interface and in expanding the scope of WordPress navigation abilities. These are some of the available extra plug-ins.
Interface features
Carousel Gallery
The original gallery offered by WordPress is a stationery one and jQuery features allow the static gallery to be transformed into a flippable one to the user’s advantage.
Admin trim interface
This plug-in helps in managing clutter in the administration interface and helps to arrange and delete unwanted items. The user can
U1 labs
This refers to a backend interface of WordPress and U1 experiments. This feature helps with status of posts like drafted or pending posts.
Global translator
This translates the blog into 48 languages other than English. This is extremely helpful in expanding outreach of your blog to other countries and cultures.
GD star rating
This plug-in allows improved functionality in the form of creating rating widgets for securing reviews of highly rated content. This is for sites which require regular viewer rating to sustain their popularity.
WP touch
This allows WordPress blogs to enjoy an interface with mobile phones such as the iPhone and android mobile phones. This extremely important feature has helped align blog design with mobile phone technology.
jQuery light box for galleries
This is for the users who prefer static galleries but with full sized images. Light boxes refer to the tiny images which can be clicked into prominence over the current page.
Navigation features
This refers to the improved search features which aid navigation. There is a search mechanism that superficially resembles Google that searches for words as the user types them in. This is called Dave’s WordPress live search mechanism. There is yet another search mechanism that facilitates multi-level navigation with drop down menus in a hierarchical format. This is referred to as multi-level navigation. WP search Plug-ins aid in advanced search features – as search features provided by WordPress were rather limited.
The ‘search everything’ navigation add-on helps widen range of page numbers and tags which were previously limited in number. WP-pagination refers to numeric pagination which was primitive initially by referring to posts as simply old or new. This feature allows selection of page by its number.
A tree like format for hierarchical navigation is provided by the WP-dtree which allows collapsible menus in a particular order selected by the user.
Any software product has to keep up with changing needs and requirements according to the rate of evolution of the other software products. The software industry has one of the highest rates of turnover and any software package that is not able to adapt itself rapidly is headed towards extinction. By reinventing itself, WordPress has displayed its adaptability.
