Plugins are tools that expand the functionality of the platform that you have chosen for your medical blog. They enable customization of features and functions to personalize the blog site to explicit needs.
If you are creative and want to produce your own plugin, there is a wide ranging resource list in WordPress Plugin Resources (http://codex.wordpress.org/plugin_Resources)
Plugins I Recommend
Akismet:
Spam blocker system that prevents your blog and comments from being overrun by autobot. This is a must to keep spammers from taking over your blog posts and running amok with their comments linking back to their sites. These sites typically have nothing to do with your services. Worse yet is that the sites can be in poor taste such as porn that you wouldn’t want your website linked to.
Akismet compares your comments and contact form submissions to a global database of spam to prevent your site from publishing malicious content. You can review the comment spam it catches on your blog’s “Comments” admin screen.
According to the Akismet provider, major features include:
- Automatic checks of all comments and filters out the ones that look like spam.
- Each comment has a status history, so you can easily see which comments were caught or cleared by Akismet and which were spammed or unspammed by a moderator.
- URLs are shown in the comment body to reveal hidden or misleading links.
- Moderators can see the number of approved comments for each user.
- A discard feature that outright blocks the worst spam, saving you disk space and speeding up your site.
PS: You’ll need an Akismet.com API key to use it. Keys are free for personal blogs; paid subscriptions are available for businesses and commercial sites.
All in One SEO Plugin:
Enables the blog owner to select what will show at the top of the browser for your site. This information is used in search engine results. Performing this function will boost your search engine ranking.
Retweet:
Allows readers to tweet your blog to their followers. Since one of your main goals is to have your blogs shared and go viral to get a wider audience, the benefit here is obvious.
Live Chat-Casengo:
Customer Support software offering social media, email and live chat from the cloud.
FAQ & Knowledge Base Plugin:
Powered by Casengo, it offers a highly recommended knowledge base and FAQ on websites and WordPress blogs.
Google Site Map:
Provides a map of all your archived blog posts and pages.
DiggDigg:
Enables you to place the icons for social media sharing on each blog (E.G. Google+, Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn)
A Plugin to Check out for the future is Gutenberg. It is still in the developing phase but promises to provide some great benefits. See the description-
Gutenberg
Gutenberg is more than an editor. While the editor is the focus right now, the project will ultimately impact the entire publishing experience including customization (the next focus area).
Discover more about the project.
EDITING FOCUS
The editor will create a new page- and post-building experience that makes writing rich posts effortless, and has “blocks” to make it easy what today might take shortcodes, custom HTML, or “mystery meat” embed discovery. — Matt Mullenweg
One thing that sets WordPress apart from other systems is that it allows you to create as rich a post layout as you can imagine — but only if you know HTML and CSS and build your own custom theme. By thinking of the editor as a tool to let you write rich posts and create beautiful layouts, we can transform WordPress into something users love WordPress, as opposed something they pick it because it’s what everyone else uses.
Gutenberg looks at the editor as more than a content field, revisiting a layout that has been largely unchanged for almost a decade.This allows us to holistically design a modern editing experience and build a foundation for things to come.
Here’s why we’re looking at the whole editing screen, as opposed to just the content field:
- The block unifies multiple interfaces. If we add that on top of the existing interface, it would add complexity, as opposed to remove it.
- By revisiting the interface, we can modernize the writing, editing, and publishing experience, with usability and simplicity in mind, benefitting both new and casual users.
- When singular block interface takes center stage, it demonstrates a clear path forward for developers to create premium blocks, superior to both shortcodes and widgets.
- Considering the whole interface lays a solid foundation for the next focus, full site customization.
- Looking at the full editor screen also gives us the opportunity to drastically modernize the foundation, and take steps towards a more fluid and JavaScript powered future that fully leverages the WordPress REST API.
BLOCKS
Blocks are the unifying evolution of what is now covered, in different ways, by shortcodes, embeds, widgets, post formats, custom post types, theme options, meta-boxes, and other formatting elements. They embrace the breadth of functionality WordPress is capable of, with the clarity of a consistent user experience.
Imagine a custom “employee” block that a client can drag to an About page to automatically display a picture, name, and bio. A whole universe of plugins that all extend WordPress in the same way. Simplified menus and widgets. Users who can instantly understand and use WordPress — and 90% of plugins. This will allow you to easily compose beautiful posts like this example.
Check out the FAQ for answers to the most common questions about the project.
COMPATIBILITY
Posts are backwards compatible, and shortcodes will still work. We are continuously exploring how highly-tailored metaboxes can be accommodated, and are looking at solutions ranging from a plugin to disable Gutenberg to automatically detecting whether to load Gutenberg or not. While we want to make sure the new editing experience from writing to publishing is user-friendly, we’re committed to finding a good solution for highly-tailored existing sites.
THE STAGES OF GUTENBERG
Gutenberg has three planned stages. The first, aimed for inclusion in WordPress 5.0, focuses on the post editing experience and the implementation of blocks. This initial phase focuses on a content-first approach. The use of blocks, as detailed above, allows you to focus on how your content will look without the distraction of other configuration options. This ultimately will help all users present their content in a way that is engaging, direct, and visual.
These foundational elements will pave the way for stages two and three, planned for the next year, to go beyond the post into page templates and ultimately, full site customization.
Gutenberg is a big change, and there will be ways to ensure that existing functionality (like shortcodes and meta-boxes) continue to work while allowing developers the time and paths to transition effectively. Ultimately, it will open new opportunities for plugin and theme developers to better serve users through a more engaging and visual experience that takes advantage of a toolset supported by core.
CONTRIBUTORS
Gutenberg is built by many contributors and volunteers. Please see the full list in CONTRIBUTORS.md.
