Plugins are a powerful way to change what your WordPress site does. They can be very simple, allowing you to add, for example, new collections of fonts to your page site. But plugins can also be very complex. You could use a configuration of different plugins to change a simple site into something that functions like an academic journal.
WordPress is powerful in part because an enormous number of plugins have been created for it, and we’ve included some of them as part of Humanities Commons. If you have a site, you can select Plugins from the left-hand menu of the WP-Admin area to see what’s available and to turn any of them on or off. The following list provides an overview of what we have, and it might give you ideas about the kinds of projects that are possible on Humanities Commons. Each plugin is linked to its official site in case you’d like to read more about it.
● Anthologize allows you to export the content of your WordPress site as an electronic book in PDF, EPUB, or TEI files. You might look at this ProfHacker column about it.
● Beehive Analytics allows you to set up Google Analytics on your website.
● CommentPress Core allows readers to comment paragraph by paragraph in the margins of a text. A paper by Kathleen Fitzpatrick explains in detail how it can be used in an academic setting.
● CommentPress Core allows readers to comment paragraph by paragraph in the margins of a text. A paper by Kathleen Fitzpatrick explains in detail how it can be used in an academic setting.
● jQuery Hover Footnotes lets you use footnotes in posts and pages.
● KnightLab TimeLineJS A simple shortcode plugin to add the TimelineJS made by Knight Lab.
● OpenBook uses Open Library’s data to display a book’s cover image, title, author, links, and other book data when given the book’s ISBN. You can do this either in a post or in a sidebar widget.
● Password Protected lets you add a password to your site, making it invisible to those who don’t have it. (Must be activated by administrators.)
● PressForward lets you aggregate and curate web-based content within the WordPress dashboard.
● Print Friendly & Print PDF buttons will add buttons to your posts that allow you to format them for printing or save them as PDF files.
● WordPress Importer allows you to import content that’s previously been exported from another WordPress site. (Must be activated by administrators.)
● ZotPress allows you to bring Zotero and scholarly blogging to your WordPress website.
Because Humanities Commons is a complex system, we’ve prevented users from adding their own plugins. But we’re not averse to adding more plugins to this list; if you know of a plugin that would benefit other users of Humanities Commons, let us know and we’ll consider adding it. Just send the name to hello@hcommons.org.