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Plugin Documentation

  • Anthologize

    Grab, Craft, and Publish Anthologize is a powerful tool that lets you “grab” blog posts from your site or from an RSS feed, “craft” your content into a single document, with a title page, table of contents, and chapters, and … Continue reading →

  • Category Posts

    The Category Posts plugin creates a sidebar widget that displays the posts in one of your post categories. So for example, if you have posts that you’ve put into a “News” category, you can create a dynamic list of your … Continue reading →

  • ChartBoot

    The ChartBoot for WordPress plugin makes it easy to add a wide variety of charts to your site’s pages and posts.  The available styles depend upon the kind of data you paste into the initial text box.  You can create … Continue reading →

  • Classic Widgets

    There is a big change in the way widgets are handled with the release of WordPress 5.8. Previously, Commons members added widgets to “widget areas” (sidebars, footers, etc.) by going to Appearance>>Widgets or to Customize>>Widgets. There they found an array … Continue reading →

  • Column Shortcodes

    Column Shortcodes is a plugin that lets you divide your post or page content into columns wherever you want, using easy to use shortcodes.  You can swap in and out of various column layouts (there are eleven to choose from). … Continue reading →

  • CommentPress

    Commentpress lets readers comment on each paragraph of a document or respond in-line to other comments. Developed by the Institute for the Future of the Book, it is a terrific way for writers to solicit and track critiques of their … Continue reading →

  • Constant Contact

    The Constant Contact for WordPress plugin is an app that integrates with your Constant Contact account. Constant Contact is a proprietary service which provides email marketing, online event management, social campaign management, online polls and survey functionality.You can get a free … Continue reading →

  • Creating Transcriptions With the Hyperaudio Plugin

    Introduction The Hyperaudio Plugin can create transcriptions (or subtitles) from audio files and video files. It allows the viewer to skip to various parts of the text and immediately listen to the place where the cursor points. If your audio … Continue reading →

  • Default Featured Image

    Each WordPress post or page has exactly one “Featured Image.” Depending on the template used by your theme, this image may appear at the top of your post, on the side, or not at all. On a page that aggregates … Continue reading →

  • Easy Appointments

    The Easy Appointments plugin provides a way to embed forms and calendars within a WordPress site. The plugin uses three preset fields: Location, Service, and Worker. The labels for these can be easily changed. For example, Location could be changed … Continue reading →

  • EasyRotator for WordPress

    The Easy Rotator for WordPress plugin provides an easy way to add a custom slider to a page or post, or to a widget area.  You can add as many distinct sliders as you want to your site, and use many … Continue reading →

  • Embed Book Jackets and Links with Openbook

    The OpenBook WordPress plugin provides a convenient way to embed book jackets, publishing metadata, and links to places where you can purchase the book. OpenBook gathers its information from OpenLibrary. Open Library is an open project: the software is open, the data … Continue reading →

  • EmbedPress

    The EmbedPress plugin claims to be able to embed content from over 100 sources, including Google, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and a host of others. It will embed PPTsm PDFs, Docx, and many other types of files. Once you’ve activated the … Continue reading →

  • Events Manager Plugin

    If you have a WordPress site on the Commons and frequently announce or organize events, check out the Events Manager plugin. It is a neat way to manage and display upcoming lectures, seminars, conferences, meetings, etc. Each event is nicely … Continue reading →

  • FancyBox Plugin for WordPress

    Fancybox is an easy to use plug-in that gracefully enlarges images in your posts and pages when a reader clicks on them. When you upload an image to your blog using the “Media>>Add New” tab in the dashboard, WordPress automatically … Continue reading →

  • FeedWordPress

    The FeedWordPress plugin lets you include external RSS feeds into your blog post stream.   This plugin is especially useful if you teaching a course, and want to aggregate content from individual student blogs into one central post stream, where class … Continue reading →

  • Google Calendar Events

    The Google Calendar Events plugin lets you embed one or more Google calendars into your WordPress site, displaying events in a calendar grid, or as a list.   The plugin uses feeds to aggregate events from various sources. Getting Started … Continue reading →

  • Google Doc Shortcode

    If you are a Google Docs user, you may want to check out the plugin that Ray Hoh  developed for the Commons.  Google Docs Embed lets you embed your Google documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and forms directly into WordPress posts and … Continue reading →

  • Grading & Assessment

    The Commons aims to support various grading methods and therefore does not offer a native grade book. However, the Commons does offer several tools for formative assessment to provide private feedback and low-stakes “grades” to students. Data about student work … Continue reading →

  • Hypothesis

    Started in 2011, Hypothes.is is a non-profit, open source project whose goal is to create a “conversation layer over the entire web.” It is designed to work everywhere, without the implementation of any software. Using sentence-level annotation, anyone with an … Continue reading →

  • Importing and Exporting Site Content

    As a rule, we don’t provide database and file bundles for import/export. Sites in the CUNY Academic Commons are part of a large WordPress network, and things like MySQL table prefixes, file paths, and user account IDs will not make … Continue reading →

  • JetPack

    The Jetpack plugin is actually a bundle of plugins that have been developed for WordPress.com. Please don’t be fooled! All the plugins are free to use. Many times along the installation process, you will be encouraged to pick a premium … Continue reading →

  • Knight Lab TimelineJS

    The Knight Lab TimelineJS  plugin is a powerful tool for creating visual timelines that can be embedded directly into your site’s pages and posts.  Each timeline entry can include (besides date and textual information), embedded images from Flickr, tweets from … Continue reading →

  • Leaflet Maps Marker

    The Leaftlet Maps Marker is a really neat plugin that lets you easily pin, annotate, organize, and share locations using maps from Google,  Bing, and OpenStreetMap.   Using integrated address searches, you can easily locate sites, pin them with hundreds of … Continue reading →

  • List Category Posts

    The List Category Posts plugin lets you list post metadata (and optionally, its content) from a specified category. The content can be placed in pages or posts by using short codes, or into a sidebar by using the plugin’s widget. … Continue reading →

  • List Pages Shortcode

    The List Pages Shortcode plugin comes in handy if your site has a lot of pages and you want a quick way to make them accessible.  As its name suggests, it provides an easy-to-use shortcode with a bunch of optional … Continue reading →

  • Meta Slider Plugin

    Meta Slider plugin is simple to use and lets you choose between four different “types” of sliders – Flex, Nivo, Coin, and Responsive. Each type is responsive, and gracefully changes sizes for different types of devices, and offers various features … Continue reading →

  • Monster Insights (for Google Analytics)

    The Commons has the “Lite” version of the Monster Insights plugin. While it does not provide all the bells and whistles of the “Pro” version, it does a decent job of providing the metrics that you need, right on your … Continue reading →

  • News Announcement Scroll Plugin

    The News Announcement Scroll plugin, now available on the Commons, can be used in both sidebars and on posts and pages to highlight and broadcast news.  An example of the plugin at work can be seen below, with three of … Continue reading →

  • Next Page Buttons Plugin

    The NextPage Buttons plugin lets you break up your post or page content into pages. This is functionality that was once in WordPress core, but was removed. So use this plugin with the knowledge that it might not work forever. … Continue reading →

  • Page Excerpt

    The Page Excerpt plugin gives pages the same excerpt functionality as posts.  Excerpts are “optional, handcrafted summaries” that can tease your readers into exploring your content further.  After installing this plugin, a new text box will be added to your … Continue reading →

  • Page Links Plus: Single Page

    The Page Links Plus: Single Page plugin provides a powerful way to manage pagination on your site.  After installing the plugin, you will see settings that allow you to avoid breaking pages  in the middle of sentences.  You’ll have the … Continue reading →

  • Pinterest Pinboard Widget

    Pinterest Pinboard Widget provides an easy way to integrate Pinterest content into your WordPress site.  Easy to use and to configure, the widget displays content from your Pinterest account, someone elses account, or from the generic “pinterest” account.  Clicking on … Continue reading →

  • PressForward

    “As the pace and volume of scholarly communication increases, teachers and researchers are confronted with the need to find and share relevant, current content with their students and colleagues. PressForward, developed by the Roy Rozensweig Center for History and New … Continue reading →

  • Q & A

    The Q & A WordPress plugin lets you easily add a configurable question & answer dialog on your site. First you create individual “FAQ” custom posts, where the post title is the question, and the post content body is the … Continue reading →

  • Regenerate Thumbnails

    The Regenerate Thumbnails plugin comes in handy if you want to easily re-size an image’s thumbnail or a set of images’ thumbnails. Simply go to Settings>>Media and change the default size for your thumbnails. Then you have three ways to … Continue reading →

  • Shortcodes Ultimate

      Shortcodes Ultimate is a Swiss Army knife type of plugin. It can do many things – it “is a comprehensive collection of various visual and functional elements, which you can use in the post editor, text widgets or even … Continue reading →

  • Simple Scroll to Top

    If you have posts or pages that are long, you might want to offer your readers a way to go up to the top of the article. Yes, if you know HTML, this can be done with an anchor tag. … Continue reading →

  • Social Sharing Buttons

    Often, site admins want to show social buttons on their sites so that readers can easily share content. There are a number of options available on the Commons to do this. Check if your theme has this functionality built in. … Continue reading →

  • Social Stickers

    Interested in showcasing your social media networks on your site? We recommend using “Social Stickers,” a simple plugin that allows you to show which social networks you use. There are over 50 social networks to choose from, including: Twitter, Facebook, … Continue reading →

  • Statistics For Your Site

    It’s great to quantify your readership, and there are a couple plugins on the Commons (JetPack and Monster Insights) that provide interesting statistics on your Dashboard. The Commons also supports Google Analytics, which is perhaps the most powerful metrics tracker. … Continue reading →

  • Subscribe2 Plugin

    As you may know,  the Subscription Option WordPress plug-in as a great way to feed out your blog posts to Facebook, Twitter, RSS, and email. You can follow this link to see more information on this plug-in, and see how it generates … Continue reading →

  • Subscription Options

      The Subscription Options plug-in is available to all Commons members from the dashboard of their blogs (just click on “Plugins” in the left-hand menu and search for “subscription options”). The plugin will help you create icons like this, which … Continue reading →

  • Subscriptions via Jetpack

    If your site is not attached to a group and you want to notify members of new posts and comments, you can install the JetPack plugin. After activating JetPack, go to Settings>>Discussion.. Once you enable Subscriptions, all members of your … Continue reading →

  • Super RSS Reader

    Super RSS Reader is a widget that can easily be placed in your sidebar to display up to five different feeds in a single area. Each feed appears as a tab, and you can easily control how many items are … Continue reading →

  • Text Expander Plugin

    “Text Expander” is a simple and handy tool that lets you toggle back and forth between showing and hiding a chunk of content on your post or page. Once you activate the plugin, you will notice a new icon (circled … Continue reading →

  • The Commons Plugin Director

    WordPress plugins extend the functionality of your site. They are add-on bits of code that let you do neat things. Follow this link for general information about plugins, and see Tweaking Your Site for a listing of popular WordPress plugins … Continue reading →

  • Widget Context

    The Widget Context WordPress plugin provides extra control over sidebar widgets. It is really useful for selectively displaying certain widgets in the sidebar on only specific pages. This is helpful for drawing the focus to content on your content pages and filling the sidebar with social media on the blog page. Though it works well…

  • WIKI INC

    Using the WordPress plug-in “WIKI INC” you can include wiki content in your blog post or page. After installing, on your post or page edit screen, scroll down to the Wiki Inc section and fill in the wiki site (must be MediaWiki sites like Wikipedia) and the name of the wiki page Continue reading →

  • WordPress Google Fonts

    The WP Google Fonts plugin is a great way to add different fonts to your site. Many premium themes provide built in font functionality, making this plugin unnecessary.  But for many standard themes, you’ll need a plugin like this one … Continue reading →

  • WPDiscuz

    The WPDiscuz plugin super-charges the way comments work on your WordPress site,. It enhances your users’ discussion experience and keeps them engaged by offering multiple ways to embed images, videos, social icons, and text. There are three colorful layouts to … Continue reading →

  • Yoast WordPress SEO

    Yoast WordPress SEO is a powerful plugin that helps improve the chances that your site’s content will be discovered by search engines. The plugin “goes the extra mile” to make your WordPress content more accessible. It automatically adds OpenGraph meta … Continue reading →