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 the 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 the Commons. Each plugin is linked to its official site in case you’d like to read more about it.

● Beehive Analytics allows you to set up Google Analytics on your website. (Enabled by default for all users.)

● Footnotes Made Easy allows you to add footnotes to your posts and pages

● NinjaForms enables you to build various forms (free version.)

● Password Protected lets you add a password to your site, making it invisible to those who don’t have it.

● PressForward lets you aggregate and curate web-based content within the WordPress dashboard.

● TranslatePress is a translation plugin that allows you to toggle between languages on a site. (free version.) 

● ZotPress allows you to bring Zotero and scholarly blogging to your WordPress website.

You might be wondering why we don’t offer all of the same plugin options as a general WordPress website. Because the Commons is a complex system, we’ve prevented users from adding their own plugins, and we limit what plugins are added in order to protect the security of our network. We’re not averse to adding more plugins to this list, however, so if you know of a plugin that would benefit other users of the Commons, let us know and we’ll consider adding it. Contact us to make a request.