Trying to add code to your wordpress post can be one of the most frustrating experiences. That is if you want the code to appear as code in your post.

Say, something like this:

<ul><li>This would have been a bullet</li></ul>

Had this been added to WordPress normally, it would have appeared as a bullet. But since I’ve used a really cool plugin called ‘Code Auto Escape’, I can add code as code as long as I add pre and code tags around it.

Now you may never need to show html, xhtml, javacript, php, etc code in yuor posts but just in case you do, this is the plugin to get.

Get the Code Auto Escape Plugin

I have been installing and trying out new plugins at this blog. Some have worked out very well while others have not been anything to talk about.

So over the next few days I am going to go over the gems that I have found. Some you can’t live without and some are just a luxury.

However, the best out of the lot is the Accordion plugin. See the tabbed navigation in the sidebar for Categories/Archives/Tabs? Yes, that is accordion. It can display up to 6 tabs for plugins which use li tags. This is necessary as it encloses everything in ul list tags.

However, I have a tweak around that.

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Since I design custom blogs for my clients, I have to keep a lookout for plugins that can achieve any effect under the sun. Following is a list of some of the most used plugins:

1. Akismet: This plug-in helps you in stopping comment spam. It also keeps note of comments you mark as spam for future blocking. This is a part of your WordPress download. You need to install and set it up, though.
2. Search Everything: This plug-in adds search functionality to include pages, tags, attachments, drafts, comments, excerpts and custom fields. It also lets you exclude categories and posts from search.
3. WP-Contact-Form: Give your visitors the option of contacting you via a simple form. The modified version of this plugin comes with a very useful Spam Protection option. See an example

4. Add This: Social Bookmarks allow your visitors to easily submit your posts to social bookmarking sites. Many plugins are available for this purpose including Social Bookmarks, Gregarious and Sociable. I just recently found Add This and although it adds a link to their site, it is less intrusive and less cluttered than the others. You can see the result at the end of this post.

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