Install WordPress Plugins From Dashboard

Posted by Jeff

on March 8, 2009

WordPress certainly has evolved over the past few years and version 2.7 has some drastic changes in the dashboard interface as well as additional functionality. Additions like built-in automatic upgrade and the ability to add plugins directly from the WordPress dashboard continue to make it easier for all to maximize WordPress.

Before I show you just how easy it is to install new WordPress plugins from withing the dashboard, I will caution you on two things: plugin bloat and plugin dependency. What I call plugin bloat is the use of too many plugins that can adversely effect your WordPress blogs performance. You should also carefully consider a plugin that performs a function similar to another already active. This may cause the two plugins to conflict with each other and bad things could happen. Less is always better for WordPress plugin use so try to keep them to just the essential.

Plugin dependency is something to be aware of too, building a WordPress blog or site around plugins can possibly turn into a nightmare if the plugin is no longer supported and fails to work in future versions of WordPress.

In WordPress version 2.7 there is an additional menu item available under the Plugins module. Click the Add New menu under the Plugins module and you will be presented with multiple options to find new plugins to install. If the plugin you want to install is on the official WordPress directory you can search by term, author or tag. My suggestion is if you know what plugin you want to install put the exact title in the search box and choose the Term option. You can also browse for new plugins by clicking the available Featured, Popular, Newest and Recently Updated links. There is also a Popular Tags cloud shown to choose from.

If you have already downloaded a plugin the option to upload a .zip file is also available. Be aware that some plugins that have multiple folders or require files to be placed within a folder other than the plugins folder may not upload correctly or even fail to upload.

Once the plugin is installed you should see an option to activate it or return to the plugins menu. If you activate a plugin and your WordPress dashboard goes blank, don’t fret you just need to delete the plugin using an FTP client or in your hosting accounts file manager to get your WordPress blog back. The location is in the plugins folder within the wp-content folder: /wp-content/plugins.

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Tags: WordPress News, wordpress-2.7, WordPress-plugin

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Comments

Comment by Jenny on March 10, 2009 @ 2:07 pm

nice post, i am pleasantly surprised that its so easy to install new plugins, but your warnings are scaring me that i’ve gone plugin trigger happy and installed too many. i think i’ll go through and do some research to optimize them thanks .

Comment by nA on March 10, 2009 @ 3:03 pm

that’s why i love wordpress… plugin plugin plugin!!!!

Comment by Free Xbox 360 on March 11, 2009 @ 12:25 pm

Definitely beats the hassle of an FTP!!

Thanks for the tutorial

Comment by Yoplew on March 16, 2009 @ 7:21 pm

Hi,

I don’t seem to find the plugins module on my new dashboard. Even when I create a new blog, this does not appear. Am I doing something wrong then?

Jeff Replied:
March 16th, 2009 at 7:55 pm

I have no idea how I can answer that.

Golfreisen Replied:
March 29th, 2009 at 7:57 am

@ Yoplew: I had the same issue with my former wordpress version. Was solved as I installed 2.7

Comment by Vista Support on March 27, 2009 @ 1:07 am

Plugins are become a necessity for a WordPress Blog.Thanks

Comment by Dropship Products on April 7, 2009 @ 2:47 am

So many things could be done with WordPress. Now I read about these easy to install plugins!

Comment by arie on April 7, 2009 @ 1:16 pm

I’ve done this in my other blog. It’s simple and help us not to waste the time.

Comment by Nachhilfe on May 10, 2009 @ 3:46 am

2.7 is really complete and a great ressource. I´ve just had issues by finding themes.

Comment by jobs on February 9, 2010 @ 1:07 am

I have thought installed wordPress plugins from dashboard is easy.

Comment by Old Kage on February 10, 2010 @ 7:27 pm

What I love about wordpress is its great support to plugins. Easy to use, fast, and robusts. Version 2.7 even push further its improvements and so as the more cuurent versions.

This tut would surely help a lot of newbies, reminds me when I was just gettin started..

Comment by Heelys on February 23, 2010 @ 12:02 pm

Oh well! Old Kage – in my “old times” starting some blogs, i sat around hours and hours to get wordpress working fine. Today it is so damn easy to use with all plugins you need.

Comment by Wholesale Directory on July 14, 2010 @ 10:10 am

Thank you for the informations and guidelines about installing wordpress plugins which I believe before is hard to do and because of you I realize that it is so easy.

Drive-By comments will be deleted! Like "Thanks for sharing", "Nice post", or any other text that doesn't contribute to the discussion. If you ask a very specific question about your particular WordPress theme, it will probably be deleted. I can fix your WordPress site but for a price. If you ask a question like "Why don't my blog work right", it will be deleted. If you ask a question about your WordPress site without a leaving a link to it, it will be deleted. The point is to ask questions and or comment on the the actual content of the post, and to please use some common sense. All comments are moderated and will appear when approved. Thank you.