Markdown, Flickr, YouTube, SlideShare - Plugins for Wordpress

Markdown Wordpress Plugin

Markdown is a fantastic tool for providing document markup that is then transformed into HTML. Storage space is reduced from storing HTML, therefore queries to retrieve are reduced, and most importantly readability is increased.

The Markdown Wordpress plugin (v.1.2.2 in any case) works great though in our current template we have trouble with it executing from within certain blocks such as inside of tables, widgets and in shortcode-supported footers.

As stated, Markdown does require learning (and remembering), that is recognition vs. recall. However, once learned the use of Markdown in offline documents (such as email) can be an even better markup than either something made up, or the requirement to use a rich text editor. WordPerfect 5.1 still beats MS Word, in our humble, old-school opinion.

Flickr Gallery Wordpress Plugin

The use of shortcodes in general, such as those produced by Flickr Gallery require some initial configuration and there is a learning curve, however they dramatically simplify text editing.

Lightbox 2 Wordpress Plugin

Flickr Gallery supports various lightbox plugins. Currently we prefer the excellent Lightbox2.

Smart YouTube Wordpress Plugin

Smart YouTube by Vladimir Prevolac is another goodie which has some great advantages over copying-and-pasting embed code.

SlideShare Wordpress Plugin

Yoast's Slideshare plugin (one of the few of his that works on a symlinked /plugins/ installation) allows for setting an override width and use the wordpress.com SlideShare shortcode. Worthwhile to use.

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