How to Install New Plug-ins in WP 2.7

Whenever I run across a handy WordPress plug-in, I do my best to let you all know about it. Plug-ins provide extra functionality and in WordPress 2.7, they’re spectacularly easy to install. Here’s a mini-tutorial on how to go about it.

Installing Plug-ins You’ve Downloaded to Your Hard Drive

The WordPress plug-in directory is not the only place you can find great WordPress plug-ins, so when you run across one you’re interested in trying out, go ahead and download it to your hard drive (I suggest creating a folder just for Plugins and saving it there so you can easily find it later.)

Login to your Dashboard and click on ‘Add New’ in the plugins menu at the left. You’ll want to upload the .zip file you saved to your computer, and then WordPress will take care of the rest. So, browse to the plugin zip file you downloaded and then click the Install Now button.

WordPress will tell you that it successfully installed the plug-in and ask you what action you want to take next: Activate Plug-in | Return to Plug-ins Page. You want to Activate Plug-in. WordPress will activate the plug-in for you and return you to the plug-ins page. You should now see the plug-in in your list.

Installing a Plug-in From the WordPress Plug-in Directory

Installing plug-ins found in the WordPress plug-in directory is even simpler! Login to your Dashboard and click on ‘Add New’ in the plugins menu at the left.

Click on ‘Featured’, ‘Popular’, ‘Newest’ or ‘Recently Updated’ from across the top of the page, click a tag in the ‘Popular tags’ tag cloud at the bottom of the page, or enter a search and click the ‘Search’ button. All of these actions will result in a list of available plug-ins being displayed to you.

Choose the one you want and click the ‘Install’ link at the right side of it’s listing, to the right of its description. A pop-up window will appear with information about the plug-in you’ve chosen. Click the ‘Install Now’ button and WordPress takes care of the rest!

See? Spectacularly simple!

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1. How to Install Plugins You’ve Downloaded as .ZIP Files
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4. Color Schemes for the 2.7 Dashboard
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