You’ve probably seen websites with featured posts or breaking news at the top and wondered how to do it. Well now you can easily add it to the front page of your WordPress blog or any category.
Why might you want to do it?
Sometimes you want your visitors to see a post but want to continue adding new content at the same time. For example, you are running a contest and want your visitors to see it first thing, but you want to continue writing about your regular subject. A great way to help your visitors see it is to use featured posts. You just type in the id of your post within the plugin options page and all your regular articles will be displayed normally.
How easy is it to install?
Extremely easy! Just download the file, upload it to your directory and head to the options page. There you enter the post ID you wish to be displayed and whatever image you wish to be shown.
You can easily add images by uploading them to the featured-posts/images folder (recommended size is 233×175). example ads are from my flickr account
What it looks like in the admin:
Wonder what it looks like on your frontpage:
Can I change how it looks?
You can also easily change the look and feel of the plugin within the separate CSS file so you don’t have to dig through the plugin to find it. This can be extremely useful if your site is using obscure percentages or you want to change the size of the featured posts box.
Do I have to show an image?
No, but it does look better with one. To not show an image just select “do not show image” within the plugin options page. After doing so you may need to change the CSS though, otherwise the featured posts plugin will leave a lot of whitespace underneath.
How do I show the plugin on my homepage only?
<?php if (is_home()) { if(function_exists(’featuredposts’)) featuredposts(); } ?>
How do I show the plugin on a specific category?
<?php if (is_category(’5′)) { if(function_exists(’featuredposts’)) featuredposts(); } ?>
Want to try Featured Posts?
Download Featured Posts 0.1
Written: Jan 22, 2008
Tags: featured posts, plugins, wordpress, wordpress plugins, wp plugins
Eric
January 22, 2008 @ 5:00 am | Reply
Awesome!
I’ll install it this weekend and give it a go. Thanks for the heads up!
Ederic
January 22, 2008 @ 8:28 pm | Reply
I tried to create something like this manually. I didn’t know there’s a way to do this in an easier way.
archondigital
February 2, 2008 @ 11:14 am | Reply
I also manually made one which I still use
but don’t know how to make it a plugin
I might give it a shot on my upcoming redesign.
Graham Smith
February 15, 2008 @ 3:19 pm | Reply
Hi
Thought it was time I popped over to say Hi from Brians site.
Have signed up to your emails, so only just starting to trowl through your stuff.
I do have a question that you may be able to point me in the right direction of: I am having terrible issues getting these Top Commentator Plugins to work on my 2.3.1 running K2 theme. I believe I have tried most of the versions going and they pretty much all don’t work, the title shows up in the sidebar but that’s it. No lists of commentators. Just wondered if you had any ideas or suggestions? I know that’s a pretty broad request, but you never know.
See you and Brian have it and it’s ONE plugin that I would really like to have.
BTW: See you don’t filter the ScratchBack traffic, awfully brave of you!!! :0)
Look forward to reading more on your site.
Regards
Graham Smith
ImJustBlogging
“Web & Blog Ramblings from ‘my’ Gutter”
Gary R. Hess
February 15, 2008 @ 4:52 pm | Reply
I’m not using the top commentator plugin, I’m using the built in WordPress widget that shows the recent comments.
As for why the plugin doesn’t work for you, I downloaded it to see what was going on. The only thing I can see what is happening is something may be wrong with your settings. You can set it to expire or reset at a certain period. Maybe you have it set to expire too early? I tried it out on k2 RC4 so I don’t think it is the theme.
Other than that, I would try to contact webgrrrl to see if she knows anything.
Scratchback brave? Maybe
If someone tries something too naughty I’ll just have to delete it.
Stephan Miller
March 10, 2008 @ 11:49 am | Reply
I’ve been looking for this plugin too. Just found it on your site. I had been creating “Featured posts” manually with html in a widget because most of the plugins for do it seemed just about as complicated to use. Installing it now.
Martin
April 15, 2008 @ 3:16 am | Reply
Hi,
Thanks for creating this awsome plugin, its exactly what I needed, and works a treat with my theme.
I was wondering is there any way to have the featured post display the postinfo.., ie the date, and author etc.?
Thanks again its soo what I needed..
Martin
Martin
April 22, 2008 @ 5:07 am | Reply
Hi,
Thanks for creating and sharing this plugin
I think this is an awsome plugin and is exactly what I needed but I was wondering is there anyway to include the author info, and post info etc in the featured post, on mine I just have the title and the excerpt, but I would like it to display (posted in, by.. etc.)
I’ve tried adding those calls to the plugin but it didint seem to like it..
Many Thanks
Martin