Thankfully, as with almost everything in WordPress, as soon as I realized I had a problem, I was able to find someone who had already solved it for me. The Exclude Pages Plugin by Simon Wheatley adds a convenient little checkbox to the Page Edit page, asking if you want to include this page in page menus.

Fantastic.

Changing the Default Setting on the Exclude Pages Plugin

Most of the time when I’m using this plugin, it’s because I have some particular small group of pages I want displayed in navigation menus. I want the default to be “DO NOT include this page.” This makes me (and my clients who like to add pages and pages and ruin my beautiful navigation bars) have to think less.

Unfortunately, the default setting for the Exclude Pages plugin is “YES, include this page.” I wanted to change that.

If you’re using the Exclude Pages Plugin, and want to make the default setting an unchecked box, go into the exclude_pages.php file. (I did this right from the Plugin Editor inside the WordPress admin area.) Find the function called “ep_this_page_included” and change the first “return true” to “return false.”

Here’s what it looks like in the code:

BEFORE:

function ep_this_page_included()
{
	global $post_ID;
	// New post? Must be included then.
	if ( ! $post_ID ) return true;
	$excluded_ids = ep_get_excluded_ids();
	// If there's no exclusion array, we can return true
	if ( empty($excluded_ids) ) return true;
	// Check if our page is in the exclusion array
	// The bang (!) reverses the polarity [1] of the boolean
	return ! in_array( $post_ID, $excluded_ids );
	// fn1. (of the neutron flow, ahem)
}

AFTER:

function ep_this_page_included()
{
	global $post_ID;
	// New post? Do NOT include!
	if ( ! $post_ID ) return false;
	$excluded_ids = ep_get_excluded_ids();
	// If there's no exclusion array, we can return true
	if ( empty($excluded_ids) ) return true;
	// Check if our page is in the exclusion array
	// The bang (!) reverses the polarity [1] of the boolean
	return ! in_array( $post_ID, $excluded_ids );
	// fn1. (of the neutron flow, ahem)
}

Now, new pages do not display in menus by default, but can easily be turned on in their Edit page if you want them to.

I have already written this post.

But more importantly…

What WordPress plugins do YOU use?

I get that question a lot.

The best answer is, “That depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.”

However- when it comes to Thought Leadership marketing, and the kinds of things I try to accomplish for my clients over and over, I’ve developed what I consider the “base install.” That is- we set these things up automatically unless we have some big reason not to.

So here goes my overly long list of WP Plugins I use (Almost) every time:

Add to Any: Share/Bookmark/Email Button

Help readers share, save, bookmark, and email your posts and pages using any service.

You can fill up your posts with little icons from everywhere, or you can be judicious and only include a few. OR you can put in one small button that allows people to pick which Social Networks they want to share/save to. They claim that they move the sites the viewer uses to the top, which sounds awesome.

All in One SEO Pack

Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog.

Easiest way I know to add meta-data to every page and post. I know that stuff doesn’t affect Google as much as it used to, but it’s still good practice to include it.

Contact Form 7

Just another contact form plugin. Simple but flexible.

This is, by far, the best Contact and Feedback form I have ever used. It is easy, flexible, and just works. Also- you can have multiple forms in different places on your site. You can use it for way more than just a Contact Form.

Events Manager

Manage events specifying precise spatial data (Location, Town, Province, etc).

A key component of Thought Leadership is public speaking and networking. This tool allows you to easily keep an event calendar, push invites, manage RSVPs, and all the great things you need for running events. It even integrates with Google Maps.
One question: Has anybody integrated it with PayPal (or whatever) to charge for events? I’d like to know.

Flexi Pages Widget

A highly configurable WordPress sidebar widget to list pages and sub-pages. User friendly widget control comes with various options.

I’m not a fan of the Pages widget that comes with WP. This allows you to set up specific versions of sidebar page menus. It was one of the first plugins I started using, and I really like it.
I’ve been thinking about switching to the Simple Section Navigation Widget plugin, so if anyone has experience with that, please let me know.

Google Analyticator

Adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics. After enabling this plugin visit the settings page and enter your Google Analytics’ UID and enable logging.

I know people who like to add this code by hand, but I don’t touch code unless I have to. It is much easier and faster to let other minds do my work. Also, I just want my clients to have something that works, not something they have to understand.

Google XML Sitemaps

This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO.

Sitemaps are very important for indexing by Google et al. Turn this on and DO NOTHING- just let it do it’s thing.

Link Library

Functions to generate link library page with a list of links.

I use this for outbound links pages, and other “Resources” sections. The functionality is great, and I can run multiple Library pages on a site. I’ve found it a little difficult to explain to clients, so if I can find something that works almost as well, but is easier to understand, I’d switch.

My Link Order

My Link Order allows you to set the order in which links and link categories will appear in the sidebar. Uses a drag and drop interface for ordering. Adds a widget with additional options for easy installation on widgetized themes.

The Link Library plugin can use your My Link Order info to keep your links in the order you want them in. Helpful.

My Page Order

My Page Order allows you to set the order of pages through a drag and drop interface. The default method of setting the order page by page is extremely clumsy, especially with a large number of pages.

WordPress’ native page ordering capability is “janky.” This corrects that problem. Most useful in context of the Page Menu Navigation Bar

Page Links To

Allows you to point WordPress pages or posts to a URL of your choosing. Good for setting up navigational links to non-WP sections of your site or to off-site resources.

Want to set up a redirect page? Want one of your NavBar buttons to go offsite? There are other ways to do it, but none so easy as this plugin.

Page Menu Editor

Allows you to customise the title attribute and menu label of each page link in wp_list_pages.

Navigation menus are important, and this givs you one more level of control over what gets displayed.

Profile Pic

Allows authors to add a picture to their profile and automates the process of displaying profiles. Highly configurable via plugin and widget settings.

If you want people who visit your site to know who you are, use this plugin. I kept thinking there must be a way to add a photo… I assumed it was native. Maybe there is one, deep in there. But this plugin made it fast and easy- for me, and my clients.

TS Custom Widgets

This plugin enables you to select which widgets appear on specific posts, pages, categories,author’s posts and tag pages. By default, all widgets appear wherever the sidebar is loaded within your theme. With this plugin, you can configure where widgets are displayed on a per post or per WP Template(Using conditional Tags) basis.

I HATE the default “display on every page” nature of Widgets. That almost okay for a pure blog, but if you’re using WP as CMS, then you need this plugin.

WordPress Google Analytics Reports

This plugin helps to get Google Analytics reports overview to your dashboard using Google Analytics Data API.

I just don’t feel like logging into Google Analytics every morning. And I know my clients are not going to wade through the data over there. This plugin displays a basic report telling most people what they are looking for: How may people visit my site? How long do they stay? Where do they come from?

WP to Twitter

Updates Twitter when you create a new blog post or add to your blogroll using Cli.gs. With a Cli.gs API key, creates a clig in your Cli.gs account with the name of your post as the title.

How do I automatically update Twitter when I post a blog? This is how. Runs on autopilot, or you can send custom Tweets with a post. Every option you would be looking for in a Tweet-when-I-post app, including analytics integration.

[GWA] AutoResponder

A plugin to add a powerful Double Opt-In Mail List Builder and AutoResponder to your WordPress Weblog.

All my clients want an email newsletter subscription function. Here it is. I’ve had a few problems with it, and it isn’t all that user-friendly- but it’s the best I can find (for free). Any replacement suggestions?

That’s my list. Every single one of those is installed and activated before I even begin design or content work on a site. Sometimes it feels like a bit too many, but we (my clients and I) really use all those functionalities. And so far, I haven’t had any weird interference problems.

I’d appreciate comments regarding alternatives (especially to the ones I mentioned I’ve had trouble with), as well as questions, ideas, and other “must-have” plugins.

Atahualpa is a powerful, customizable, SEO-optimized Word Press theme with excellent user support.

Thesis is a powerful, customizable, SEO-optimized Word Press theme with excellent user support.

Atahualpa is free.

Thesis is not free.

Hmm… Easy decision?

Well, no.

As you might suspect, Thesis really is a better theme. If the amount of “better” is worth the price ($87 for an individual; $164 for a developers license), then you should go with Thesis. If not, Atahualpa is the way to go.

So what does Thesis do that Atahualpa doesn’t?
Among other things:

-“Web 2.0” look and feel.
You can trick out Atahualpa pretty well if you have a mind to and have some patience with CSS, but Thesis was clearly developed by a good designer, not just a good programmer. Thesis sites tend to come out looking a little more contemporary, rich, and dynamic. Without a lot of thought and work (and design sense on your part), Atahualpa sites can come out looking a little “static.”

-Typography
The internet is the bane of all people who care about the way text looks. From available fonts to justification issues to imperfect kerning, browsers just aren’t smart enough to make things look like they should. Other than standard CSS, Atahualpa doesn’t give you any help with typography. Thesis has some great built-in tools to make Typography work better (it’s actually one of their selling points).

-Tutorials and Support
Atahualpa has a fantastic support forum. Almost everything I’ve ever had trouble with, I’ve been able to find out about on the Atahualpa Support Forum. But Thesis goes even further- support, tutorials, videos, guides. And a lot of third party material.
The developers of Thesis were smart enough to create an affiliate selling program, which means that other bloggers and web masters have an economic incentive to get people to use Thesis. That also gives them an incentive to create helpful guides and tutorials.
Without a similar incentive, there isn’t nearly as much third-party help with Atahualpa.

-SEO
Atahualpa is good at Search Engine Optimization, and plays well with SEO plugins like All-In-One or Platinum. The developer of Atahualpa “lived off SEO for several years” (whatever that means). But Thesis creates cleaner, better optimized HTML, which the Google spiders like just a little more. If you’re looking for an SEO edge, Thesis is the way to go.

-Load Time
Because of it’s cleaner code (another Thesis selling point), Thesis pages tend to load a little faster than Atahualpa pages.

-Hackiness
Hackiness is fixing your above-ground swimming pool with duct-tape and a blue tarp. Elegance is an in-ground swimming pool with a screened enclosure.
Both “get the job done” (providing a place for neighborhood children to splash around and pee), but one is much more relaxing, inviting, and attractive.
Atahualpa is like a decent above-ground swimming pool (no blue tarp). It works well, it gets the job done, it seldom floods my yard. But it is a little hacky. Just a little. And tricking it out with a specific visual style and functionality can end up being very hacky. Duct-tape and chewing gum hacky, in some cases.
Thesis is less hacky, more elegant; less blue tarp, more in-ground.

There are other issues as well, and the hard-core Thesis people all have their particular favorite thing that Thesis does.

Overall, the ROI on the Thesis price seems excellent- and if you have any capital at all, I’d recommend going with the Thesis Theme for a business. But if you’re broke, or a hobbyist, Atahualpa will serve very well with no or very few problems.

So which do I use?

As much as I love Thesis, this site runs on Atahualpa, for two reasons:
-This site was designed before Thesis was available. When Thesis became available, I didn’t really want to take the time to redo the layout and visual design.
-Moreover, the use of Atahualpa is a great Bootstrapping example. Social Bootstrap is all about stretching and leveraging of resources. I like to point out what is possible for businesses to accomplish with no or little capital. For some micro-startups or muse projects, even $87 might be too much. For them, I keep using the Atahualpa theme.

If you have additional thoughts about Thesis or Atahualpa, especially technical specifics, website examples, success stories, or tragic episodes- please share them in the comments.