10 Ways to Pimp up WordPress Post Editor

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WordPress post editorWordPress post editor is the most frequently used section by every blogger. Whether you're an administrator, an editor or an author, you cannot escape it. The default editor is quite flexible and user-friendly when it comes to crafting a typical blog post. However, we can certainly extend it to add more features and functionalities not only to package our posts in a much nicer way but also to speed up the entire writing and editing work. We can do so easily through some useful plugins that can help you add more features to the default post editor. Usage of these plugins becomes more essential if you're regularly publishing rich multimedia or graphic intensive posts or if you're administering a busy multi-author blog. All of these plugins are free and are used by large number of bloggers. I'll advice you to first run these plugins on a test blog before activating them on your live blog.

Post Editor Buttons Fork PluginPost Editor Buttons Fork - If you regularly use HTML mode while composing your posts, this plugin can extend your editor for quickly inserting heavily used HTML tags, elements and comments. This plugin lets you create custom buttons which are automatically added to the default toolbar. This way you can insert popular HTML tags at the desired place quickly without any need to type it again and again. You can provide a custom button text so that you can easily identify the functioning of each and every button.

WP Editor PluginWP Editor - This powerful plugin integrates rich feature-packed post editor to your dashboard. It supports line numbers, indentation, syntax highlighting, text search, full-screen editing and much more. It also includes a fancy box for previewing images you're going to embed in the post. This plugin includes several editor themes to choose from. Bloggers who often use HTML mode and also code their themes directly from the dashboard must install and use this plugin. This plugin also lets you replace the default theme editor with a more powerful and flexible alternative.

Preserve Editor Scroll Position PluginPreserve Editor Scroll Position - If you regularly write long blog posts, you must be facing a common problem of scrolling back to the editing position every time you update and save the post. This is not only frustrating but also consumes your precious time. This handy plugin preserves your current cursor position and brings you back to the original position whenever you update your post. It works both in HTML and normal mode without any problem. Bloggers writing multiple posts each and every day can save a lot of time after using this plugin on their blogs.

Post type switcher pluginPost Type Switcher - If you frequently work with custom post types, this plugin is an ideal solution for the same. It adds a handy post switching drop down to quickly switch between different post types. Editors can easily convert from one post type to another without any problem. Revisions and menu post types are excluded for obvious reasons. The most powerful feature of this plugin is the facility of bulk conversions which enables you to process multiple posts at once. Multi-author blog administrators can take advantage of this plugin.

Tab Override PluginTab Override - It's the ultimate tab functionality plugin for HTML mode post editing. Apart from regular shortcut keys to indent line, it also supports indenting of entire paragraphs. Through a handy toolbar button, you can easily enable or disable the tab mode. You can also customize the size of indent to suit your requirements. Administrators can also enable or disable this functionality for select users. Remember, this plugin doesn't work in normal compose mode. Blogger's who often include quotes and excerpts in their posts will find this plugin very handy.

Post Snippets PluginPost Snippets - Bloggers who frequently embed reusable code or text within their posts will find this plugin extremely useful. It lets you create snippets of custom PHP, HTML and plain text that be easily embedded at the desired location through a click of a button or through a shortcode. This functionality works both in HTML and visual mode. You can use multiple custom variables with each snippet and can also import and export your snippets library across different blogs. Web developers and tech bloggers often use this plugin to reuse their code on a daily basis.

HTML Mode Locker PluginHTML Mode Locker - At times, we create content that is only well formatted when we work in HTML mode, while others are edited well only through visual mode. By default, whenever we open an old post, the current editor mode is selected for editing the content. Switching to another mode often garbles the text in some cases. Now you can use this plugin to lock HTML mode for specific posts. This way, whenever you will edit those posts, the editor mode will always be HTML overriding the current editor mode. Per post, locking gives you the required flexibility you need.

Unpublished Warnings PluginUnpublished Warnings - This plugin is very useful for multi-author blogs with frequent posting schedules. Once you activate it, every time you view an unpublished post outside the preview mode, you can get a friendly warning message on top of the post about its unpublished status. Editors and authors can easily remove the warning box with a single click. This plugin is ideal for editors and administrators who often approve posts coming from multiple authors. You can disable these warnings by deactivating the plugin.

Editor Repositioner PluginEditor Repositioner - I simply love this plugin due to the flexibility it provides within the WordPress dashboard. Advanced users often create custom dashboard elements for other authors and editor. This occupies more space and the entire dashboard is populated by different sections. This plugin shifts the default post editor into a draggable container that can be shifted anywhere from the mouse. You can also increase and decrease the size of the container including the facility to expand and collapse the container.

Ultimate TinyMCE PluginUltimate TinyMCE - As the name implies, this plugin turns your default editor into a powerful and flexible post editor that is full of helpful features. It gives you more options to stylize your text in visual mode and easily lets you insert tables at the desired location. You can also embed YouTube videos very easily through the modified editor. With over two dozen new buttons, you get tons of new post editing options to spice up your content easily and efficiently. It has a built-in shortcode manager that lets you easily access them from a single place.