Shanghai Tech Writer

I just installed a new WordPress plugin called WP-Plugins-Used. This plugin allows you to create a page that lists all the WordPress plugins that you currently have installed on your WordPress blog (both active and inactive), including plugin descriptions and links. This plugin is very useful for WordPress users to share with other users about cool plugins and neat features you can add to your blog. Often times, I visit different people’s blogs and I find features that I like but have no idea what plugins they used. I hope more people can install this plugin so everyone can learn and share about useful plugins.

You can view the list of all the plugins I have installed on Shanghai Tech Writer. I also added a page link to the navigation at the top of the blog.

Download WP-Plugins-Used 1.31

Developer’s Portfolio

This plugin is developed by Lester Chan. He developed quite a few useful WordPress plugins. He put together an EXCELLENT developer’s portfolio/page that is worth taking a look.  On this page, he lists all the plugins that he has developed.

Then, each plugin has a section which includes all the information a user needs to know about the plugin.

Documentation Written by the Developer

Since I’m a technical writer, I’m always curious to look at documentation and see how it’s written. Now, I want to inject that WordPress (the blogging software) has a very difficult to read / search / find / understand online documentation. Tom Johnson is always talking about how WordPress’ online documentation needs a major transformation. I agree too. I can never find the answers I’m looking for.

Now looking at Lester Chan’s plugin portfolio, I was curious to see what his documentation looks like. Well, just like his portfolio page, all the plugin documentation is well-written and organized! He divided each documentation into different pages (index, changelog, installation, upgrade, and usage) with the navigation bar at the top.

I installed a few of his plugins and the installation/usage instructions were very straight forward.  Each step is clearly numbered. Code that needs to be added is inside a box.

What’s impressive is that he’s a developer, not a technical writer!  If only WordPress documentation could be as well-written and organized. The only thing missing in Lester’s documentation is periods at the end of each sentence. But I can live with that. I’m about to say something blasphemous in the realm of technical writing, but I care more about content / readability / usability over grammar. 

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