WordPress Plugins for Portfolios

WordPress is a great tool you can use to build a web portfolio. Since a portfolio may have more “static pages” as opposed to blog posts, you will find yourself using the “add a new page” feature more often. I found some nice WordPress plugins that may help you organize your portfolio better.

I’m going to assume that you already know how to install and use WordPress. If not, see this great “New to WordPress – Where to Start” guide first.

• Breadcrumb NavXT add breadcrumb links at the top of your posts. To use, you need to add in a short snippet of code in your ‘page.php’ template. (Sample – See Home > Portfolio > Photography)
• List Pages Shortcode allows you to use a nice shortcode in a page and display all of its child pages. For example, adding [child-pages sort_column="post_title"] to a page will list all the child pages of the parent page. (Sample)
• Recently Updated Posts displays the last blog posts and pages you updated. It’s pretty handy since static pages need to be updates all the time. (Sample – see recently updated)
• WP Lightbox 2 displays your graphics/photography in a nice lightbox. (Sample)
• WordPress Database Backup is an easy-to-use on-demand database backup script. Since all your changes are stored in a database and not physical files, being able to back them up periodically is a good idea.

After downloading a plugin, unzip the file, and upload the content into the /wp-content/plugins/ folder of your WordPress installation. These plugins were pretty easy to install, but please read the README files first.

WordPress and these plugins should help you get your web portfolio up in no time. Be sure to check WordPress.org for more plugins.