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So far, we've covered how to get your WordPress site set up and configured with a new theme,
and added content to get it started. But what if you want to add features? That's when plugins
come to the rescue.
A plugin's something that you 'plug in' to the site to give it added functionality. Let's
add a video plugin to our site, so that we can embed videos directly onto our site from
YouTube.
We'll begin by going to the 'Plugins' link on the Admin screen, then select 'Add New.'
From here, you can either type in a search term for what you're looking for, or select
one of the options from the word cloud. Since we're looking for a video plugin, we can just
select 'video.'
A list of plugins appears, along with ratings and a brief description. I like the Viper's
Video Quicktags plugin; but use whichever one you feel best suits your needs! You can
always try a new one if you don't like it.
On the detail page, theres an 'Install Now' button. Select it and that's it; your plugin's
installed!
Select the 'Activate Plugin' link to activate it, and voila! It's ready for use. But we'll
also configure it to make sure it's set up the way we want it.
Here's the Settings page for this plugin. Each plugin's settings will be different,
since they do different things. You can leave the settings as-is in most cases, although
some require additional information to work, such as adding in an email address. Here,
we'll change the default size of YouTube videos to go with our site.
We can test it out by making a new post to
our site. Select 'Posts > Add New.' There's the new video buttons! We'll add a YouTube
video to it, and preview the page.
And that's it! You now have selected and installed a new plugin to your site, activated it, and
changed its settings.