I have tried a lot of different content management systems. Everything from Drupal, to Joomla to Silverstripe and ModX. While I like a lot of them for different reasons I always find myself coming back to WordPress for 80% of my design firms projects. It's simplicity, scalability and huge community base make it a great platform for so many different types of websites.

Having tried so many different content management systems (not to make it sound like I am a CMS whore, although I probably am) I have come across features and functionality that I feel would be extremely useful to integrate WordPress. Silverstripe's simple page focused navigation lead me to develop the dashboard pages plugin, which makes it easy to sort and find the page you are looking to edit or manage off of the homepage rather than having to click to find it.

What I Look For in a CMS and How it Applies to WordPress

There are really only a few primary criteria in what I look for in a CMS, so it is shocking that so many content management systems get it wrong. I always focus on:

• User friendliness to a non tech savvy user
• Capabilities with plug-ins
• Ease to template and configure
• Quality of XHTML code delivered

Out of all of those items I would say being user friendly is probably item number one. This is primarily because I really, really, really dislike having to do tech support phone calls on how to do X, Y or Z on a site. I also really, really dislike long CMS training sessions.

So maybe it is born out of selfishness, but a lot of the plugins that I develop are directly related to making WordPress easier to use for the average website owner. Out of the box I feel WordPress is simple and user friendly, however a bit too blog focused when it comes to using it as a primary CMS tool. This isn't really a criticism because WordPress is a blogging platform first and CMS second — however that doesn't mean we shouldn't look to improve where we can.

CMS Dashboard

I have run into a handful of content management systems that make the most common actions so big and obvious no one could miss them. This is one major focus I feel the dashboard of WordPress lacks. A majority of the WordPress dashboard is on plug-ins, news, quick posts, comments, etc... all things that are not very important when it comes to managing an average website. Sure the menu on the left gives you access to all of the major items but there is no emphasis on common tasks and it is easy to skip over an important element because it is hidden amongst everything else.

CMS dashboard puts a widget on your WordPress dashboard with large icons and links to the most common tasks your users will perform including:

• Add / manage posts
• Add / manage pages
• Add / manage users
• Add / manage widgets
• Manage settings

This way you will never get a call asking how to add a user or change a widget. It also will speed up the time it takes to perform tasks and lead to a better CMS experience.

Download or Read More about CMS Dashboard

Editor Tabs

Another design element I loved with Silverstripe was the tabbed interface. Let's face it, there is a lot of controls you can add to any given page that is managed. Especially when you start working with page titles, meta tags, navigation text, custom fields, custom write panels, etc... If you use either the PODS or Flutter CMS plug-ins you are likely to end up with editing pages that have so many meta boxes you have lots of scrolling up and down to simply make an alteration and then publish the page.

This is because WordPress chooses to have additional control over a page done in a very flat manor. This works when you are simply managing a blog and don't have too much information to control, but once you start using WordPress as a CMS it can be cumbersome.

I have had plenty of calls where a client wasn't aware they had control over a part of the site simply because it was so far down on the editor page.

Editor Tabs fixes this by automatically generating a javascript based tabbed navigation menu below the main content editor comprised of all the meta boxes that are on the page. That way you can easily flip through the different options, make a change and hit publish with out having to scroll all the way up and down. Additionally you have a clear idea of what can be controlled and you don't have to hunt for it.

Download or Read More about Editor Tabs

Feedback or Suggestions

I would love to hear any feedback or suggestions. I created these plug-ins because I would find them personally useful, however I am sure there are other small tweaks or alterations that could improve upon them.

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