Thunderbyrd dot Net

My personal wish list for WordPress:

• A filter so that I can write postings in MS Word, then copy and paste into WordPress. Expression Engine has this built in.
  
  
• A hack that will automatically insert an icon in a post that corresponds with the category of the post, with a link to the posts in that category.
  
  
• An integrated spell-checker. This is something that should be built into any sort of software that people use to write with.
  
  
• Built in “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” ability for entering both posts and comments.
  
  
• A better pop-up box for entering URL’s and images. They should include the alt text (this is part of the standard, yes?), the title text (is this part of the standard?), and an alignment option for images.
  
  
• Multi-blog ability (although I hear this is in the works).
  
  
• Built-in photo gallery.
  
  
• Built-in skin switching. This one is not hard is it?
  
  
• The ability to edit comments after posting them. I can’t count the number of times I have made a typo and not realized it until it was too late. EE has this.
  
  
• The ability to delete comments after posting them. Sometimes people realize that they shouldn’t have made that comment. EE has this too.
  
  
• Live preview for comments.
  
  
• Comment entry boxes that are a proper size and don’t disappear underneath the right hand menu. I really hate comment entry boxes that are only three lines high! Is this done to discourage people from leaving comments more than one paragraph long?
  
  
• Better documentation for everything.
  
  
• Plug-ins that work just by dropping them into the plug-in directory. No hacking up of your index.php or any other files. If they need to modify things, they should have an installation script.
  
  
• Better modular design. If plug-ins are going to work properly without having to make changes by hand to files, then the files need to be more modular in structure.
  
  
• Sticky posts. This can’t be that hard can it? I know that EE has this built in.

I know that there are people who are going to disagree with the features I have listed. Some of you will say that this will lead to “bloat-ware". I think that the features I have asked for should be included in the base installation of WordPress, perhaps without the icon insertion hack. That should be a plug-in for example.

But the rest of the list, I feel, is not out of line for the basic installation of WordPress.

A spell checker is something that any piece of writing software should come with. If we have software that encourages us to write for the entire world to see, we should at least be able to spell check it before we post it. It’s bad enough our grammar is often grade school level (or worse) without leaving ourselves open to further ridicule because we can’t spell.

Please, don’t get me wrong; I think WordPress is great software. The installation is easy enough for anyone who has some experience with databases. I can’t speak for those of you who have no experience at all with setting up a program like WordPress because I don’t fall into that category.

WordPress has many good features built in already, but it is missing some features that I think are key to its continued success. I understand that some of these may be in the pipe for upcoming future releases, and that’s great.

The documentation really does need a lot of working on though. Having to dig through the support forums is not how you win new users over to your software. Trust me on this. If someone has to go to the support forums for simple things that should be covered in the documentation for the program, then they may just decide to try something else.

Having to endure the possibility of “why didn’t you search the forums before posting?” that new users are often hit with is another reason they may decide to give it up for a lark. I’m not saying this happens all the time, in point of fact, the WordPress forums are the most forgiving forums I’ve ever had the pleasure to post in. But they are still not a replacement for good solid documentation, the kind a new user can print off on their own printers at home and put in a binder if that’s what they want to do. On-line documentation is good, but it will never replace something that you can hold in your hand.

Well that is probably enough for now. I’m sure to get flamed for writing this, but it’s something that I felt I had to say. WordPress has the potential to be a great piece of software, as long as it continues to grow its feature set. Especially the spell-checker. It really needs a spell checker.

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