WordPress® All-in-One For Dummies®

Discovering Global and Page/Post Specific Settings

By now, you've discovered that plugins can vary widely in scope, location, and configuration. Some plugins have settings that affect your entire WordPress site; others have settings that apply only to individual blog posts or Web pages.

Here is an example of the steps you would take to modify the settings or configurations using a plugin called Maintenance Mode (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maintenance-mode). This plugin gives you the ability to display an “Under Construction” message on your WordPress site, and is a perfect example of using global settings.

Refer to Chapter 2 in this minibook for instructions on how to install a plugin on your WordPress Web site; using those instructions, install and activate the Maintenance Mode plugin. When installed, a Maintenance Mode link appears in the Settings menu on the Dashboard; click that link to load the plugin settings page for the Maintenance Mode plugin, as shown in Figure 3-1. On the Maintenance Mode settings page, you can alter the title and message that displays on your site within the Title and Message text fields.

Figure 3-1: The Maintenance Mode plugin settings page.

When visitors view your WordPress site, they see a customized message letting them know that your site is under construction, an example of plugin settings that apply globally, or to the entire site (rather ...