Dashboard Notepad WordPress Plugin

In the past, whenever I got an idea for a new blog post I would use Evernote to write down those ideas so I won’t forget about it. That method was an effective and convenient way of keeping notes but I still had to login to their website or open the Evernote Web Clipper on Firefox if I wanted to have access to my notes. I needed something that wouldn’t require me to login or rely on a third-party website/app, something I could access from within the WordPress dashboard.

So I headed over to the official WordPress Plugin repository and searched for a plugin that would allow me to keep/post notes within the WordPress dashboard. Within a few minutes, I found one in the name of the Dashboard Notepad plugin by Stephanie Leary of SillyBean. I installed one similar plugin a long time called Dash-Note but it doesn’t come close to the Dashboard Notepad.

The Dashboard Notepad plugin creates a simple notepad that allows the user to take down notes from right within the WordPress Dashboard. If you have a multi-user blog, you (the administrator) can choose which roles (admin, editor, contributor, etc.) can view/edit the notes. Aside from that, the plugin also allows the user to display the contents of the notepad onto the blog/website via a template tag and/or shortcode. Users can also customize the style of the notepad via their theme’s CSS file.

Screenshots:
Dashboard Notepad WordPress Plugin

Dashboard Notepad WordPress Plugin

Features:

  • Dashboard Widgetized
  • Control what user-level can edit/view each ‘notepad’.
  • Up to 3 different notepads as individual widgets.
  • Configuration on each widget directly.
  • Disable any WordPress default widgets (globally).
  • HTML support for view mode.
  • Built in raw CSS customization of each pad.

Installation:

  1. Upload the plugin directory to /wp-content/plugins/
  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins‘ menu in WordPress
  3. Go to your Dashboard and configure the widget by clicking the link in its upper right corner.
  4. To display your notes in a theme file, use this template tag:
    <?php dashboard_notes(); ?>
  5. To display your notes in a post, page, or text widget, use the [dashboard_notes] shortcode. (To use it in a widget, you’ll have to enable shortcode parsing in text widgets, if you haven’t already. Add add_filter(‘widget_text’, ‘do_shortcode’); to your functions.php file.) You can use div#dashboard-notes in your theme’s CSS file to style the notes.

Download the Dashboard Notepad plugin from the official WordPress Plugin repository

Now that I have the Dashboard Notepad plugin, I don’t need to login to Evernote or use the Evernote Web Clipper. Although I still use the Evernote app on my iPhone which is handy for taking down notes when I’m on the road and don’t have my computer with me. If only I could access the Dashboard Notepad widget from the WordPress for iOS app I wouldn’t need the Evernote app. Btw, I use this plugin not only for writing down possible blog topics but also for other important stuff like my To-Do List, schedule, etc.

Hope you liked this review of the Dashboard Notepad plugin. I just wanted to share one of the plugins I use for blogging and hope that some of you would also find it useful for your blogging needs.

Anybody else use the Dashboard Notepad WordPress plugin? What methods or third-party apps/websites do you use as your virtual notepad? Please share your thoughts.

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5 Comments

  1. I just got this plugin installed in my WP.. for some reason i felt the need to make my notes on the fly so i can access them from anywhere i log on to my dashboard. works like a charm.. thanks for sharing.

  2. John @ Make Money Online Philippinessays:

    This is nice.. I’ve been using Windows 7 sticky notes for blogging ideas and it really lacks organization. Thanks

  3. @Jhay – For me, I like writing/preparing my drafts in the WordPress dashboard because it saves me a lot of time (formating, links, etc.). But I guess using Tomboy Notes is handy if you’re offline or if you have a slow Internet connection. :)

  4. A very nifty plugin indeed. But I use Tomboy Notes on Ubuntu as my note-taking app. My workflow has changed now, blog posts and articles growing from notes in Tomboy Notes. After I’m happy with the draft, that’s when I login in to my blog to post it.

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