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:
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:
- Upload the plugin directory to /wp-content/plugins/
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins‘ menu in WordPress
- Go to your Dashboard and configure the widget by clicking the link in its upper right corner.
- To display your notes in a theme file, use this template tag:
<?php dashboard_notes(); ?>
- 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.
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.
@John – Yes it really is nice and very useful to manage and organize lists within the WordPress Dashboard.
This is nice.. I’ve been using Windows 7 sticky notes for blogging ideas and it really lacks organization. Thanks
@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. :)
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.