WP Help is a plugin that allows you to create a simple help or instructional page in the WordPress Admin that will display customized information of your choosing.
I’ve been using WordPress for client’s sites for quite sometime and most of the time I have to explain how to use the software at least 2 or 3 times – especially if I’ve implemented features using custom fields or special plugins. It would be great if there were a resource that they could always refer to easily while they are in the process of creating.
I came across a plugin that did this but is was not easily updatable and had some issues with a couple of installations. So I’ve improved on it and here is WP Help inspired by Sam Burdge’s wp-instructions.
I have plans to make the editing area more useful. I would love to implement TinyMCE but it doesn’t seem to play well. If anybody knows how to do this please leave a comment.
I’ve also include a sample text file of How to Create a Post in WordPress for you to try out. Just open the text file and copy and paste to the configuration screen.
Download
Installation
- Download, unzip and upload to your WordPress plugins directory.
- Activate the plugin within you WordPress Administration Backend.
- Go to the ‘Help & Instructions’ options page in the ‘settings’ menu.
- Type in the title that you would like to appear on the Help & Instructions page.
- Enter the content you would like your users to see. You can enter html if you like.
- Click the ‘update options’ button and you are good to go.
Advanced Options
How to change the title of the main menu tab
- Open up the plugin file ‘wp_help_config.php’
- On or about line 16 you will see this code:
add_menu_page('Help & Instructions', 'Help & Instructions' - 3. Change the text in the quotes to what you would like your new tab to read.
- Example: If you want your tab to just say ‘Help’ your line would look like this:
add_menu_page('Help', 'Help' - Save the file and upload back to your plugins folder if necessary
If you would like the help page to be in a sub-menu like ‘manage’ or ‘design’
- Open up the plugin file ‘wp_help_config.php’
- On or about line 16 you will see the code:
add_menu_page('Help & Instructions', - Change the text ‘add_menu_page’ to ‘add_management_page’ for the ‘manage menu’ or change the text to ‘add_theme_page ‘for the presentation menu’
Screenshots
Dang, I had something like this half-built already!
Keep Going! Maybe yours will be better!
great idea and very useful!
OK, I’d love to use this… but what I’d REALLY love would be the ability to have multiple help pages under that Help & Instructions menu. And since the editor/TinyMCE is giving you fits…
Shouldn’t there be a way to integrate this with WP’s pages? Say, perhaps, that “Help & Instructions” is a special Page Parent, and any pages added under it appear in the Help & Instructions menu? And, of course, they’re hidden from the rest of WP, so they don’t show up on the main pages (perhaps using Roles & Capabilities for this, so that only people using the backend see it).
Anybody want to tackle that? Because I’d love to have multiple help pages available for the folks using the sites I build with WP.
Hey Rich,
I think that is a great idea. To start out, you could always password protect the pages. They wouldn’t be in the backend, which isn’t ideal but it would be a start.
The other way you could make it work is to just duplicate this plugin a few times. You would need to change the function names and menu names but if you only had two or three it could work as a temporary solution.
I will look into creating more pages for the plugin because that would make this plugin a lot more useful. I’m not a coder but I’ll see what I can cook up.
First, I agree with Rich, the ability to have multiple help pages under that Help & Instructions menu would be a great enhancement.
Second, a hint: What ’bout changing
echo $opt_val;
and
echo $opt_val2;
to
echo stripslashes($opt_val);
and
echo stripslashes($opt_val2);
in wp_help.php and wp_help_config.php,
to get a clean output and avoid “\’” !?
Hey Mark,
Sounds good, thanks for the tip.
This got potential. But I think it need some more work. One thing is the ability to add images. Maybe something like quicktags would work.
Mattias,
Totally agree. I will look into it.
Also, if anyone has made modifications or improvements, please feel free to share.
Hi,
is it possible to have >1 help page with this plugin ?
Evaldas,
A quick and dirty way to get more pages is to just duplicate the plugin.
Like I said above, you’ll need to change the names of the functions in the wp_help_config.php file so that there is not a conflict, but that should work.
Thank you for your fast answer
I think, it could be great to do the same thing by using just one plugin (no duplicates).
Who knows, maybe one day I’ll find enough time to do it by myself.
I totally agree. I would love to put that in when I get some time.
If you ever do it would be great to see it.
Great idea! I’m trying to put code in the content area, but your plugin keeps trying to escape quotes, even if it’s a “"”. Is there something I’m missing?
Thanks!
Hey Jeff,
Not sure what the issue is. When I figure out how to use TinyMCE in the text area I assume that will solve the problem.
Sorry for the hassle.
Hello!
Really nice plugin – thanks for developing and publishing it.
But I have a question concerning the user roles. I want to show this page to every member of the editoral staff who’s logged into wp-admin. But a user with the role “author” can’t see the page.
How can I change it?
Thanks!
Hey David,
On lines 16 and 17 of the file wp_help_config.php there is code for adding in the menus.
Line 16 holds the configuration menu. You’ll notice in the code the number 8 – this is defining the user level that can access this particular menu. Only admins can access menus with a level 8 or higher.
On the next line is the code for the actual help tab. The current user level is set to 4. If you change this to 2 those with the author level should be able to access it.
For more reading on user levels and capabilities you can check out the WP codex here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities
Let me know if you have other questions.
Late, but I hope in time: Thanks for your help, it works perfectly.
Today another question came up: Is it possible to run a second instance of WP Help (second help page in the wp-admin)? How?
Thanks!
@David
A couple others have had this question as well.
The way you could make it work is to just duplicate this plugin a few times. You would need to change the function names and menu names in the main php file, but if you only had two or three it could work as a solution.
I hope to be able to continue development and add some features like this in the future.
Hey nice plugin. It sounds simple at its roots, but I am wondering how complex we can get with the custom admin page.
I have searched around and this looks to be the best plugin for adding a custom admin page. Everything else is not supported.
I am wondering if it would be possible to add an entire page from a blog or in other words a URL to the admin.
I have two blogs, on one of the blogs users can access the admin. I want to be able to have a custom page in the admin that shows options or in my case a full page from the other blog. That way users can submit to both blogs easier.
I havent poked around at the code, but then again I am not a true coder so your input is greatly appreciated.
I ran into an issue. I added some php code to the help and instructions form and now I cant update the form.
Maybe you can let me know where the input for that form is stored so I can delete it. Also if I know where the input is maybe I can use that to better customize the page.
Any thoughts? I would like to use the plugin but it is rendered useless because I cant update the form. When I click update the button does not work.
Can you tell me how I can totally uninstall the plugin, or atleast where the table is that holds the input for the form.
Thanks, Mike
I found the options in MYPHPAdmin, and I deleted them so I am back in business. Sorry for all of the repetitive comments.
Now if we can customize this plugin to no end we will really be in business.
Do you have any comments on how far this plugin can go?
I just came across a plugin that looks promising. I am just about to head to bed so I cant give it a look but here it is:
http://w-shadow.com/blog/2008/12/20/admin-menu-editor-for-wordpress/
I am still interested in your plugin because you have the basic shell for an admin editor, but it just doesnt seem very customizable. That doesnt upset me, I realize it is just for a help page, but I am always looking to stretch the boundaries.
Thanks for this plug-in. I will check it out. Is this plug-in compatible with WP 2.7? Thanks.
Havent heard about this much.
Thanks for the great info
Can I use HTML in the page?
Yes – you should be able to – but you’ll want to obviously make sure it renders correctly.
Nice plugin. I use it with screencasts. Thanks !