WordPress Plugin : Admin Drop Down Menu

One of the first things I wanted to improve in the admin area of my WordPress blog, back in the 1.5 days, was the header menu. I wanted to be able to reach any admin page in one click, instead of first clicking on the first level link ("Manage" for example) and then only on a submenu link ("Comments") So came a very neat plugin : the WordPress Admin Drop Down Menu

When WordPress 2.7 and its new and optimized user interface came, I thought there was still room for improvements: a horizontal menu gave the admin area more of a "desktop application" feel, and I think it's superior to a vertical menu. So I updated the WordPress Admin Drop Down Menu.

Download

Get the plugin :

Download the plugin :
ozh-admin-drop-down-menu.zip
Extract and upload to your blog, preserving directory structure.
Note: download counter here and stats on wordpress.org may differ and reflect the number of downloads before this plugin was hosted on the plugin directory

Activate and enjoy. Another friendly install & forget piece of PHP.

Features

Customizable color scheme with a neat color picker
Normal mode for regular users, compact mode for real estate maniacs, minimal mode for those who never have enough
Optional cute icons from FamFamFam
Enhanced compatibility with handheld devices
Joy and happiness for every day

Javascript is involved for advanced features and to make stuff compatible with MSIE6, but on any decent browser everything works even with Javascript disabled.

Super neat color picking.

Any color you'll love.

Normal or compact display.

Browser compatibility

The plugin has been developed on Firefox 3, Chrome and MSIE7. It should do fine with MSIE6 and Safari too.

There are glitches with Firefox 2 and Camino which both use a deprecated rendering engine. There are also glitches with Opera. I won't fix these, but if anyone wants to submit a CSS patch to resolve one of these issue, you're welcome :)

Developer friendly

The plugin comes with a wickedly cool API that will allow other plugin developers to interact with it, like adding your own custom icon for your plugin. Read the API for Coders page for examples and documentation. Also, all elements the plugin produces get custom CSS classes and id's to allow easy styling or selecting.

Translations

The plugin is ready for interglobanalization and there is a .pot template file included so polyglots can even make their own translation and sent the .mo and .po files to me that I'll include in the package.

The plugin comes with the following translations, in no particular order:

Turkish, thanks to Baris Ünver
Korean, thanks to Jong-In Kim
Spanish, thanks to Karin Sequen
Italian, thanks to Gianni Diurno
Deutsch, thanks to Frasier Crane
Russian, thanks to Fat Cow
Brazilian Portuguese, thanks to Renato Tavares
Greek, thanks to Friedlich
Belorussian, thanks to ilyuha
Hebrew, thanks to Amiad Bareli
Romanian, thanks to Octav
Ukrainian , thanks to wpp.pp.ua and Jurko Chervony
Traditional Chinese, thanks to Paogray and Joan Wang
Dutch, thanks to Cees van den Heuvel
Slovak, thanks to Branco from WebHostingGeeks.com

And maybe more since I might totally forget to update this list :)

Older Versions

All my plugins are designed to run on the latest WordPress version available. Upgrade WordPress whenever a new version is out, or be sorry when your site gets compromised.

If for some unintelligent reason you need to get an older version of this plugin, it might be available, yet totally unsupported or recommended. Check here: Other versions.

Feedback, Bug report, Feature request

Sure. Feed me back. Like it? Blog about it. Love it? Click on the download link, see the Paypal button appear, and give it some clicks!

If you're reporting bugs, you're welcome, but please provide a screenshot and informations about your browser & your OS. I'm not supporting deprecated blogs or plugins or browsers, and I can't respond to incomplete bug reports.

If you're suggesting a feature, you're welcome too, but I won't add an admin menu on the public side of the blog, on top of pages. If you're looking after having this menu fixed on top of page, check this companion plugin that works as a plugin to this plugin: Admin Menus Fixed.

1 comments

Wordpress 2.5 Uyumlu Eklentiler (Liste) | Wordpress Tema Ve Eklenti 2008/06/29

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu by Ozh 2.0.3 […]
ozan sumer 2008/06/30

thanks.. very good
Hyödylliset Wordpress lisäosat | Arkimedia 2008/07/02

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu Olen käyttänyt tätä lisäosaa vasta melko vähän aikaa, mutta olen jo vakuuttunut, että se pitäisi olla jokaisessa WordPress sivustossa. Pudotusvalikko säästää paljon aikaa ja klikkauksia. Yksikertaisuudessaa lisäosa aktivoi alemman valikon, kun hiiri on ylävalikon päällä. Esimerkiksi, sen sijaan, että klikkaisi Kirjoita ja tämän jälkeen Kirjoita sivu; Voit hiirtä liikuttamalla mennä suoraan "Kirjoita sivu" kohtaan. (Tämä säästää yhden klikkauksen ja yhden sivunlatauksen). Säästää aikaa aktiivikäyttäjältä huomattavasti! […]
WPCandy – WordPress Themes, Plugins, Tips, and Tricks — 6 Plugins for Branding the WordPress Admin 2008/07/02

[…] You can also upload a logo to the site that will display in the header in lieu of the standard site title in the Georgia typeface. The Custom Admin Branding plugin also lets you add your logo to the admin's footer along with a link to your website. This plugin also comes with support for Ozh's famed Admin Drop Down Menu plugin. […]
Word Press Finally Upgrated | Oregon Publishing 2008/07/03

[…] Now I have access to some new cool plugins and the backend user interface is very clean, and using the drop down admin menu is sweet Thank you ozh (get it here) […]
WordPress Working Plugins | Utricks 2008/07/04

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu by Ozh 2.0.3 […]
Gregory Grubbs 2008/07/04
I love this plugin! The only trouble I have is on mobile and other touch screen devices like the iPhone and the Nokia 700/N800/N810. Because these touch screen devices don't generate a 'hover' event, you have to tap/click to get the menu to drop down. Because there is a link at the root of each menu, the browser will start going to that link without waiting for you to find and tap the menu item you actually want! Thus, for instance it is (nearly) impossible to ever get to the 'widgets' page, because you are directed to the 'design' main page every time you hit that menu!

Following is the worlds quickest and dirtiest fix. Please consider taking out the link at menu root in a future version!

Patched version 2.1:
< View plain text >

php
1. --- wp_ozh_adminmenu.php (revision 270)
2. +++ wp_ozh_adminmenu.php (working copy)
3. @@ -55,7 +55,7 @@
4. $anchor = $v['name'];
5. $class = $v['class'];
7. - $ozh_menu .= "\t<a>$anchor</a>";
8. + $ozh_menu .= "\t<a>$anchor</a>";
9. if (is_array($v['sub'])) {
11. $ulclass='';
Creative Farm Design » Useful WordPress Plugins 2008/07/05

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu […]
Essential WordPress Plug-ins (urbanmainframe.com) 2008/07/05

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu: Replaces administration menus with a CSS dropdown menu bar. Saves lots of clicks and page loads! […]
2.5 Sürümüyle Uyumlu Eklentiler | WordPress Destek 2008/07/06

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu by Ozh 2.0.3 […]
wordpress 2.5 Uyumlu Eklentiler Listesi | Nazl? Reklam Reklam ve Hosting 2008/07/06

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu by Ozh 2.0.3 […]
Mike Seiler . com » Wordpress Plugins 2008/07/06

[…] WordPress Admin Dropdown Menu: This makes the whole admin area much nicer to work with by lowering the number of clicks it takes to get where you want to go. […]
Wordpress 2.5 Uyumlu Eklentiler Listesi | Taha’n?n Yeri 2008/07/06

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu by Ozh 2.0.3 […]
nikshikin – blog saya 2008/07/07

[…] nak kongsi satu plugin. ianya sangat berguna dan memudahkan. nama plugin tersebut adalah admin drop down menu yang dihasilkan oleh planet ozh. anda boleh meneroka admin wordpress dengan hanya hover di tab […]
BigMan 2008/07/07

This is one of the most useful plugins I've found so far.

Absolutely top notch.
MixbaL 2008/07/07

great. ty
WhazUp !!! » Blog Archive » Wordpress Plugins and Tutorials | Developer Toolbox 2008/07/07

[…] Admin Drop-Down Menu creates a new menu containing all the wanted links (nothing more than a big boring bunch of intricated <ul>’s and <li>’s). No javascript is involved to create the drop down effect, except a tiny bit that gets added when viewed with MSIE. […]
84 ?????? ??????? wordpress | WPMANIA 2008/07/08

[…] WordPress ??????? ???????????? ?????? ??? ????? ??????. 16. Admin Drop-Down Menu – ??????? ?????????? ???? ? ???????, ??? ????????? […]
R Blog..! » ???????????????? wp plugins ??? (?) 2008/07/08

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu […]
ø WP Plugin : Sort Admin Menus | W-Shadow.com ø 2008/07/09

[…] menu" and "CSS menu" plugins. I've successfuly tested it with Admin Drop Fown Menu by Ozh and I'm fairly sure it will work with other similar […]
Mark Berck over IT » Eerste indrukken van WordPress 2008/07/09

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu […]
Friday Freebies: Font, Icons and Wallpapers | Graphics | Smashing Magazine 2008/07/10

[…] To install the theme download the zip file, extract the contents and upload the whole ‘wp-admin-fluency’ folder to your web server. Then go into your WordPress admin and go to the ‘plugins’ page, activate ‘Fluency Admin’ and you will instantly be using the theme. A nice alternative to the Admin Drop Down Menu plugin. […]
iwebie 2008/07/13

nice plugin here mate. Very useful
WordPress 2.5 ???????????????10? | detlog.org 2008/07/13

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu????????????? […]
Sabahan.com Upgraded to WordPress 2.5.1 « Sabahan.com 2008/07/14

[…] arrangement where all items are grouped together and fortunately, one of my favourite plugins, the Admin Drop Down Menu let me do […]
Stephen R 2008/07/15

Heads Up! In WP 2.6, the Plugins menu adds a little number when there are plugins that have updates available. (They're the same as the number on the Comments menu when there are comments in moderation.)

With this plugin activated, the Menu simply reads "Plugins 2" (or whatever the number….)
Les 2008/07/15

It also hides the "Turbo" link for adding Gears support to 2.6.

Other than that, still works nicely, especially with Fluency Admin.
Ozh 2008/07/15

All » 2.2 available, update! Back to my offline vacations :)
Andy 2008/07/15

Hi dude! Actually I've used "Lighter Menus" so far because it simply worked like a charm. But the feature of your plugin to use it with Fluency is just too cool. Great work! Gonna give it a try.
WordPress 2.6 Turbo met Google Gears 2008/07/15

[…] was het wel even zoeken. Blijkbaar was de link niet zichtbaar omdat een van m'n plugins, Admin Drop Down Menu, het menu zo aanpaste dat de knop verborgen bleef. Mensen met hetzelfde probleem moeten dit trucje […]
WordPress 2.6 met Google Gears 2008/07/15

[…] was het wel even zoeken. Blijkbaar was de link niet zichtbaar omdat een van m'n plugins, Admin Drop Down Menu, het menu zo aanpaste dat de knop verborgen bleef. Mensen met hetzelfde probleem moeten dit trucje […]
Wordpress 2.6 is released | Blueprint Design Studio 2008/07/15

[…] to the way existing plugins and themes work, I did run into some issues with the OpenID plugin, and Ozh's excellent dropdown menu needs to be updated to expose some of the new features. Add to del.icio.us […]
Les 2008/07/15

Thanks for the updated version – does what it should, but doesn't seem to play nicely with Fluency any more. I'll report it on the Fluency forum, too, but you can see my screenshot here.
???? ??????: Ozh Admin Drop Down Menus | ????? ?? ??”? ??? 2008/07/15

[…] ?? ????? ????? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ?? ????? ?????? ?? Ozh Admin Drop Down Menu. ????? ??? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ?????????, […]
??????? » WordPress › Blog » WordPress 2.6 2008/07/15

[…] admin menu drop down css […]
??????? » WordPress 2.6 2008/07/15

[…] admin menu drop down css […]
Ozh 2008/07/15

Les » Damn. Will check and hopefully fix in early august :)
Wordpress Plugins-panel de administracion | Seosistems 2008/07/15

[…] soluciona con un plugin llamado Admin Drop Down Menu así tendrás menús desplegables en cada […]
migang. | Blog Archive | WordPress2.6?????? 2008/07/15

[…] ???????????Plugin?Admin Drop Down Menu???????????? ????????????????????????My?? […]
WordPress 2.6 ?????Admin Drop Down Menu ?? at catch the digital flow???????? 2008/07/16

[…] WordPress ????????????????? Admin Drop Down Menu […]
wildgames 2008/07/17

:D The new version works fine with WP 2.6 . Many thanks!
Blog Tutorials » Blog Archive » plugins 2008/07/18

[…] If you don't know how to install and activate a wordpress plugin, Click Here to see a video showing how to install a plugin I made for a member of the Warrior forum. In the video I am teaching how to install a wordpress admin drop down menu plugin. This plugin is so cool. Click here to get a copy of that. […]
PS Blog » Blog Archive » Užite?né pluginy pro WordPress 2008/07/18

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu […]
Stephanie 2008/07/18

The new version broke in 2.6 with Fluency on my site — it took up about 90% of the page width, obscuring everything else.
A`dan Z`ye Wordpress eklentileri | Aninda Yorum, Msn messenger ifadeleri, Avatar, gif, smiley, Resimli Siirler, izle, indir, Komik Resimler, programlar, Resimleri, Haberler 2008/07/18

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu by Ozh 2.0.3 (Admin sayfan?zdaki menüyü daha kullan??l? hale getirir.Aç?l?r menü ?eklinde kullan?rs?n?z) […]
?????????? ??????? ??? WordPress – ??????? 2008/07/19

[…] Admin Drop Down Menu by Ozh 2.0.3 […]
?????????? Wordpress ?? ?????? 2.6. ???? ??? ??????????? 2008/07/19

[…] ???????? ?????????? ???????, ?? ??? Admin Drop Down Menu ?????? ?????? ???-???? ?????. ?????? ?????? […]
James Pearce 2008/07/19

Great plugin for the admin panel – nice to see someone develop a plugin for this that is consistent across Firefox and IE, and even works with IE6 properly still :D
www.tikra.info » Fluency Admin v1.2 2008/07/20

[…] šio ?skiepio dar puikiai dera Ozh’s Admin Drop Down Menu, su kuriuo man asmeniškai toks meniu tampa praktiškai beveik ?dealus. Parsisi?sti Fluency Admin […]
5 WordPress Admin Plugins I Can’t Live Without—design.mivox.com 2008/07/20

[…] Admin Drop-Down Menu This single plugin will save half the time you spend waiting for your WordPress admin area to load … if you have a slow internet connection, that can be a lot of time! All the admin area navigation menus are collapsed into a single menu bar with drop down lists of all the sub-pages in each section. To configure a plugin, for example, isntead of clicking "Settings," waiting for the General Settings page to load, and then clicking the plugin link in the sub-menu, you just mouse over "Settings" and select the plugin you want from the drop-down list that appears. I wouldn't think of setting up a WP site without this plugin. […]