Here are a couple of plugins that have really saved me some time since I installed them.

1. One Click Install

Install and update plugins and themes with one click of the mouse.

2. Absolute Comments

Reply to comments directly from the dashboard or email.

The first one, One Click Install, is a great little plugin that works with a Firefox extension enabling you to install a plugin or theme by right clicking a link to it’s zip file.

I didn’t install it at first because I felt I had enough plugins already but, this is especially useful for updating plugins from within the WP dashboard. Whenever I saw a plugin that needed updating on the plugins page I would make a mental note to visit the plugins’ page, download the zip file, extract it to my hard drive, upload it with ftp and finally check that it shows as activated on the plugins page.

9 times out of 10 I would forget the mental note until such a time where I would be missing one tool required for the update process (at work or on the road). Now it’s a simple process, to get started install the plugin and the OneClick Install Firefox Plugin. Do the Firefox restart that is required after installing an add on and then visit your WordPress plugin page to activate the One Click Install plugin.
Next, visit the admin page for the plugin at Dashboard/One Click Install

And look at the bottom of the page for your oneclickURL

Paste it into your Firefox addon by visiting Tools/Addons/ and selecting the Oneclick Installer for WordPress addon ‘options’ button.

And you’re ready to install any updates to plugins that you have. Visit your dashboard and check the plugins page for any that need updates (WP2.3 and up)..

You can see the message saying “There is a new version of..” and a link to the official WordPress plugins page, click that and you get to the plugin’s page at WordPress.org.

Then just right click the Download Plugin button and choose to install as plugin..

As long as you’re logged in to your WordPress, you will be taken to the Oneclick page and informed that your plugin was installed successfully.

Yey! note: you don’t actually have to use the Firefox addon, you can just paste the zip file URL into the box on the plugin admin page and install it from there or upload a zip file from your computer by clicking the ‘browse’ button and selecting it that way.

Very useful! Nice one Anirudh, thanks for a truly useful plugin.

The other plugin to save time especially if you get a lot of comments on your blog is the Absolute Comments plugin. I really like this one because it allows you to reply to comments directly from the comments page of the dashboard. No more do I need to visit each individual post to reply to comments! You can even reply from a comment notification. I haven’t used this part though as I have always got access to the dashboard if I have access to my email.

Just click on ‘reply’ from within the comments dashboard page..