WordPress® All-in-One For Dummies®

Finding Technical Support

Everyone who uses plugins has had this happen at some point: They find the perfect plugin but have no idea how to use it. What can you do when you can't figure out how to use the plugin or a plugin just doesn't seem to work for you at all?

Here are some resources to look up to resolve plugin issues.

• Google. Google is your primary resource. One trick is to do a site search on a Web site you know may have the solution to your problem. For instance, you can type this in the Google search field: site:wordpress.org/support/plugin won't activate to search the WordPress Forums page for the phrase, “plugin won't activate.”
• Search WordPress.org support forums. Every day, countless WordPress enthusiasts volunteer hours of their time assisting people with general WordPress troubles and plugin-specific problems.
• Contact the plugin developer. Most, but not all, plugin developers maintain documentation about their plugins. This may be found either on the plugin's page in the Plugin Directory at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins or on the author's Web site. Many plugin authors also run a support forum for their plugins. If the provided documentation is not sufficient or nonexistent, you can reach out to the developer directly.

  Before contacting a plugin developer directly, make sure that you have exhausted all other means of figuring out the problem yourself, as the ...