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Justin Sternberg

Gary Jones

shaunandrews

Plugin project for refreshing WordPress core’s widget interface. 
https://make.wordpress.org/ui/tag/widgets/

WordPress Widgets Refresh

Plugin project for refreshing WordPress core's widget interface. http://make.wordpress.org/ui/tag/widgets/

softwud

The Page Blocks plugin extends your WordPress pages by combining the dynamic content of widgets with the static content of pages. Up to four “blocks” can be added to each page (two above and two below the page’s content), and widgets can be added to each block in the same way they are added to sidebars.
Content can be edited simply through the admin backend, removing the need for custom page templates for all but the most complex of blog designs. Two examples of what can be done with the plugin are shown in the Screenshots section:
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A home page with a welcome message in the page content above a widget displaying News posts on the left and a widget displaying the most recently created post on the right.
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A page showing a dynamically generated “Thank You” message for a customer returning from PayPal in a single page block at the top of the page using a standard text widget and the Exec-PHP plugin (before and after images).
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More detailed information is available on the <a href="http://wordpress.softwud.com" title="Page Blocks Plugin Website" rel="nofollow ugc">Page Blocks Plugin Website</a>, as well as support and contact information. You can also contact SoftWUD through this site if you’d like a custom theme, plugin, or widget developed.
<h4>Features</h4>
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No file editing needed
Blocks are configured through the Page Write / Manage and Widgets admin pages. There is no need to edit PHP code or modify your theme in any way.
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Blocks will work even if the theme is changed
As long as the theme you use employs the WordPress “Loop” mechanism (and pretty much all themes do) then there won’t be any problems. Even if the “Loop” has been modified.
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Each page can be configured with a different set of page blocks
There are four blocks that can be enabled for each page – Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, and Bottom Right. For example you may have a Top Left on one page, a Bottom Left and Bottom Right on another, and all others may have none at all.
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Each block can have it’s own CSS styling rules
The plugin provides default CSS styling for the blocks assuming that all four blocks are enabled on a page. However CSS styling rules can be applied through the Page Write / Manage admin page to override these, or even your own theme’s styling rules.
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The plugin supports password protected pages
If you protect your page content with a password, the page blocks will also be hidden until the user enters a valid password.
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Page Blocks

This plugin extends WordPress pages by allowing widgets to be placed above and below the page content reducing the need to code custom page templates.

WordPress Widgets Refresh vs Page Blocks