I wanted to add a glossary to one of my other sites but I was having a really hard time finding a glossary plugin for WordPress. I stumbled across a few posts about using a plugin that arranges posts in alphabetical order, but in that scenario you have a post for each term and that seemed a little over kill to me. Eventually I came across the Instant Glossary plugin from BoomerCo that seemed perfect, and after a few pre-sales questions, I made the decision to give it a try. The plugin was only $25 so I figured that even if it ended up surprising me and being a total bust, it wouldn’t be a big hit to my wallet.
I already had a thirty day trial installed and I was never able to use all the functionality. I thought it was because of certain limitations of the trial, but after my purchase of the pro version, I realized that it was not. I could not seem to link my newly created glossary terms to the associated tags. I reached out to the owner of the site with my troubles and within a couple of days my issue was not only acknowledged, but completely fixed.
This turned out to be exactly what I needed in a glossary script. I began adding new glossary items and definitions and linking them to posts with the corresponding tags that match the term itself. Everything was working great. There was even a check box in the settings to not display the “powered by” link which I checked. One of my pre-sales questions was about removing the “powered by” links. When I purchase something, I want to be able to brand it and make it a cohesive part of my site so it doesn’t appear to be a hodgepodge of various bits and pieces.
I had received the okay that purchasing the pro version allowed me to remove the links, but to my dismay only one of them is removable via the plugin settings. Being the natural hack I am, I decided to just open up the file and remove the second link myself. Unfortunately, the script files are encoded so I was unable to remove the bottom link back to the owners site.
I reached out to the site owner again who explained to me that the bottom link is not removable. He said he offers the script at such a low price that he’s basically paying for the back links from the use of the plugin. This is actually a great idea for him, but it doesn’t really help me much. I know it’s not a big deal, but I never liked the idea of paying someone money to then advertise for them no matter how unobtrusive the link.
Even though I did specifically ask about the links removal prior to purchasing the plugin, I couldn’t in good conscience complain since the time spent fixing my problem was worth much more than the cost of the plugin itself. What I did do was express my hope that there would be a version without any links sometime in the future.
Right now I have the plugin disabled and I have not made a decision on whether or not to use it yet. The links are my personal hang ups but that does not take away from this fantastic glossary plugin. If you don’t mind the mandatory link and the locked down code, I would highly recommend this plugin for creating your very own custom site glossary.