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Free Plugin by thomaspark v0.4.20

Snowball

Snowball makes it easy for journalists and bloggers to create immersive articles using multimedia, data visualizations, and interactive widgets.

Snowball

The facts

Rating
5★ from 5
Active installs
100+
Price
Free
Last updated
14 Aug 2019
Added
Nov 2015
Requires WP
3.0.1
Tested up to
WP 5.2.26
Downloads
16,569

Our analysis

AI-assisted

Snowball is a WordPress plugin designed for journalists and bloggers to create immersive articles similar to those produced by major news organisations. It features a user-friendly interface that allows you to build articles using various content blocks, including text, images, videos, and data visualisations.

The plugin supports a range of modules for different content types, allowing for customization of each block's content and style. Advanced users can further modify blocks using a built-in code editor for HTML and CSS adjustments.

Best for: This plugin suits journalists and bloggers looking to create interactive and visually engaging articles.

What it does well

  • User-friendly interface for building articles
  • Supports various content types including text, images, and videos
  • Allows for advanced customisation with a code editor
  • Developed by the openHTML research team at Drexel University
  • Includes modules for data visualisations and social media

Where it falls short

  • Last updated in August 2019
  • Directory score of 47/100 indicates potential issues
  • Limited information on user support or documentation

Verdict

Snowball provides a robust set of tools for content creation, though its age and directory score suggest caution. It may be particularly useful for users comfortable with custom coding.

From the developer

thomaspark's own description of Snowball, lightly tidied.

Snowball is a powerful plugin that makes it easy for journalists and bloggers to create modern, immersive articles as seen by world-class news organizations.

Snowball’s user-friendly interface allows you to build your article one content block at a time. Snowball support many different types of content including text, images, videos, data visualizations, and interactive widgets.

For each block, set your own content and style choices. Advanced users can customize a block even further using the built-in code editor to inspect and modify its underlying HTML and CSS code.

Snowball is developed and maintained by the openHTML research team at Drexel University, with the goal of broadening participation and empowering people to be more expressive on the web.

Currently supported modules:

  • Basic: Text, Splash, Sidenote, Pullquote, HTML, Columns, Table
  • Media: Image, Image Comparison Slider, YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Google Maps
  • Social: Twitter, Vine
  • Data: Bar Graph, Scatterplot, Choropleth
  • Meta: Table of Contents, Contact Form, Share Buttons

For more information, visit our homepage at snowball.openhtml.org.

Read the full description on the official page →

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