It seems as though the word Howdy, is not liked by many people in many places. I’ve been monitoring an ongoing discussion taking place in the WordPress hackers mailing-list about the subject of the word Howdy being used in all instances of WordPress, despite the locality of the end user. The discussions have ranged from “Not everyone greets each other by saying Howdy” to “Whats the big deal about the word Howdy anyways, it’s not like it breaks WordPress”. The good news is, because WordPress is open source, there is generally someone out there who has the skill and know how to put together a solution for even the most mundane problems.
This brings me to the “No Howdy Plugin” created by Ozh. No Howdy provides you with the opportunity to change the text in that area of the WordPress administration panel, or you can completely remove the text from appearing in the first place.
To use this plugin, copy the text from the link above and paste it into Notepad or your favorite code editor such as Dreamweaver. Save the file as no_howdy_plugin.php and then upload the file to your plugins directory. Activate the plugin from within your administration panel and you’re all set. In order to customize the plugin, edit the plugin file by changing the word (Bonjour) to the text that you would like to have displayed.
Addendum from Ozh: the word “howdy” is localized, so for instance in the fr_FR translation it becomes “Bienvenue”.
Is “Howdy” a word anyways? 😛
People really have in depth discussions about the validity of the word ‘Howdy’? That’s … kinda lame.
BUT … this plug may serve a purpose as far as changing text. Would be good for when you want to rename things for clients. I’ll check out!
Howdy, Jeffro!
I didn’t even notice Howdy – I had to do a search to find it where it was on the page! But, it really should be something that can be customised…
At the very least, it should be localized.
Strange, I thought it was localized. But apparently it has just been translated in the Danish edition of WordPress. It says “Hejsa”, pretty much the Danish word for “Howdy”.
Seems like it would be easy enough to change the text in admin-header.php, but this plugin would be useful for people who don’t like to tinker around “under the hood”. Thanks for passing this on.
But since I’m already in the admin-header file, I’m going to change “Howdy” to “Mecca-Lecca-Hi Mecca-Hiney-Ho”. 🙂
I can’t believe that this is that big of a deal. I guess that some people just have too much time on their hands.
Install another plugin just to change the word?! I can’t believe it…
“Howdy” never gets any love. I’m going to take a few moments to appreciate the silly greeting. ^^
Howdy Ya’ll…
This seems to be a waste of energy, but… a good teaching tool for WordPress coding…
I’ll play with it.
Wow. Have we now reached the point where there are plugins for everything imaginable? Is this nirvana? Am I at the nexus of the universe?
A good ole Howdy right back to everyone who has left a comment 🙂 As I was monitoring the discussion, it was hard for me not to butt in and let these folks know that the word Howdy shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Thankfully, some other folks stepped in and reminded us that there are bigger fish to fry. Despite that, I had to constantly remind myself to be open about the idea. Although I have no qualms about the word Howdy being used, it may be a bigger than normal problem for others.
Alas, someone came along and made a plugin that satisfies both ends of the equation. Now we can move on to bigger and better things 🙂
How pointless!
You have got to be kidding me…
Does seem to be a bit of a “tempest in a teapot” to me. But then I live where Howdy is said pretty frequently.
I’m glad this hurdle is past. Now devs can go on to more important things….like salting the password.
Now, I shall sleep better at night. 🙂
two words: insane
LMAO
Hello Lisa, Thanks for stopping by and paying a visit. Almost finished with WordPress For Dummies. Expect a small review posted here within the month of Jan.
P.S. I gave regular espresso a try and it was awful. I need you to give me a primer on espresso to let me know what’s so good about it.
John, I’ve been told that espresso (straight up) is an acquired taste. I’m not so sure, as I loved it the minute I tried it. Rich, warm with just a touch of caramel-sweetness. 🙂
I appreciate the review very much, thank you for your plans to do it. Though, perhaps I should wait until I read the review before I appreciate it so much. Heh.
Happy New Year!
I like “howdy” precisely because it’s not that common. Nothing shows that a program has character more than a quirky greeting.
Howdy? Doo? lol.
I can see why there is room for debate.
Howdy is one of those things that slightly quirky people in offices use as a greeting to prove their quirkiness. And it works.
What it doesn’t do is project confidence and professionalism and in some cases you may be looking for exactly this, especially if you are debating the merits of open source with a client.
Having said that I really don’t care.
LOL…
All this time with WordPress and I really never noticed the Howdy up there. Maybe, cause it is so common for me.
Great Post!
For those who prefer “the Queen’s English”, you can always make an en_EN.mo file and translate “Howdy” along with the other americanisms like posts (articles), categories (subjects) and so on.
here more sweet options, only took a minutes .. go to Manage > Files > type in “wp-admin/admin-header.php” scroll down on line 40+ find printf(__(‘Howdy, %s.’) replace howdy with your prefer greetings.
Thats right Chaos, thats a good way to make changes to that word if you don’t want to install any plugins. Thanks for that tip.