I make a lot of websites with Drupal. Since I do this a lot, I’ve been spending time working on a way to speed up and/or automate the process as much as possible. This distraction project had the fortunate byproduct of the following list.
This is a list of modules that tend to make it into every Drupal project I build these days. These modules are mostly about extending Drupal as a CMS, so they’ll enhance just about any kind of site. They are the modules that will make your admin users happy and likely reduce the support calls you get (making you happy).
- Markdown Filter - Markdown is a great compromise between WYSIWTF editors and expecting users to learn HTML. It’s also faster to write even if you do know HTML.
- Typogrify - It’s unreasonable to ask mortals to type the necessary html to create proper quotes.
- CCK Blocks - Hide fields from the body of the content and display them in a block someplace. This is a great tool for making more interesting layouts to showcase custom content types.
- Menu Block - It does more, but I mostly use this to create separate navigation elements that are bound to one trail of links.
- Block Class - Add arbitrary classes to blocks.
- Block Title Link - Handy for linking a list of teasers to a view
- Webform - I like this better than the core contact form because it saves all entries to the database.
- Scheduler - Create an unpublished node and cron will publish later.
- Menu Trail By Path - Usually does exactly what I need for keeping the menu path preserved.
- Backup and Migrate - Let the robots back up your content. This module not only makes backups, but also prunes your backups on a schedule you set.
I made a point to not list any of the top 10 most downloaded modules, because I figure those are easy enough to find on your own. Let me know if you find this useful.