Remove Contextual Help In WordPress 3.0 Admin

If your running WordPress in multisite mode with the intention of offering websites to end users or even clients then most likely you will want to white label you installation. Easier said than done!!

There are a ton of plugins which will help you customise certain aspects of your installation but very little in terms of the contextual menu which is a drop down in the administration area.

Note:- If you are aiming to have many websites in your installation then you really need to consider going streamline, to many plugins will only cause you headaches later on and its the type of headaches where your host could pull your services, shut you down and even if your on dedicated servers it could bring those to their knees, even a powerful one. WordPress + plugins = Resource intensive hog, not to menion the potential for more security issues where crackers will gain back doors in to destroy your website which actually happened to a good friend of mine recently.

Anyway, the point of this note which was suppose to be much shorter is if you can avoid a plugin, then AVOID a plugin it will put less strain on php being processed (less code is better) with Apache and your database. Hardcode your changes where possible.

So, blah, blah, blah, I waffle on sometimes I know.

Open /wp-admin/includes/template.php

Around line 3643 you will see this code:

3643

<div id="contextual-help-link-wrap" class="hide-if-no-js screen-meta-toggle"><a id="contextual-help-link" class="show-settings" href="#contextual-help"></a></div>

That code right there is the html use to display this menu, removing that will remove the click-able div, hence giving you users nothing to click on at all.

Things to consider:

1. Upgrading your install will potentially revert this change.
2. Users will no longer have access to the drop down help which some plugins and themes may refer to.
3. The actual code used in Java script and such still exists, this only really removes the cosmetic part.

I love WP but when you offer a service to a client you may want to be their first point of contact especially where they may not be so experienced, following instructions which can sometimes be a little more technical could end up causing more issues for them. This is of course my opinion, I’m sure many won’t agree.