Spinning Earth for WordPress
Put a slowly spinning 3D earth animation on your site with simple WordPress shortcode. The animation is incredible small in file size yet realistic looking rich graphics.
This sophisticated little Flash video clip of our spinning planet can be inserted via simple shortcode. Incredibly it is smaller in file size than many static jpg pictures. It shows the planet earth smoothly spinning in the correct direction 
and will run even with older versions of Flash, therefore it is highly compatible.
Unlike conventional movie clips, it is extremely small in size (less than 50kB!), yet rich in graphical content. Other rotating globes are either huge in file size or have very basic graphics. A sophisticated algorithm “wraps” a single picture around a sphere, and therefore produces the best of both worlds; a small file and great looking graphics.
How to installation Spinning Earth for WordPress
Automatic installation (recommended):
- On the WordPress installer screen click Install
Manual installation
- Download Utech Spinning Earth from here
- Remove any previous version of the plugin from WordPress
- Unzip the file and upload the entire plugin folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Then activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress an place shortcode in your post or page, eg. [spinningearth]
How to use Spinning Earth for WordPress
Put the following shortcode anywhere on your post or page to insert the Spinning Earth:
[spinningearth]
Use the ‘size’ parameter to change the size of the planet:
[spinningearth size=100]
Change background color to black and set size to 160:
[spinningearth size=160 color=000000]
Complete list of parameters of this version
size
changes the size of the earth in pixel
wrap
can be left, right or none (default is none)
determines if and how text flows around the earth
brightness
range from 0 to 100, default is 50
color
sets background color, default is white FFFFFF
If you don’t use WordPress…
… then you can still use this little gem on your website the conventional way. For more info see the Spinning Earth main page.
Great plugin. I love it. Is there a way to center the image?
Thanks John,
Excellent question, I can’t think of a way at the moment other than with a table, which is kind of ugly. Let me work something out – you will see version 1.1 coming up hopefully soon with a solution.
Cheers
Meini
Done, I have finished the upgrade. Version 1.1 of Spinning Earth now allows for exactly that – centering the blue planet on the page, e.g. [spinningearth wrap=center]. Thank you John!
Parabens pela animacao
joao: Muito obrigado – Thank you very much!
And the purpose of this plugin is?
To be able to marvel at our beautiful planet earth by utilizing the simplicity of a WordPress shortcode.
What a beautiful plugin, would be possible to add a shadow representing the changing seasons? It would be a great way to show the difference between the Northern winter and the Southern summer for instance.
Thanks Kim, that sounds like a good idea. But I won’t be able to follow that request as quickly as I did the last one. But if things go well I will stick my head into flash actionscript again and see what I can do. Seems like a real good challenge for those long winter nights that we are heading towards here in Australia
Oh and by the way, have a look at http://www.worldtimemanager.com, I assume that is the kind of thing you are talking about, just not flat. There are a few screenshots on the site.
Yes, that is just the sort of thing I had in mind.
[...] is the range of fun plugins available to you to add to your blog. One which I have just found is Utech Spinning Earth. It doesn’t have a serious purpose, at least not one I can think of now, it is just fun to [...]
[...] Utech Spinning Earth [...]
Could the globe be placed in a header or sidebar? I imagine that would need php code instead of shortcode.
You can put the globe anywhere you want using regular html. Please have a look at the non WP Spinning Earth page for all the details. The download also includes details on the code to use.
Hope that answers your question.
Cheers
Meini
Love the plugin, but….
When I click on the spinning globe it loads your site over my site. Would be better if it opens your site in a new window, so my site is not lost.
Also how about Mars, Saturn, the Moon…? I know, I am asking for the “Moon!” but you started it.
Thanks Sahara,
It should open in a new window, it does it here and I had a look at your site and it opens in a new window there too. What browser are you using? Re Moon, I actually just thought about it last night… I’ll see what i can do, but don’t hold your breath.
My apologies. You are right. I could have sworn that it did not open in a new window.
Very kind of you for your quick response.
I hope your generous work brings you more good karma and a lot of traffic. Shoot for the moon…
[...] Utech Spinning Earth [...]
Yeah! A rotating moon would really rock!
I’ll see what I can do!
Fantastico !!!
Wow, this is a great plugin. Is there any chance you can put in that when you hover over a country it’s name comes up in a popup? Again, great job.
Thanks for the suggestion. I haven’t thought about that yet but it sounds interesting. I will keep it in mind. I had a quick look at your website and Forex trading sounds like you may find some interest in the other WordPress plugin Utech World Time for WP or the World Time Manager software program as different time zones would be an issue for you, i bet.
super plugin, kann man sicher mal gut gebrauchen
It’s great to see that the newer blog owners are once again aiming at bringing a more rounded content rather than just concentrating on rubbish and junky articles. Like this the strengths of individual article are more feasable to be discovered.