Enhancing effects with jQuery UI

You'd think that after taking the time to select a theme or roll our own, we'd jump into putting widgets to use. We will! But first, while animations and interactions are still fresh in our mind from Chapter 5, jQuery Animation within WordPress (though, don't worry if you're skipping around), you'll be interested to learn that it's as easy as setting up most of those animations and effects, things can be made quite a few times snazzier with the UI plugin.

First up, these effects are not bundled with WordPress at the time of this writing. So, in order to use these UI effects, you'll need to include the UI plugin through your own download or from the Google CDN.

Effects made easy

What the UI plugin does is add in a single new function called .effect() that offers, 15 or so, new and slick animation effects. Most notably, blind, which rolls things up like a blind; shake, which adds a little shake; and explode, which manages to "break" the object up and shoots pieces...