Node as Block (http://drupal.org/project/nodeasblock)

mfredrickson

A nice, simple module to begin our reviewing adventures. Node as Block is a cool little idea to embed node contents in blocks on a site. The teaser of the node is displayed. The default action is to display the header as a link to the actual node body. Want a completely custom user registration form? Create a full node (with descriptions, etc), with a compact teaser with the necessary form elements. The user sees the registration form on all pages (you have the same control over block visibility as with normal blocks, so you can hide this block to logged in users). It doesn't get any simpler.

The documentation shipped with the module is fairly sparse, and its effects may not be obvious without looking at the code - a confusing situation for inexperienced users. The two significant changes are actually minor, and I'll walk you through them. Under content types administration, for each type of node there is now a checkbox titled Enable blocks from this node type. This checkbox is actually enabled by default, so your only concern is to uncheck all the node types you don't want to see made into blocks. The meat of the action handles during node creation. A new collapsible element on the node form is added titled Provide A Block. Click to expand this element if it isn't already visible. Select the region you want the new node-block creation to be in. You can modify the weight. Make sure to tick "Visible" if you want to actually see your new creation.