The aim of this work is to present a procedure for the solution of differential equations for plates: the Iterative Galerkin method. With the aid of this method, the buckling loads and natural frequencies of plates are obtained for plates with arbitrary sets of boundary conditions. The vibration modes of plates with various boundary conditions are obtained and compared with results found in literature. An analysis of the static and dynamic behavior of unloaded and in-plane loaded rectangular plates is presented. The use of in-plane loads as a passive vibration control technique for rectangular plates is investigated using the results obtained by the Iterative Galerkin`s method. A linear analysis is conducted for loads applied on the plate mid-surface and a non-linear one for plates with in-plane eccentric loads. Moreover, it is shown that the Iterative Galerkin method leads to a set of orthogonal vibration modes allowing the use of superposition methods in the solution of dynamic problems. Furthermore, the results show that the proposed passive vibration control through the use of in- plane compression loads, decrease the response in the resonance region.