WordPress and Shortcodes: The Short Manual

What is a shortcode?

WordPress comes with many features that makes it easy for users, regardless of skill level, to build or write great pages. Shortcodes, introduced in WordPress 2.5, are an easy way to integrate plugins or other features into your posts and/or pages. For example, plugin authors can create a shortcode for a plugin that displays a graph. As the user, all you need to do is to copy and paste into the post editor. You can even customize the shortcode by adding some text. Most of the time, plugins will come with instructions on what you can change so you can make the feature look just the way you want it to. The greatest thing about shortcodes is that no coding knowledge is required since the markup (structure) is so easy to understand and manipulate.

Let’s learn how to use them in our posts/pages.

How do I use shortcodes?

First, you must be logged into your WordPress Dashboard. Let’s create a new post:

Next, click on the ‘Add New’ button:

You should now be able to view the Edit Post screen:

You can add a title if you wish but let’s add a short and simple shortcode into the content area. Let’s start out by adding a gallery. The following is the gallery shortcode in its simplest form, like so:

Let’s make our gallery a little more special by adding a size and an ID. (For any developers/designers out there):

Try clicking on the Publish button:

That’s about it! You should now see the gallery in your post. Look below if you would like to learn more.

Creating Shortcodes

I will cover creating a shortcode, for a plugin, in a future post. For now, you can take a look at the resources listed below to create your own. Take a look at the Shortcode API page for a quick example.