What Are Shortcodes in WordPress?

What exactly are shortcodes? What do they do? How do they work? If you’re new to WordPress, you’ve probably heard of them, but their exact meaning may still be a mystery.

The word “shortcode” is used in WordPress tutorials, WordPress theme feature lists, forums, etc. used. He is everywhere. Shortcodes are specific to WordPress and are one of the things that make the platform so functional and user-friendly.. Additionally, all premium WordPress themes come with a set of custom shortcodes designed to increase theme value and usability.

But even if you use shortcodes yourself, you’re still not entirely sure what they are. Today we’re going to fix that and provide a simple yet comprehensive explanation of this practical feature.

What are Shortcodes?

Shortcodes are essentially exactly what their names suggest. Them shortened, truncated versions of longer codeto perform a particular function. In the backend they are shown in parentheses and look like this: [I am shortcode].

Shortcodes not showing in frontend. They do, but not in this form. Depending on what they were created to do, whatever their function might be, they could be an image gallery, an audio player, etc. They may look like

The importance of shortcodes is their customization potential. WordPress is open source, meaning you can add any code you want to make a website look and work the way you want. However, if you’re not a developer, this isn’t exactly an option.

This is where shortcodes come into play. They allow “normal” WordPress users to add functions and features to their website without having to write any code.

Let’s look at an example of the common use of shortcodes. This is a basic WordPress gallery that we create, set the number of columns, and add to our page.

Below you can see the gallery added using the Visual Editor. As a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, it bypasses any need for actual code. But it doesn’t leave much room for customization and doesn’t make it easy to duplicate the same or similar content on a different page.

If we look at the same image gallery, on the same page, but this time using the Text Editor, our gallery will look like this:

As you can see, there are no images to preview directly here, just some code in square brackets – shortcode. More precisely, the gallery shortcode.

You may wonder why everyone prefers to use shortcodes and Text Editor instead of adding images using Visual Editor. After all, it’s easier when you see exactly what your gallery will look like.

However, shortcodes allow additional customization in the editor and they can be placed (via copy/paste) anywhere on your site.

How to Use Shortcodes

When it comes to adding shortcodes to your site, there are three ways you can go about it.

Also, adding a shortcode is even easier if you’re using one of Qode Interactive’s themes. It’s done via the WPBakery drag and drop page builder plugin, which comes free with most of our themes. and you are one wide selection of custom shortcodes you can choose from, but we’ll talk about all of them in more detail a little later.

WordPress comes with some predefined, default shortcodes that you can use on any of your pages and posts as well as add them to widget areas.

In our previous example, we embedded a gallery shortcode on one of our pages.

Each of the images uploaded to the Media Library has a unique ID. The shortcode pulls the pre-built gallery using the image IDs and displays them on your page.

The shortcode may contain additional options such as the number of columns (columns=”X”), where X is the number of columns or the image size (size=”Thumbnail”).

The shortcode for a gallery with three columns and small size images would be:

As for adding shortcodes to your editor, you can do it in both the Image editor and the Text editor. In the Text Editor, the shortcode (one of the defaults) to add a music player will look like this:

If you switch to the Visual Editor, your shortcode will automatically turn into a new area that you can edit and customize as you wish:

In addition, shortcodes can be added to a widget area of ​​your choice. For example, if you want to add a gallery to your blog sidebar, simply drag the Text widget to the Blog Sidebar widget area. An area will open where you can type or paste your gallery shortcode. Click Save and the gallery will appear in the sidebar of your blog.

Most Common Shortcodes

As we mentioned earlier, WordPress comes with some default shortcodes built in. Some of the most common shortcodes are:

Additional Shortcodes

In addition to the default shortcodes that come with your basic WordPress installation, there are hundreds of other shortcodes you can use. add via plugins or the ones that come with your theme.

Additions

Many plugins execute their intended functionality exactly using shortcodes. For example, a plugin to add an author box to your posts Simple Writer BoxIt provides a shortcode that you can copy and paste anywhere in your content to display the author box.

Additionally, there are plugins that contain entire collections of shortcodes for various purposes. One of them Shortcodes Ultimatewith over 50 shortcodes for visual and functional elements, from tabs, buttons and separators, accordions and carousels to post and user data, metadata and more.

Qode Interactive Shortcodes

All Qode Interactive themes come with a wide variety of shortcodes for various purposes. It can be easily added anywhere you want, thanks to shortcodes. WPBakery page builder plugin This comes with our themes.

Simply click the plus sign () to see the available shortcodes and add one (or more) to your page or post.Add Item) in the backend version of the builder. A list of available shortcodes will open, allowing you to add them simply by clicking on them or by searching by name in the search bar in the top right corner.

To access custom shortcodes developed by Qode Interactive and included in your theme, simply click the tab named “by…” and then the name of the theme’s author (Qode, Elated, Edge, Select, Mikado) or the name of the theme. . In our example we are using our Sahel theme, so the tab says “by SAHEL”.

Click on the shortcode of your choice and you will see all the general and design options available for you to customize.

When you’re done setting everything up, click on it. Save Changes and check your live page to see if the shortcode is doing what it’s supposed to.

final thoughts

Shortcodes are one of the things that make WordPress so beautiful and powerful. The best thing about them is that they are useful for both developers and beginners. Developers can make their own shortcodes if they want, and basic and intermediate users can add features, change the design, and customize the site without messing with the actual code.

Everything is easier to use when you know how it works. I hope we managed to decipher the shortcodes and their uses for you so you can get the most out of them and improve the design and functionality of your website.