If you use WordPress as your website framework, you have probably used shortcodes even if you have never heard of them.  A shortcode is a bracketed code that you can insert into a post to perform a particular function.  For example, if you have an image gallery on one of your posts, it was likely created using a short code.

For a more complete list of the built-in shortcodes, visit Support – Shortcodes on WordPress

In this post, I will walk you through setting up your own shortcode and give several examples of how they could be used.

For my particular issue, I needed about a paragraph of text and a few links to show up on certain posts.  There are plugins, such as Bottom of Every Post, that will put the text or code just at the title suggests, at the bottom of every post, but I needed something a little more selective.  Before creating my own shortcode, I just copied the text I wanted and pasted it into 10 different posts.  Worked great, unless I ever wanted to change the wording. [Read more…]