What is a shortcode? #

Question 1: What is a shortcode and how does it work in WordPress?

Answer 1:

A shortcode is a short line of code surrounded by brackets that adds a specific feature into WordPress. The full code is located in the backend of your website, and the shortcode is what triggers its activation. This shortcode can allow you to display a whole plethora of information in a specific format by simply placing the shortcode on a page or in a post.

Thus, instead of having to add several lines of something like HTML, PHP, or CSS to every post or page you wish to use it on, you simply need to add one line of shortcode, then WordPress can load the full code.

Now you may be wondering how the full code gets there. Well, there are three ways.

1. The first is that most themes or plugins have a selection of default shortcodes that are present – meaning they are created by the theme or plugin author.
2. The second method is that a plugin will add the code upon installation. In some cases, that’s all a plugin will actually do.
3. And lastly, it is possible to manually write the code yourself, but this is for users with coding knowledge.

A very good example of shortcode is the Plugin Notebook’s shortcode to display all published Project Notebooks [project-all-listing] to a Project Listing page. This little line of shortcode represents an entire display that can be seen on the page it’s been placed on.

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