About Freelance Writing

The client had already got her blog and themes set up, but needed help with the maintenance of it. In particular, when editing posts and pages, nothing seemed to be formatting the way she wanted it. When I checked the code, I could tell that it was the TinyMCE (visual editor) that was having problems, and the code being output was messy.

Shortcodes

One of the great things about WordPress is a feature known as shortcodes. In it’s simplest form, these are just a word within square brackets that can be replaced with something else, and this was exactly what was needed here.

I set up six shortcodes for the client – one for the signature and newsletters added at the bottom of each post, three for frequent post images that were being used, one for posts in a particular category, and one for linking easily to the comments section of a post to encourage feedback.

Those familiar with Thesis may ask why the signature shortcode output for instance wasn’t added via a hook to the bottom of each post. In this case, the client sometimes added extra content (like a PS. or an image credit) after the signature, and some posts didn’t have the signature, so the shortcode gave the required flexibility, while still being very easy to use.

Outcome

With these in place, the client could focus more on the writing of the main content, and not have to battle the visual editor to get the right output formatted correctly. They have been added in a way that allows WordPress and/or Thesis to be updated, and not having to reinstate them.