One of the wishes of anyone when they have been using a website made with WordPress for a while is to increase its functionalities at a visual level. Being able to quickly use predefined elements and power layout the posts and pages professionally.
This is the path that WordPress has chosen in its version 5, introducing Gutengerb and its blocks as editor. But seeing all the alternatives on the market, which are many, we have to stop at a free plugin Shortcodes Ultimate. A compendium of visual components that will become indispensable.
What is a shortcode?
A shortcode is a predefined piece of code that we can add to our editor in the way [shortcode] [/ shortcode] and that helps us to add functions to the inputs. They are very useful because they help us eliminate or automate repetitive tasks. Imagine that we like to warn our readers that what they do is not our responsibility. Well instead of giving it a format every time we write it, we can create a shortcode [alert] with a red background, a border and an icon on the left and every time we put our notice we just have to wrap the text with the shortcode and it will interpret it.
And this is the simplest example of all. From here we can start building formats for quotes, videos, testimonials and everything that comes to mind.
And if we don't know how to program it, but we want to take advantage of all the benefits of shortcodes, we have to pull the plugin :)
What I can do
Here you can see a tutorial about the plugin with which you will get an idea of its power and versatility and why it is one of the most used plugins to add functionalities with visual elements to our WordPress posts and themes.
It is really powerful. It is widely used in addition to adding formats to blog entries, to layout transactional landings. It will give you functionalities that you did not imagine.
If you're thinking about set up your own website to have your portfolio and make yourself known or to start a business, it is very simple, you will only need a domain, a hosting such as web hosting at Webempresa install WordPress with a predefined theme and add plugins at will ;-) Shortcodes Ultimate is a must if you want to design in a simple and powerful way.
Alternatives to Shortcode Ultimate
As we have commented, the main alternative today is the new Gutenberg editor with its blocks and related plugins that add custom blocks.
- Stackable
- Atomic
- cadence
- Advanced Gutenberg Blocks
- Ultimate Blocks
Other options such as visual constructors (Divi, Visual Composer, etc.) are not treated as alternatives, since in the end we do not insert a block, shortcode or similar, but we have to modify the entire structure of the landing, producing the dreaded encapsulation. But we will see this in another article.