Tag Archives: post format

WordPress posting formats

paragraph formats within a post

Here are illustrations of the canned paragraph formats listed in the Paragraph dropdown of WordPress’ builtin WYSIWYG editor (in Visual mode):

This is the default Paragraph format.

This is Address format.
This is Preformatted.

This is Heading 1.

This is Heading 2.

This is Heading 3.

This is Heading 4.

This is Heading 5.
This is Heading 6.

This is the default Paragraph format (again). Using the default Twenty Eleven theme, it appears that only some of these paragraph formats actually look different from each other.

embedded video post

Here is an example of a video embedded in a standard format posting:

All that was required was to include the URL to a YouTube video on a separate line in the text of this post.  The WordPress documentation about posting formats lists “Video” as one of the possible choices, but that choice was not presented to me in the Add New Post or Edit Post screens.  (I’m not sure if the documentation is outdated in this regard.)  Since WordPress’ auto-embed mechanism (enabled by default) seems to do a nice job within the Standard posting format, I didn’t need to specify the mysterious Video format.  See the Settings, Media screen for WordPress options relating to Embeds.

Related references:

sample post in “Image” format

Text of Image format posting.  Link to an external Hubble image follows, including title, alternate text, and caption:

M1 - composite of Crab Nebula - CXC, SST, HST, 350X321.jpg
M1 – composite of Crab Nebula – CXC, SST, HST, 350X321.jpg

Here’s some more text that immediately follows the image.  Note that the optional caption appears in the surrounding background area, below the image.  I elected to have the image be a clickable link directly to the source image.  (By default, clicking on the image itself does nothing.  I could easily have specified any destination URL for a click on the image, with the option to open in a separate window.)  This format of post renders all of the elements that show up in standard format, with the addition of “IMAGE” above the title in the heading that appears in the main blog page and applicable archive pages.  Another difference from other formats is that the additional information below this type of entry includes the posting date, and this is shown against a distinctive, rectangular background.

What http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Formats says about this format:

image – A single image. The first <img /> tag in the post could be considered the image. Alternatively, if the post consists only of a URL, that will be the image URL and the title of the post (post_title) will be the title attribute for the image.

sample post in “Quote” format

Here’s the text of a sample posting in Quote format.  Under the Twenty Eleven theme (as usual), this format is rendered in the same way as a Standard form posting, except that it adds the heading “QUOTE” above the post title in the entry for this post that appears in the main blog page and applicable archive pages.

What http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Formats says about this format:

quote – A quotation. Probably will contain a blockquote holding the quote content. Alternatively, the quote may be just the content, with the source/author being the title.

sample post in “Status” format

Text of sample Status format posting.  Note that the title, category, and tags are not displayed in the entry for this post that appears in the main blog page, but they are shown on the page devoted to this post.  Also note the default “avatar” image, which was added automatically in the main blog page entry for this post.  This avatar image also shows up in my assorted comments to various posts.  The default avatar can be changed via the Dashboard’s Settings, Discussion screen.

What http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Formats says about this format:

status – A short status update, similar to a Twitter status update.

Related references:

tags in WordPress

Now that the site has a few postings (so far all under the WordPress category), it’s time to try adding some tags.  Tags provide a more fine-grained way of distinguishing posts within the broader breakdown into categories.  Unlike categories, tags don’t support hierarchical relationships, and information about tags is displayed differently.  New tags can be created on-the-fly at the time of adding a new post, or tags can be created and edited via a separate screen invoked from the Dashboard’s Posts, Tags command.

The default mode of displaying tags is not as conspicuous as that for categories, which are listed by default under a separate CATEGORIES heading in the main sidebar.  However, there is a “Tag Cloud” widget, which can be activated via the Dashboard’s Appearance, Widgets command.  In the Widgets screen, simply drag the Tag Cloud item from the Available Widgets section into the Main Sidebar Section, at the desired position.

The Tag Cloud widget displays up to 45 of the most used tags in alphabetical order, with variable font size to indicate relative frequency of use.  (The default heading for this section of the main sidebar is TAGS.)  When the user clicks on a term in the Tag Cloud, WordPress displays an archive page listing all posts associated with that tag.  (Likewise, clicking on a category name generates an archive page of all posts assigned to that category.)

At the bottom of every standard format post, WordPress displays a line indicating the categories and tags assigned to that post, and linking to the corresponding archive pages for those terms.  However, some other posting formats, e.g. Aside, Link, and Quote formats, do not display category and tags assignments for in entries on the main blog page or archive pages, even though categories and tags can be assigned to posts in those formats.  These non-Standard formatted posts do appear under their assigned category and tag archive pages, though.

Related references:

sample post using “Link” format

The Link format of posting is another compact flavor of posting, very similar to the Aside format, except that it displays the heading “LINK” instead of “ASIDE” in the main blog page or archive page in which the entry is listed.

What http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Formats says about this format:

link – A link to another site. Themes may wish to use the first <a href=””> tag in the post content as the external link for that post. An alternative approach could be if the post consists only of a URL, then that will be the URL and the title (post_title) will be the name attached to the anchor for it.

sample post in “Aside” format

Here’s a post originally created using the “Aside” format under WordPress 3.4.2 with the default Twenty Eleven theme.  Note the more abbreviated listing for this type entry in the main blog page.  Here are some differences from the Standard format in the way that the Aside format posting is listed in the main blog page and various archive pages:

  • the entry just has “ASIDE” as its heading, instead of the actual post title
  • there is no comments bubble on the post heading line
  • the original posting date is shown at the bottom of the post, instead of the top
  • there is no indication of category or tag assignments for this post
  • the only link to the separate post page is the one attached to the posting date

The corresponding post page does display the post title, categories, tags, and author, in the same way as a Standard format posting does.  Note, however, that the page for this individual posting does not provide any indication that it is an “Aside” format post.

What http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Formats says about this format:

aside – Typically styled without a title. Similar to a Facebook note update.