Hi Ashley!
I participate in a lot of weekly memes and I was wondering if there was a way to set up post templates so that I could just choose it instead of having to go through and copy and past every week!
Thanks!
Kaytee
I have two plugin choices for you! I’ve only used one of them first hand, but I’ve heard of a lot of bloggers using the second choice.
Option #1 (for coders): Advanced Custom Fields
Advanced Custom Fields is, in my opinion, the superior option. It allows for a much cleaner interface, and also has other benefits because every element of the design is individually saved into the database. This is why the Ultimate Book Blogger Plugin is able to work. The UBB plugin doesn’t use Advanced Custom Fields, but it does use the same underlying method of using custom fields. Because each part of the book info (title, author, series, etc.) is individually stored in the database, I’m able to do things like create review indexes automatically.
Here’s what my implementation of Advanced Custom Fields for Waiting on Wednesday posts looks like:
Back-End (post creation page)
Front-End
And all the little boxes you saw get transformed into this on the front-end:
You can see where each element from the box gets placed and how they all fit together. All that formatting and HTML is done automatically.
The down-side: you need to know how to code
When you first install Advanced Custom Fields and create the boxes you want through the user-friendly interface, that’s all you get… boxes. Those boxes don’t do anything or show up anywhere. In order to actually format the HTML and get it to properly display in your post, you need to know how to code. I’m not just talking HTML and CSS, I’m talking PHP. You have to be able to edit your theme files to implement this. That’s why Advanced Custom Fields probably won’t be a good option for your average book blogger.
If you do know how to code, it’s by far the better option. But if you don’t, it’s just not feasible.
Option #2: Easy Content Templates
This is the one option that I can’t really give as much of an in-depth review for because I don’t use it. But, a lot of book bloggers do use this if ACF isn’t for them. So go ahead and install Easy Content Templates and give it a whirl!
How does it work?
You can create an unlimited amount of templates, just like you would create a post. There’s a post box and you write your entire post in there. Then, when you actually go to create a post, t here’s a new drop-down menu for you to select a template. When you do select it, the post will automatically be populated with that template.
Screenshots from the Easy Content Templates download page.
It’s an alternative to copying and pasting (or duplicating) posts
A lot of people just copy the content of a previous meme post, paste it into a new post, then edit a few things here and there. That’s almost exactly what Easy Content Templates is… it just makes the process a bit quicker.
Stop taunting with WordPress awesomeness!!!! 😉
The is so great! Recently, I’ve just been ‘copying’ the type of post I want to write and changing everything manually. Definitely going to look into this.
Oh lolz this looks all epic but I think I’ll fail epically at trying to do this. I’ll probably try to do this sometime this week but copying and pasting isn’t all too bad.
Thanks so much for posting this! <33
Since it’s not that much work, I just copy and paste. 😛
I wish I could actually do the coding myself, but I can’t 🙁 I will try the second option, because so far, I’m doing the copying and pasting thing, and I almost deleted an older post this week because of that.
Thanks for the great tips, Ashley!
I wish I could code so bad! It’s going to be my goal in life to learn php so I can do templates like that. Or I could just wait for another add-on to the UBB for meme posts. 🙂 (On a side note, you should totally add a UBB add on for meme posts like STS and WoW)
I have thought about it.. but it’s tough because there are so many different memes and people format them so differently (as opposed to book information, which is pretty standard).
Oh yeah that’s true. I guess I’m learning php then 🙂
I use Easy Content Templates. It’s very easy to use and I like not having to go back and find an old post to copy & paste. It was just what I was looking for when I moved from Blogger.
I know HTML well enough to get into my posts and edit bits and pieces, but I have no idea what PHP is. I just stick to the second option, even if it does look a bit less well-done. But it works well enough for me, so that’s all that counts!
I love the easy Content Templates! Especially with the three of us Blogging each of us do things a little differently. It’s a truly great Plugin and I can highly recommend it!
You know you’ve turned me on to ACF and I love that plugin. For some memes, like Waiting on Wednesday, I just do mail merge and make a bunch of posts at once. I don’t need an index of those, though, so it works for me. I do like the idea of templates for other things, but UBB has been perfect for me. Thanks, Ashley! xo
I’ve been a copier and paster but this I’m up for anything that will save me time. I’m a coding bunny so I’ll give the Easy Coding Templates a shot.
I am currently using the Easy content templates. So far, it’s working for me. Saves me time to manually input all the meme details of a meme I am participating like Stacking the Shelves and Feature Follow. I just load it up and presto, it’s all there.
Great post. I normally just copy and paste an old post. Unfortunately leftovers happen then accidentally. ACF seems a great solutions, but my PHP knowledge is pretty basic. Would I code a new template for single blog posts of a specific category? Could you show a screenshot how you coded yours?
(BTW I couldn’t comment when using Firefox. It wouldn’t accept my details 🙁 )
That’s one way of doing it, but not the best because then it won’t show up in RSS feeds. A better way to do it is to put all the code in the function, then add that function into the_content filter.
Here’s sort of what mine looks like: http://www.nosegraze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/wow_php.gif
Thanks for the PHP details. I’m kind of proud of myself because I actually understand what you did and I will be able to adjust it for me theme 🙂
I use Easy Content Templates and love it. I have templates set up for reviews, features, weekly memes, challenge posts, basically everything!
I was getting all excited when I was reading about ADVANCED CUSTOM FIELDS– until You said “You have to know how to code..” *hangs head* If all my emails aren’t proof enough.. haha
I just copy to a new draft.. it works for me! Thanks for sharing though!
Hi Ashley, I use custom post types quite often and they save me a huge amount of time.
Personally I use a WordPress plugin called Types and another one called Views to create custom post types and then style them using content templates.
If you or any of your readers are interested I have couple of videos and write ups about how I use these on my website. If you are not happy about the link please just remove it, because these plugins are very good so people may be interested.
http://www.neilcurtis.me/types-and-views-creating-custom-post-types/
Cheers, Neil.
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.
I’ve been trying to figure out how to create template posts for the longest time, for memes and my own memes. I should have realized searching here would give me the answer. LOL. I was going to use the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, but for some reason, the plug in is conflicting with WP 3.9 – when I have it activated, the editor for posts loses a LOT of its functions. :sigh: So I may have to give that other plugin a whirl. 😀