Are you looking for a way to add a QR code for Stripe payments on your WordPress website?
QR codes, or Quick Response Codes, are a type of barcode that users can scan using their mobile phones. You can show a Stripe payment form using QR codes and help customers easily purchase a product or service.
In this article, we will show you how to add Stripe QR code payment in WordPress.
Why Add Stripe QR Code Payment in WordPress?
Stripe is a popular payment gateway that lets you accept online payments on your WordPress site or eCommerce store. It makes it very easy for customers to pay using their credit cards.
The best part is that customers don’t have to go through a lengthy signup process. They can simply enter their credit card on the website to make a purchase.
Adding Stripe QR code payments to your site gives customers the flexibility to complete a purchase quickly. Customers can simply scan the code to open the payment link.
This makes the checkout process very simple and fast. It helps people to easily buy a product and service on your online store. As a result, you’ll see a boost in conversions and reduced cart abandonments.
That said, let’s look at how you can add a Stripe QR code payment to your WordPress website.
Create a Stripe Payment Form in WordPress
First, you’ll need to add a Stripe payment form on your website to accept online payments from customers.
The best way to do that is using WPForms. It is the best contact form plugin for WordPress that’s super easy to use and easily integrates with Stripe. There are many form templates to choose from, and you can customize them using the drag-and-drop builder.
For this tutorial, you’ll need the WPForms Pro license because it includes the Stripe addon. There’s also a WPForms Lite version that you can use for free. It allows you to accept Stripe payments, but there’s a 3% transaction fee for payments made through your forms.
To start, you’ll need to download and install the WPForms plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can go to WPForms » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and enter the license key. You can find the key in your account area on the WPForms website.
Simply enter the key and click the ‘Verify Key’ button.
Once that’s done, you’ll need to go to the WPForms » Addons page and install the Stripe addon.
Go ahead and click the ‘Install Addon’ button, and WPForms will automatically install and activate it.
From here, you can head to WPForms » Settings from the WordPress admin panel and go to the ‘ Payments’ tab.
Next, simply click the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button and follow the onscreen instructions to connect your account with WPForms.
Once Stripe is connected, you can go to WPForms » Add New to create a new form.
WPForms offers lots of form templates to choose from. You can select a simple contact form, an order form, or a Stripe payment form and customize it.
For this tutorial, we will use the ‘Stripe Payment Form’ template.
Next, you can customize your form using the drag-and-drop form builder. By default, you’ll see different form fields in the template.
However, WPForms lets you add more form fields to the template, like a dropdown, checkboxes, email, phone, address, website, and more.
You can also click any form field on the template to customize it further.
For instance, we changed the text for each item on your demo form and enabled the option to show prices after the item label.
Once you’re done editing the form, simply switch to the ‘Payments’ tab and select ‘Stripe’ from the menu on the left.
From here, ensure the ‘Enable Stripe payments’ option is enabled.
Next, you can switch to the Settings tab. Here, you’ll see options to change the notification and confirmation settings.
For instance, you can select what action should take place once a user submits a form. WPForms lets you show a message or a page or even redirect users to a URL.
You’re now ready to display your Stripe payment form on your website.
Simply click the ‘Save’ button to store your changes and then click the ‘Embed’ button at the top.
Next, WPForms will show a popup where you can choose an existing page or create a new one to embed your form.
We will choose the ‘Select Existing Page’ option for this tutorial.
Next, you’ll need to enter a name for your new page.
Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.
You can go ahead and publish the page and visit the website to see it in action.
Now go ahead and copy the link of your payment form page, as you’ll need it to create a QR code.
Alternative Method: You can also create a Stripe payment form using WP Simple Pay. It is the best Stripe payment plugin for WordPress and helps you collect online payments without setting up a shopping cart.
WP Simple Pay is a more straightforward option compared to WPForms. It is perfect if you’re just looking to create a basic form to accept credit card payments.
However, if you’re looking for more customization options and form templates, then we recommend using WPForms.
Now that your Stripe payment form is ready, you can create a QR code for it and display it anywhere on your site.
There are 2 ways you can add a QR code to your site. You can use the Google Chrome browser’s feature or use a WordPress plugin.
1. Create QR Codes using Google Chrome
If you’re using the Google Chrome browser, then you can use it to share a webpage via a QR code.
First, you’ll need to open the Stripe payment form page in a new tab or window.
Next, you can click the share icon in the top right corner of the site address bar. From here, simply select the ‘Create QR Code’ option.
After that, Google Chrome will generate a QR code for your Stripe payment form page.
You can go ahead and download the QR code as an image.
Next, simply place the image anywhere on your site.
For example, you can show the QR code on product pages, so customers can quickly scan them and open the form to make a purchase.
2. Create a Stripe Payment QR Code using a WordPress Plugin
You can also add QR codes to your site using a WordPress plugin like Shortcodes Ultimate. It is a free plugin that lets you create over 50 different types of shortcodes, including QR codes.
Upon activation, you will see the Shortcode Ultimate welcome screen.
Next, you’ll need to edit a page or post to add your QR code.
Once you’re in the content editor, simply add a shortcode block.
After that, you should see an ‘Insert shortcode’ option.
You can simply click the double brackets icon to add your QR code.
Next, the plugin will display different shortcode options for your site.
Go ahead and select the ‘QR Code’ option.
After that, you’ll see options to enter details for your QR code.
In the Data field, you can enter the URL of your Stripe payment form that you created earlier.
Besides that, there is an option to enter a title for the code, which acts as an alt-text. You can also adjust the size of your QR code.
If you scroll down, then you’ll see more options to customize your QR code. For instance, you can change the primary color, background color, and more.
Once you’re done, simply click the ‘Insert shortcode’ button.
The plugin also lets you see a live preview of the code on your blog post or landing page.
Go ahead and publish your page to see the Stripe payment form QR code in action.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to remove the date from your WordPress URLs?
WordPress comes with an SEO-friendly URL structure. This includes several link formats, including one that adds dates to your WordPress post URLs.
In this article, we will show you how to easily remove the date from your WordPress URLs.
Why Dates Appear in WordPress URLs
By default, WordPress uses a non-human-readable link structure for post and page URLs, which looks like this:
https://example.com/?p=123
This uses the post ID in the URL, which doesn’t look good and isn’t very meaningful.
Luckily, the WordPress Settings » Permalinks page lets you easily change these default links to something more meaningful and SEO-friendly.
Some WordPress users choose the ‘Month and name’ or ‘Day and name’ options. These add date parameters to your WordPress URLs.
‘Day and name’ permalinks include the year, month, and day like this:
https://example.com/2023/09/03/sample-post/
‘Month and name’ permalinks include the year and month:
https://example.com/2023/09/sample-post/
These URLs are better than the default ugly URLs, and they are SEO-friendly as well. However, they are unnecessarily long, and in time, the dates will make your articles look old.
That’s why a lot of users prefer the ‘Post name’ URL structure instead. This removes the date and just uses the post slug keyword in the URL.
‘Post name’ permalinks don’t include any date information in the URL:
https://example.com/sample-post/
This URL structure is shorter, meaningful, SEO friendly, and won’t look dated.
Considerations Before Removing the Date From WordPress URLs
If you are starting a new WordPress blog and haven’t launched it yet, then it is safe to remove the date from WordPress URLs.
However, if your website has been around for some time, then there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Changing the URL structure may result in 404 errors for your users and search engines. This means you might see warnings and errors in your Google Search Console reports.
Plus, your search engine rankings may be affected since backlinks to your old articles will also now lead to 404 errors.
Both of these issues can be fixed by setting up redirects, and we will show you how to do that later in this article.
Changing the URL structure will also reset your social share counts. Unfortunately, most social share count services do not track redirected URLs and will reset the counts.
Removing the Date From WordPress URLs
First, you need to create a complete WordPress backup of your website. This will allow you to restore your website to an earlier stage in case things don’t work out as you expected.
After that, you need to visit the Settings » Permalinks page and choose ‘Post name’ as your permalink option.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page to store your changes.
WordPress will now remove the date from your WordPress URLs and only use the post name. It will do this both for your existing posts and pages and those you will add in the future.
Setting Up Redirects to Preserve SEO Rankings
Now that you have removed the date from your WordPress URLs, you will need to set up proper 301 redirects. As we said, this will stop your users from seeing 404 error messages when they follow an old link.
These redirects will send users to the updated URLs without showing a 404 error. This will also help search engines understand that the old URLs have been moved to the new URLs.
We will cover 2 methods you can use to create 301 redirects in WordPress:
Method 1: Setting Up Redirects Using AIOSEO (Recommended)
The best way to set up redirects is using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. That’s because it includes a powerful Redirection Manager feature that lets you create bulk 301 redirects as well as automatic redirects, full site redirects, 404 error tracking, and more.
Note: You will need AIOSEO Pro to use the redirection manager. There is also a free version of AIOSEO, but it doesn’t include 301 redirects.
First, you need to install and configure the AIOSEO Pro plugin on your website. For more information, please refer to our step-by-step guide on how to set up All in One SEO correctly.
Once the plugin is active, you will need to go to All in One SEO » Redirects in your WordPress dashboard and then click the ‘Activate Redirects’ button.
You’ll now see the ‘Redirects’ tab in All in One SEO, where you can add your first redirect.
On this page, you will see settings where you can enter a ‘Source URL’ and ‘Target URL’.
The source URL will describe the old URL permalink structure, and the target URL will describe the new post URL permalink you need to redirect to.
To do this, we will use regular expressions, which are also known as Regex. Regular expressions provide a powerful and flexible way to search and manipulate specific patterns of characters. We will use them to match the permalink pattern in the URLs we need to redirect.
If you were previously using ‘Day and name’ permalinks, then you need to enter these Regex expressions into the source and target fields:
Source URL: ^/(\d*)/(\d*)/(\d*)/([A-Za-z0-9-*])
Target URL: /$4
You will also need to click the cog icon next to the source URL to display three checkboxes. Make sure that only the ‘Regex’ box is checked. This option will enable regular expressions in the source and destination fields.
However, if you were using ‘Month and name’ permalinks, then you will need to enter these Regex values instead:
Source URL: ^/(\d*)/(\d*)/([A-Za-z0-9-*])
Target URL: /$3
Once you have added the source and target URL values, you should make sure that the Redirect Type is ‘301 Moved Permanently’ and then click the ‘Add Redirect’ button.
Your redirect will be created. Now, if a user clicks on a link that uses your old permalink structure, then they will be automatically redirected to the correct post using the new name-based URL.
You can see your redirect by scrolling down to the logs section. You can see how many website visitors have been redirected in the ‘Hits’ column, and you can enable or disable the redirect using the ‘Enabled’ toggle.
Method 2: Setting Up Redirects Using Redirection (Free)
You can choose our second method if you prefer to use a free plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Redirection and click on the ‘Start Setup’ button.
The plugin will then show you a couple of options. It can automatically detect and alert you if a post’s URL is changed and keep a log of redirects.
You can also leave both these options unchecked and simply click the ‘Continue’ button.
The plugin will then run some tests, and if everything looks good, then you can click on the ‘Finish Setup’ button followed by the ‘Ready to begin!’ button. The plugin settings will be stored in the WordPress database.
You will now see the plugin’s settings page. From here, you need to click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top of the page or simply scroll down to the ‘Add new redirection’ section.
You will see a form with ‘Source URL’ and ‘Target URL’ fields. The source URL will describe the old URL structure, and the target URL will describe the new URLs.
If you were using the ‘Day and name’ permalinks, then you will enter the following values in the source and target fields:
Source URL: /(\d*)/(\d*)/(\d*)/([A-Za-z0-9-*])
Target URL: /$4
If you were using ‘Month and name’ permalinks, then you will enter the following values:
Source URL: /(\d*)/(\d*)/([A-Za-z0-9-*])
Target URL: /$3
Don’t forget to select ‘Regex’ from the drop-down menu before you click the ‘Add Redirect’ button to save your changes.
The plugin will now redirect users to your new name-based URLs.
We hope this article helped you learn how to easily remove the date from WordPress URLs. You may also want to see our guide on the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them, as well as our expert pick of the best WordPress SEO plugins.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you looking to improve the customer experience in your online store?
When you take time to understand your customers’ needs, you can improve their journey from first discovering your site to making a purchase. By optimizing the WooCommerce customer journey, you can increase conversion rates, improve customer satisfaction, and boost profits.
In this article, we will show you how to optimize the customer journey for your WooCommerce store, from beginning to end.
What Is a WooCommerce Customer Journey?
‘Customer journey’ refers to a customer’s entire experience when they visit your WooCommerce store, including all of their interactions with your brand.
Optimizing the customer journey involves understanding each stage and ensuring that the customer has a seamless and enjoyable experience throughout.
These are the five stages of the WooCommerce customer journey:
Awareness stage: Make it easier for potential customers to find your online store and learn more about your business.
Consideration stage: Make it easier for your customers to find and learn about the products they need.
Decision stage: Optimize your checkout to encourage your customers to make a purchase.
Service stage: Improve your after-sales communications, express your appreciation for the sale, and better support your customers.
Loyalty stage: Build long-term relationships with customers through excellent customer service, personalized recommendations, and loyalty rewards.
In short, you should simply look at your online store from your customer’s point of view and then make it awesome.
How to Optimize the Customer Journey for Your WooCommerce Store (12 Tips)
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to optimize the customer journey for your WooCommerce store.
We will share actionable tips on how you can improve the customer journey at each stage. You can use the quick links below to jump to the different parts of our tutorial:
Here are some tips for optimizing the WooCommerce customer journey during the awareness stage.
1. Understand How Your Customers Find You
The first thing you need is to see the journeys your users take before they make a purchase in your online store. This is where customer tracking can help.
The best way to set up WooCommerce customer tracking in Google Analytics is using MonsterInsights. It is the best analytics solution for WordPress and has a User Journey addon that can help you plan how to improve the user journey in your online store.
After that, you can see the path each customer took before buying your product. You get to view the pages they visited, where they clicked, and how much time they spent on a page.
This is really useful information to better understand your customers. You can see which product categories are performing the best and where customers are leaving your store during the purchase process.
It’s important to do search engine optimization (SEO) for your online store so that it ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). This will make it easier for potential customers to find you when searching for products and solutions that you offer.
Improving SEO involves writing SEO-friendly product titles and descriptions, using product categories and tags, adding alt text to product images, and much more.
We recommend using All in One SEO because it’s the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and is used by over 3 million websites. It will help you to optimize your entire store for SEO and get found by more customers.
Here are some tips for optimizing the customer journey in your WooCommerce store during the awareness stage.
3. Design an Eye-Catching Product Page
When a visitor clicks on a link to your website on Google or Facebook, you want to give a good first impression. You can do that by creating product pages and landing pages that are optimized for sales.
This is where SeedProd comes in. It is the best WordPress page builder on the market that allows you to easily create landing pages, sales pages, product pages, and even completely custom WordPress themes.
SeedProd comes with dozens of ready-made templates that are already optimized for higher conversions. Plus, it has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that you can use to customize your landing pages.
SeedProd also includes a WooCommerce integration that allows you to add eCommerce elements to any page.
For example, you can display featured products that you want to upsell, product grids, add-to-cart buttons, and more.
You can also customize your WooCommerce product search results to help your customers find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
By default, WordPress and WooCommerce have a limited search function. That’s a problem because if your customers can’t find what they are looking for, then they may not come back to your online store.
We recommend using the SearchWP plugin. It’s the best custom search plugin for WordPress and is used by over 30,000 websites.
5. Keep Your Visitors Coming Back With Push Notifications
Push notifications are automated messages that show up in your customers’ browsers even after they have left your WooCommerce store.
You can use drip campaigns with multiple push notifications over time to promote products, build a relationship with your customers, increase sales, and get visitors to return to your store.
The easiest way to set up automated push notifications is with PushEngage. It’s the best web push notification software, and it is used to send over 15 billion push messages every month.
Customer reviews are a powerful form of social proof that can make your business seem more trustworthy and encourage people to buy from your online store.
But collecting, managing, and formatting customer reviews takes a lot of time and effort. That’s why we recommend using a customer review plugin to add different types of reviews to WordPress.
Smash Balloon Reviews Feed Pro allows you to show reviews from Yelp, Facebook, Google, and TripAdvisor. That way, you don’t need to install any extra plugins.
Next, you will want to help customers get through your checkout and buy your products. Here are our tips for optimizing the WooCommerce customer journey during the decision stage.
7. Improve Your Checkout
You can easily personalize the purchase experience in your WooCommerce store using FunnelKit, a WordPress sales funnel builder and optimization plugin.
For example, it comes with a One-click Upsells feature, which allows users to add products to their carts on their way to the checkout.
You can also add one-click order bumps to your checkout for increased conversions.
FunnelKit lets you customize the user journey with pre-checkout offers, custom checkout form layouts, beautiful templates, and more.
On average, 60 to 80% of people who add items to their cart don’t actually buy the products. This means that if you have an online store, then you are losing out on a lot of sales.
Often when a customer has added a product to their shopping cart, they will need some reassurance that they are making the right decision. This often leads to cart abandonment.
It allows you to create beautiful popups, countdown timers, slide-in forms, and more to nudge users in the right direction.
For example, OptinMonster can tell when a customer is about to leave your website and display a popup offering free shipping or a discount before they do.
You can learn how to grab your customers’ attention with targeted messages at just the right time in our guide on how to create a WooCommerce popup.
Provide Great Customer Service
After customers have bought items from your WooCommerce store, you will want to give them great customer service to keep them coming back. Here are some tips for optimizing the service stage of the customer journey.
9. Follow Up With Your Customers
When running a WooCommerce store, your customers will receive different transactional emails. These emails help them get order confirmations, track their order statuses, get invoices, learn about how to return a product, and find more information about your online store.
By default, the design and layout of emails sent by WooCommerce are plain and generic. When you customize these emails, it helps to build trust with your customers, boost brand awareness, and get them to return to your store.
It includes a growing library of pre-built WooCommerce email templates that are proven to get results. And you can use the visual email automation builder to make any changes that you need.
What makes FunnelKit Automations really powerful is the custom goals-driven email automation builder. It shows you in-line analytics for each email.
For example, here is a screenshot of a workflow for sending out a thank you email after a customer’s first order.
As your online store grows, it’s important to provide good customer service. This leads to repeat sales, which means more profits for your business in the long run.
One way to do that is to add live chat to your website. This will let you interact with the people who visit your website, answer their questions, and solve their problems in real time. This can get you more sales and encourage existing customers to stay loyal to your brand.
The easiest way to add a live chat feature to your website is by using LiveChat Inc. It is one of the best live chat solutions for WordPress, and we use it on our own OptinMonster site.
The LiveChat WordPress plugin is free, although you will need to buy a paid subscription to the LiveChat service.
Another option is to automate live chat by using Chatbot.com, the best AI chatbot software for WordPress. You don’t need to do any coding or have any special technical skills to use it.
Finally, it’s important to turn your users into long-term and happy customers. Here are a few ways to optimize the WooCommerce customer journey for the loyalty stage.
11. Reward Loyal Customers
Creating a loyalty program can keep customers coming back to your online store and keep them away from your competitors. It can also be a great way to reward your best customers and make them feel valued.
You can give customers points for buying products and services, but also for creating an account, placing their first order, signing up for your email newsletter, and spending over a certain account.
It’s super easy to create a WooCommerce loyalty program using the Loyalty Program for WooCommerce plugin. It allows you to set up a loyalty program in just minutes and reward customers for buying products, leaving customer reviews, and more.
Adding gamification so that your customers are rewarded after they take certain actions on your website, like leaving a product review, posting a comment, or buying a product.
12. Automate Your Store and Focus on Your Customers
There’s a lot to keep track of when running an online store. Luckily, you can automate tasks to save time and money so you can focus on your customers while growing your business.
For example, you can use automation tools and plugins to send SMS messages to your customers, automate your payment processes, use social proof to increase conversions, automatically display your best product reviews, and much more.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Our formtastic team’s done it again! Forminator’s new Geolocation Add-on with Google Maps API integration lets you effortlessly gather geolocation data from your form submissions and provide address auto-completion for a smoother user experience.
After releasing the highly anticipated PDF Generator Add-on, we’re proud to announce another powerful addition to our form-building plugin…Geolocation add-on!
If your business needs to collect location information from users, Forminator Pro with Geolocation Add-on is the only form-building plugin you’ll need.
Key Benefits of Using Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on
With Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on enabled, you can enhance forms on your site in the following ways:
Accurate Location Detection
Forminator can precisely pinpoint the user’s location by harnessing the device’s GPS or IP address.
This information is seamlessly integrated into your forms, giving you real-time access to where your users are located.
Moreover, the Geolocation feature includes a convenient address lookup function, allowing users to search for and select their location using postal addresses, city names, or zip codes.
See the user’s location in your form submissions.
Interactive Map View
One of the standout aspects of the Geolocation feature is its map view. Not only can users see their location on a map but also interact with it.
Users have the option to manually input their location or select it directly from a map marker. This dynamic map view enhances user engagement and makes it easy for users to provide accurate location details.
Customization Options
Forminator’s Geolocation offers a range of customization options to suit your needs. You can configure the display of Google Maps next to your address field, choose whether to position the map above or below the address field, and even adjust the map’s size, ensuring a responsive or custom fit for various devices.
Additionally, you have the flexibility to set a default map location based on specific latitude and longitude coordinates.
You can easily customize your map’s geolocation options.
Seamless Integration
To utilize the Geolocation feature, simply enter your Google Maps API key in the Geolocation settings, ensuring a seamless and reliable experience for your users.
Global Settings
For ease of use across all your forms, you can enable Geolocation as a default setting on all address fields throughout your site. This simplifies the process of collecting location information from your users.
Enable Geolocation as a default setting on all new forms.
User-Friendly Configuration
If you require users to provide location access before submitting a form, the “Require access to users’ location” option can be enabled. Additionally, you can customize the error message displayed if users choose not to provide location access.
How To Use Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on
To install and use the Geolocation Add-on, you’ll need to have Forminator Pro installed and activated on your site.
Forminator Pro is included in all paid memberships, so if you’re not a WPMU DEV member yet, consider becoming one by choosing one of our risk-free membership plans.
With Forminator Pro installed, go to the Add-Ons section of the plugin’s menu and click Install.
Install Geolocation in the plugin’s Add-Ons screen.
Once the plugin has been installed, click Configure.
You’ll need to configure the Add-On before you can use it.
You’ll need to add a valid Google Maps API key to enable and set up geolocation on your forms. Refer to our Forminator Docs for instructions on obtaining this key if you need help with this step.
Enter your key into the Google Maps API field, switch the toggle on to enable geolocation as the default option for all your new forms (optional), and click the Save button to continue.
Enter your Google Maps API key.
Once the API key has been validated and the configuration has been successfully saved, a confirmation message will display briefly on your screen letting you know that you’re all good to go.
Note: You can access additional Geolocation configuration settings for individual forms (e.g. disabling geolocation or making it mandatory for users to provide their location details in order to submit a form) in the Forms > Edit Form > Settings section.
Configure additional Geolocation settings in the Form Settings section.
With the addon configured, let’s go through an example of adding Geolocation field to a form.
Adding Geolocation Fields To Forms
In the Forms section, select a form or create a new form and select Edit > Fields.
Click on the Insert fields button to add Geolocation to a form.
Select the Address field and click the Insert Fields button.
Add an address field to your form.
The Address field is highly customizable and includes a Geolocation tab with advanced options for configuring maps, such as:
Autocomplete: Provides real-time suggestions as users enter an address into the field.
Display address in Map: Displays a map next to the address fields
Map Position: Choose whether to display the map above or below (default) the address field.
Map Size: Set a responsive or custom size for your map.
Default Map Location: Set a default of custom location for your map.
Forminator Address field settings include advanced Geolocation options.
Configure the above settings to suit your needs and to facilitate user interaction with your form maps and a great user experience.
For example, enable autocomplete to display matching locations as users start typing and to fill in the address fields automatically when an address is selected from the options displayed.
Enable autocomplete for a smoother and more interactive user experience with form maps.
Once the browser loads the form page, it will prompt users to give access to their location. Allowing this access will then show the user’s current location on the map and auto complete the address fields.
Enabling autocomplete also prefills all address details on the form.
By simply clicking on different points on the map, users can also change their location and update address fields.
Clicking on different points on the map changes the address on the form fields.
All form information including the user’s geolocation details and a map will also display on Forminator’s submission page.
An example of a Forminator form submission showing a map with the user’s location and coordinates.
It’s All About Geolocation, Geolocation, Geolocation
Forminator’s new Geolocation feature empowers you to collect and leverage location information from your form users, gain valuable insights into your audience, whether they are customers, employees, or suppliers, and make more informed business decisions.
Check out this feature in Forminator Pro and if you need any help, see our documentation or contact our expert 24/7 support team.
Our formtastic team’s done it again! Forminator’s new Geolocation Add-on with Google Maps API integration lets you effortlessly gather geolocation data from your form submissions and provide address auto-completion for a smoother user experience.
See where form users are located with Forminator’s new geolocation feature.
After releasing the highly anticipated PDF Generator Add-on, we’re proud to announce another powerful addition to our form-building plugin…Geolocation add-on!
If your business needs to collect location information from users, Forminator Pro with Geolocation Add-on is the only form-building plugin you’ll need.
Key Benefits of Using Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on
With Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on enabled, you can enhance forms on your site in the following ways:
Accurate Location Detection
Forminator can precisely pinpoint the user’s location by harnessing the device’s GPS or IP address.
This information is seamlessly integrated into your forms, giving you real-time access to where your users are located.
Moreover, the Geolocation feature includes a convenient address lookup function, allowing users to search for and select their location using postal addresses, city names, or zip codes.
See the user’s location in your form submissions.
Interactive Map View
One of the standout aspects of the Geolocation feature is its map view. Not only can users see their location on a map but also interact with it.
Users have the option to manually input their location or select it directly from a map marker. This dynamic map view enhances user engagement and makes it easy for users to provide accurate location details.
Customization Options
Forminator’s Geolocation offers a range of customization options to suit your needs. You can configure the display of Google Maps next to your address field, choose whether to position the map above or below the address field, and even adjust the map’s size, ensuring a responsive or custom fit for various devices.
Additionally, you have the flexibility to set a default map location based on specific latitude and longitude coordinates.
You can easily customize your map’s geolocation options.
Seamless Integration
To utilize the Geolocation feature, simply enter your Google Maps API key in the Geolocation settings, ensuring a seamless and reliable experience for your users.
Global Settings
For ease of use across all your forms, you can enable Geolocation as a default setting on all address fields throughout your site. This simplifies the process of collecting location information from your users.
Enable Geolocation as a default setting on all new forms.
User-Friendly Configuration
If you require users to provide location access before submitting a form, the “Require access to users’ location” option can be enabled. Additionally, you can customize the error message displayed if users choose not to provide location access.
How To Use Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on
To install and use the Geolocation Add-on, you’ll need to have Forminator Pro installed and activated on your site.
Forminator Pro is included in all paid memberships, so if you’re not a WPMU DEV member yet, consider becoming one by choosing one of our risk-free membership plans.
With Forminator Pro installed, go to the Add-Ons section of the plugin’s menu and click Install.
Install Geolocation in the plugin’s Add-Ons screen.
Once the plugin has been installed, click Configure.
You’ll need to configure the Add-On before you can use it.
You’ll need to add a valid Google Maps API key to enable and set up geolocation on your forms. Refer to our Forminator Docs for instructions on obtaining this key if you need help with this step.
Enter your key into the Google Maps API field, switch the toggle on to enable geolocation as the default option for all your new forms (optional), and click the Save button to continue.
Enter your Google Maps API key.
Once the API key has been validated and the configuration has been successfully saved, a confirmation message will display briefly on your screen letting you know that you’re all good to go.
Note: You can access additional Geolocation configuration settings for individual forms (e.g. disabling geolocation or making it mandatory for users to provide their location details in order to submit a form) in the Forms > Edit Form > Settings section.
Configure additional Geolocation settings in the Form Settings section.
With the addon configured, let’s go through an example of adding Geolocation field to a form.
Adding Geolocation Fields To Forms
In the Forms section, select a form or create a new form and select Edit > Fields.
Click on the Insert fields button to add Geolocation to a form.
Select the Address field and click the Insert Fields button.
Add an address field to your form.
The Address field is highly customizable and includes a Geolocation tab with advanced options for configuring maps, such as:
Autocomplete: Provides real-time suggestions as users enter an address into the field.
Display address in Map: Displays a map next to the address fields
Map Position: Choose whether to display the map above or below (default) the address field.
Map Size: Set a responsive or custom size for your map.
Default Map Location: Set a default of custom location for your map.
Forminator Address field settings include advanced Geolocation options.
Configure the above settings to suit your needs and to facilitate user interaction with your form maps and a great user experience.
For example, enable autocomplete to display matching locations as users start typing and to fill in the address fields automatically when an address is selected from the options displayed.
Enable autocomplete for a smoother and more interactive user experience with form maps.
Once the browser loads the form page, it will prompt users to give access to their location. Allowing this access will then show the user’s current location on the map and auto complete the address fields.
Enabling autocomplete also prefills all address details on the form.
By simply clicking on different points on the map, users can also change their location and update address fields.
Clicking on different points on the map changes the address on the form fields.
All form information including the user’s geolocation details and a map will also display on Forminator’s submission page.
An example of a Forminator form submission showing a map with the user’s location and coordinates.
It’s All About Geolocation, Geolocation, Geolocation
Forminator’s new Geolocation feature empowers you to collect and leverage location information from your form users, gain valuable insights into your audience, whether they are customers, employees, or suppliers, and make more informed business decisions.
Check out this feature in Forminator Pro and if you need any help, see our documentation or contact our expert 24/7 support team.
Are you wondering how to configure your WordPress email settings?
The default WordPress email settings are not always reliable and can lead to many sending errors and email delivery problems. This means that you and your customers may not receive emails sent from your WordPress website.
In this article, we will show you how to properly configure your WordPress email settings.
Why Do WordPress Email Settings Not Work Properly?
The default email settings on your WordPress website use the PHP mail () function to send emails about form submissions, account activation, and more.
However, your website may experience email delivery problems if your hosting provider’s mail server is not properly configured. Plus, many popular email services like Gmail can flag these messages as spam.
This means that when an email is sent from your website to your user, it may end up in the spam folder of their email account, or it may never reach their inbox at all.
Luckily, you can get past this problem by properly configuring your WordPress email settings. To do this, you will need to use an SMTP service or plugin.
What Is SMTP, And How Can It Fix Email Settings in WordPress?
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a standard protocol for mail transmission. Unlike the PHP mail () function, SMTP uses proper authentication to send and receive email messages.
By using an SMTP service on your website, you can get high deliverability rates, avoid the spam folder, and make sure that your emails reach the user’s inbox immediately.
To properly configure your WordPress email settings, you will need to use a popular SMTP service provider like SendLayer, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), or SMTP.com. These service providers are easy to use and allow you to safely send emails from your WordPress site.
Once you have chosen a service provider, you will have to connect your WordPress website to your mail server.
It is the best WordPress SMTP plugin on the market that allows you to send emails via SMTP. It comes with powerful features like email logs, email controls, priority support, and more.
The premium version of the plugin can even integrate with popular SMTP service providers like SendLayer and Brevo and any WordPress hosting company that offers email accounts.
Having said that, let’s see how to properly configure your WordPress email settings.
How to Properly Configure Your WordPress Email Settings
It is super easy to configure your WordPress email settings using the WP Mail SMTP plugin and an SMTP service provider.
First, you need to visit the SendLayer website and click the ‘Get Started With SendLayer’ button.
This will take you to the Pricing page, where you can select a plan that suits your needs.
However, if you don’t want to buy SendLayer yet, then you can click on the ‘Try our SendLayer free trial (send up to 200 emails)’ link at the bottom.
This will take you to the ‘Checkout’ page, where you will have to provide your email account, password, and payment details.
Once your account sign-up has been created, just click the ‘Continue to Dashboard’ button.
Step 2: Add Your Domain For Authorization
Next, you will need to authorize your domain name to allow email servers to recognize you as a verified sender.
This means that the email sent from your account after authorization won’t end up in the spam folder of your users.
To do this, click the ‘Add Domain’ button in the top right corner of the screen.
This will open up a new page on your screen where you need to type your website domain name into the field.
Once you’ve done that, just click the ‘Add Domain’ button.
SendLayer will now automatically generate five types of DNS records for your domain.
Now, you have to copy and paste these records into your website’s DNS settings one by one.
To find these DNS settings, you must go to the WordPress hosting account dashboard for your website. The exact location of the DNS settings will depend on your hosting provider, but SendLayer provides some documentation to help you out.
Upon adding all of the DNS records in your hosting dashboard, simply check the ‘I have added these DNS records and am ready to proceed’ box at the bottom of the SendLayer page.
After that, click the ‘Verify DNS Records’ button to continue.
Keep in mind that it can take up to 48 hours for the DNS record changes to take effect.
To check your domain authorization status, head over to your SendLayer dashboard and click the ‘Settings’ tab in the left column.
Once you are on the Settings page, switch to the ‘DNS Records & Settings’ tab from the top.
If your DNS settings have been verified, you will now see a green symbol in the Status column for each type of DNS record.
Step 3: Copy the SendLayer API Key
Now that you have authorized your domain name, it’s time for you to copy the API key for your SendLayer account. This API key will allow you to connect the SMTP service with your WordPress website.
To do this, click on the ‘Settings’ tab in the left column of your SendLayer dashboard. Next, switch to the ‘API Keys’ tab from the top of the page.
Once you are there, click the ‘Show API Key’ link and then copy the key into your clipboard.
Step 4: Set Up the WP Mail SMTP Plugin on Your WordPress Website
Once you have created a SendLayer account and copied the API key, head over to your WordPress website’s dashboard.
Upon activation, you need to head over to the WP Mail SMTP » Settings page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once you are there, add the license key for your plugin next to the ‘License Key’ option. You can find this information on your account page on the WP Mail SMTP website.
After that, scroll down to the ‘From Email’ section and add the admin email that you want to use to send emails to your users.
If you want the From Email to be the same across your entire site, then simply check the ‘Force From Email’ box.
After that, type the name that you want to use to send emails next to the ‘From Name’ field.
For example, if you have an online store, then you can use your store’s name in this field. This way, users will immediately know who is sending them a message.
After that, scroll down to the ‘Mailer’ section and choose the SMTP service that you want to connect with your WordPress site.
For this tutorial, we will be choosing the ‘SendLayer’ option.
Once you do that, a new ‘SendLayer’ tab will open up on the screen.
Here, you have to paste the API key that you copied earlier from the SendLayer dashboard. If you were unable to copy the key before, then you can just click the ‘Get API Key’ link to be directed back to your SendLayer account.
Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save Settings’ button to store your changes.
You have now successfully connected WP Mail SMTP with SendLayer.
Step 5: Send a Test Email
To check if your SMTP service provider and the plugin are working properly, you can easily send a test email.
To do this, switch to the ‘Email Test’ tab from the top of the WP Mail SMTP settings page.
Once you are there, simply add an email account that you have access to in the ‘Send To’ field. After that, go ahead and click the ‘Send Email’ button.
Once the email has been sent, you will see a success message on your screen.
Next, check the inbox for that email address where you will see the test email that you just sent.
WP Mail SMTP and SendLayer will now eliminate your email deliverability problems by making sure that your emails are sent to your users’ inboxes and don’t end up in the spam folder.
Next Steps: How to Grow Your Email List
Now that you have properly configured your WordPress email settings, it’s time for you to start growing your email list.
This way, users that are interested will have to sign up on your website to enter the giveaway which will help build your email list. For details, you may want to see our tutorial on how to run a successful giveaway/contest in WordPress.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The WordPress white screen of death is one of the most common WordPress errors. It is also a frustrating error because there is no message, and you are locked out of WordPress.
Another problem with the white screen of death error is that sometimes, it only affects a certain part of your website. For example, you may only see the white screen of death inside the WordPress admin area, while everything else works fine. In other cases, you might only see it on a specific post.
In this article, we will show you how to fix the WordPress white screen of death by looking at different solutions.
Why Do You See the White Screen of Death in WordPress?
The majority of the time, when you see a white screen of death when trying to visit your WordPress website, it means that a script on your website exhausted the memory limit.
The unresponsive script either gets killed by your WordPress hosting server or simply times out. This is why no actual error message is generated, and you just see a plain white screen.
However, sometimes, you may see an error message.
For example, you might see a critical error message instead of a plain white screen.
Whether you are seeing a blank screen or the message ‘There has been a critical error on your website’, it’s the same error.
This error can also happen due to a poorly coded theme or plugin installed on your site. Sometimes, it can happen if there is an issue with your web hosting server.
Since the white screen error can be caused by any number of things, it requires methodical troubleshooting to fix it. Here are the steps you should try:
If you’d prefer written instructions, then just keep reading.
1. Check Whether the Problem Happens on Your Other Sites
If you have other WordPress sites installed on the same hosting account, then you want to start by checking if the problem is happening on other sites as well.
If it is, then that’s a strong indicator that something is wrong with your WordPress hosting service. This could be a temporary issue affecting their service, and you need to reach out to their support for more help.
On the other hand, if the issue is only happening with one website or a specific part of that site, then you know that the problem is with that particular website.
2. Fix the White Screen Error With WordPress Recovery Mode
If the white screen of death error is caused by a WordPress plugin or theme, then WordPress may be able to catch it.
The new fatal error protection feature introduced in WordPress 5.2 can sometimes catch the error, so you may not even see a white screen. Instead, you will see a message that the site is having technical difficulties.
WordPress will also send an email about the problem to your admin email address.
The email will have the subject ‘Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue’.
This email message will point out the plugin or theme causing the error, and it will also contain a special link.
This link will allow you to log in to the WordPress recovery mode and deactivate the faulty plugin.
However, if you are seeing the plain white screen of death with no email or recovery mode option, then you need to manually fix the error.
3. Increase the Memory Limit
Usually, this error happens because a script has exhausted your web server’s memory and quit in the middle.
To fix this, you need to increase the PHP memory available to WordPress. This will allow the script to use more memory to finish the job it was supposed to do.
You will need to edit the wp-config.php file on your WordPress site or use a code snippet plugin like WPCode.
4. Fix the White Screen Error by Disabling All Plugins
If increasing the memory limit did not help, or if you have a high memory limit, like 256M or 512M, then you need to start troubleshooting.
In our experience of troubleshooting this issue, we have always found that the issue is either with a specific plugin or a theme. Let’s go ahead and disable all the plugins.
If you can still access the WordPress admin area, then you can simply go to the Plugins » Installed Plugins page. Select all the installed plugins and then select ‘Deactivate’ under the ‘Bulk actions’ dropdown.
However, if you don’t have access to the WordPress admin area, then you will need to deactivate all plugins via FTP.
First, connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client. Once connected, go to the wp-content folder, where you will see the plugins folder.
Now, you need to right-click on the plugins folder and then select ‘Rename’. You can rename the plugins folder to ‘plugins-deactivated’.
WordPress looks for a folder named plugins to load all plugins. When it cannot find the folder, it simply deactivates all plugins.
If this fixes the issue, then enable one plugin at a time to get to the bottom of the issue. Once you find the plugin causing the issue, you can replace it with an alternative or report the issue to plugin authors.
5. Activate the Default Theme
If the plugin troubleshooting doesn’t fix the issue, then you should try replacing your current theme with a default theme.
First, connect to your website using an FTP client and go to the /wp-content/themes/ folder. It contains all installed themes on your website.
Right-click to select your current WordPress theme and download it to your computer as a backup.
Next, you need to delete your current theme from your website.
Simply right-click on your theme folder and select ‘Delete’. Your FTP client will now delete the theme from your website.
Now, if you have a default WordPress theme like (Twenty Twenty-Two or Twenty Twenty-Three) installed on your website, then WordPress will automatically start using it as the default theme.
If this fixes the issue, then you should look at your theme’s functions.php file. If there are extra spaces at the bottom of the file, then you need to remove those, and sometimes that fixes the issue.
If you are using a poorly coded function in your theme’s functions.php file, then it can cause the white screen of death error as well.
Consider downloading a fresh copy of your theme from its source and then installing it manually using FTP.
6. Enable Debug Mode to Catch Errors in WordPress
If nothing has helped so far, then the next step is to turn on debugging in WordPress. This will allow you to see what type of errors are being outputted.
Once you add this, the blank screen will now have errors, warnings, and notices. These may be able to help you determine the root cause.
If you don’t see any errors, then you may still want to check the debug log.
Simply visit the wp-content folder on your website using an FTP client. There, you will find a new debug.log file containing a log of all errors, notices, and warnings.
7. Clear the WordPress Cache
Sometimes, you may have access to the backend, but the front end of the site has the white screen of death.
This can happen because of a caching plugin. In that case, you simply need to empty your WordPress cache.
If you have a white screen of death only on a very long post or page, then this method might work.
This trick basically increases PHP’s text processing capability by increasing the recursion and backtrack limit. You can paste the following code into your wp-config.php file:
/** Trick for long posts */
ini_set('pcre.recursion_limit',20000000);
ini_set('pcre.backtrack_limit',10000000);
We understand that this is a very frustrating error, and we hope that one of the tricks above has fixed the issue for you.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want your visitors to easily calculate the cost of shipping on your website?
Using a shipping calculator, customers can accurately estimate the total cost of a product they’ll have to pay with delivery. It helps keep your business transparent and builds trust with potential customers.
In this article, we will show you how to add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site.
What is a Shipping Calculator & Why Use It?
A shipping calculator helps estimate the total cost of shipping automatically. It shows delivery charges and other relevant fees to customers, so they don’t have to manually figure out shipping rates and expenses.
There are different factors that come into play when calculating shipping costs. Some of these include the price of the product, destination, origin of a shipment, weight, dimensions, type of shipping service, and other variables during the calculation.
Manually calculating shipping costs can be time-consuming if there are multiple orders on your online store. Plus, the manual calculation would also lead to mistakes, which can impact customer satisfaction.
You’ll save a lot of time and simply automate the process by using a shipping calculator plugin for your WordPress site or WooCommerce site.
Customers can simply select their location and see what the product will actually cost after delivery. This helps strengthen your relationship with your customers and builds trust.
That said, let’s see how you can easily add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site. We’ll also show a way of adding it to your WooCommerce store.
You can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:
The best way to add a shipping calculator in WooCommerce is by using the Product page shipping calculator for WooCommerce plugin. It is a free plugin that allows customers to calculate the cost of shipping before adding a product to the cart.
First, you’ll need to download and install the Product page shipping calculator for the WooCommerce plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can go to WooCommerce » Shipping Calculator to configure the plugin.
The plugin works out of the box, and you can use default settings to get started. However, there are options to edit them and customize your shipping calculator.
It’s important to note that the plugin will use the information from the shipping zone settings in WooCommerce when calculating shipping fees.
Setting Up Shipping Zones in WooCommerce
If you haven’t set up shipping zones, then you will need to go to WooCommerce » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and switch to the ‘Shipping’ tab.
Under the Shipping zones section, simply click the ‘Add shipping zone’ button.
Next, you’ll need to enter a zone name and select regions from the dropdown menu. You can add multiple countries or cities under a single zone.
After that, you can click the ‘Add shipping method’ button.
A popup window will now open.
WooCommerce offers 3 shipping methods to choose from. You can select a ‘Flat rate’ and then enter an amount that will be charged for shipping. Or you can choose ‘Free shipping’ and ‘Local pickup’ options.
When you’re done, simply click the ‘Add shipping method’ button.
You can add multiple shipping methods for the zone and set up conditions when they’ll apply.
Next, you’ll need to click the ‘Edit’ option under your shipping methods.
After that, a small window will open where you can change the title of the method, select whether you’d like the shipping method to be taxable or not, and enter a cost.
For costs, you can enter a flat rate that will be charged when a customer adds a product to a cart. There is also an option to multiply the shipping cost by the quantity.
Once you’re done, click the ‘Save changes’ button.
You can now head back to the shipping zone section to view your zones, regions, and shipping methods.
Edit Shipping Calculator Settings
After setting up shipping zones, you can head back to WooCommerce » Shipping Calculator to change the settings of the Product page shipping calculator for the WooCommerce plugin.
In the Basic setting tab, you can edit the position of the calculator on the product page and the position of the calculator results.
If you scroll down, you’ll see more settings. For instance, the plugin lets you edit the messages used in the plugin, auto-load the shipping method, and more.
When you’re done, simply click the ‘Save Changes’ button on the side or at the bottom of the page.
Next, you can switch to the ‘Remove fields’ tab. Here, you’ll see options to remove any field from the shipping calculator.
For instance, the plugin will show country, state, town/city, and postcode/zip fields by default. You can disable any of the fields that don’t match your shipping zones.
After that, head to the ‘Design’ tab. The plugin gives you multiple options to edit the appearance of the shipping calculator.
For example, you can change the background color and text color to show shipping methods. Or you can choose colors for the buttons that appear in the calculator.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Change’ button to store your settings.
Next, you can visit your WooCommerce store to see the shipping calculator in action.
In the screenshot below, customers will first need to select a delivery location and click the ‘Update Address’ button.
Once that’s done, the plugin will automatically calculate the shipping cost that you set up in the shipping zone section and will add it to the total cost.
This way, customers will know the shipping charges they’ll have to pay in addition to the cost of the product.
Adding a Shipping Calculator to WordPress Site
If you don’t have a WooCommerce store and want to add a generic shipping calculator to your WordPress site, then you can use Formidable Forms.
It is a popular contact form plugin for WordPress that lets you create advanced and complex forms. For instance, you can add a contact form, calculators, surveys, directories, and web applications using the plugin.
For this tutorial, we will use the Formidable Forms Pro plan because it includes pricing fields and more customization options.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the Formidable Forms Lite and Formidable Forms Pro plugins. The Lite plugin is free to use, and the premium plugin adds more advanced features to it.
Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Formidable » Global Settings from the WordPress dashboard. From here, you can click the ‘Click to enter a license key manually’ link.
Next, you’ll need to enter the license key and click the ‘Save License’ button.
You can find the license key in your Formidable Forms account area.
After that, you must go to Formidable » Forms to add a new form.
Simply click the ‘+ Add New’ button at the top.
Next, Formidable Forms will show different templates to choose from. You can choose from multiple categories, like business operations, calculator, conversational forms, and more.
Formidable Forms doesn’t offer a pre-built template for a shipping calculator. However, you can create one using a blank form template.
Go ahead and select the ‘Blank Form’ template.
On the next screen, you’ll need to enter a name for your form.
There is also an option to insert the template into an application. However, you can leave this to the default setting for this tutorial.
After entering the form name, click the ‘Create’ button.
Next, you’ll see the drag-and-drop form builder.
You can simply drag any form field from the menu on the left and drop it on the template.
For instance, you can add form fields like name, email, phone number, and more to the template.
To create a shipping calculator, you can scroll down to the Pricing Fields section on the left and add a ‘Product’ form field.
Next, you can select the product form field and further customize it.
For instance, we changed the label of the field and product type. Formidable Forms also lets you show products as checkboxes, dropdowns, radio buttons, single products, or user-defined.
Besides that, you can add your products and their prices under the Product Options on the menu on the left.
Now that you’ve added your products, the next step is to add your shipping regions and charges. To do that, you can again add a Product form field under the Pricing Fields section in the menu on the left.
After that, you’ll need to edit its label and product type, and then enter each region individually and its shipping cost.
In the screenshot above, we changed the label to Shipping Regions and changed the Product Types to Checkboxes. From here, we added different shipping zones and their cost under the Product Options section.
Once this is done, you’ll need to show a total for your shipping calculator. To do that, simply add the Total form field under the Pricing Fields section to the template.
Next, you can select the Total form field and edit its label, add a description, and more.
Formidable Forms also lets you add conditional logic to the form fields and show them based on user responses.
After that, you can switch to the ‘Style’ tab from the top.
Formidable Forms offers pre-built styles for your form. Simply select one or create a new style. For this tutorial, we will use the default Formidable Style.
Next, you can also change form settings in Formidable Forms.
Simply switch to the ‘Settings’ tab at the top. Here, you’ll find general settings for changing the form title, adding a description, and more.
There are also options for actions and notifications, form permissions, and scheduling your shipping calculator form.
After you’ve configured the settings, save your changes. You’re now ready to embed your calculator anywhere on your site.
To start, you can click the ‘Embed’ button in the form builder at the top. This will give you multiple options, like add the form to an existing page, create a new page, or insert manually.
For the sake of this tutorial, we will choose the ‘Create new page’ option.
Next, you can enter a name for your new page and click the ‘Create page’ button.
From here, you’ll see a preview of the shipping calculator form in the WordPress content editor.
Go ahead and publish your page and visit your site to see the shipping calculator in action.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you manage a WordPress site for researchers, scholars, or educators? Use these plugins to easily add footnotes, citations, a table of contents, or a glossary to academic or research content.
WordPress offers many plugins that make it easier for sites publishing academic content, scientific research, technology papers, or even instructional courses online to adhere to scholarly standards.
In this guide, we’ll cover useful plugins that will help you establish authority, enhance credibility, provide additional context and information, improve user experience, and aid in knowledge dissemination.
Note: scholarly or technical content also often requires presenting data visually. See our WordPress data visualization plugins article for help with this.
Let’s get right into it…
Adding Footnotes in WordPress
In addition to being an academic writing requirement, footnotes can be used for:
Clarification: Provide additional explanations, definitions, or background information on specific terms, concepts, or data mentioned on your website.
Source Attribution: Cite sources and give credit to external references, studies, or research to support the content you are presenting online.
Legal Compliance: Certain industries or topics may require you to provide proper attribution and references to comply with legal and ethical guidelines.
For example, if you work in or run a technology company, you may want include footnotes in articles about your products to reference scientific studies or industry reports that support your product’s claims and features. Or, you may want to publish an excerpt of a book, ebook, or research that includes footnotes and reproduce these footnotes on your excerpt.
WordPress Footnotes Plugins
One of the most time-consuming aspects of academic writing is manually creating footnotes. Fortunately, WordPress offers plugins that automate this process, allowing you to focus more on your research and writing.
The plugins below provide simple and intuitive interfaces for adding footnotes, and they will automatically format and number them correctly on your site:
CM Footnotes
CM Footnotes
With the CM Footnotes plugin installed, you can effortlessly add footnotes to any page or post on your WordPress site.
An example of a page with footnotes generated by the CM Footnotes plugin.
The plugin has a user-friendly interface that allows you to add footnotes with just a few clicks. You can also customize the styles and designs of the footnotes and use a shortcode to place footnotes anywhere in your content, with unique link symbols for each definition.
CM Footnotes – General Settings tab.
Additionally, you can enable autoscrolling from the footnote link to the definition at the bottom of the page.
Modern Footnotes
Modern Footnotes
Modern Footnotes is another plugin that lets you easily insert footnotes into your posts. The plugin offers two methods of displaying footnotes: tooltips and expandable footnotes.
On desktop, footnotes will appear as a tooltip when the user clicks on the number, while on mobile, footnotes will expand as a section below the current text.
With Modern Footnotes, you can display footnotes differently for desktop and mobile users.
You can also customize the styles of your footnotes by overriding the default footnotes styles in the custom CSS of your site.
Modern Footnotes Settings screen.
This plugin makes adding footnotes to your content straightforward and is compatible with Gutenberg/block editor as well. You can easily insert footnotes using a simple shortcode or the Gutenberg block. Sequential numbers are automatically associated with each footnote.
Easy Footnotes
Easy Footnotes
The Easy Footnotes plugin lets you add footnotes into your website’s content without requiring any coding skills.
Clicking on the footnote label will take the user down the page to the corresponding footnote at the bottom of the WordPress post. Each footnote at the bottom of the post has a icon that can be clicked to return to that particular footnote within the post copy.
Add footnotes with tooltips.
The plugin has very minimal settings and is quite easy for any beginner to use.
Easy Footnotes settings panel.
You can set a custom footnote label and can even display footnotes on the front/home page of your site. Footnotes are inserted using a shortcode.
Blank Footnotes
Blank Footnotes
Blank Footnotes lets you create footnotes using markdown notation.
It’s important to note that only footnotes are recognized with this plugin, and no other markdown tags will be taken into account.
To add footnotes, simply add a shortcode to your content and customize the styles and designs to fit your preferences.
The footnotes will appear in the exact location where you’ve inserted them, and users can easily navigate back to the text mode by clicking on the footnote number.
Enter reference numbers in the popup to create footnotes.
This plugin is compatible with the Gutenberg editor as well as the Classic Editor and doesn’t require any additional configuration, but it’s recommended to use a caching plugin (e.g. Hummingbird) to improve the overall site speed and performance.
Footnotes Made Easy
Footnotes Made Easy
With Footnotes Made Easy, you can add footnotes to posts and pages and restrict displaying footnotes on specific page types.
The plugin is very user-friendly and a footnote can be added just by inserting double parentheses within a sentence. The inserted footnotes are displayed at the bottom of the page or post.
Add footnotes and tooltips easily to content with Footnotes Made Easy.
Footnotes can also be displayed in the form of tooltips using jQuery. The plugin has many configurations that make it easy to customize the footnotes according to your needs from the WordPress admin panel.
Footnotes Made Easy settings panel.
Generally, inserting footnotes in paginated posts is quite hard. But this plugin makes it easy. But this plugin makes it easy. You can start the footnotes numbering at any number using a tag. And referencing an already-added footnote is quite simple as well.
You can also combine several identical footnotes into one single note.
Adding Citations in WordPress
Citations are used by content publishers to give credit to the original sources of information, ideas, or content included in their work. Whether you’re quoting directly, paraphrasing, or summarizing, giving proper credit through citations is a fundamental aspect of responsible content creation.
Citations can serve multiple purposes. For example:
Academic and Professional Standards: In academic and many professional settings, proper citation is required. It showcases the writer’s ability to engage with and contribute to the existing body of knowledge.
Credibility: Citations add credibility by showing that the writer has conducted research to present content based on reliable and reputable sources of information.
Ethical Use: Properly citing sources is an ethical practice that shows respect for the intellectual property of others. It shows readers that your site values and honors the work of other researchers, writers, and creators.
Transparency: Citations allow your readers to verify the accuracy and authenticity of your information and delve deeper into subjects they are interested in.
Avoiding Plagiarism: Plagiarism, which is using someone else’s work without proper attribution, can have serious consequences. Citations help to avoid accidentally using someone else’s work without permission.
Citations can also be used in a variety of business applications. For example, a financial consulting firm may write a blog post on their website about investment strategies and include citations from well-known economists, financial institutions, or academic research to support their recommendations.
Citations typically include information such as the author’s name, the title of the work, the publication date, and relevant publication details like the name of the book, journal, or website.
Also, the format of the citation can vary depending on the style being used (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago), so it’s important to be consistent and follow the guidelines of the chosen style.
WordPress Citations Plugins
Maintaining accurate and consistent citations is essential for academic writing. However, manually managing citations can be a tedious and error-prone task.
The WordPress plugins listed below offer solutions that simplify the process of adding and managing citations, allowing you to import bibliographic information from various sources, automatically format citations according to different citation styles (such as APA or MLA), and even generate bibliographies or reference lists with just a few clicks:
Zotpress
Zotpress
Zotpress lets you add in-text citations and display bibliographies and searchable libraries from Zotero, a free cross-platform reference manager that lets you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research with others online.
Zotpress lets you display items from Zotero libraries on your WordPress site.
Zotpress offers different styling options and you can select the style of your choosing. The plugin also provides a widget you can insert in any page or post type. Thumbnail images from the media library and open library are also supported.
Citations can be easily inserted into content by simply pasting the shortcode generated. The plugin lets you search for items using the autocomplete search bar. Visitors can browse your citation library by collection or tag and download citations from your pages/posts.
You can also customize citations and other items using custom CSS in the plugin’s Options screen.
Zotpress Options screen
WP-BibTeX
WP-BibTeX
With WP-BibTeX, you can easily generate a bibliography-style text for your publications by inputting all the relevant details through a shortcode.
WP-BibTeX output preview.
Additionally, you also have the option to customize the links displayed on the page for every citation, including the ability to add a new link for downloading code.
Using the new “highlighted” format, the plugin lets you create an item with a featured image on the left. And by adding the overlay attribute to the shortcode you can create overlaid media like a GIF or video that appears when the mouse hovers over the item.
Bibtex Opyions screen
The plugin supports BibTeX entry types such as articles, books, inproceedings, mastersthesis, phdthesis, and unpublished.
Adding A Glossary in WordPress
A glossary can be valuable for sites publishing content with technical or industry-specific terminology. A glossary can help to define, clarify, and explain specialized terms or jargon used within the business’s industry and improve user experience by providing definitions within the site’s content itself, so users won’t need to leave the page or site to conduct separate searches.
An example of a site that could benefit from using a glossary would be a healthcare website focused on medical conditions. Including a glossary section to explain medical terms, symptoms, and treatment options would help site users to better understand complex medical information.
WordPress Glossary Plugins
Here are some useful plugins for adding and managing a glossary in WordPress:
Glossary
Glossary
Glossary for WordPress automatically generates word lists and styled tooltips using the content provided. The generated terms and definitions are grouped in a glossary or dictionary section and are linked automatically to corresponding words within posts and pages.
Glossary automatically links every instance of a term (or set of terms) to a predefined list of definitions.
The plugin is compatible with both the classic WordPress editor and the Gutenberg editor. The free version of the plugin offers a range of features, including automatic linking of every instance of a term to a predefined list of definitions.
You can group terms by category and create vertical archives of terms through shortcodes.
The plugin also allows you to activate its features in specific pages, archives, taxonomies, and custom post types, among other options.
You can apply a highlight or a tooltip on hover to linked terms, style tooltips by choosing from three templates, and link terms to internal or external locations.
Other features include the ability to add a dedicated icon to highlight external links and integration with Gutenberg blocks and ChatGPT.
CM Tooltip Glossary
CM Tooltip Glossary
CM Tooltip Glossary automatically identifies glossary terms in your posts or pages and then adds links to a dedicated glossary page, which contains the respective term’s definition.
Hovering over the linked glossary term will display a tooltip containing the definition of the term.
Hover over linked terms to view glossary definitions as a tooltip.
You can filter and limit the length of words displayed on the tooltip. Instead of displaying the glossary definition, excerpts can also be displayed on the tooltip.
The plugin also generates a glossary index that contains a list of all of the terms used across your website along with their definitions for easy access. You can even control the location and area where the tooltip appears, as well as limit its length and appearance.
In the free version, the glossary index is limited to a maximum of 500 terms.
Encyclopedia Lite
Encyclopedia Lite
Encyclopedia Lite allows you to create and manage a knowledge base, dictionary, glossary, or wiki. It offers a range of features, including automatic indexing, unique URLs for every content, SEO-friendly URL structure, and the ability to classify items by tags and categories.
You can also filter items by letter and cross-link them throughout your site.
Encyclopedia Lite is more than glossary. It’s also a Wiki, Knowledgebase, and more!
The plugin is compatible with various languages and content types, supports user rights and capabilities, has a clean and intuitive user interface and supports multimedia elements and shortcodes, and integrates with WordPress menus and RSS feeds.
Additionally, it offers a search function, auto-complete and item suggestions, and widgets for displaying items, tags, and categories in your sidebar.
WordPress Tooltips
WordPress Tooltips
WordPress Tooltips is a powerful and easy-to-use jQuery tooltip solution that allows you to add text, images, videos, audio, and social links to tooltip boxes.
You can add tooltips to post titles, content, excerpts, tags, archive, menu items, and gallery images.
WordPress Tooltips detects and adds tooltip effects on tooltip terms automatically.
The plugin supports a glossary too. A glossary can be inserted with a simple shortcode and it has a dedicated glossary settings panel where you can configure various styles for your glossary.
You can manage all the tooltip keywords and content from the WordPress admin panel.
You do not need a tooltip shortcode as the plugin will detect and add tooltip effects on tooltip terms automatically. The plugin is also compatible with most of the gallery and slideshow plugins as well.
Adding a Table of Contents in WordPress
Long academic articles can sometimes overwhelm readers, making it difficult for them to find the information they need.
A table of contents (ToC) provides a concise overview of your content’s structure and allows readers to jump to the sections that most interest them. By incorporating a table of contents in lengthy articles, guides, comprehensive user manuals, or technical documentation, you enable readers to navigate through your content more easily and improve readability, comprehension, understanding, and engagement.
WordPress Table of Contents (ToC) Plugins
The WordPress plugins below will automatically scan your content and generate an organized table of contents based on your headings and add anchor links that allow readers to jump directly to specific sections, eliminating the need for manual updates and enabling your readers to navigate through your content more easily:
Joli Table Of Contents
Joli Table Of Contents
Joli ToC is a performance-friendly, user-friendly plugin that runs incredibly fast without relying on jQuery or bloated code. The ToC can be inserted using a block in the Gutenberg editor.
It has plenty of customization options. You can hide or edit specific headings from the ToC. The plugin by default picks up headings generated by third-party shortcodes and blocks, this includes the headings that don’t appear in the editor but are available in the front end.
Joli Table Of Contents
The plugin offers two variants of toggle: a classic Text toggle and a modern Icon toggle to give your website a modern look.
It also includes pre-defined CSS variables that can be used to override the plugin’s default styles to create unique styles.
Easy Table of Contents
Easy Table of Contents
Easy ToC automatically creates a table of contents for your posts, pages, and custom post types by scanning the page/post content for headings.
It works with the Classic Editor and Gutenberg editor and is compatible with other popular page builders like Divi, Elementor, WPBakery Page Builder, and Visual Composer.
Easy Table of Contents
You need to select the post types in which the table of contents should appear and the plugin will automatically insert the table of contents into the page.
The plugin offers a variety of customization and multiple built-in ToC themes that you can choose. You can customize the appearance of the ToC either using the built-in themes and can create your own from scratch.
You can also choose between several bullet formats, and hierarchies, and can even selectively enable or disable ToC on a post-by-post basis.
If you prefer not to insert the table of contents in the post content, you can use the widget and place the table of contents in the sidebar of a page. The widget highlights the sections currently visible on the page.
Table of Contents Plus
Table of Contents Plus
Table of Contents Plus automatically creates a table of contents for long pages, posts, and custom post types.
It not only inserts a ToC but also generates a sitemap that lists pages and/or categories across your entire website. By default, the table of contents block appears before the first heading on a page, enabling you to add a page summary or introduction.
Table of Contents Plus lets you add a page summary or introduction before inserting a ToC.
You can customize settings such as display position, the minimum number of headings before an index is displayed, and other appearance options from the WordPress admin panel.
It offers other advanced options to further tweak behavior, such as excluding undesired heading levels like h5 and h6 from being included, disabling the output of the included CSS file, adjusting the top offset, and more.
Customizations can also be added to the shortcodes to override the default behavior, such as special exclusions on a specific page or to hide the table of contents block.
This plugin is suitable for both beginners as well as advanced users.
Simple ToC
Simple ToC
Simple ToC lets you easily insert a Table of Contents for your posts and pages by adding the SimpleToC block. The block provides a nested list of links to all the headings found in your post or page.
You can also configure the maximum depth of the table of content in the blocks’ sidebar and customize it to your liking, and even add your own heading by using a normal heading block and hiding the default “Table of Contents” headline.
Simple TOC
This plugin works with the Gutenberg editor and requires zero configuration. It produces minimal HTML output and does not add any JavaScript or CSS unless you activate the accordion menu.
You can style SimpleToC with Gutenberg’s native group styling options and it will inherit the style of your theme. You can also customize it with background and text color, choose between an ordered or bullet HTML list, and control the maximum depth of the headings.
The plugin is also compatible with many popular plugins and themes, including AMP plugins.
Publish Smarter, Not Harder
If you publish scholarly research or educational content, incorporating footnotes, citations, indexes, table of contents, or glossaries will enhance credibility, improve user experience, provide access to valuable information faster, and help to establish your site as a reliable source of knowledge in your industry or field.
Every website has its own unique design and branding, so it’s important that the footnotes, citations, glossaries, and tables of contents match the overall style of your website to ensure a cohesive and visually appealing presentation.
The plugins listed above will allow you to transform your content into professionally structured and SEO-optimized articles and present information in your WordPress site in an organized and reader-friendly manner by automating the generation of footnotes, glossaries and tables of contents, simplifying citation management, and offering customizable styles to align with your website’s design.
If you’re looking for a solid, fully managed, and expertly-supported platform to host sites and/or content for an educational institution, check out CampusPress. It’s the WordPress platform many of the world’s largest and well-known academic institutions choose to host their WordPress sites and blogs.
CampusPress will not only manage all the technical aspects of hosting your site securely and reliably, they also include many pre-installed and useful plugins for higher education and schools.
Do you manage a WordPress site for researchers, scholars, or educators? Use these plugins to easily add footnotes, citations, a table of contents, or a glossary to academic or research content.
WordPress offers many plugins that make it easier for sites publishing academic content, scientific research, technology papers, or even instructional courses online to adhere to scholarly standards.
In this guide, we’ll cover useful plugins that will help you establish authority, enhance credibility, provide additional context and information, improve user experience, and aid in knowledge dissemination.
Note: scholarly or technical content also often requires presenting data visually. See our WordPress data visualization plugins article for help with this.
Let’s get right into it…
Adding Footnotes in WordPress
In addition to being an academic writing requirement, footnotes can be used for:
Clarification: Provide additional explanations, definitions, or background information on specific terms, concepts, or data mentioned on your website.
Source Attribution: Cite sources and give credit to external references, studies, or research to support the content you are presenting online.
Legal Compliance: Certain industries or topics may require you to provide proper attribution and references to comply with legal and ethical guidelines.
For example, if you work in or run a technology company, you may want include footnotes in articles about your products to reference scientific studies or industry reports that support your product’s claims and features. Or, you may want to publish an excerpt of a book, ebook, or research that includes footnotes and reproduce these footnotes on your excerpt.
WordPress Footnotes Plugins
One of the most time-consuming aspects of academic writing is manually creating footnotes. Fortunately, WordPress offers plugins that automate this process, allowing you to focus more on your research and writing.
The plugins below provide simple and intuitive interfaces for adding footnotes, and they will automatically format and number them correctly on your site:
CM Footnotes
CM Footnotes
With the CM Footnotes plugin installed, you can effortlessly add footnotes to any page or post on your WordPress site.
An example of a page with footnotes generated by the CM Footnotes plugin.
The plugin has a user-friendly interface that allows you to add footnotes with just a few clicks. You can also customize the styles and designs of the footnotes and use a shortcode to place footnotes anywhere in your content, with unique link symbols for each definition.
CM Footnotes – General Settings tab.
Additionally, you can enable autoscrolling from the footnote link to the definition at the bottom of the page.
Modern Footnotes
Modern Footnotes
Modern Footnotes is another plugin that lets you easily insert footnotes into your posts. The plugin offers two methods of displaying footnotes: tooltips and expandable footnotes.
On desktop, footnotes will appear as a tooltip when the user clicks on the number, while on mobile, footnotes will expand as a section below the current text.
With Modern Footnotes, you can display footnotes differently for desktop and mobile users.
You can also customize the styles of your footnotes by overriding the default footnotes styles in the custom CSS of your site.
Modern Footnotes Settings screen.
This plugin makes adding footnotes to your content straightforward and is compatible with Gutenberg/block editor as well. You can easily insert footnotes using a simple shortcode or the Gutenberg block. Sequential numbers are automatically associated with each footnote.
Easy Footnotes
Easy Footnotes
The Easy Footnotes plugin lets you add footnotes into your website’s content without requiring any coding skills.
Clicking on the footnote label will take the user down the page to the corresponding footnote at the bottom of the WordPress post. Each footnote at the bottom of the post has a icon that can be clicked to return to that particular footnote within the post copy.
Add footnotes with tooltips.
The plugin has very minimal settings and is quite easy for any beginner to use.
Easy Footnotes settings panel.
You can set a custom footnote label and can even display footnotes on the front/home page of your site. Footnotes are inserted using a shortcode.
Blank Footnotes
Blank Footnotes
Blank Footnotes lets you create footnotes using markdown notation.
It’s important to note that only footnotes are recognized with this plugin, and no other markdown tags will be taken into account.
To add footnotes, simply add a shortcode to your content and customize the styles and designs to fit your preferences.
The footnotes will appear in the exact location where you’ve inserted them, and users can easily navigate back to the text mode by clicking on the footnote number.
Enter reference numbers in the popup to create footnotes.
This plugin is compatible with the Gutenberg editor as well as the Classic Editor and doesn’t require any additional configuration, but it’s recommended to use a caching plugin (e.g. Hummingbird) to improve the overall site speed and performance.
Footnotes Made Easy
Footnotes Made Easy
With Footnotes Made Easy, you can add footnotes to posts and pages and restrict displaying footnotes on specific page types.
The plugin is very user-friendly and a footnote can be added just by inserting double parentheses within a sentence. The inserted footnotes are displayed at the bottom of the page or post.
Add footnotes and tooltips easily to content with Footnotes Made Easy.
Footnotes can also be displayed in the form of tooltips using jQuery. The plugin has many configurations that make it easy to customize the footnotes according to your needs from the WordPress admin panel.
Footnotes Made Easy settings panel.
Generally, inserting footnotes in paginated posts is quite hard. But this plugin makes it easy. But this plugin makes it easy. You can start the footnotes numbering at any number using a tag. And referencing an already-added footnote is quite simple as well.
You can also combine several identical footnotes into one single note.
Adding Citations in WordPress
Citations are used by content publishers to give credit to the original sources of information, ideas, or content included in their work. Whether you’re quoting directly, paraphrasing, or summarizing, giving proper credit through citations is a fundamental aspect of responsible content creation.
Citations can serve multiple purposes. For example:
Academic and Professional Standards: In academic and many professional settings, proper citation is required. It showcases the writer’s ability to engage with and contribute to the existing body of knowledge.
Credibility: Citations add credibility by showing that the writer has conducted research to present content based on reliable and reputable sources of information.
Ethical Use: Properly citing sources is an ethical practice that shows respect for the intellectual property of others. It shows readers that your site values and honors the work of other researchers, writers, and creators.
Transparency: Citations allow your readers to verify the accuracy and authenticity of your information and delve deeper into subjects they are interested in.
Avoiding Plagiarism: Plagiarism, which is using someone else’s work without proper attribution, can have serious consequences. Citations help to avoid accidentally using someone else’s work without permission.
Citations can also be used in a variety of business applications. For example, a financial consulting firm may write a blog post on their website about investment strategies and include citations from well-known economists, financial institutions, or academic research to support their recommendations.
Citations typically include information such as the author’s name, the title of the work, the publication date, and relevant publication details like the name of the book, journal, or website.
Also, the format of the citation can vary depending on the style being used (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago), so it’s important to be consistent and follow the guidelines of the chosen style.
WordPress Citations Plugins
Maintaining accurate and consistent citations is essential for academic writing. However, manually managing citations can be a tedious and error-prone task.
The WordPress plugins listed below offer solutions that simplify the process of adding and managing citations, allowing you to import bibliographic information from various sources, automatically format citations according to different citation styles (such as APA or MLA), and even generate bibliographies or reference lists with just a few clicks:
Zotpress
Zotpress
Zotpress lets you add in-text citations and display bibliographies and searchable libraries from Zotero, a free cross-platform reference manager that lets you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research with others online.
Zotpress lets you display items from Zotero libraries on your WordPress site.
Zotpress offers different styling options and you can select the style of your choosing. The plugin also provides a widget you can insert in any page or post type. Thumbnail images from the media library and open library are also supported.
Citations can be easily inserted into content by simply pasting the shortcode generated. The plugin lets you search for items using the autocomplete search bar. Visitors can browse your citation library by collection or tag and download citations from your pages/posts.
You can also customize citations and other items using custom CSS in the plugin’s Options screen.
Zotpress Options screen
WP-BibTeX
WP-BibTeX
With WP-BibTeX, you can easily generate a bibliography-style text for your publications by inputting all the relevant details through a shortcode.
WP-BibTeX output preview.
Additionally, you also have the option to customize the links displayed on the page for every citation, including the ability to add a new link for downloading code.
Using the new “highlighted” format, the plugin lets you create an item with a featured image on the left. And by adding the overlay attribute to the shortcode you can create overlaid media like a GIF or video that appears when the mouse hovers over the item.
Bibtex Opyions screen
The plugin supports BibTeX entry types such as articles, books, inproceedings, mastersthesis, phdthesis, and unpublished.
Adding A Glossary in WordPress
A glossary can be valuable for sites publishing content with technical or industry-specific terminology. A glossary can help to define, clarify, and explain specialized terms or jargon used within the business’s industry and improve user experience by providing definitions within the site’s content itself, so users won’t need to leave the page or site to conduct separate searches.
An example of a site that could benefit from using a glossary would be a healthcare website focused on medical conditions. Including a glossary section to explain medical terms, symptoms, and treatment options would help site users to better understand complex medical information.
WordPress Glossary Plugins
Here are some useful plugins for adding and managing a glossary in WordPress:
Glossary
Glossary
Glossary for WordPress automatically generates word lists and styled tooltips using the content provided. The generated terms and definitions are grouped in a glossary or dictionary section and are linked automatically to corresponding words within posts and pages.
Glossary automatically links every instance of a term (or set of terms) to a predefined list of definitions.
The plugin is compatible with both the classic WordPress editor and the Gutenberg editor. The free version of the plugin offers a range of features, including automatic linking of every instance of a term to a predefined list of definitions.
You can group terms by category and create vertical archives of terms through shortcodes.
The plugin also allows you to activate its features in specific pages, archives, taxonomies, and custom post types, among other options.
You can apply a highlight or a tooltip on hover to linked terms, style tooltips by choosing from three templates, and link terms to internal or external locations.
Other features include the ability to add a dedicated icon to highlight external links and integration with Gutenberg blocks and ChatGPT.
CM Tooltip Glossary
CM Tooltip Glossary
CM Tooltip Glossary automatically identifies glossary terms in your posts or pages and then adds links to a dedicated glossary page, which contains the respective term’s definition.
Hovering over the linked glossary term will display a tooltip containing the definition of the term.
Hover over linked terms to view glossary definitions as a tooltip.
You can filter and limit the length of words displayed on the tooltip. Instead of displaying the glossary definition, excerpts can also be displayed on the tooltip.
The plugin also generates a glossary index that contains a list of all of the terms used across your website along with their definitions for easy access. You can even control the location and area where the tooltip appears, as well as limit its length and appearance.
In the free version, the glossary index is limited to a maximum of 500 terms.
Encyclopedia Lite
Encyclopedia Lite
Encyclopedia Lite allows you to create and manage a knowledge base, dictionary, glossary, or wiki. It offers a range of features, including automatic indexing, unique URLs for every content, SEO-friendly URL structure, and the ability to classify items by tags and categories.
You can also filter items by letter and cross-link them throughout your site.
Encyclopedia Lite is more than glossary. It’s also a Wiki, Knowledgebase, and more!
The plugin is compatible with various languages and content types, supports user rights and capabilities, has a clean and intuitive user interface and supports multimedia elements and shortcodes, and integrates with WordPress menus and RSS feeds.
Additionally, it offers a search function, auto-complete and item suggestions, and widgets for displaying items, tags, and categories in your sidebar.
WordPress Tooltips
WordPress Tooltips
WordPress Tooltips is a powerful and easy-to-use jQuery tooltip solution that allows you to add text, images, videos, audio, and social links to tooltip boxes.
You can add tooltips to post titles, content, excerpts, tags, archive, menu items, and gallery images.
WordPress Tooltips detects and adds tooltip effects on tooltip terms automatically.
The plugin supports a glossary too. A glossary can be inserted with a simple shortcode and it has a dedicated glossary settings panel where you can configure various styles for your glossary.
You can manage all the tooltip keywords and content from the WordPress admin panel.
You do not need a tooltip shortcode as the plugin will detect and add tooltip effects on tooltip terms automatically. The plugin is also compatible with most of the gallery and slideshow plugins as well.
Adding a Table of Contents in WordPress
Long academic articles can sometimes overwhelm readers, making it difficult for them to find the information they need.
A table of contents (ToC) provides a concise overview of your content’s structure and allows readers to jump to the sections that most interest them. By incorporating a table of contents in lengthy articles, guides, comprehensive user manuals, or technical documentation, you enable readers to navigate through your content more easily and improve readability, comprehension, understanding, and engagement.
WordPress Table of Contents (ToC) Plugins
The WordPress plugins below will automatically scan your content and generate an organized table of contents based on your headings and add anchor links that allow readers to jump directly to specific sections, eliminating the need for manual updates and enabling your readers to navigate through your content more easily:
Joli Table Of Contents
Joli Table Of Contents
Joli ToC is a performance-friendly, user-friendly plugin that runs incredibly fast without relying on jQuery or bloated code. The ToC can be inserted using a block in the Gutenberg editor.
It has plenty of customization options. You can hide or edit specific headings from the ToC. The plugin by default picks up headings generated by third-party shortcodes and blocks, this includes the headings that don’t appear in the editor but are available in the front end.
Joli Table Of Contents
The plugin offers two variants of toggle: a classic Text toggle and a modern Icon toggle to give your website a modern look.
It also includes pre-defined CSS variables that can be used to override the plugin’s default styles to create unique styles.
Easy Table of Contents
Easy Table of Contents
Easy ToC automatically creates a table of contents for your posts, pages, and custom post types by scanning the page/post content for headings.
It works with the Classic Editor and Gutenberg editor and is compatible with other popular page builders like Divi, Elementor, WPBakery Page Builder, and Visual Composer.
Easy Table of Contents
You need to select the post types in which the table of contents should appear and the plugin will automatically insert the table of contents into the page.
The plugin offers a variety of customization and multiple built-in ToC themes that you can choose. You can customize the appearance of the ToC either using the built-in themes and can create your own from scratch.
You can also choose between several bullet formats, and hierarchies, and can even selectively enable or disable ToC on a post-by-post basis.
If you prefer not to insert the table of contents in the post content, you can use the widget and place the table of contents in the sidebar of a page. The widget highlights the sections currently visible on the page.
Table of Contents Plus
Table of Contents Plus
Table of Contents Plus automatically creates a table of contents for long pages, posts, and custom post types.
It not only inserts a ToC but also generates a sitemap that lists pages and/or categories across your entire website. By default, the table of contents block appears before the first heading on a page, enabling you to add a page summary or introduction.
Table of Contents Plus lets you add a page summary or introduction before inserting a ToC.
You can customize settings such as display position, the minimum number of headings before an index is displayed, and other appearance options from the WordPress admin panel.
It offers other advanced options to further tweak behavior, such as excluding undesired heading levels like h5 and h6 from being included, disabling the output of the included CSS file, adjusting the top offset, and more.
Customizations can also be added to the shortcodes to override the default behavior, such as special exclusions on a specific page or to hide the table of contents block.
This plugin is suitable for both beginners as well as advanced users.
Simple ToC
Simple ToC
Simple ToC lets you easily insert a Table of Contents for your posts and pages by adding the SimpleToC block. The block provides a nested list of links to all the headings found in your post or page.
You can also configure the maximum depth of the table of content in the blocks’ sidebar and customize it to your liking, and even add your own heading by using a normal heading block and hiding the default “Table of Contents” headline.
Simple TOC
This plugin works with the Gutenberg editor and requires zero configuration. It produces minimal HTML output and does not add any JavaScript or CSS unless you activate the accordion menu.
You can style SimpleToC with Gutenberg’s native group styling options and it will inherit the style of your theme. You can also customize it with background and text color, choose between an ordered or bullet HTML list, and control the maximum depth of the headings.
The plugin is also compatible with many popular plugins and themes, including AMP plugins.
Publish Smarter, Not Harder
If you publish scholarly research or educational content, incorporating footnotes, citations, indexes, table of contents, or glossaries will enhance credibility, improve user experience, provide access to valuable information faster, and help to establish your site as a reliable source of knowledge in your industry or field.
Every website has its own unique design and branding, so it’s important that the footnotes, citations, glossaries, and tables of contents match the overall style of your website to ensure a cohesive and visually appealing presentation.
The plugins listed above will allow you to transform your content into professionally structured and SEO-optimized articles and present information in your WordPress site in an organized and reader-friendly manner by automating the generation of footnotes, glossaries and tables of contents, simplifying citation management, and offering customizable styles to align with your website’s design.
If you’re looking for a solid, fully managed, and expertly-supported platform to host sites and/or content for an educational institution, check out CampusPress. It’s the WordPress platform many of the world’s largest and well-known academic institutions choose to host their WordPress sites and blogs.
CampusPress will not only manage all the technical aspects of hosting your site securely and reliably, they also include many pre-installed and useful plugins for higher education and schools.
