THE PENDING DRAFT

For the most part, I dislike WordPress shortcodes. I think they are unintuitive, difficult to use for the average user, and go against much of what the core functionality of WordPress aims to offer.
But the challenge is that there’s not yet a suitable alternative.

Tom McFarlin with some interesting thoughts on Shortcodes. Be sure to also read the discussion in the comments.

I completely agree that shortcodes – even if they work in some cases – always feel to hacky for me especially if normal users should be able to handle the content at the end.

My current “solution” is to be as helpful for the enduser as possible. That means including custom TinyMCE Buttons in the editor to add shortcodes, trying to show a placeholder image instead of just the shortcode text where possible. Generally speaking: If i have to explain to a client what a shortcode is, it’s not the optimal solution.

And most importantly: Always write a custom plugin for shortcode! There’s no reason to implement a shortcode in a theme.

A Case Against WordPress Shortcodes – Tom McFarlin.