Write Faster with WordPress Content Templates - A How-To Guide

The Evolving Reality of Blog Management

Initially, the concept of maintaining a blog often appears quite appealing. A vision of consistently publishing several posts daily, attracting a substantial readership, is common.

However, as time progresses – weeks turning into months – blogging can transition into a demanding task. The effort shifts towards meticulously formatting posts to achieve a professional aesthetic.

The Shift to Content Management

Frequently, blog owners then engage the services of writers, and subsequently, a team. This leads to a regular influx of submissions, but introduces a new challenge: dedicating significant time to editing and formatting content to align with the blog’s desired presentation.

This intensive editing process often inadvertently consumes the time previously allocated to the owner’s primary passion – writing itself.

WordPress and the Content Challenge

WordPress represents a significant advancement, empowering a greater number of individuals to create visually impressive websites utilizing diverse themes.

Despite these advancements, the formatting of the content area remains a crucial consideration. Effective presentation requires careful arrangement of images, advertisements, and overall content spacing.

Ultimately, achieving a polished and engaging blog experience necessitates ongoing attention to content formatting, even with powerful platforms like WordPress.

Streamlining Your WordPress Content with Templates

Previously, I detailed a method for automatically embedding advertisements into each WordPress post utilizing the In-Post Template Add-on.

This approach functions optimally when initiating a new blog; however, applying it to an existing site with pre-existing advertisements can lead to duplication and disruption of older posts.

Fortunately, a superior solution exists. By modifying a standard WordPress PHP file and subsequently creating a stylesheet, you can establish a customized content template that automatically appears whenever you initiate a new post. This ensures your existing content remains unaltered.

Below is an illustration of the formatting structure currently implemented on my own blog.

The design incorporates a header image with precise dimensions and padding, left-aligned. Following this is the "more" tag, accompanied by my integrated Google Ad. Throughout each post, additional images are sized appropriately and right-aligned. I have, admittedly, been performing much of this formatting manually, including for articles submitted by contributors.

Here’s how a completed post appears once published.

As you can observe, the formatting presents a slight complexity, with images left-justified in one area and the advertisement right-justified in another. All subsequent images are consistently right-justified. This layout enhances readability and provides a smooth flow for my blog; however, your preferences may differ based on your specific WordPress site.

The initial step in creating your template involves backing up your functions.php file – located in your theme’s root directory – before opening it for editing.

This file contains the code defining your theme’s current functions. You will insert a new section within this code. Locate the conclusion of the first function, and then incorporate the code I will outline below.

I must acknowledge David Hansen of Smashing Magazine, who initially presented this concept in an article published in October. I will now expand upon his idea by demonstrating how to customize the template for elements such as advertisements and images.

 
add_filter('default_content','custom_editor_content');
 
add_editor_style('editor-style.css');
 
function custom_editor_content( $content ) {
 
$content = '
 
 
Insert your introduction here 
Enter Google Script Here 
Here is second section content 
 
Here is third section content 
 
Here is third section content 
 ';
 
 return $content;
 
}
 

For optimal alignment, utilize the image alignment features inherent in your theme’s style. Regarding the Google Ad, employ the second div with the style attribute to achieve the desired positioning. This approach generally yields the best results. However, sizing, padding, and placement will require adjustments within the CSS file.

The following code defines the styling for each section previously mentioned.

body {
 
 background: #f5f5f5;
 
}
 
.content-col-main {
 
float:right;
 
width:70%;
 
padding:1%;
 
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
 
background: #fff;
 
}
 
.content-col-side {
 
float:left;
 
width:210px;
 
padding:1%;
 
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
 
background: #fff;
 
}
 
.content-google-ad {
 
float:right;
 
width:20%;
 
padding:1%;
 
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
 
background: #fff;
 
}
 
.content-section-two {
 
float:left;
 
width:70%;
 
padding:1%;
 
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
 
background: #fff;
 
}
 
.content-image-three {
 
float:right;
 
width:210px;
 
padding:1%;
 
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
 
background: #fff;
 
}
 
.content-section-three {
 
float:left;
 
width:70%;
 
padding:1%;
 
border: 1px dotted #ccc;
 
background: #fff;
 
}
 
img { /* Ensures images remain within their columns */
 
 max-width: 100%;
 
 width: auto;
 
 height: auto;
 
}

You can utilize either percentages or pixels for sizing. I favor pixels for images, but the choice ultimately depends on your preference. If excessive spacing exists between images and text, adjust the content percentages slightly until the desired appearance is achieved.

Once you have saved your CSS file, creating a new post will reveal your perfectly formatted content template already in place.

Simply upload your desired image by clicking on the placeholder and then populate the content areas. The process is remarkably straightforward. Everything is automatically aligned and positioned correctly.

All right-justified Google code or images are pre-inserted; you only need to update the content. The time required to assemble a post with this pre-configured formatting will be significantly reduced, guaranteed.

Updating the images within the template is as simple as uploading the desired pictures to your blog using the media upload tool, then clicking on the image placeholder and pasting the URL of the new image into the "Source" field.

Remember to update the title and alt tags as well. As demonstrated in my test article, writing now focuses solely on content creation, knowing that proper formatting is already implemented to ensure the article looks its best.

The final outcome? Here is my initial test article utilizing the new WordPress content template. All images and ad code are inserted, aligned, and spaced flawlessly.

Without prior knowledge, one would assume no changes have been made to the blog. The formatting remains consistent with the previously manually achieved results. All that effort and trial-and-error formatting is now integrated directly into the WordPress content template.

All that remains is to focus on what you enjoy most – writing.

Does this WordPress Content template alleviate the workload on your blog? Do you have any additional formatting suggestions for others to incorporate into their templates? Share your thoughts and insights in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Shutterstock