Traditional vertical layout of displaying posts is common in most WordPress themes. Although it is good for personal blogs and small websites but takes a lot of space. In this lesson we will discuss about the different ways of displays posts using a grid layout which is great for multi-author WordPress websites with large number of posts.
There are various WordPress themes that provides you beautiful grid layout, you can search for them and install theme using native functionality of installing new themes in your WordPress admin area. All you got to do is use a filter or keyword such as grid or magazine and you will see a number of good themes to select from.
Another way of displaying posts using a grid layout is Post Grid WordPress plugin. It provides you awesome post grid for query post from any post type and display on grid.
Start by installing and activating it in your WordPress site. Upon activation, visit your admin area dashboard Post Grid -> New Post Grid to create your new post grid layout.
You will notice various sections divided into different tabs. Click the ‘Query Post’ tab and select options on how you would like the plugin to fetch posts for grid display. Here you can choose the post type you want to display in grid layout.
By default, posts is auto-selected but you can change it to some custom post type you have registered on your website.
Once you are done with Query Post, move to layout tab to select the display style of your new post grid. Here you will find 5 different skins (some with visible effects and animation) to select from. It allows you to choose display options such as flat right, flat center, just flat or define your own custom layout by clicking the ‘Edit’ button.
Next step is to click the ‘Layout Settings’ tab. This is the place to fix layout if in-case it doesn’t works for your website. Last customization step is the navigation tab which allows you to set pagination style.
That’s all with configuration, finally click publish button to make your post grid use-able on your website. Now you can add it to any page via shortcode or use its template inside a theme file. The shortcode tab provides you with both shortcode and PHP template.