Post Formats are theme features of styling and presenting posts on a WordPress site. Technically it is a piece of meta information used by theme in order to customize the appearance and presentation of any post.
It can be easily used from WordPress post admin screen (post editing page) from ‘Format’ meta box. The meta box simply list post formats with radio buttons so all you got to do is click the post format you like applying to a post on your WordPress site.
Popular Post Formats In WordPress:
- aside – Typically styled without a title. Similar to a Facebook note update.
- gallery – A gallery of images. Post will likely contain a gallery shortcode and will have image attachments.
- link – A link to another site. Themes may wish to use the first <a href=””> tag in the post content as the external link for that post. An alternative approach could be if the post consists only of a URL, then that will be the URL and the title (post_title) will be the name attached to the anchor for it.
- image – A single image. The first <img /> tag in the post could be considered the image. Alternatively, if the post consists only of a URL, that will be the image URL and the title of the post (post_title) will be the title attribute for the image.
- quote – A quotation. Probably will contain a blockquote holding the quote content. Alternatively, the quote may be just the content, with the source/author being the title.
- status – A short status update, similar to a Twitter status update.
- video – A single video or video playlist.
- audio – An audio file or playlist. Could be used for Podcasting.
- chat – A chat transcript, like.
So how to use Post Formats in WordPress?
If your theme supports post formats you can use them from post edit screen on your admin area dashboard.
For instance: Suppose you like posting an image on your WordPress blog. Visit Posts -> Add New page, use ‘Add Media’ button for uploading and inserting image.
Select ‘Image’ radio button on ‘Post Format’ meta box. By default, it is located on the right side (below ‘Publish’ meta box). Finally, publish your post and that’s it.
That’s how different post formats look like:
Similarly, for sharing video you can use ‘Video’ post format and for sharing link use ‘Link’ post format and so on.