Block-style page layouts for ClassicPress, delivered as shortcodes.
Why this exists
ClassicPress dropped the Gutenberg block editor in favour of the Classic editor. That’s a deliberate choice — but it leaves a gap: the layout primitives that came with blocks (cover, columns, media + text, buttons, accordions, etc.) disappear with them. Themes still know how to style alignfull / alignwide, but there’s no easy way to author those layouts in a Classic post.
FX Shortcodes fills that gap. Every layout block you’d reach for in Gutenberg is available as a shortcode, with the same visual result and the same alignment classes — but authored as plain [element] tags inside the Classic editor.
No JavaScript, no block editor, no React. Just one shortcode and a stylesheet.
How it works
Everything goes through a single shortcode:
[element]</code></strong>. The <code>type</code> attribute picks the layout:
<pre><code>[element type="cover" background="/hero.jpg" overlay="#000" overlay-opacity="0.4"]
<h1>Welcome</h1>
[/element]Self-closing void blocks use a trailing slash:
[element type="spacer" height="3rem" /]Because the plugin parses [element] itself (innermost-first, before WordPress’ shortcode regex runs), same-name nesting works — you can drop an [element type="group"] inside another [element type="group"] without WordPress closing on the first [/element].
Available types
| Type | Role |
|---|---|
cover | Full-bleed hero with background image, overlay, parallax |
group (alias section) | Generic container with optional flex / grid layout |
columns + column | Equal or asymmetric column rows |
details (alias accordion) | Native <details> element |
media-text (alias mediatext) | Image on one side, text on the other; supports “crop image to fill” |
button | <a> or <button> with fill / outline / text variants and OKLCH hover |
card | Image + title + body, optionally a whole-card link |
spacer | Invisible vertical or horizontal gap (void) |
separator (alias hr) | Thematic break with style variants (void) |
line (alias colored-line) | Decorative striped / dotted / shaded line (void) |
All types accept a shared set of common attributes — width (full / wide / CSS length), align, vertical-align, background-color, padding, margin, gap, border-radius, shadow, etc. — plus a few type-specific ones.
Install
- Drop the
fx-shortcodesfolder intowp-content/plugins/. - Activate it from the Plugins screen.
- Open Settings → FX Shortcodes for the full reference with code samples for every shortcode.
Requirements
- ClassicPress 2.0+
- PHP 8.5+