What is a shortcode?

Question 1: What is a shortcode and how does it work?

Answer 1:

A shortcode is a short line of code surrounded by brackets that adds a specific feature into your web page. The full code is located deep in the bowels of the application, and the shortcode is what triggers its activation. This shortcode can allow you to display a whole plethora of information in a specific format by simply placing the shortcode on a page or in an article.

Thus, instead of having to add several lines of something like HTML, PHP, or CSS to every post or page you wish to use it on, you simply need to add one line of shortcode, then the site can load the full code.

A very good example of shortcode is the Plugin Notebook’s shortcode to display all published Project Notebooks [project-all-listing] to a Project Listing page. This little line of shortcode represents an entire display that can be seen on the page it’s been placed on.