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Block-style page layouts for ClassicPress, delivered as shortcodes.
Install
Upload it under Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin, then activate.
Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:
wp plugin install https://github.com/wolffe/fx-shortcodes/releases/download/1.0.6/fx-shortcodes-1.0.6.zipBlock-style page layouts for ClassicPress, delivered as shortcodes.
- Plugin page: https://getbutterfly.com/classicpress-plugins/fx-shortcodes/
- Demo: https://studio.getbutterfly.com/fx-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]. The type attribute picks the layout:
[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 (<img>), overlay |
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 8.1+
Releases
7 releases. Each count is every asset in that release; expand a row for the breakdown.
Active-site estimate ≈10 comes from the median of recent superseded releases. Method.