I added shortcode functionality to the WordPress Countdown Widget with version 2.4. Using this new update, you can add countdown timers to your posts and pages easily. In this post, I am explaining how to use the shortcode feature.

Basic Syntax

Basic shortcode syntax:

[countdown event="Testing shortcode" date="1 June 2021"]

This shortcode displays:

Wow, that’s a lot of numbers! But don’t worry, We can limit digits using the countdown widget format option 😉

Default Syntax

Let’s add hours & minutes to this:

[countdown event="Event with hour & minutes" date="1 June 2021" hour="18" minutes="54"] :

Please note that hours are 24 hours based. If you write 6 pm there, it won’t work.


Shortcode Attributes

Here is a list of default shortcode attributes:

$args = shortcode_atts(array(
	'title'=>'',
	'event'=>'',
	'date'=>false,
	'month'=>'',
	'day'=>'',
	'hour'=>'0',
	'minutes'=>'0',
	'seconds'=>'0',
	'year'=>'',
	'format'=>'yowdHMS',
	'link'=>false
), $atts );

Note: If you use the date field, you don’t need to specify day, month and year. Those are automatically calculated via magic date attribute.


Full Syntax

And here is the full shortcode template in case you need it:

[countdown title="Countdown" event="Until next release" date="1 June 2021" hour="13" minutes="45" seconds="00" format="DHMS"]

Countdown

For shortcode displays, you can’t define background color and color values. Those can only be changed via CSS. For styling tips read my tutorial here.


Conclusion

I hope you found this tutorial useful. Get latest version of countdown widget.