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Display Formatting

In order to provide maximum flexibility, In Series formats posts based on a set of special formatting strings. These are accessed through the 'Series' sub-menu under the 'Options' menu in WordPress. You must have the 'manage_options' capability (WordPress 2.0 and later) or have at least user level 8 (prior to WordPress 2.0) to alter these options.

For the time being, the formats are site-wide, and appear on both single- and multi-post pages. This will change in the future, but for the time being, make sure that the formats you select look acceptable to you throughout your site.

The key component to all of these fields are a set of special tokens. These are replaced with appropriate values, based on context. The complete list of tokens is as follows:

• %content -- text of the post.
• %entries -- complete list of recurring items, e.g., the entries in a table of contents.
• %next -- link to the next post in the series (if one exists).
• %prev -- link to the previous post in the series (if one exists).
• %series -- title of the series.
• %title -- title of the post. Which post is based on context.
• %toc -- a table of contents enumerating all the published posts in a series.
• %url -- an unadorned URL. What this URL points to is based on context.

It is important to note that the above tokens may expand differently (or not at all) if used inside of an HTML tag. A very common scenario that illustrates this would be %title. The first %title will have any HTML stripped out of it, and will have the remaining special characters (like "'" and "<") escaped. The second %title, though, will not have any content stripped or escaped. The special expansion rules apply as described in the list below:

• Not expanded between < and >

  • %content
  • %entries
  • %next
  • %prev
  • %toc

• HTML-stripped and escaped between < and >

  • %series
  • %title

• Expanded the same everywhere

  • %url

Post layout

This option controls the manner in which each post is generated. It is important to have the "%content" token (without the quotes) appear exactly once in this field. More than once, and the post's contents will show up twice; if "%content" isn't present at all, then your posts will not have any content. In Series will not prevent you from making this mistake, so please double-check!

Valid tokens for this field are:

• %content
• %next
• %prev
• %toc

Next Link

This option controls how the %next token is expanded.

Valid tokens for this field are:

• %series
• %title -- the title of the next post in the series
• %url -- a URL pointing to the next post in the series

Previous Link

This option controls how the %prev token is expanded.

Valid tokens for this field are:

• %series
• %title -- the title of the previous post in the series
• %url -- a URL pointing to the previous post in the series

Table of Contents Layout

This option controls how the %toc token is expanded.

Valid tokens for this field are:

• %entries
• %series
• %title -- the title of the post that the Table of Contents is being generated in

Entry Link and Active Entry Link

These fields control how the %entries token is expanded. The entry link field is used for most of the entries. However, if the post that the %entry token would ultimately be a part of is the same post that an entry would refer to, the active entry link field is used instead. This allows you to prevent having a table of contents with a link pointing to the page that you're already on (for example).

These fields are present for both the table of contents, and the series list.

Valid tokens for these fields are:

• %series
• %title -- this value is changed for each entry in the list, representing the title of each post that is part of the group (one at a time).
• %url -- this value is changed for each entry in the list, representing the title of each post that is part of the group (one at a time).

Series List

As a special note, the series list is not automatically inserted. Currently, it can be accessed through a template tag only. The use of the series list is, therefore, unsupported for the time being.

Misc Options

Aside from the formatting strings, there are some other options that can be controlled from the 'Series' menu.

Insert Tags

This option, when enabled, will insert and (with appropriate hrefs) in each single-view page that displays a post in a series. Some browsers can use this information to more explicitly understand that the page is part of a series, and is intended to improve accessibility.

Manipulating Series

In Series tries to make it as easy as possible for authors to create and change series. Series manipulation is handled with post editing; to change a post's relationship with a series, start by editing the post.

Adding to a New Series

1. If you intend to save the post to have an author that is not the same as the user you are logged in as, save the post first before making any series changes.
2. If the post is already in a series, you will need to remove it from that series before you can add it to a new one (see Removing from a Series).
3. From the In Series sidebar, enter the name of the new series you wish to create in the empty text box. Ensure that you have not already created a series with the same name (In Series will not permit you to have two series with the same name), and that the drop-down box is set to "--- New Series ---".
4. Save the post.

Adding to an Existing Series

1. If you intend to save the post to have an author that is not the same as the user you are logged in as, save the post first before making any series changes.
2. If the post is already in a series, you will need to remove it from that series before you can add it to a new one (see Removing from a Series).
3. From the In Series sidebar, select the name of the series you wish to add the post to from the drop-down menu.
4. Select the "start" radio button if you would like the post to be added as the first post in the series; otherwise, leave the "end" radio button selected.
5. Save the post.

Removing from a Series

Note that deleting a post will automatically remove it from any series that it is in.

1. The In Series sidebar should contain the name of the series that the post is a part of, followed by a drop-down menu. Select "--- Remove ---" from the drop-down menu.
2. Save the post.

Reorder in a Series

1. The In Series sidebar should contain the name of the series that the post is a part of, followed by a drop-down menu. From that menu, select the name of the post that you would like the current post to come after. If you would like the post to be the first in the series, select "--- First ---".
2. Save the post.