Question about styling the plugin

Hi @tomdkat ,
Glad it solved the problem, and thank you for the review – much appreciated.

Yes, there’s a class you can target. The reading time is output as:
<p class="minuteread-reading-time">Estimated Reading Time: 5 min</p>

When you place it inside your content with the [minuteread_time] shortcode, it renders as a <span> carrying the same class instead.

On the gap – that one is on me. The plugin’s stylesheet sets margin: 0 0 1.2em on that element, and in themes whose layout doesn’t collapse margins, it stacks on top of the spacing the theme already applies to the next block, so you get both. Removing it should give you what you expect:
.minuteread-reading-time { margin-bottom: 0 !important; }

If you’d like to style the area itself, something along these lines works:
.minuteread-reading-time { background: #f5f6fa; border-left: 3px solid #2c5f4f; padding: 8px 12px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; font-style: normal; color: #333; }

Add either one under Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS on a classic theme, or Appearance → Editor → Styles → Additional CSS on a block theme. If it doesn’t sit right with your theme, post your site URL here and I’ll write the exact rule for it.

Longer term, I agree with both parts of your suggestion. Forcing that bottom margin is the wrong default, so I’m dropping it and letting the theme own the spacing – that goes out shortly, along with an updated “Tested up to” for WordPress 7.1. Basic appearance options in the settings screen are a good idea too, and I’m looking at that for the release after. The class name stays the same either way, so any CSS you write now will keep working.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up – it’s useful feedback.

@tomdkat
1.1.0 is out. The forced bottom margin is gone, so spacing now follows your
theme – you can probably drop the override you added. Custom post type
support and WordPress 7.1 compatibility are in as well. Basic appearance
options in the settings screen are still on the list for the next release.