One option would be to bypass the post content box, and have them use just the custom fields. Then you would use a template that pulls in that info.
Not as shiny and easy, but gives consistent results. And, when you want to change your appearance, modifying the template updates all of the forms at once.
thanks brock. i just starting using the plugin supple forms today and seems like an easy trick for what im looking for. just wish there was an insert button instead of still having to use their shortcode insert.
but good to know about custom fields. always ignored them, but they look pretty powerful after reading: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Custom_Fields
I haven’t used supple forms, but it sounds promising. I would encourage you to devote 20% of your time on this project to learning Custom Fields combined with Templates. It gives you complete control.
So, for example, you create a new custom field in a test post and call the custom field “Test_Field” with the value of “Test_Value”. In your template, you simply call:
$test_field = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'Test_Field');
You now have the value from the custom field for that post in the $test_field variable.
Now you need to put this code into a template and assign the post to that template so it will show what you want on the screen. You can find out what Templates you have already in your theme by going to the “Template” menu in the lower right of any post. I would start by duplicating one of the templates, hacking it up a bit, and inserting a call to a custom field so you can at least get the idea of what this does.
Once I understood how this worked, I was stunned. All the sudden, WordPress became something much more powerful than a blog. In fact, in a weekend I put together a website of our community college. Type in a room number (any room number) and the search tells you which lot to park in and gives you a map of the floor and parking lot. Simple, but effective. I used templates and custom fields for the whole job and was done in less than 48 hours. Something like 700 rooms, I can’t remember. http://www.parklandmaps.com Its definitely worth your time. Go until you get that “a-ha!”
Cheers!
