Title: Current Author
Last modified: August 18, 2016

---

# Current Author

 *  [soupenvy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/soupenvy/)
 * (@soupenvy)
 * [21 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/)
 * Hey – I’m new to wordpress, naturally, and have searched high & low for a way
   to display a “current author” on an authors’ archive page.
 * I understand how to get an author name displayed within the loop, but cannot 
   find anything for displaying an author name outside of the loop (author name 
   at top of page). There’s got to be a simple way that I’m merely overlooking.
 * The closest I can come is by using the get-author-profile plugin: [http://guff.szub.net/2005/01/31/get-author-profile/](http://guff.szub.net/2005/01/31/get-author-profile/)
 * But it seems as though this should be doable without a plugin. Thanks.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 66 total)

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 *  [Kafkaesqui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kafkaesqui/)
 * (@kafkaesqui)
 * [21 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-167789)
 * Could you define “current author”? Is this supposed to be the last author who’s
   posted, or something else?
 *  Thread Starter [soupenvy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/soupenvy/)
 * (@soupenvy)
 * [21 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-167822)
 * Sorry, I meant current author on an Author archive page.
    for Example, I want
   to say something as simple as:
 * You’re currently viewing “Steve stevensons” page of posts:
 *  [Kafkaesqui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kafkaesqui/)
 * (@kafkaesqui)
 * [21 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-167838)
 * With 1.5 you can create an author page template (author.php) and place it in 
   the directory for your theme. An easy way to do this is duplicate the index.php
   for a theme and make whatever modifications you want. You can then include some
   PHP code to grab and display author details (outside The Loop):
 * `<?php 
    if(isset($_GET['author_name'])) : $curauth = get_userdatabylogin($author_name);
   else : $curauth = get_userdata($author); endif; ?>
 * `<h3>You're currently viewing <?php echo $curauth->user_firstname; ?> <?php echo
   $curauth->user_lastname; ?>'s page of posts:</h3>`
 * Here’s all the author profile data you could access this way:
 * $curauth->user_aim;
    $curauth->user_email; $curauth->user_firstname; $curauth-
   >user_icq; $curauth->user_lastname; $curauth->user_level; $curauth->user_login;
   $curauth->user_msn; $curauth->user_nickname; $curauth->user_description; $curauth-
   >user_url; $curauth->user_yim;
 *  Thread Starter [soupenvy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/soupenvy/)
 * (@soupenvy)
 * [21 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-167861)
 * Thanks man – worked great!
 *  [dailyknight](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dailyknight/)
 * (@dailyknight)
 * [21 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-167925)
 * worked for me too (haha)…thanks
 *  [maestro42](https://wordpress.org/support/users/maestro42/)
 * (@maestro42)
 * [21 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168075)
 * i used this thanks, worked great!
 *  [zeitgeist-y](https://wordpress.org/support/users/zeitgeist-y/)
 * (@zeitgeist-y)
 * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168176)
 * I can’t get this solution to work?! This is how my author.php currently looks
   like:
 * —————————
    <?php get_header(); ?>
 *  <div id=”content”>
 * <?php
    if(isset($_GET[‘author_name’])) : $curauth = get_userdatabylogin($author_name);
   else : $curauth = get_userdata($author); endif; ?>
 * <h3>You’re currently viewing <?php echo $curauth->user_firstname; ?> <?php echo
   $curauth->user_lastname; ?>’s page of posts:</h3>
 * </div>
 * <?php get_sidebar(); ?>
 * <?php get_footer(); ?>
    —————————-
 * I can’t even explain my problem. Have a look at the site:
    `http://zeitgeist.
   collectanea.org`
 *  [Kafkaesqui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kafkaesqui/)
 * (@kafkaesqui)
 * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168177)
 * zeitgeist-y: It’s possible the queried vars are not getting set, so try this:
 * `<?php
    if(isset($_GET['author_name'])) : $curauth = get_userdatabylogin($_GET['
   author_name']); else : $curauth = get_userdata($_GET['author']); endif; ?>
 * Or the purely 1.5 way:
 * `<?php
    if(get_query_var('author_name')) : $curauth = get_userdatabylogin(get_query_var('
   author_name')); else : $curauth = get_userdata(get_query_var('author')); endif;?
   >
 *  [fionadixit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fionadixit/)
 * (@fionadixit)
 * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168187)
 * As a matter of interest – can this be done for version 1.22?
 * Thanks
 *  [Kafkaesqui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kafkaesqui/)
 * (@kafkaesqui)
 * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168188)
 * The code blocks above other than the last one marked “purely 1.5” should work
   in 1.2.x, though you can’t create an author.php template to run it off (or rather
   you can, but WordPress won’t acknowledge it).
 *  [fionadixit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fionadixit/)
 * (@fionadixit)
 * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168190)
 * Thanls Kafkaesqui,
 * Where do I actually place that code?
 * Thanks
    F
 *  [Kafkaesqui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kafkaesqui/)
 * (@kafkaesqui)
 * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168191)
 * Where ever you want it displayed.
 * You can wrap the whole thing (script and anything it’s suppose to display) in
   an if statement that tests whether `author_name` or `author` have been passed
   as a query. This way it’s not displayed on other page types:
 * `<?php if(isset($_GET['author_name']) || isset($_GET['author'])) :
    if($_GET['
   author_name']) : $curauth = get_userdatabylogin($_GET['author_name']); else :
   $curauth = get_userdata($_GET['author']); endif; ?>
 * `<h3>You're currently viewing <?php echo $curauth->user_firstname; ?> <?php echo
   $curauth->user_lastname; ?>'s page of posts:</h3>`
 * `<?php endif; ?>`
 *  [fionadixit](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fionadixit/)
 * (@fionadixit)
 * [21 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168192)
 * Thanks for that but it didn’t show up any authors when I clicked on an author
   ling from ‘<?php wp_list_authors(‘optioncount=1&show_fullname=1&hide_empty=1′);?
   >’
 * Not sure why though 🙂
 *  [thepete](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thepete/)
 * (@thepete)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168208)
 * Huh, here’s an odd question–when I use the tag in Fiona’s post directly above,
   I get all of the authors who have posted on my site except for one–me. The admin
   doesn’t show up. Is there a way to change this?
 * Sorry, I tried searching the codex, but I find it rather confusing. I mean, what’s
   the difference between the ‘go’ and the ‘search’ buttons, anyway?
 *  [Kafkaesqui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kafkaesqui/)
 * (@kafkaesqui)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/#post-168209)
 * [@thepete](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thepete/)
 * See the info on the ‘exclude_admin’ parameter for `wp_list_authors()`:
 * [http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_list_authors](http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/wp_list_authors)

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The topic ‘Current Author’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [author](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/author/)
 * [author picture](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/author-picture/)
 * [php](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/php/)
 * [query_posts](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/query_posts/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 66 replies
 * 30 participants
 * Last reply from: [dharmarketing](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dharmarketing/)
 * Last activity: [19 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/current-author/page/5/#post-168340)
 * Status: not resolved

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