Title: Help with WP [tags] Last modified: May 25, 2018 --- # Help with WP [tags] * Resolved [surfs-up](https://wordpress.org/support/users/surfs-up/) * (@surfs-up) * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-with-wp-tags/) * I hope someone here can point me in the right direction…. * I know HTML, but in my WP theme I see things like: [section extra=”post-content”][/ section] [paragraph extra=””] [/paragraph] And heading, subheading, etc. all with [ ] I can see that this applies formatting, but I do not know about how to use these kind of tags. So I get frustrated and end up changing things to straight html i.e.

* So I’m looking for a 101 beginners guide on how to learn and use these tags. * Where do I start? * Thanks! Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total) * [Kim White](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimwhite/) * (@kimwhite) * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-with-wp-tags/#post-10320921) * These are “shortcodes” and some are built into WordPress [https://codex.wordpress.org/shortcode](https://codex.wordpress.org/shortcode) and others can often be associated with a plugin you are using. * Is this a good start? Without seeing your site I can’t really say what is using these in this particular case. - This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by [Kim White](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimwhite/). - This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by [Kim White](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimwhite/). - This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by [Kim White](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimwhite/). * Thread Starter [surfs-up](https://wordpress.org/support/users/surfs-up/) * (@surfs-up) * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-with-wp-tags/#post-10324390) * Oh yes, when I add a plugin shortcode into a page they too use the brackets [] but what I’m speaking of here is used in place of reg html to apply pre-set formatting such as [section extra=header-top]Header text here[/section]. * It is not CSS or HTML as I know them, but I can see the results are operating just like CSS & HTML. * Is there a file in the theme or place where I can look these up…. would they be in a style sheet of some kind? * Is it okay to use reg HTML instead? As you can see from my examples they are being used for things like header, paragraph, sections, etc. and so they replace

, but they come with extra formatting usually margins. * I have removed all I’ve found, which wasn’t much, so there isn’t any page you could view them on really. But my theme is NativeChurch, and I’m totally new to WP so I’m unfamiliar with these bracket tags instead of HTML. I tend to mess with things to learn, but this can cause trouble later. So I’m wondering how important using these bracket tags are, and if they can be replaced with html. Or if I could look them up somewhere in my theme and learn how to use them….. * The expensive support has run out, so I’m trying to understand this on my own 🙂 * Thanks * [Kim White](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimwhite/) * (@kimwhite) * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-with-wp-tags/#post-10324947) * It is not any part of HTML and is most likely part of a theme or a plugin you are using. * Without your site to look at we have nothing to look at to perhaps give you an idea of what is building with the brackets. * If you take them out and build with HTML and it works, no harm no foul. However, the editor does not always keep HTML the way you think it should. Perhaps that’s whey the author of the content you are looking at has used the shortcodes. * A new editor will be coming to WordPress 5.0 (no date set for launch) that is using a whole new way to layout a page or post. IF you have a staging site you can try it on you might find it useful in building your sites. You can add this coming functionality by installing the “Gutenberg” plugin. [https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/) - This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by [Kim White](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimwhite/). * Thread Starter [surfs-up](https://wordpress.org/support/users/surfs-up/) * (@surfs-up) * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-with-wp-tags/#post-10325067) * Oh, I understand now. * In that case I can just ignore it. It was part of a template page, that I have now edited to fit my needs. * Thanks Kim! * [Kim White](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kimwhite/) * (@kimwhite) * [8 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-with-wp-tags/#post-10326943) * Glad to help! You can mark this resolved. * Thread Starter [surfs-up](https://wordpress.org/support/users/surfs-up/) * (@surfs-up) * [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-with-wp-tags/#post-10327497) * Sure Thing 😀 Thanks again Kim Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total) The topic ‘Help with WP [tags]’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [html](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/html/) * [tags](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/tags/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 6 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [surfs-up](https://wordpress.org/support/users/surfs-up/) * Last activity: [8 years, 1 month ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-with-wp-tags/#post-10327497) * Status: resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics