Alternative to the Co-Authors Plus WordPress Plugin
Co-Authors Plus is an old and popular WordPress plugin.
By default, WordPress allows you to choose a single author for content. Co-Authors Plus was a solution to this, because it allowed you to assign multiple authors to one content item.
However, Co-Authors Plus has only had a small number of updates in the last few years. Also, it can be hard to use because it requires you to edit your template files.
The PublishPress Authors plugin is a major update of Co-Authors Plus that’s worth checking out.
We reviewed the PublishPress Planner plugin, which is a really good editorial calendar. PublishPress Authors is an extra plugin from the same team.
Your Guide to PublishPress Authors
If you install PublishPress Authors, you’ll see a new box on the right-hand side of all your posts. You can add and remove authors on this screen (click here to learn about Authors permissions in WordPress).
Instead of manually editing your template files, the PublishPress Authors gives you several different options to display the authors’ box:
- At the bottom of your content
- In a widget
- Via a shortcode
- Replacing the default author display
And yes, if you want to do things manually, there are filters and actions available so you can add the PublishPress Authors output to your template files.
This next image shows how the PublishPress Authors plugin might appear on the frontend of a site with two authors on the same post. If you want to learn about all the display options, read this PublishPress Authors documentation.
PublishPress Authors Settings
You can access the main PublishPress Authors screen by clicking on the “Authors” link in the WordPress admin menu. This is where you can add new author profiles.
The authors feature doesn’t appear on all post types by default. You need to select what post types you want to use, by going to “Authors” then “Settings”.
You can also configure several different layout options for the content by going to “Authors” then “Author Boxes”.
Summary
All-in-all, PublishPress Authors is a worthy successor to the older Co-Authors Plus plugin and has some nice extra features that make it easier to use.
If you want to find out more, we also wrote about how PublishPress Authors can handle guest author posts.
