Cool Author Box: Free WordPress Plugin

This looks cool! I’m going to try it soon

Hi, it looks great and I have put it on my site.

Any way I can make it appear AFTER the Share buttons and BEFORE Related Posts?

Also it would be nice if you cold add an option for the size (length) small and default, as i would have liked it to be smaller in length.

Otherwise almost what I was lloking for

@Andy: This is the first version. I have a long list of options and functions I want to add down the road – just wanted to roll this basic one out first.

In the meantime you can set the width of the box manually by changing the width attribute of the .profile style in cool-author-box.php.

Hi Morten,

I’ve tried all of the author plugins and yours is by far the best.

The only problem I have though is that I run a multi author blog site, all of the authors do not have a wordpress.com account and therefore can not have a gravatar linked to their log in on my website.

Is there any chance that in the future you can allow the plug in to display the author bio picture instead of a gravatar?

Yasin: They don’t need a WordPress.com account. They can get Gravatars from Gravatar.com for free.

Hi Morten,

Thanks for your reply, how is the gravatar then linked to their account on my website?

@Yasin: The Gravatar is linked to whatever email address you use to set it up. As long as the email address in the user profile in your WordPress blog matches the one registered with Gravatar the image will show up.

Awesome. Thanks for your help Morten and I wish you luck with the plug in, I hope there’ll be more updates to it.

Thanks for this, I will check it out on my Blog.

nice widget, i hope i can use it, good article, thank you for it

This is a great plugin, Morten, just what I’ve been looking for. It really stands out. I have one request, since you said you were still working on future versions: can you make it so that we can manually enter the code where we want the author box to show up in the post? Thanks, man, and it’s a great plugin.

I love the plugin, but can I replace the gravatar image with a custom image?

Thanks again Morten

Yes, but you’d have to go in and change the code manually at this point. It’s on the list of things to add in the next release.

great plugin to mywebsite, thanks…

I’ve got gravatars for authors, same email as the user emails in my WordPress site, but no pics show up – what do I need to do to get this to work?

Thanks Morten, it worked just fine. I could reduce the width by changing it to as follows: “margin: 50px”

I look forward to your next release, where you give a few more options!

I’d really like to know why this isn’t working for me! The gravatar email is the same email as the WordPress user email. What am I doing wrong? Or is there a known conflict with another plugin, or…?

Thanks so much for developing this plugin! In the php file, the comment says that the box can be added to the top or bottom of a post, but the readme says it can only be added to the bottom. What can i modify to make it appear at the top?

Thanks again!

- Ryan

[...] Cool Author Box -Adds a author box to the top or bottom of posts and pages displaying the author name (linking to other posts by the same author), author website and author Gravatar in a cool and unusual layout. [...]

Hiii, how to add custom’s information ?
a video tutorial will be great –
more over it may also attract more users

I?ve recently started a blog, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all ?

This is really a great stuff thanks for sharing. Keep it up. I will bookmark this blog, and will come back often. Hoster

I have problem to activate this plugin on WordPress 3.0.1:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting T_STRING in D:\xampplite\htdocs\wp-content\plugins\cool-author-box\cool-author-box.php on line 50

I think this plugin is great, thank you. My only bugbear (I’m a writer) is in the section at the bottom where it gives the website, it doesn’t have an apostrophe, so where it should say Michelle’s website, it says Michelles website. Nails down a chalkboard to a grammar stickler like me . Is there anyway you could get that apostrophe in there?

[...] Cool Author Box -Adds a author box to the top or bottom of posts and pages displaying the author name (linking to other posts by the same author), author website and author Gravatar in a cool and unusual layout. [...]

can you guys add social networks site for the authors? such as twitter, Facebook,etc?

Love the plugin. I too am I stickler for proper punctuation and the lack of an apostrophe is driving me crazy! Better yet, is there a way I can remove that line all together?

One thing I’ve been looking for either a plugin for, or for code to add myself, is to have an author box that includes the line “Copyright (year changes) by (post author).” Any possibility of that?

[...] Author Box Is it just me or is there not many Author Box plugins out there, that let you show your blog article Author’s without messing with coding? Well I found a good one which is quite straight forward, very handy if you are having Guest Posters write on your blog. [...]

The apostrophe problem was a pretty easy fix. I edited the cool-author-box.php found in the /wp-content/plugins folder.

Just had to insert a couple / characters — see image below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mas90guru/5052328634/sizes/l/

We run a formula one site for Journalists
Great plugin

Just one question
is it possible to have all authors showing on our about page

Eg we have 5 F1planet authors

Can we list each bio down the page with there Gravatar?

Thanks

Bump

@Morten

@F1planet You can’t make the plugin do that for you, but you can borrow the style code from the plugin and do it manually. It’s just a matter of opening a page that has the author box in it in code view, copy the code for the author box area, change the text and paste it into the HTML view for the post in question. I’ve done something similar on the testimonials page on my company site.

[...] Cool Author Box -Adds a author box to the top or bottom of posts and pages displaying the author name (linking to other posts by the same author), author website and author Gravatar in a cool and unusual layout. [...]

[...] Cool Author Box -Adds a author box to the top or bottom of posts and pages displaying the author name (linking to other posts by the same author), author website and author Gravatar in a cool and unusual layout. [...]

Hi there — I was just going through some of your new lynda.com tutorial videos (fantastic job BTW!) and when I attempt to install I encounter the following error message, this happens whether I install from a download or directly from WordPress:

Plugin could not be activated because it triggered a fatal error.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting T_STRING in /Users/digiboy/Sites/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/cool-author-box/cool-author-box.php on line 50

Could you offer any insight as to what might be happening in this instance. Thanks!

Love your plugin! I have used it on almost all of my sites. However, my new site has multiple authors (using co-author plugin). When I add an author only the first author has their cool author box show up at the bottom. Is there any way to tweak the code to show two boxes? One for each author?

Thanks in advance!

Hello Morten Rand-Hendriksen.

I`ve got 2 questions:

1) How to change the display position?

2) The gravatar images are not showed. What should I do?

Regards

Morten, this is such a great plugin. I just wanted to know something: how do I exclude “admin” posts (or any user’s for that matter) from showing? I suppose it is through the PHP in the plugin editor, but I don’t know exactly where. Could you tell me?

Thanks in advance!

[...] Cool Author Box: If you check Deolu’s post on this blog or that of any other writer, at the end of each post, you’ll see the Author’s name, website and a profile about the author. This particular plugin helps to achieve that. [...]

Thank you so much for this!!! I don’t feel like someone is running their fingernails down a chalkboard every time I look at that misplaced apostrophe anymore.

Awesome! Just what I need for my new blog.

Hello! Thank you for creating this awesome, easy to use plug-in and sharing it with us!

As it seems that not every visitor is keen to the right-click, I was wondering what to change in the code in order to allow the link to the author’s website to open in a new window? I have tried target_blank but it doesn’t seem to work. Maybe I am putting it in the wrong place?

Your help would be greatly appreciated!

PS Where can I find you on twitter? I would love to add you to our Smarty Pants Daily!!!

Thanks so much

Using it. Thanks a TON!

Excellent plugin, Morten.

I mention that I put on my site and it looks great.

Thank you very much for sharing.

Great plugin! How do I set the color at the bottom of the box? Thanks!

Great plugin! However – its working on pages but not on posts. I have both checked. I am running WP 3.1.1 Any thoughts?

Great work Morten!

We are currently using your code for our authors page, it looks very clean and professional.

Thank you!

Anis

Hi Morten, I’ve got one small concern, if you check our authors page @ http://www.abruzzischoolgarden.com/the-gardeners/
it seems the alignment of that colour bar on the bottom of the author box has somehow shifted as I copy and pasted it from HTML source as you directed above. So instead of aligning to the bottom of the box, it seems to be hovering somewhere near the top of the gravatars and looks considerably less boss.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Great plugin Morten.
I’m using it on my site and I think it looks fab.
Cheers,
Gen

Nice plugin . The only problem remained Gravatar in the beginning but now its k with me. Thanks for such a plugin.

Its running on posts too. Try to deactivate and activate it again.

Hi Morten,

can you help? I get an Error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting T_STRING in /webspace/12/47029/crm-ag.de/wp-content/plugins/cool-author-box/cool-author-box.php on line 50

Nice plugin! I love how it blends in with the native CSS of the site!

But I guess you have to hard code the Twitter link into the box, right? The default user settings for WordPress don’t have a Twitter username field

Hello Morton, I see that you have not been on here in months. I hope that you are still monitoring this site. I reall need your help. I utilized the plugin, however, when it sends out the automatic email regarding the guest posts, it included my guest bloggers email address instead of the one I have for the site.

My guest blogger was pretty upset since it was her personal email address that she does not want everyone to have. I would just try changing the code, but if I am not mistaken once I do that it will change from her gravatar photo, which is needed in the cool author box.

I know you have not been on here in a very long time, but if you would, please assist ASAP. Thanks so much in advance!

I’m not sure I understand what you mean. The plugin shouldn’t send anything to anyone, and even if it does, it should never contain an email address for someone else. That makes no sense. The plugin uses the same gravatar generation code as the comments section in your site.

Can you send me a message through the contact form with a text example of the output so I can see what you’re talking about?

I also receive this error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting T_STRING in /wp-content/plugins/cool-author-box/cool-author-box.php on line 50

Hi Morten

the links within the author box are not working properly

they look like this –

http://www.example-site.com/example-article/www.authors-link.com

this is creating a 404 page

I am using the correct html – <a href="www.example.com"………

Where are you inserting that code? The problem you’re seeing is that the output is doubling up.

im inserting the code in the ‘Biographical Info’ section in the wordpress ‘User’ page.

still having this problem :/

I get the same:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting T_STRING in C:\Users\Home\Documents\BitNami\apps\wordpress\htdocs\wp-content\plugins\cool-author-box\cool-author-box.php on line 50

Is there going to be any support for this? I dig the widget. I learned about it from you watching your Lynda.com course.

I just installed it exactly how you showed in the course. Does it need to be put somewhere else or modified in the plug-ins folder?

Thanks!

Sweet! This just ended hours of frustration, trying to get some other author plugins to work! Thanks!

I was hoping that you might be able to provide me with some code to tweak the plugin.

I wish to remove the image option and alter the text size and text color and remove the author website link.

Thank you

John

Thanks for this post on author boxes…

[...] Cool Author Box -Adds a author box to the top or bottom of posts and pages displaying the author name (linking to other posts by the same author), author website and author Gravatar in a cool and unusual layout. [...]

Hi.. Suddenly this awesome plugin is not working anymore. I got this error,

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting T_STRING in /home/duniakam/public_html/wp-content/plugins/cool-author-box/cool-author-box.php on line 50

This is by far the nicest looking out of the box author bio plug-in I’ve found.  I made some tweaks and love it.  Thank you!!

Man, I’m using your plugin.
It was the best solution that I’ve found.

Keep updating.
Thanks!

Hi – Love your plug in.  I have a bit of a problem, however.  The “Cool Author Box”  appears at the bottom of my pages, but not at the bottom of my posts.  I have checked both boxes in the “settings” area.  Any ideas?   My site:  http://www.travelandphototoday.com
My thanks in advance -
Bruce

I love this plugin ..  how did you achieve the hide/show feature?

What’s your related posts plugin?

[...] Eklenti Ana Sayfas? [...]

It’s not a plugin. I wrote it myself.

On some posts I don’t want the author’s box to appear. Is there a way I can hide the author’s box on certain posts? Thank you!

Hi,

Like other people I am getting the error: 

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING, expecting T_STRING in E:websitesmaplinblogwp-contentpluginscool-author-boxcool-author-box.php on line 50I have looked but there doesn’t seem to be a solution. I also looked at the file mentioned an there is to T_CONSTANT etcCan anyone help?

Brilliant. How can I add author image?

The author image is added through your Gravatar. Go to Gravatar.com, create an account with the same email address you used to set up your WordPress account, upload an image to Gravatar and the image is automatically pulled in to the author box.

Thanks for the informative post. I will surely look forward to these. The techniques given here very impressive.

Great plugin, but is there anyway to change the color of the blue bar on the bottom.  I noticed you have the color as orange on this page.  Thanks!

Hi Morten, love the cool author box. Just trying to work out how to get the ‘s on the right line. I have 2 websites and both have “s website” on the bottom line. I’m not great with html code … thanks for any help you can give.
Erica

Really great plugin and great for me..

Excellent work. Just stumbled across the plug-in and really dig it. I’m using Corona from Yoothemes that has been modified to support/display multiple authors in the tag-line (we’re just getting ready to launch this community “idea/discussion” site  – still have plenty of stuff to do). We’re setting it up to allow multiple authors to discuss trends and events that are shaping the future.

Is there any way to do the same with this plugin? Have it display multiple boxes – one per co author? Right now it just shows the first author.

Side note: our first post is about the SOPA/PIPA issue (see you have it on your banner), part of a trend we’re going
to be tracking on the use of online communities to raise awareness, and
provide call to action support, for social/political/crisis events –
http://2020F.com. The next major trend we are going to launch is
online/offline censorship (see the recent announcement by Twitter that
they are going to comply with certain countries requests to locally
censor information…)

I am glad to read this post,Thanks to sharing