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Free Byline

Please read! This plugin has not been updated in over 6 months. It may no longer be maintained or supported. There may be compatibility issues when used with the latest version of WordPress. We suggest finding a similar, alternative plugin. Learn more about outdated plugins.

Byline

Plugin Author: Matt Dulin

Jay Hoffmann

April 28, 2014 (modified on May 22, 2018)

Editing, Page

Sometimes, your posts will have multiple authors. It happens. Byline allows you to list multiple authors for posts, and still link to their profiles with a body of work.

What’s It Do?

Byline adds a meta box to each post editor screen entitled “Bylines” which allows you to add a list of authors just like you would add tags. Any authors added to the byline will replace where authors are listed on the front-end (replacing the the_author(); template tag). The plugin also lets you add new authors in a custom taxonomy to choose from, and will show which authors are being listed on each post in a new column.

How’s It Work?

After you install and activate the plugin, you can start adding bylines by visiting any post editor, but if you’d like to keep everything a little more organized, you can go to Posts -> Bylines. From there, just use the text fields on the left to add a new author, with a name and optional description. Add as many as you like.

Bylines settings page

Add Bylines one by one

If you go to any post editor of either an existing post or a new one, you will now see a new box on the right sidebar labeled “Bylines.” This is where you can enter the name of multiple authors for each post. Make sure that each author’s name is separated by commas, just like you were adding tags. You can also click the “Choose from most used bylines” to show Byline author names you have already added. After you use the plugin for a while, this will list the most common ones, and author’s names will be auto-completed as you are typing. When you’re finished listing your authors, click “Add.”

Byline Post Editor settings

Add authors in the post editor

The front-end should now display the multiple authors automatically. But if you’re having a problem seeing them, make sure that your theme is properly using the author template tag. Open up the single.php template file, or whatever file is displaying your posts, and make sure this tag is in there:

<?php the_author(); ?> 

or

<?php the_author_link(); ?> 

The plugin will automatically replace these author links with the authors listed in the “Bylines” box.

Each new author will also have a custom page that automatically lists out any posts that that author has been added to. If you’re having trouble viewing this page, then try going to Settings -> Permalinks and just hitting the “Save” button which will flush/reset some of your settings.

By default, this page should just show a list of posts that the author has contributed to or posts in which that author’s name has been added to the “Bylines” box. But if you want to customize the way that this looks, simply create a new file called “taxonomy-byline.php” in your theme and this will be shown instead.

Costs, Caveats, Etc.

Byline is still new, so expect more options to come eventually. For now, it’s effective and works well, and there’s plenty of help to be had in the support forums.

Resources

Plugin Info
  • Downloads: 9,330+
  • Downloads trend (30d): +18.2%
  • Active installations: 300+
  • Rating:
  • Last Update: March 11th, 2013
  • Download Plugin for Free