Author Message plugin
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The Author Message plugin allows you to add a message to the bottom of each post or page on your website with the details of (or a message from) the relevant author.
It is designed to be usable directly upon activation, but also easily customisable to fit your requirements.
Installation
To install the Author Message plugin first download the most recent version by clicking on the Download button below. Once you have the plugin archive, you will need to uncompress it. This should result in you having a folder called authormessage created containing the plugin.
Upload the author message directory and it’s contents to the wp-content/plugins directory of your WordPress site.
Next you will need to navigate to the Plugins page of your WordPress administration system and Activate the Author Message plugin.
Basic Configuration
When the Author Message plugin is first activated, it is set to display a message at the bottom of each post or page on your blog. It will not show up on the index page of your site, nor on searches or archive pages.
The default display will look something like this:
This default message uses two pieces of information from the authors WordPress profile. The contact email address for the author is used to grab their image from Gravatar and the About yourself text is displayed as the message.
To create or change the authors image you will need to login to your account or create a free one at the Gravatar site and follow their instructions. It is important to use the same email address on the Gravatar website as you have entered in your WordPress contact details if you want the correct image to be displayed.
To create or change the message, simply Click on the Users menu and then choose Your Profile. The message is taken directly from the About Yourself box and can include links and some formating.
Advanced Configuration
More advanced configuration options are available of the Author Message page of your WordPress admin Options menu.
The top part of the options page allows you to change how and where the author message will be displayed.
The first three options allow you to decide whether you want the message to display on posts, pages or everywhere.
The default is to display the author message on only single posts and pages.
The “Message position on page” option allows you to switch the author message from showing after the post/page content to being displayed before the content.
The final option “Use stylesheet” allows you to switch the plugins auto-generated CSS style on or off. You have three choices for this option, the default and safest is to allow the plugin to automatically generate the CSS style for you.
If you wish to change the style of the author message and include the relevant styles within your themes stylesheet then you can turn off stylesheet generation completely by selecting the “My Themes stylesheet” option.
The final option for “Use stylesheet” allows to use your own custom styles, but keep them separate from your themes stylesheet.
Even more advanced configuration
The final two options on this page allow you to completely change the look and style of the author message.
The “Author message body” field holds the HTML that is output when the author message is displayed. The default HTML contains two placeholder tags:
{gravatar_image} is replaced with an IMG tag that grabs and loads the authors Gravatar image.
{author_message} is replaced by the About Yourself profile text which I mentioned earlier.
The “Author message style” contains the CSS styling that is applied to the above HTML. It defaults to the built in CSS for the plugin.
