Using Shortcodes

A shortcode is a small snippet of text — wrapped in square brackets — that you paste into any page, post, or widget area to embed dynamic content. WordPress replaces the shortcode with real content when the page is displayed.

You do not need to write any code to use a shortcode. If you can copy and paste text, you can use shortcodes.

What Does a Shortcode Look Like?

A shortcode looks like this:

Form not found.

The part inside the brackets is the shortcode name (agentic_form), and id="5" is an attribute that tells the shortcode which form to display. Different shortcodes accept different attributes — the Forms Builder assistant will always give you the exact shortcode to use, already filled in.

Pasting a Shortcode — Block Editor (Gutenberg)

WordPress uses the Block Editor by default. Here is how to add a shortcode to a page or post:

1. Open the page or post you want to edit.
2. Click the + button to add a new block.
3. Search for Shortcode and select the Shortcode block.
4. Paste your shortcode into the input field (for example

   Form not found.

   ).
5. Click Update or Publish to save the page.

The form (or other content) will appear on the live page immediately after saving.

Pasting a Shortcode — Classic Editor

If your site uses the Classic Editor plugin, the process is even simpler:

1. Open the page or post you want to edit.
2. Click in the content area where you want the form to appear.
3. Type or paste the shortcode directly — for example

   Form not found.

   .
4. Click Update or Publish.

Form Shortcodes from Forms Builder

When you ask the Forms Builder assistant to create a form, it gives you two shortcodes automatically:

Shortcode	What it does
Invalid form ID.	Displays the form so visitors can fill it in and submit it.
You do not have permission to view form entries.	Displays a table of submitted entries. Visible to admins only by default.

Replace X with the form ID the assistant gives you — for example

Form not found.

.

Viewing Form Submissions

To display the entries table on a page, paste

You do not have permission to view form entries.

into a private page so only admins can see it — or tick Make private in the WordPress page settings. By default the entries shortcode is admin-only, meaning it shows nothing to logged-out visitors even if placed on a public page.

The entries shortcode accepts a few optional attributes:

• limit="20" — number of entries to show per page (maximum 100).
• page="1" — which page of results to show.
• public="1" — allow any logged-in user (not just admins) to view entries.

Example:

You do not have permission to view form entries.

Common Questions

The shortcode is showing as plain text on my page.
You likely pasted it into a Paragraph block instead of a Shortcode block. Delete the paragraph, add a Shortcode block, and paste again.

The form is not appearing.
Check that the form ID in the shortcode matches the one the assistant gave you. You can ask the assistant “list my forms” to confirm.

The entries table shows nothing.
Either no submissions have been made yet, or you are viewing the page while not logged in as an admin. Log in to WordPress and refresh the page.