Inserts the current Year into a Post or Page through the use of a Shortcode. And always keeps it up to date. For example, a Page created today (2012) viewed 5 years from now (2017) will show the Year current when it is viewed (2017) by any site visitor.

A second Shortcode inserts a Copyright symbol: ©. And a third provides both because of WordPress restrictions of using two Shortcodes side-by-side.

The [y] shortcode inserts the four digit current year into any Page or Post no matter whether you use the Visual or the HMTL editor tab in Edit Post or Edit Page. The [c] shortcode inserts the © Copyright symbol, using the official HTML coding for a copyright symbol. The [cy] shortcode inserts the © Copyright symbol, a blank and the current year.

For example, if you are continually refining an older article that you want to copyright on a WordPress Page, you could put the following at the bottom of the page:

[c] 1997-[y] John Smith

Assuming it is currently the year 2012, that would display as:

© 1997-2012 John Smith

In 2013, it would automatically display as © 1997-2013 John Smith without anyone having to edit the Page.

IMPORTANT USAGE NOTE: WordPress does not currently support the use of two Shortcodes in a row on a Page or Post. In other words, [c][y] WILL NOT WORK! As of this writing (June 24, 2012), the WordPress Development Team has this issue scheduled for resolution in a “Future Release”, a state it has remained in for the last 20 months. That is why the [cy] Shortcode has been provided.

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

1. Use “Add Plugin” within the WordPress Admin panel to download and install this plugin from the WordPress.org plugin repository (preferred method). Or download and unzip this plugin, then upload the /jonradio-current-year-and-copyright-shortcodes/ directory to your WordPress web site’s /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress. If you have a WordPress Network (“Multisite”), you can either Network Activate this plugin, or Activate it individually on the sites where you wish to use it. Activating on individual sites within a Network avoids some of the confusion created by WordPress’ hiding of Network Activated plugins on the Plugin menu of individual sites.
3. Insert the [y], [c] and/or [cy] shortcodes as many times as you wish in one or more WordPress Pages or Posts; note the current WordPress restriction that no two Shortcodes cannot be placed “side by side”, i.e. – [c][y] will not work.

1. [c] 1997-[y] John Smith as it would be displayed in the year 2012

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