General settings
General is the first tab and the only one you have to fill in. It decides which posts your filter pulls and what visitors can filter them by.
In short
Pick a post type, tick the taxonomies you want to filter by, then choose which terms appear on the front end. The settings below that control how multiple selections combine and what the filter shows when the page first loads.
Query Options
Everything on the General tab sits in one collapsible section called Query Options. Work down it in order - each setting narrows what the one below it offers.
One section, worked through from top to bottom.
Custom Post Type
Choose what your filter lists. The dropdown holds WordPress posts and any custom post types registered on your site, and it defaults to Post.
Change this first. The taxonomies offered below depend on the post type you pick, so switching it afterwards changes what is available.
Taxonomy
Tick the taxonomies visitors will filter by. Every taxonomy attached to your chosen post type appears here, and you can tick as many as you need - the default is Category.
The order matters, because it is the order they appear on the front end. Drag a taxonomy to move it.
Tip
Ticking a taxonomy makes its terms available in the Terms setting below. Untick one and its terms disappear from that list.
Terms
Ticking a taxonomy does not put all of its terms on the front end. This setting decides which ones visitors actually see, grouped under the taxonomy they belong to, with the number of posts in each shown beside its name.
By default the first five terms are shown in ascending order. Tick and untick to change that.
Settings
| Column | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | The term, with its post count in brackets. Tick it to show it on the front end |
| Setting | The gear opens the icon library, where you choose an icon for that term |
| Icon | Shows the icon you have chosen |
| Parent Dropdown | Turns the parent term into a label with its child terms listed beneath it |
Parent Dropdown
Tick this on a parent term and it stops behaving like something to click. Instead it becomes a label, with its child terms listed underneath - useful when a taxonomy is deep and the parents are groupings rather than choices in their own right. It only works with the Parent/Child layout, which you choose on the Layouts tab.
Two things have to be true for it to do anything:
- The Parent/Child layout is selected for the filter.
- The term you tick actually has child terms beneath it.
Careful
Ticking Parent Dropdown on any other layout, or on a term with no children, has no visible effect on the front end.
Terms are grouped under the taxonomy they belong to.
Taxonomy Relation and Category Relation
These two dropdowns decide how multiple selections combine when a visitor ticks more than one thing. They do different jobs, so set them separately.
Settings
| Setting | What it governs |
|---|---|
| Category Relation | How terms inside the same taxonomy combine - ticking two cuisines, for example |
| Taxonomy Relation | How different taxonomies combine - a cuisine and a cooking time, for example |
Both offer the same two options, and the difference is easiest to see with an example.
| Option | What it means |
|---|---|
| AND | A post has to match every selection to appear. Each extra tick narrows the results |
| OR | A post only has to match one of the selections. Each extra tick widens the results |
On a recipe site, a visitor who ticks Italian and Thai under Cuisines almost certainly wants recipes from either - so Category Relation set to OR gives them what they expect. AND would look for a recipe tagged both at once, and usually return nothing.
The same visitor who then ticks a cooking time wants both things to be true: an Italian or Thai recipe that also takes under 30 minutes. That is Taxonomy Relation set to AND.
Tip
Taxonomy Relation on AND with Category Relation on OR is the combination most people expect. Terms within a taxonomy widen the results, and each extra taxonomy narrows them.
Display 'All' Button In Filter
Adds an All button to the filter so visitors can clear their selection and see everything again. Enable or disable it.
Auto Select Default Term
Useful when the filter's shortcode sits on a category page. With this enabled, the filter loads with that page's own term already selected, so a visitor landing on a category sees only its posts without having to tick anything.
Default Term
Sets what is selected when the page first loads. The default is All, meaning every post shows until the visitor filters. Choose a term instead and the filter opens already narrowed to it.
Note
Nothing here is live until you save. The button at the top right reads Publish on a filter you have never saved, and Update once it has been published.
Common Questions
Why is my taxonomy not in the list?
Taxonomies are tied to post types. Check the Custom Post Type setting at the top - if it is set to Post, only the taxonomies registered to posts appear.
Why is QWhy are only some of my terms showing on the front end?my taxonomy not in the list?
The Terms setting defaults to the first five in ascending order. Tick the others to add them.
Can I filter by more than one taxonomy at once?
Yes. Tick as many as you need - the order you drag them into is the order visitors see.
Do I need to fill in the other tabs?
No. General is the only tab you have to complete for a working filter. The rest change how it looks.
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