Recently, while visiting one of the blogs, we saw a nifty little box on each post that showed an estimated post reading time. Since we knew that the blog was running a plugin, we knew there has to be a plugin that showed how to do this. With a few minutes of research and testing, we found a way to do it. In this article, we will show you how to display estimated post reading time in your WordPress posts.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin: Post Reading Time. Upon activation, you will see a new menu option under the Settings menu called “Post Reading Time”.
As you can see in the screenshot above, there are a few options available. The first option is words per minute. The way this plugin works is it calculates the word count of your post and an average words per minute time. According to Wikipedia, rate of 200 – 400 words per minute is average when it comes to reading for comprehension. This is why we will set 200 words per minute as our average number. You have the option to select a prefix and suffix text. You also have the option to select the time output which can either be in minutes or minutes and seconds.
A sample output would look like:
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 47 seconds.
In order for an output like this to display in your post, you need to paste the following code in your template file wherever you want to display the reading time.
<?php post_read_time(); ?>
Most folks will add this code inside their single.php file, archive.php, or home page.
We liked this plugin because this was fairly straight forward even though it required a little bit of theme editing. If you want the post reading time, and more features all to be integrated automatically, then you should probably use the Post Teaser plugin.
We hope that you like this post. Do you think it helps to display estimated post reading time?
If you’re looking for something that doesn’t require éditing theme, I made a short function that does the job with the filter the_content : http://jmperso.eu/codewp/display-estimated-time-post-reading-time.
I agree that it’s pretty neat. Not everything we add to our blogs has to be useful. Some readers like a little fluff. I’d find that an interesting feature if I came across it.
The article certainly is helpful and I would imagine the plugin is straightforward enough.
But I wonder, How important is this feature? Would it really make a difference if people actually read the post or not?
Cheers,
Bill
This feature is not significantly important at all. It is just one of those nice things to have if you want. We thought it was cool when we saw it on another site, this is why we wrote about it.
I personally have to say that i think its a great tool to use because it will allow you to see how is reading what and who isn’t. that’s how you build a successful site. your trying to find out what people are reading and what people are not reading…with that you’ll know what to blog about…that’s just how i look at it