Last reviewed: September 16, 2025

WordPress Plugin Overview


Compatibility and Requirements

WordPress compatibility:

  • Minimum PHP version 8.0
  • Minimum WordPress version 5.7

Also requires:

General Usage

Use the Pantheon Content Publisher WordPress plugin to publish content directly from Google Docs. For detailed usage instructions, see our WordPress Getting Started Tutorial.

Create a new collection

Click Create new collection then provide a management token from your Content dashboard and select whether new content should be created as Posts or Pages.

Connect to an existing collection

Click Connect existing collection then provide your collection ID. Create an access token and paste it in, then click Continue. Follow instructions to complete your setup by configuring webhooks for this collection.

Edit content

Once published, Google Docs content is stored in WordPress and should not be treated as directly editable (read-only).

If you wish to edit a page or post, do so in Google Docs - you can easily access the source for a given page or post by clicking the Edit in Google Docs link from the WordPress Admin Dashboard:  

Limitations

  • Custom post types are not yet supported by the plugin, only posts or pages.  

Metadata Usage

Metadata refers to page-level configurations for a given post or page, managed via the Google Docs add-on. Clicking Edit next to Page Metadata in the Google Docs add-on opens the following window:

Default fields

Below are the default metadata fields managed by the Content Publisher Google Docs add-on, and a description of how WordPress uses them:

  • Title - sets post_title for the given post in the wp_posts database table, rendered based on theme.
  • Slug - sets post_name for the given post in the wp_posts database table, determines the URL.
  • Description - sets post_excerpt for the given post in the wp_posts database table.
  • Image - sets a post thumbnail, rendered based on theme.
  • Tags - sets tags for the given post, works natively as a default WordPress taxonomy.

Recommended custom field

Additionally, WordPress sites should create the following as a custom metadata field:

  • Name: Categories
    • Type: Text
    • Usage: sets categories for the given post, works natively as a default WordPress taxonomy.

For step by step instructions, see our WordPress Getting Started Tutorial.

Author default and overrides

Default author

When publishing new Posts in WordPress, the author field defaults to the lowest-ID administrator (ordered ASC), which is often user ID 1, but only if that user is an administrator.

If no administrators exist, the default falls back to 0 (no-author). This behavior can be overridden using the pcc_default_author_id filter.

Custom site-wide default author

Override the default author set by the plugin to a user with a specific login name (e.g., “content-publisher”):

add_filter('pcc_default_author_id', static function ($defaultId, $article) {

   // Replace with preferred user (fallback to computed default if not found)

   $user = get_user_by('login', 'content-publisher');

   return $user ? (int) $user->ID : (int) $defaultId;

}, 10, 2);

Custom author on per-post basis

Override the default author set by the plugin for every post, based on a custom metadata field (e.g., ‘Author Email’):

add_filter('pcc_default_author_id', function ($id, $article) {

   // Match emails to WP users

   if (!empty($article->metadata['Author Email'])) {

    $user = get_user_by('email', $article->metadata['Author Email']);

          if ($user) return (int) $user->ID;

   }

   return (int) $id;

}, 10, 2);

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I still use shortcodes when editing and publishing from Google Docs?

Yes! Please do. The shortcodes will not render in preview mode while publishing via the Google Docs add-on but once content is published to WordPress the shortcodes will work on the webpage as expected.

Do I need to do any extra configuration to see content published from Google Docs in my WordPress search experience?

Nope, no extra configuration is needed. Content is published as either a post or a page, and is searchable using the default search mechanism offered natively by WordPress.

Can I change the plugin configuration from Post to Pages or vice versa?

No, once this option has been configured (during plugin setup) it cannot be changed.