Boost Sharing (PRO)
How to Let Readers Share Highlighted Text (PRO)
PRO feature
Highlight sharing is available in Social Linkz PRO. The free plugin does not include it. See Social Linkz PRO for details.
Want readers to be able to share a memorable line straight from your article, the way Medium does? Turn on highlight sharing in Social Linkz PRO. When a reader selects text inside your post content, a small share bar pops up over the selection with the quote pre-filled, ready to post to the networks you choose.
What is highlight sharing?
Highlight sharing is a Social Linkz PRO feature that shows a floating share bar when a reader selects (highlights) text in your article. The selected text becomes the shared quote. It is a desktop feature — it appears on single post and page views, and only when the selection is made inside your post content.
How to enable highlight sharing
- In your WordPress admin, go to Social Linkz → Settings.
- Open the Highlight Share tab.
- Under General Options, turn on Enable Highlight Share.
- In Social Networks, pick the buttons the bar should offer. Keep the list short — the bar floats over the reader's selection, so a handful of networks reads best.
- Save your settings.
How to choose which post types show it
In the Display section, use Post Types to tick the post types (Posts, Pages, custom types) where highlight sharing should run. It appears only on the single views of those post types.
How to style the highlight bar
The Design section controls the bar's appearance.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Container Shape | The bar's corners — Square, Rounded, or Circular. |
The section also carries the shared button design fields used across Social Linkz: Button Style, Button Shape, Button Size, Button Color, Button Hover Color, Icon Color, Icon Hover Color, Inverse On Hover, and Button Margin.
Where and when the bar appears
Highlight sharing runs under specific conditions by design:
- Desktop only. Selecting text to share is a mouse gesture; on a phone the long-press menu already owns the selection, so the bar does not appear on mobile.
- Single posts and pages only. It runs on singular views of your chosen post types, not on archives or the front page.
- Inside the post content only. A selection made in a menu, sidebar or comment is not a quote from the article, so it won't trigger the bar.
- Up to ~250 characters. The selected text is capped at about 250 characters — longer selections are trimmed before they reach the share link.
How to turn highlight sharing off on a single post
To disable it on one specific post or page, open that post in the editor and, in the Social Linkz meta box, tick Turn off highlight sharing on this post. See per-post sharing settings for every per-post override.
Conclusion
Highlight sharing in Social Linkz PRO turns any sentence in your article into a shareable quote — the reader selects the text and a share bar appears over it. Enable it under Social Linkz → Settings → Highlight Share, keep the network list short, and pick your post types. To hand readers a ready-made pull quote instead of relying on their own selection, add a Click-to-Tweet box.
FAQs
Is highlight sharing free?
No. Highlight sharing is a Social Linkz PRO feature. The free plugin does not include it.
Why doesn't the highlight bar appear on mobile?
Highlight sharing is a desktop-only feature. Selecting text on a phone triggers the device's own long-press menu, which already handles the selection, so Social Linkz does not show its bar there.
Why doesn't selecting text in my sidebar or menu trigger it?
The bar only appears for selections made inside your post content. Text selected in a menu, sidebar, comment or other area is not treated as a quote from the article, so no share bar is shown.
How much text can a reader share at once?
Up to about 250 characters. If a reader selects more, the quote is trimmed to that length before it is placed in the share link.
Which pages does highlight sharing work on?
Only single post and page views of the post types you tick under Post Types on the Highlight Share tab. It does not run on archives, the blog page or the front page.
How do I turn highlight sharing off on one post?
Open that post in the editor and tick Turn off highlight sharing on this post in the Social Linkz meta box.