Worth The Read

Worth The Read

An adjustable progress meter showing how much of the post/page the user has scrolled through, and a read time commitment label near the post titles.
Rating:
4.3
star-rating-1star-rating-2star-rating-3star-rating-4star-rating-5
Active Installations:
4000+
Last Updated:
Dec 04, 2024
WordPress Version:
3.8 or higher
Tested up to:
6.7.2

Lightweight Progress Indicator

A subtle and unobtrusive progress bar that shows how far you've scrolled through a post or page.

Customizable Placement and Color

Control the position and color of the progress bar to match your website's design.

Reading Time Commitment

Enable a feature that shows the estimated time it takes to read the content, helping users manage their time.

Flexible Label Placement

Use the [wtr-time] shortcode to place the time commitment label anywhere you want.

1.14.2

  • Tested: Compatible with WordPress 6.7.1

1.14.2

  • Fixed: Compatible with WordPress 6.4.2

1.14.1

  • Fixed: Fatal error

1.14

  • Fixed: Security vulnerability issue

1.13.2

  • Fixed: Menu priority glitch introduced in 1.13

1.13

  • New Feature: Ability to display progress bar only on specific posts and pages
  • New Feature: Ability to display reading time only on specific posts and pages
  • Updated: Redux options framework from 4.3.12.7 to 4.3.21.2
  • Tested: Compatible with WordPress 6.1.1

1.12

  • Tested: Compatible with WordPress 6.0

1.11

  • New Feature: Option to display time commitment within posts loops, including archives and homepage

1.10

  • Fixed: Resolved missing options files

1.9

  • Updated: Redux options framework from 3.6.18 to 4.3.12.7

1.8

  • New Feature: Added new debugging mode to help troubleshoot javascript issues
  • Fixed: Comment end div is no longer inserted into the DOM twice
  • Fixed: Homepage content is now correctly calculating progress bar length

1.7

  • New Feature: Option to disable progress bar shadow added
  • New Feature: Option to change the progress bar color when the end of the article is reached
  • Fixed: Text domain renamed from wtr to worth-the-read so translations plugins work
  • Fixed: JavaScript syntax issues in the js/wtr.js file

1.6

  • New Feature: Reading time now optionally takes images into account and allows you to adjust pictures-per-minute variable
  • Fixed: Improved handling of bugs which would clog up error logs
  • Fixed: Redux framework compatiblity fatal error resolved

1.5

  • New Feature: WTR now works with manually-entered custom post types
  • New Feature: You can spcify a unique singular format for the time commitment label
  • New Feature: Custom time commitment labels on a per-post and per-page basis
  • New Feature: You can now disable the progress bar for non-touch devices only
  • New Feature: Added RTL support for progress bar
  • Updated: Updated Redux (the plugin options framework) from 3.6.8 to 3.6.15
  • Updated: Implemented some Redux Framework annoyance helpers (https://hasin.me/2015/04/24/getting-rid-of-redux-framework-annoyances/)
  • Fixed: The default time format string is now translation-ready
  • Fixed: Commented out some console logging that had been used for debugging

1.4

  • New Feature: You can remove the reading progress bar and time commitment label from individual posts and pages
  • New Feature: You can manually adjust the average words per minute used in the time commitment calculation
  • New Feature: Choose between two methods of word counting for the time commitment calculation
  • New Feature: Content Offset setting. You can now manually add an offset to where the progress bar thinks the content begins
  • New Feature: [wtr-end] shortcode. You can now manually specify where the progress bar thinks the content ends
  • Updated: Updated Redux (the plugin options framework) from 3.6.5 to 3.6.8 which removed an unused set_transient causing slow queries
  • Fixed: All registered custom post types are now available to select in the custom post types plugin options
  • Fixed: Removed some php notices/warnings that popped up in error_logs
  • Fixed: Non-latin languages now work with the time commitment calculation
  • Fixed: Removed unused wtr-comments-end div injected into posts/pages with no comments

1.3.3

  • Added custom post types to the time commitment label
  • Added new option to change muted progress bar color in addition to opacity
  • Added separate progress bar placement and offset options that apply only to touch devices
  • Improved logic of where to display the time commitment label. You can now display it with a shortcode only instead of auto-placement.
  • Improved time commitment label so the minimum read time is 1 minute (i.e. it will no longer display any “0” minute reads)
  • Increased z-index of the progress slider from 99 to 99999
  • Fixed PHP in_array notices in a few places

1.3.2

  • Changed page slug of Redux options for better compatibility
  • Updated installation instructions in readme.txt
  • Removed a couple unneeded admin js/css files after migrating to Redux framework

1.3.1

  • Fixed tagging issue causing 500 error

1.3

  • Complete rewrite of options panel in Redux options framework
  • Added shortcode [wtr-time] for custom placement of reading time commitment

1.2.1

  • Scripts/styles no longer load on homepage if progress bar is not set to display on the homepage
  • Comments div anchor only renders where applicable

1.2

  • Added new time commitment feature
  • Added custom post types compatibility
  • Added home page compatibility
  • Added disable for touch devices feature
  • Added placement offset feature
  • Added muted opacity feature (was previously locked at .5)
  • Improved top placement to work better with WordPress admin bar on various screen sizes
  • Changed “width” setting label to “thickness” to be more intuitive
  • Changed “mute” setting label to “fixed opacity” to be more intuitive
  • Fixed php notices that displayed while wp_debug was turned on

1.1

  • Added ability to display progress bar on posts and pages, instead of only posts
  • Added new settings to adjust width and opacity of progress bar
  • Added new setting to choose whether progress bar stays muted on scroll
  • Improved calculations of progress bar scroll placement when Include Comments is on
  • Fixed a few text strings that weren’t wrapped in gettext function (i18n)

1.0.2

  • Added settings link directly to plugin page

1.0.1

  • Improved detection of comments

1.0

  • Initial release

Best parts? It works!

By nealumphred on November 30, 2024

Best parts? It works!

Keep on keepin' on ...

Absolutely does not anything :(

By Kai Spriestersbach (seokai) on November 14, 2021

Looks very promising, but on my site, nothing was added.

Best

By Edwinjj on June 7, 2021

Thank You for this

Perfect!

By harisreaderbird on May 8, 2021

Is the best reading progress bar and time plugin for WordPress sites! Thanks for your great work!

Simple. Yet Perfect!

By Aleksandar Stojkov (aleksandrius) on February 10, 2021

It's a simple progress bar plugin (that also displays read time) with all the necessary functional and customized options. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet it's totally free. Almost every plugin I have (even premium ones), I've always done some retouch. Except for the "worth the read" plugin. Nice job!

Best Plugin Ever!

By Abu Zar Mishwani (itsabuzarr) on January 22, 2021

This is probably the best plugin ever. It really helped me. Thanks to the creators of this plugin and keep it up...

Simply lovely

By jbogus7 on December 10, 2020

Hi Brian. I'm normally not the kind of type to leave reviews (anywhere really). Maybe I should work on that. I love the Worth The Read plugin. Setting it up was very easy. I like how you put thought into the descriptions within the configuration part of the plugin. Bonus points when comparing to other 'read progress bar plugins': - Placement of the bar (I was looking for a vertical (left or right hand side) option) - Option to change the appearance and placement of the bar on touch devices Thanks for making it. Hope you keep it updated in the future. I'm holding onto this one :-). Kind regards, Jordy

Excellent Plugin

By Rami (rami4625) on November 29, 2020

Excellent Plugin

Nice plugin, bad ads

By Jessess on May 5, 2020

The plugin works well, but I don't like the (rather ugly) ads in the Customizer.

Puts ads in customizer

By Darin Suntken (suntken34) on October 28, 2019

I liked this plugin. Until ads started showing up in my customizer main menu. Turned out this was the culprit. Uninstalled on all my sites and using another.
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