First-run setup: pages and shortcodes

🔍

HelpWP needs three (or four) WordPress pages to drive its public UI. To save you the manual work, the plugin creates the core pages for you on activation and wires them into settings automatically. You only need to step in if you want different titles, slugs, or layouts.

What gets created on activation

On first activation, HelpWP creates these pages and selects them in HelpWP -> Settings:

Page	Shortcode	Setting
Docs	🔍 📂 Tutorial 📄 Passwordless client login (helpwplogin) 📄 Translating HelpWP 📄 Filter hooks reference 📄 Action hooks reference 📄 REST API quick reference 📄 Migrating from other plugins 📄 Disconnecting and re-registering for AI 📄 Configuring the AI auto responder View All	Docs -> Pages -> Docs archive page
My Tickets	EmailTo get started, please enter your email Verification Code Your Name Next	Tickets -> Pages -> My Tickets
Submit a Ticket	EmailTo get started, please enter your email Verification Code Your Name Next	Tickets -> Pages -> New Ticket

The installer is idempotent:

• If a setting already points at a live page, it is left alone.
• If a page already exists whose content contains the matching shortcode, that page is adopted instead of a duplicate being created.

So deactivating and reactivating, or installing on a site that was already set up by hand, will not produce duplicate pages.

Optional: stand-alone login page

is rendered automatically inside

EmailTo get started, please enter your email

Verification Code

Your Name

Next

and

EmailTo get started, please enter your email

Verification Code

Your Name

Next

for logged-out visitors, so a stand-alone login page is only needed if you want one. It is not created on activation; add it manually if you need it.

Renaming or replacing the auto-created pages

The auto-created pages are normal WordPress pages. You can:

• Rename them (for example, Documentation instead of Docs) under Pages in WordPress admin.
• Change their slug, parent, or template like any other page.
• Replace them entirely: create your own page with the relevant shortcode, then re-pick it in HelpWP -> Settings under the Docs or Tickets tab.

HelpWP uses these settings to build links inside notification emails and to anchor the docs URL structure on the archive page’s slug.

Add the pages to your menu

Most themes have an Appearance -> Menus screen. Add the auto-created pages to your primary menu so visitors can find them.

What if a page is unset?

The plugin still works, but ticket emails will fall back to the site home URL when they need to link a client to My Tickets. Always make sure both ticket pages are picked once the Tickets module is in use.