To really unlock the power of WordPress you can use short codes to quickly and easily add content to your blog. WordPress comes with built in short codes you can use to insert posts, list posts, videos, galleries, and much more! You can use them in your theme to quickly display your most popular or most recent posts.

With WordPress shortcodes you can take your blogging to a whole new level!

Think of it like a shortcut to keep from having to add a lot of html or code to your posts. You will just add the shortcode immediately before where you want the file or data to be placed and close the shortcode like you would with html;

WordPress shortcode example :  [sourcecode] code goes here [/sourcecode] preserves the formatting of source code

Images and Documents

• [/gallery]inserts an image gallery into a post or page.
• [rockyou] embeds a slideshow from RockYou.
• [scribd] embeds a document/file from Scribd.
• [/slideshow] embeds a slideshow of uploaded photos
• [/slideshare] embeds a slideshow from Slideshare.net.
• [googleapps] embeds a document from Google Docs.
• [office] embeds an Excel document from Microsoft Office Live.

Audio

• [audio] converts a link to an mp3 file into an audio player.
• [soundcloud] embeds the SoundCloud Audio Player.

Video

• [blip.tv] embeds a Blip.tv Video.
• [dailymotion] embeds a DailyMotion Video.
• [flickr] embeds a Flickr video.
• [googlevideo] embeds a Google Video.
• [livevideo] embeds a video from LiveVideo.
• [ted] embeds a TED Talks video.
• [vimeo] embeds a Vimeo video.
• [wpvideo] embeds a VideoPress video.
• [youtube] embeds a YouTube video.

Miscellaneous

Useful shorcodes for adding a blog archive index, contact form,  polls, and more.

• [archives] displays an archive index of your blog posts.
• [contact-form] adds a contact form to your page.
• [googlemaps] embeds Google Maps.
• [polldaddy] embeds a PollDaddy poll.
• [wufoo] embeds a Wufoo form.
• [sourcecode][/sourcecode] preserves the formatting of source code.

WordPress ShortCodes overview