Elevate Design Space – Impact and Goal Counter

FAQ

Can the miniature card link to another page?

Yes. Enter a URL in the counter’s Miniature card link URL setting. Only the public miniature layout becomes clickable. Leave the setting blank when the miniature card should not link anywhere.

What is the difference between Standard and Metric?

Standard preserves the complete localized number, such as 1,250,000. Metric uses compact metric-style suffixes for large numbers, such as 1.3M. WordPress locale settings determine the decimal and thousands separators.

The custom unit field works with either format. You can enter units or symbols such as $, miles, km, lb, kg, hours, meals, trees, or members and place the unit before or after the number.

Decimal places can be automatic or fixed at zero, one, or two. Number separators continue to follow the WordPress locale.

How do campaign periods and automatic resets work?

Goal counters can show a monthly, annual, or custom campaign period. When archive-and-reset is enabled, a daily WordPress scheduled task checks for an ended period, saves its current value and goal in the counter’s archive, resets the current value to zero, and advances monthly or annual dates. A custom period runs once and then disables its automatic reset.

WordPress scheduled tasks run when the site receives traffic, so a low-traffic site may process a reset shortly after the scheduled date rather than at an exact minute. Archived results are included in the JSON data export.

What is an impact equation?

An impact equation explains what a total represents without connecting to an outside service. For example, a counter can show that every $25 provides one meal and calculate the equivalent number of meals from its current value. The site owner controls the rate and wording.

Can I change the colors or animate the number?

Yes. Each counter can keep one of the four finished designs or override its background, accent, progress-track, and text colors. Number animation can be turned off and its duration can be adjusted. Visitors who request reduced motion receive a non-animated display.

Which time does a count-up or countdown use?

Dates and times entered in the counter editor use the timezone configured under WordPress Settings > General. This is intentional: the WordPress site timezone is the source of truth, not the timezone of the administrator’s computer.

On the public page, a small browser script keeps day counters current between page loads. A visitor in another timezone could see a day boundary at a slightly different local moment. Reloading the page synchronizes the display with the value calculated by WordPress.

Does WordPress automatically update the value?

Days-since and days-until counters are calculated automatically from their dates. Goal and manual impact totals are changed by an editor in WordPress. The free version does not connect to stores, donation systems, forms, or membership plugins.

How do milestone notifications work?

An administrator must first enable email notifications under Impact Counters > Settings and choose the recipient and goal percentages. Each individual Goal counter must then be opted in. When an editor saves a published Goal counter after its progress crosses a selected percentage, the plugin sends one email for the highest newly crossed milestone and records all milestones crossed by that update.

Enabling notifications does not send messages for milestones the counter had already reached. Emails use WordPress’s existing mail system, so delivery depends on the site’s mail configuration. The free version does not send countdown reminders or retrieve live values from another plugin.

Use the test-email control under Impact Counters > Settings to save the recipient and ask WordPress to send an immediate test message. The result shows whether WordPress accepted or rejected the request without changing counter values or milestone history. Acceptance does not guarantee final delivery by the recipient’s email provider.

Can I create more than one counter?

Yes. The free version supports unlimited counters. Each receives its own block selection and shortcode.

Does it work with BuddyPress and Youzify?

The regular and miniature shortcodes can be placed in BuddyPress or Youzify areas that process WordPress shortcodes. This makes a site-managed counter suitable for a community dashboard, widget, custom tab, or other shortcode-enabled area.

The current free version does not create a separate counter for each member, add counters to profiles automatically, read BuddyPress member totals, or provide member-controlled visibility. Those features require a dedicated community integration and should not be inferred from basic shortcode compatibility.

Is the plugin accessible?

The counter uses semantic text, an accessible progressbar with numeric values, responsive typography, live text for time changes, and reduced-motion support. Site owners should still choose labels and surrounding content that are clear to their audience.

Does the counter use H1 or H2 typography?

No. An individual counter does not add H1 or H2 headings. Its number is a styled text container, and its visible label uses paragraph semantics so it does not disrupt the page’s heading hierarchy or depend on a theme’s heading presets. The Impact Dashboard’s optional title uses an H2 because it labels a group of counters; leave that title blank when the surrounding page already supplies the appropriate heading.

The free editor provides four finished designs rather than typography controls. Developers and site owners can override the CSS directly. The following custom properties are available on .impagoco-counter:

--impagoco-font-family, `--impagoco-number-size`, and `--impagoco-label-size`

For example:

.impagoco-counter { --impagoco-font-family: Georgia, serif; --impagoco-number-size: 90px; --impagoco-label-size: 26px; }

Place overrides in the site’s Additional CSS area or a child theme so plugin updates do not replace them.

Does the plugin send data to Elevate Design Space?

No. The plugin makes no external API requests and includes no analytics or tracking.

What happens to counter data when the plugin is deleted?

The Data settings screen controls uninstall behavior. By default, deleting the plugin removes its counters, post metadata, notification history, and settings. Uncheck the deletion option before uninstalling if the data should remain for a later reinstallation. Deactivation alone never deletes data.

Administrators can also download a JSON export containing all counters, their configuration, site-wide plugin settings, and sent-notification history.

What could a future Pro version include?

Potential Pro features include automatic WooCommerce, donation, community, and form integrations; historical charts; digest, multi-recipient, and webhook notifications; data importing and migration tools; advanced typography and saved style presets; member-specific BuddyPress and Youzify counters; advanced dashboard controls; permissions; and priority support. The free plugin’s core counter features are not temporary trials.