speedy_snail on "How to deal with a form being posted?"

Good idea about bookmarking refined searches (due to $_GET).

The only issue that remains is that if the page in the Wordpress page editor looks like this:

Search for rented property using the form below:
[property_rent_search]

Then obviously the initial display of this page (before the submit button has been clicked) will display the text 'Search for rented property using the form below:' followed by the search form. The problem though is that once the submit button is clicked, the search results will look like this:

Search for rented property using the form below:
<<< search results >>>

Rather than

<<< search results >>>

This is because we are doing all the form code via the shortcode function.

Any thoughts how to fix this? The search results should load a new page entirely. Maybe a new page that has the shortcode: [property_search_results] and displays the results via the $_GET. The page could still be bookmarked but the unwanted text would not occur.

OR is there a more 'proper' way to deal with form handling?

Thanks.