Mastering the More Block in WordPress: A Complete Guide for Effective Content Management

Your website’s homepage serves as the storefront of your brand, showcasing your offerings without overwhelming your visitors.

This is where the WordPress More block proves to be invaluable. It generates clean, scannable previews that help users quickly identify the content that interests them the most.

Consider this: would you prefer to scroll through multiple lengthy articles to find relevant information, or would you rather browse through concise previews and click on what piques your interest? Most visitors lean towards the latter.

At CanadaCreate, we utilize the ‘Read More’ link to direct visitors to complete posts, and this straightforward strategy has significantly improved the navigation experience on our site.

We will guide you on how to effectively implement it, ensuring your visitors enjoy a seamless and engaging experience every time they visit your site.

When to Utilize the More Block in WordPress

Numerous websites employ post previews to entice visitors to explore the full content.

As a WordPress user, you can generate these post previews in two primary ways: by utilizing the built-in More block or by crafting a custom excerpt.

By default, most contemporary WordPress themes automatically display a preview of your posts on the homepage and blog archive pages instead of the entire post.

For example, our blog page displays a brief snippet from the post along with a ‘Read More’ link to access the complete article.

This snippet allows visitors to glimpse the topics covered in your blog without needing to scroll through every single post. It also boosts pageviews since visitors must click through to read the entire post.

You can precisely control what WordPress displays in these previews by utilizing either the More block or an excerpt.

The optimal choice for your site may differ based on your WordPress theme. Some themes may overlook any More blocks you implement, necessitating the use of an excerpt instead.

More Block vs. Excerpt: Understanding the Differences

Before we dive in, let’s briefly clarify the distinction between the More block and an excerpt. This will assist you in selecting the best option for your website.

• The More Blockallows you to truncate your post content at a specific point. Everything above the More block will be displayed as the preview on your blog page.
• An Excerptis a distinct, custom-written summary of your post. This text is solely used for the preview and will not appear in the full article.

To ensure you can create an engaging preview regardless of the theme you are using, we will discuss both More blocks and excerpts.

If you want to skip ahead to a specific method, feel free to use the links provided below:

1. How to Effectively Utilize the More Block in WordPress
2. How to Customize the ‘Read More’ Text in the More Block
3. Alternative: Setting Up Post Excerpts in WordPress
4. Common Questions About the More Block

Are you ready? Let’s begin.

Step 1:How to Effectively Utilize the More Block in WordPress

The WordPress block editor features a More block that allows you to designate the precise cutoff point for the preview text of any post.

📝 In the classic editor, this feature was previously referred to as the More tag.

You can insert the More block anywhere within the post, even mid-sentence or within a paragraph.

All content above the More block will be displayed on your blog archive pages and wherever your posts are listed on your WordPress site. WordPress will also generate a ‘Read More’ link in the preview, allowing visitors to click through to read the complete post.

Before adding a More block to your post, ensure that your site is configured to display the latest posts on the homepage.

If you are using a static page as your custom homepage, your theme may bypass the More blocks and apply its own settings.

Unsure if you have a static front page set as your homepage? You can verify this by navigating to Settings » Reading in your WordPress dashboard.

At the top of this page, you’ll find a section labeled ‘Your homepage displays.’ If ‘Your latest posts’ is selected, you can use the More block without any issues.

To begin, open the post where you want to insert a More block. Locate the point where you want to create a preview cutoff, and click the ‘+’ icon to add a new block.

Next, type ‘More’ and select the appropriate block to insert it into your post.

Some themes limit the number of words displayed on their homepage and archive pages.

If your preview contains too many words, your theme might override the More block. Therefore, it’s advisable to set the cutoff point early in your post.

You can continue writing your post as usual.

While editing your post in the block editor, you can view the More block, but it won’t be visible to your readers when they view the post on your WordPress blog.

Similar to other blocks, the More block in WordPress comes with various settings for customization. To access these settings, simply click on the More block to select it.

In the right-hand settings menu, you will find an option labeled ‘Hide the excerpt on the full content page.’

By default, the text above the More block (your preview) will also appear at the beginning of your full post. This toggle allows you to manage that visibility.

If you wish to conceal this preview text from the full post page, simply click the slider to activate it.

Now, the content above the More block will only be displayed on your homepage and archive pages, allowing visitors to see the complete post content immediately when they click through.

Once you have made your changes, you can save them by clicking the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button.

Now, when you visit your homepage or blog archive page, you will see the preview you just created for this post.

🤔 Are you experiencing something different?If so, your WordPress theme might be disregarding your More blocks.

Some WordPress themes are designed to display excerpts, which can override your More blocks. If your homepage and blog archives are not displaying the preview you set up with the More block, you might need to use excerpts instead.

Step 2:How to Modify the ‘Read More’ Text of the More Block

By default, the More block includes a ‘Read More’ link on your archive and homepage.

There are multiple methods to change this text, but the results may vary based on your WordPress theme. Some themes may revert your changes to their own default settings.

First, check if you can modify the ‘Read More’ text using the WordPress post editor.

To do this, open any post that contains a More block. Click on the default ‘READ MORE’ text and enter your preferred text.

After making your changes, update or publish the page as usual. Then, check your homepage or blog archive to see if the ‘Read More’ text has been updated.

If the original ‘Read More’ link is still visible, you may need to override your theme’s settings with custom code.

You can create a site-specific plugin or use a code snippets plugin like WPCode (recommended) to add the following code to your site:

function modify_read_more_link() { return 'Read the full article here';
}
add_filter( 'the_content_more_link', 'modify_read_more_link', 999 );

This code changes the default ‘Read More’ text to ‘Read the full article here,’ as illustrated in the image below.

You can customize the text by replacing ‘Read the full article here’ in the code snippet. The get_permalink() function in the code automatically generates the correct link to your complete post, so there’s no need for manual adjustments.

Alternative: How to Configure Post Excerpts in WordPress

WordPress offers two distinct methods for displaying a post preview. We’ve previously discussed the More block, but you can also generate a preview using excerpts.

For users visiting your WordPress blog or website, previews are created using excerpts, and the More block appears identical. However, some themes are designed to prioritize excerpts, which means they will bypass your More blocks and display an excerpt instead.

If you don’t manually add an excerpt to a post, WordPress will automatically generate one based on the excerpt length specified by your theme. This may result in previews that end abruptly mid-sentence.

Alternatively, you can create a custom excerpt. To do this, open a post and expand the ‘Excerpt’ section located in the right-hand menu.

In the ‘Write an excerpt’ box, you can type or paste the desired excerpt for your post.

If you don’t see the ‘Excerpt’ box in the right-hand menu, enable it by clicking the three-dotted icon in the upper-right corner.

After that, click on ‘Preferences.’

In the popup that appears, select ‘Panels.’

You will see all the settings available for the right-hand menu. Locate ‘Excerpt’ and click it to enable it, changing it from white (disabled) to blue (enabled).

Close the popup. You should now see the ‘Excerpt’ settings in your right-hand menu.

Now, you can create your excerpt using the same method described earlier.

After saving your changes, visit your site to see your custom excerpt displayed on the homepage and blog archive.

Common Questions About the More Block in WordPress

Here are some of the most common questions our readers have regarding the More block in WordPress:

What distinguishes the More block from an excerpt?

The More block allows you to insert a ‘read more’ break at any point in your content. The text above this block serves as the preview on your blog page.

An excerpt is a unique, manually crafted summary that you create in the post settings. Some themes are specifically designed to use excerpts exclusively and will disregard the More block.

Why is my More block not functioning?

The most frequent cause is that your WordPress theme is overriding it. Many themes are programmed to prioritize excerpts by default, completely ignoring the More block.

This issue may also arise if you are using a static front page instead of displaying your latest posts on the homepage.

Is it possible to modify the default ‘Read More’ text?

Yes, you can usually change the text directly within the More block in the editor. If this option is unavailable, it indicates that your theme has its own preset text.

You can override your theme’s settings by inserting a small code snippet. We recommend using a plugin like WPCode to do this safely without directly modifying theme files.

We trust that this article has equipped you with the knowledge to effectively utilize the More block in WordPress. Additionally, you might find our guides on creating multi-column content in WordPress posts and adding tables in WordPress posts and pages without needing HTML helpful.

If you enjoyed this article, we invite you to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for insightful WordPress video tutorials. You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook.