Customize the More Tag on Wordpress

The More tag is a very useful Wordpress feature. It allows you to select a “cut-off” point, and only the content above that point will be displayed on the Homepage.

The More tag will also insert a “Read more” link after the excerpt to encourage the reader to continue reading the article in question.

Personally I am not a big fan of “Read more.” You can see on the Homepage that I am using “Continue Reading…”. Maybe you want to use yet something else, so how do you customize that link on the More tag?

It is pretty simple, just go to your Wordpress control panel, then “Presentation,” then “Theme Editor.”

Now you need to open the file that governs the Homepage, which is usually called “Main Index Template” (or index.php).

Once you have that file open you will need to find the line that calls the posts. It looks like this:

<?php the_content(__('Read more'));?>

Just replace “Read more” with the text of your preference and you are done!

You can also style that text by creating a class on the stylesheet. The result would look like this:

<?php the_content(__('<span class="moretag">Your text here</span>'));?>

Daniel Scocco on July 20, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

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23 Responses to “Customize the More Tag on Wordpress”

Technobuzz.net on July 20th, 2007 4:37 am

Thanks For the post

http://www.technobuzz.net
Frank on July 20th, 2007 4:59 am

This is a simple but useful customization. We changed our blog a long time ago to read “More >>”. Simple, but it gets the point across.
Daniel on July 20th, 2007 5:50 am

You can even add pictured to the More Tag, I will it to see how it looks.
Hairgel_Addict on July 20th, 2007 6:29 am

Doesn’t wordpress allready have a CSS class assigned to “ream more” link? Anyway, I did not insert any additional things into “the_content()” and edited CSS class “.more-link” - and it works fine

But if you want add additional stuff there, then “the_content()” editing will be useful
Daniel on July 20th, 2007 6:40 am

Hairgel, Wordpress does not come with a stylesheet, you are probably referring to your own theme, right?

If your theme does have a class for the more link than yes you can just change that for the styling part.
Hairgel_Addict on July 20th, 2007 7:11 am

well, i’ve created my own theme from scratch, yes.. but I don’t remember editing any files inserting that CSS style for “read more” link..

Maybe just my memory fails me, sorry..

And the nickname is “Hairgel_Addict”, not just “Hairgel”
Egonitron.com on July 20th, 2007 10:21 am

I’ve actually been looking around at how to do this, but my theme is weird and didn’t have the normal tag. I got it figured out though, thanks!
engtech @ internet duct tape on July 20th, 2007 11:24 am

You can also do it inline to change only one post.

<!–more Text goes here–>

might be a WordPressMU only thing.
MajoTajo on July 20th, 2007 7:16 pm

Nice one Dani!

I also suggest to use SEO pack plugin for wp ! I like it it helps a lot to rank up my page.

http://www.bontb.com

Do you allow html?
Daniel on July 21st, 2007 3:48 am

Yeah HTML is fine.
Sreejith on July 24th, 2007 5:42 am

I used to put this break in my posts. But, now, I’m not doing it because, for some reason, it makes my feed into a partial feed in which only content till the “break” is shown. Any bright ideas ?
William Profet :: OneJobTwoSalaries.com on July 25th, 2007 12:43 am

Very useful! Thank you! I have always used this opportunity to change my “Read more” links and it works great!
JTPRATT's Blogging Mistakes on August 7th, 2007 10:47 am

would be nice to have an entire page of tips like this, to replace default things and customize your site as your own. Like for instance - how do you get your copyright into each post…

and for god’s sake don’t you have a ’subscribe to comments’ option?
James on October 5th, 2007 8:18 pm

nice one, i’ve been looking for an article like this to personalized the read more link on my upcoming blog.
vad on October 24th, 2007 10:48 am

Hi There,
I heard that using “Read more” prevents of duplicate content but why big blogs don’t use this function???

All the best,
Vad
http://www.plentyofluck.com/
Turk Hit Box on November 2nd, 2007 1:07 am

I always use it, and display ads with read more as well
http://www.turkhitbox.com/adse.....e-tag.html
Michael on November 10th, 2007 11:51 am

Another cool tip used, or will be when I get in and edit the file.
askperson.com on July 14th, 2008 9:50 am

good tip but i could not got it.
Rudi on July 24th, 2008 12:17 pm

Is there any way you can use the “MORE” tag on a static front page with multiple posts?
Ntiejum Gabriel on September 4th, 2008 3:51 pm

Hi,
You are doing a good job right here.Keep it up.
Gabriel
Pali Madra on September 24th, 2008 7:53 am

There is a class called “more-link” that is added to the more content. This is after the code that have you given has been changed in the index.php. Can help me in finding out what is happening since I think the class that should be assigned needs to be moretag.