Customize The Read More Text with a Custom Link
One of the things I love about WordPress is how easy it is to customize it and make it your own. There are no limitations on what your WordPress Website can do. With thousands of Free and Premium Themes and Plugins to choose from, creating a site that fits your style is easy. One thing that people often want to do is change the Read More Text or three periods after the excerpt on the blog roll page.
That is easily done with a simple code snippet that would go in your functions.php file or if the theme is not developed by you, then use a Code Snippets Plugin for WordPress to get the job done without risking losing your code when the Theme Developer updates their theme. Here’s the code snippet you would use to get the job done. As always, first make a full backup of your website just in case.
// Replaces the excerpt "Read More" text by a link
function new_excerpt_more($more) {
global $post;
return '<a class="moretag" href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '"> Read the full article...</a>';
}
add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');
Here’s the CSS Code you would place in your themes customizer to turn the link into a clickable button.
.moretag {
background: #3498db;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
font-family: Arial;
color: #ffffff;
font-size: 20px;
padding: 10px 20px 10px 20px;
text-decoration: none;
}
.moretag:hover {
background: #3cb0fd;
text-decoration: none;
}
Just place that code snippet either in your functions.php file or in the code snippets plugin and you’ll be good to go. Watch the video at the top of this post to get a very quick walk through on how to properly implement this on your website.
Other ways to safely add this code
You can also create a child theme where you place your php code snippets and css styles. The advantage of this is you won’t have to use a plugin and your code will be safe when the main theme gets updated by the original developer. I am working on a demonstration video on how to create WordPress Child Themes.
Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube Channel so you’ll be notified when the video is released. Also, signup for our mailing list so you can receive the latest tips and tricks when it comes to managing, securing and optimizing a WordPress Website. I typically release a new video weekly (sometimes more) and author a blog post that goes along with the video.
Hopefully you found the video helpful. Make sure you subscribe –> WordPress Video Tutorials