How to post- Continue reading-> (Dan E.)

Hi All.

Greg B has shown me a very useful HTML trick that will make the RLR Home page more user friendly if we all use it.

If you are just looking for the code so you can copy it, here it is:
<!--more-->

UPDATE (Jan2012): I just noticed that there are two other, easier, ways to get the “Continue reading →” feature into your post.

  1. Keyboard shortcut: alt+shift+t.
  2. WordPress post editor button: There is an “insert more tag” button among the buttons at the top of the post editor. In my editor it is on the top row 4th from the right – beside the link and unlink buttons.

It is very simple to post to RLR such that your post is displayed on the Home page as an opening paragraph or two followed by a “Continue reading →” link that takes the reader to the full post when followed.

Just like this . . .

How to do it:

    1. Write your post. Make sure your opening couple of sentences are clear and strong. Note where you want the “Continue reading →” link to appear – i.e. after what text.
    2. Switch from “Visual” to “HTML” view in the post editor.
    3. Find the spot where you want the “Continue reading →” link to appear.
    4. On a new line right after the text you want to appear on the Home page type, or paste, this:

<!--more-->

  1. Switch back to “Visual” mode.
  2. That’s it, publish your post.

Why do it:

This format is highly desirable for RLR as many of our posts are quite long (I’m a regular offender). Long posts are great but, displayed in full on the Home page, they make browsing the recent posts cumbersome. So, I think we should all adopt the “Continue reading →” format for any post that is more than 20 lines or so.

Enforcing this format, by editing published posts, will be a regular Admin task but it would be great if RLR posters could do it themselves when they post. The great advantage of doing it yourself will be that your posts will display as you want them to and not as I decide. It will also force you to think of the opening statements in your posts and this is probably a good thing.

The “Continue reading →” format benefits greatly from strong opening sentences. You should write the key motivation/point/usefulness of your post in the opening one or two sentences so that readers will understand why they might want to follow the “Continue reading →” link.

Thanks Greg!

Dan E.

One thought on “How to post- Continue reading-> (Dan E.)

  1. 18 Jan 2012. I just added an “Update” to this post to point out two alternative and very easy ways to insert a “Continue reading ->” link into a post.
    There is a keyboard shortcut – alt+shift+t.
    And there is a button in the WordPress post editor called the “insert more tag” button.

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