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How to Show and Hide Text in WordPress Posts with the Toggle Effect

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Do you want to show and hide text in your WordPress posts with the toggle effect?

Sometimes you might want to hide content until the visitor clicks on a specific link. This is especially helpful when you are creating an FAQ or want to include lots of text on a single page without overwhelming the reader.

In this article, we will show you how to hide text in WordPress posts with the toggle effect.

How to show and hide text in WordPress posts with the toggle effect

Why Show and Hide Text in WordPress Posts?

Many websites hide text by default, usually by showing a teaser and then including a ‘Read More’ or ‘See More’ link. Visitors can get more information by clicking on that link.

An example of showing and hiding text, using a 'Read More' link

This is useful if you need to add lots of information to a page but are worried that a solid wall of text might overwhelm visitors.

FAQs are a great example, as most visitors will only want the answer to a single question.

Adding and showing text using a toggle effect

If you show all the answers in full, then visitors may struggle to find the information they need.

By hiding text with the toggle effect, visitors can scan lots of posts, features, benefits, or other information and then choose the item they want to learn about.

How to hide and reveal text using a 'Learn More' link

With that being said, let’s see how you can show and hide text in WordPress with the toggle effect. Simply use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:

Method 1: How to Show and Hide Text in WordPress Using Shortcode (Quick and Easy)

The quickest and easiest way to add a ‘Read More’ link to any page or post is by using Read More Without Refresh. This free plugin allows you to customize the ‘Read More’ link and then add it anywhere on your website using a shortcode.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Read More Without Refresh plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, click on ‘RMWP Settings’ to configure the plugin’s settings.

Creating a custom 'Read More' link in WordPress

To start, you can change the text that’s used in the ‘Read More / Read Less’ links by typing into the two text fields.

For example, if you are creating a FAQ, then you might want to use something like ‘Show Answer / Hide Answer’ instead.

On this screen, you can also change the text color, background color, and more. This can help you create links that perfectly suit your WordPress theme.

How to hide and show text in WordPress using a free plugin

You can also change the font weight, add a border, and change the padding.

When you are finished on this page, be sure to click the ‘Save Changes’ button even if you didn’t make any changes. This is important because if you don’t click this button, then the plugin won’t work as expected.

With that done, you can add a toggle effect to any page or post. You’ll need to find the text you want to hide and then wrap it in shortcode.

To start, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a block before the text you want to hide.

Hiding text in WordPress using a shortcode

Then, start typing ‘Shortcode’ and select the right block when it appears.

In the Shortcode box, add the following shortcode: [read more] 

Hiding text in WordPress using a shortcode

With that done, you’ll need to add a Shortcode block after the text you want to hide.

At the end of the text, simply click on the ‘+’ icon and create another Shortcode block by following the same process described above.

Wrapping hidden text in a WordPress shortcode

In this block, add the following code: [/read]

You can now either click on ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to make the text live.

Publishing collapsible text on a WordPress website

Now, visit your WordPress blog, and you’ll see that the text in between the shortcode blocks is hidden by default.

To show the text, simply click on the ‘Read More’ or similar link.

An example of collapsible text on a WordPress blog

Method 2: How to Show and Hide Text in WordPress Using SeedProd (Best For FAQs)

There are lots of different ways to use hidden text on your WordPress website. For example, if you have a review site, then you might use this trick to hide movie spoilers.

However, FAQs are one of the most common uses. If you want to create a professional-looking question and answer section with a nice layout, then we recommend using a page builder plugin instead.

SeedProd is the best page builder on the market and allows you to create all kinds of custom landing pages for your WordPress website. It comes with more than 300+ ready-made site templates, including designs that you can use to promote your products, services, webinars, and more.

SeedProd's professionally-designed website templates

All of these designs are the perfect place to add an FAQ section.

After selecting a template, SeedProd even has different ready-made FAQ sections that you can add to your page design with a single click.

SeedProd's professionally-designed FAQ templates

Many of these FAQ sections come with a built-in hide/show text toggle effect.

They’re also fully customizable, so you can easily add your own question and answer text.

A SeedProd Frequently Asked Questions section

For information on how to use SeedProd, please see our guide on how to create a custom page in WordPress.

After creating a page, it’s easy to add a ready-made FAQ section. In the SeedProd page editor, simply click on the ‘Sections’ tab in the left-hand menu.

You can now select ‘FAQ’ to see all of SeedProd’s question and answer sections. To preview a design, hover your mouse over it and then click on the small magnifying glass.

Adding a collapsible FAQ section to your website

When you find a design you want to use, click on ‘Choose This Section.’

SeedProd will then go ahead and add the section to the bottom of your page.

Adding an FAQ template to your WordPress blog or website

You can move the FAQ section to a new location using drag and drop.

After that, you are ready to add your own text by clicking to select the FAQ accordion block. The left-hand menu will now update to show a list of all the questions.

Customizing an FAQ section in WordPress

To edit a question and answer pair, simply click on that question in the left-hand menu.

This opens two small text editors where you can add your own question and answer. You can also use all of the standard formatting options, such as adding a link or making the text bold.

Adding questions and answers to a page layout

Simply repeat these steps for every question and answer in the FAQ section.

If you want to add more questions, then simply click on the ‘Add New Item’ button.

Adding questions and answers to a page layout

To delete a question and answer pair, just hover your mouse over that question in the left-hand menu.

Then, click on the trashcan icon when it appears.

Deleting questions and answers from an FAQ design

When you are happy with the information you’ve entered, you can change how the text looks using the ‘Font Size’ and ‘Space Between’ sliders.

There’s also an ‘Icon’ section that defines the small picture that appears next to each question in the FAQs.

Customize the icon settings in a collapsible FAQ section

If you want to customize this picture, then simply click to expand the ‘Icon’ section.

Here, you’ll see settings to change the icon’s alignment and color. Just be aware that ‘Closed Icon’ is the picture you see by default when the question is collapsed.

‘Open Icon’ is the picture you see when the question is expanded.

How to change the open or close icon in a Frequently Asked Questions section

If you want to use a completely different icon instead, then hover your mouse over the ‘Closed Icon’ or ‘Open Icon’ preview.

Then, click on the ‘Icon Library’ thumbnail.

Launching SeedProd's icon library

This opens SeedProd’s built-in library, where you can choose from more than 1400 Font Awesome icon fonts.

You can further customize how the FAQ sections look by selecting the ‘Advanced’ tab. Here, you can change the font, add a margin and spacing, and even add CSS animations to make the FAQs really stand out.

Customizing an FAQ section using SeedProd's advanced settings

With that done, you can continue adding new blocks and customizing the content on your SeedProd page.

When you are happy with how it looks, just click on the arrow next to the ‘Save’ button and then select ‘Publish.’

Publishing a custom page layout in WordPress

Now if you visit your website, you’ll see the page design and FAQ section live.

How to Show and Hide Text in WordPress for FAQs with Heroic FAQs

If you’re looking for a SeedProd alternative, you can also show and hide text with the Heroic FAQs plugin.

Heroic FAQs is the best FAQ management plugin for WordPress. Its drag and drop interface allows you to easily add questions and answers to FAQ groups.

Heroic FAQs drag and drop builder

Then, you can display your FAQs anywhere on your website using a simple WordPress block.

The plugin offers multiple FAQ styles and you can show and hide your questions and answers using an accordion or toggle format.

Show and hide text for FAQs with Heroic FAQs

For more details, see our guide on how to add a frequently asked questions section in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to show and hide text in WordPress posts with the toggle effect. You may also want to check out our list of the best live chat software for small businesses and our tutorial on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

60 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
    You can get more details about the contest from here.
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  2. Alvin says

    The Read More Without Refresh plugin uses display: none; for the hidden text. Won’t that be seen as hidden content and affect SEO negatively?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It should not as the content is set up to display on click. Using display:none would normally have a negative effect if you never plan to have that content visible and can be considered keyword stuffing.

      Admin

  3. Karima says

    Thanks! How can I apply it in new version of WordPress? in the old version you can switch between visual and text. In the new one where to write the code?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You can use the Classic block if you want a similar experience to the classic editor for this shortcode.

      Admin

    • WPBeginner Support says

      For the display of the plugin, you would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for the currently available customizations.

      Admin

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for if that is supported at the moment

      Admin

    • WPBeginner Support says

      While possible to do this without a plugin, we do not have a beginner friendly method to do this without a plugin

      Admin

  4. steinchen says

    nice and simple plugin! this works for me to hide my Attachment sections (which is a long list of print-out with lots of paragraphs).

    But I wonder if the notation text can be editable, e.g. not “Hide Press release (123 Less Words)”, but to reflecting my hidden title?:

    Show Attachment A1: …
    Hide Attachment A1: …

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You can change that by editing the more_text in the second shortcode example we show :)

      Admin

  5. osita Solomon says

    Thanks admin fr this wonderful post but i would like to know if it would be possible for me to embed a popunder link under the “show more” toggle.

    Thanks

  6. Ranjan says

    Is it possible to use this plugin on multiple paragraphs on a static page? I want to use it to show/hide information in single code. If so, what “type” would it be?
    I have tried with one code but paragraph formatting is not possible,
    when clicked on more we get the text in continuation

    Thanks!

  7. Annette says

    How did you “Add the short code like this?” Do you hover? Right click? Type it out? When I type in the short code, my pages literally show the words. Help please!!

    • Robert says

      Is that plugin good to hide phone number on my website? I want to hide last four number on my site. And when people come and want to see my number they must click on number to show last four number.I wont do this because some people use my phone with some program and give another people. If someone know good plugin I will be very helpful for help.Thanks.

  8. Virena says

    I followed the instructions but seems like WordPress doesn’t allow the code to work on free themes. :( Is there any other way how this can be made?

  9. mike says

    Doesn’t appear to be working in draft mode (need to iron things out before I publish page). Pasting shortcode in text editor and visual editor but when I preview I see shortcode and nothing’s hidden. Is this normal?

  10. milan says

    Hi.
    I have some texts in columns that arnt same in length witch messes with grid. I need plugin that can hide second part of the text- the excess, and to show it in continuity with first part.
    What do u recommend?

  11. Sav says

    I am also wondering how to replace the “show more”, “show less” text with a custom button image. How is this possible?

  12. Federica says

    Hello,

    This is sounds like a great plugin.

    I wonder if there’s any chance to use it to toggle the posts on a front page by clicking on their title?

    If not, is there any plugin or code that allows that?

    Thank you in advance.
    Federica

  13. David Kallander says

    Trying to center the show/hide text but it’s left justified on the webpage. I’ve tried so many HTML tags, but to no avail.

    Thanks,

  14. Janie S. says

    Hi there,

    Thank you very much for sharing this quick video. It was indeed very easy to install. In your video the link are all aligned to the left. I tried to do it with the plugin instructions as written by the creator of the plugin but I can’t manage to make it work. It is always shows centered.

    Can you please help me with this issue please?

    Thank you so much!

  15. lakshman says

    sir I want to change the “show more text” with text with” buttons” how to do it please explain or give the coding for it…………..

  16. lakshman says

    sir I want to change the “text” with text with buttons how to do it please explain or give the coding for it…………..

  17. Dana says

    What if I want to see multiple Show/Hide features on a page. The toggle doesnt seem to work for that!

    • Paul says

      Just add sequential numbering to your tags.

      ie

      [showhide type=”post1″ more_text=”Show more…” less_text=”Show less…”]
      Text you want to hide
      [/showhide]

      [showhide type=”post2″ more_text=”Show more…” less_text=”Show less…”]
      Text you want to hide
      [/showhide]

      etc

  18. Mohammad Qaiser says

    Does toggling content has any effect on SEO. Is Google Bot able to analyze toggled content also.

  19. Grant says

    I want to hide or show all citations/references depending on the readers desires. I don’t want to create duplicate articles with and without the footnotes. Is there any way to toggle all content visibility at once from a single control?

  20. Ibn Kassiem says

    Hi

    Thanks for the post.

    I wanted to know is it possible to use this plugin to create an archive page that ONLY shows the post titles, when the user clicks on the toggle it shows the full post and can also close it again.

    Or can you advise on a better way to do this please?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      This plugin is not the best way to do that. What you need is to modify archives.php template in a child theme and then add the toggle effect before <?php the_content() ?> or <?php the_excerpt() ?> template tag.

      Admin

  21. eleven-yu says

    It is a good plugin.!

    But I need a new feature that is I hide some content example dowloadlink, the link can display only after comment my post.

    Could you help to import it?
    thx.

  22. Grace says

    I like this, but do you know if this can or if it can be modified to toggle the comments area? I would love to be able to allow the user to hide and show the various comments rather then them all to be displayed.

    Thanks in advance

        • Jumpringer says

          I’d like to place multiple “show/hides” on my page. Not clear how to implement the jQuery found on the jQuery FAQ Accordian link . I think you are saying that a WP FAQ section is not needed, is that correct?

          When I uploaded the “my-accordian” folder to the plugins directory, WP recognized the “WPBeginner’s FAQ Accordion” plugin.

          Can you provide some more detail to enable multiple “show/hides” on pages not using the WP FAQ? Thanks so much.

  23. Amanda Mays says

    Is it possible to use this plugin on paragraphs on a static page? I want to use it to show/hide sections of my privacy policy. If so, what “type” would it be?

    Thanks!

  24. Bella's Shelf says

    Thank you for this site of wonderful info! I am brand new to hosted WP & every time I Google something Example: “Install Google Analytic on WordPress” I ALWAYS pick your site for the answer. I didn’t realize I was doing it until tonight!
    Thank you for helping us WP Noobs and Olds alike!

  25. Clawrence says

    Is it possible to add an image where the ‘Show more…’ text is, so that the image can be clicked to show more/less text instead of a generic sentence?

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