ItemDescription Element and Its Excerpt Settings
The ItemDescription element displays an item's description on the item page. Visual Builder item pages often use it twice. One copy near the top shows a short excerpt with a Read More link. A second copy lower down, for example in a Description tab, shows the full description.
Both copies are separate elements with their own settings. The Excerpt settings below decide how the short copy is trimmed and what happens to formatting such as links.
Open the settings
- Open the item page in the Visual Builder.
- Select the ItemDescription element on the page.
- Use the Settings Panel to change it.
Settings
The panel has these sections, from top to bottom.
| Section | Setting | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Top | Element Title | Name of the element. The default is itemdescription. |
| Top | Element ID | The element's ID, for example #itemdescription-4742. Other settings use IDs like this to point at an element. |
| Visibility Settings | Mobile, Tablet, Desktop | Turn the element on or off for each device size. |
| Content | Item Description | The Edit Item Description button opens the item's description for editing. |
| Content | Hide Ancestor If Empty | The ID of a surrounding element, for example row-4707, to hide when the item has no description. |
| Excerpt | Characters | Length of the excerpt, as a number of characters. Leave it blank to show the full description. |
| Excerpt | Finish Sentence | Yes or No. Yes extends the excerpt to the end of the sentence. |
| Excerpt | Remove HTML | Yes or No. |
| Excerpt | Read More Behavior | Link To Element or Expand. |
| Excerpt | Read More Link | The ID of the target element, for example tab-4812. |
| Excerpt | If No Excerpt, Hide Read More Element | Yes or No. |
| Text, Colors | Standard style settings | Same as other elements. |
Excerpt settings
- Characters: how long the excerpt is, in characters, for example 200. Leave it blank to show the full description with no excerpt.
- Finish Sentence: when set to Yes, the excerpt runs on past the character count to the end of the sentence instead of cutting off mid-sentence.
- Remove HTML: when set to Yes, the excerpt is plain text. Bold, italics, line breaks, and links are removed. A link is replaced by its web address (URL) instead of its link text. When set to No, links and other formatting stay in the excerpt.
- Read More Behavior: Link To Element scrolls the visitor to another element on the page, opening its tab if it sits inside one. Expand reveals the full description in place.
- Read More Link: the ID of the element that Link To Element goes to. It is not used with Expand. For example, enter the ID of the Description tab to show the full description.
Troubleshooting
A link shows as a web address in the short description
Symptom: a link you added to an item's description works in the full description, but the short text at the top of the item page shows the full web address instead of the link text.
Cause: the excerpt ItemDescription element has Remove HTML set to Yes. Removing the HTML replaces the link with its URL.
Fix:
- Edit the item page in the Visual Builder.
- Select the ItemDescription element at the top of the page, the one with the Read More link.
- In the Excerpt section, set Remove HTML to No.
- Save, then reload the item page.
This setting belongs to the item page layout, so it applies to every item that uses that page. With Remove HTML set to No, other formatting from descriptions also carries into the excerpt. Check a few items afterward.
If you would rather keep Remove HTML set to Yes, place the link after the opening part of the description so it falls outside the excerpt.
To add a link to a description in the first place, see How to Add External Hyperlinks to Item Pages and Storefront Menus.