How to Multi-paragraph List Items?

  • Resolved rwbaird

    (@rwbaird)


    10 years, 4 months ago

    I am transferring a static website of several hundred pages from a Windows host to WordPress. Most of my pages have ordered lists with individual list items that can run to several hundred, even a thousand or more, words in length. I would like to break these lengthy list items into paragraphs to improve readability while maintaining the numbering.

    A typical page of this type may be found here.

    My problem is that I can’t figure out how to break a list item into multiple paragraphs in WordPress. The WordPress editor strips out any <p> or <br> tags or blank lines inside a list when the file is saved.

    For example, if I write this inside a list item:

    <li>
<p>Paragraph 1</p>
<p>Paragraph 2</p>
<p>Paragraph 3</p>
</li>

    WP turns it into this:

    <li>Paragraph1Paragraph2Paragraph3</li>

    This question has been asked before in this forum, but there has never been a solution posted.

    Help!!

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 22 total)
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  • graphical_force

    (@graphical_force)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Why not remove the <li> tags?

    [Moderator Note: Please post markup between backticks or use the code button.]

    Pioneer Web Design

    (@swansonphotos)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    In HTML, there are restrictions on nested elements. <p> in not proper in an <li>.

    Also, your ref. doc. has no <li>‘s.

    Thread Starter rwbaird

    (@rwbaird)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Are you suggesting that I remove the paragraph tags?

    If I remove the paragraph tags, I get the same result.

    Regardless of how many blank lines I insert or how many <p> or <br> tags I insert or don’t insert, or how many carriage returns I insert, they are all stripped out by the WP editor and the text becomes one giant paragraph.

    Thread Starter rwbaird

    (@rwbaird)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Oh, I see. The list items are essential elements of the page. Please look at the example link I posted. Scroll to the bottom to see some multi-paragraph list items.

    graphical_force

    (@graphical_force)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    No I’m suggesting exactly what I said, remove the list tags. Is there a reason you need the paragraphs in a list?

    Thread Starter rwbaird

    (@rwbaird)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Please read the link I posted.

    Each webpage is the biography of a person. The person’s children are the list, with each person numbered in birth order. This is quite standard in genealogy, and I would hate to abandon the accepted convention simply to accommodate some weirdness of the WP editor.

    graphical_force

    (@graphical_force)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    I did a quick test with an install and I was able to do what you said but only when I used the text tab in the editor. The code was stripped out when I clicked the visual tab. I was able to use Chrome dev tools and view the post on the front end and I was able to have paragraphs within lists as long as I never hit the visual tab.

    Maybe others can talk about why this may be happening.

    Moderator cubecolour

    (@numeeja)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Try enclosing the content of the li tags in a div

    <ol>
	<li>
		<div>
			<p>Paragraph 1</p>
			<p>Paragraph 2</p>
			<p>Paragraph 3</p>
		</div>
	</li>
	<li>
		<div>
			<p>Paragraph 1</p>
			<p>Paragraph 2</p>
			<p>Paragraph 3</p>
		</div>
	</li>
</ol>

    Thread Starter rwbaird

    (@rwbaird)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    graphical_force, the paragraphs get stripped out when I save the file. When I reopen it, the paragraphs will be gone.

    graphical_force

    (@graphical_force)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    I can save them and view them again. What version of wp are you using? Also I’m using the Twenty Thirteen theme.

    Thread Starter rwbaird

    (@rwbaird)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    graphical_force:
    Using WP 3.7.1 and also 2012 theme. I believe I am up to date. Here’s a page that I’ve been struggling with all day long.

    cubecolor:
    Voila! I have thousands of list items, so it will be a pain to do this for every list item, but a quick test looks like it does solve the problem. Thanks!

    Moderator cubecolour

    (@numeeja)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Thousands? ouch!

    Adding this filter to the functions.php may help (it may not, but probably worth a try) – best if you’re using a child theme, or a functionality plugin to prevent it being overwritted on updating the theme.

    remove_filter ('the_content', 'wpautop');

    http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wpautop

    Pioneer Web Design

    (@swansonphotos)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Again, they are not what is referred to as list items which is the HTML element li. Review your source code.

    Thread Starter rwbaird

    (@rwbaird)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Thanks. About 6,000 list items when all pages are finished.

    I’ll try the wpautop conversion you suggested in my child theme. Thanks again.

    Thread Starter rwbaird

    (@rwbaird)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Again, they are not what is referred to as list items which is the HTML element li. Review your source code.

    I have no idea what you are telling me. What do you call the numbered paragraphs in an ordered list?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 22 total)
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