Title: Why "display description?"
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# Why "display description?"

 *  Resolved Anonymous User 13704156
 * (@anonymized-13704156)
 * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/)
 * I checked “Display description” when every link had one, but nothing displayed.“
   Description Formatting” is required instead. So I’m curious why you even have“
   Display Description.”
 * Also, “ascending” is misspelled 😉
 * Great plugin – thanks!
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-links/)

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  [Jason Buzzeo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jbuzzeo/)
 * (@jbuzzeo)
 * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/#post-5114725)
 * “Display description” is what retrieves the link description and outputs it to
   the page.
 * The only difference between having “Description Formatting” checked and not, 
   is that when formatting is used, the description is placed inside it’s own paragraph
   tags. This basically causes the description to wrap to a new line, create separation
   between itself and the next link and **should** cause it to inherit the formatting
   of the rest of your site.
 * If you are not seeing the descriptions when only the “Display Descriptions” option
   is checked there is probably something in your styling that’s not allowing it
   to display. I’m happy to look at it if you want to send me a link to your site.
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous User 13704156
 * (@anonymized-13704156)
 * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/#post-5114727)
 * Thanks, that might be interesting: on mydayinuy.com, I’ve removed the formatted
   description and left the display description for the last item, “Uncomfortably
   cold houses a tradition,” resulting in that link appearing with no description.
 *  [Jason Buzzeo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jbuzzeo/)
 * (@jbuzzeo)
 * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/#post-5114798)
 * ok, it’s definitely not your styling. The link is being treated as if it doesn’t
   have a description. Even with all the description options turned off, the description
   should be getting added to the links “title” so that it shows up as a tool tip
   when you hover over the link. The title for “Uncomfortably cold houses a tradition,”
   is completely missing.
 * Try as I might, I can not recreate this unless I edit a link and remove the description.
 * A few questions:
    - Are all of your links coming from one category or multiple categories?
    - Are all of your links root level (no parent) or so some/all of them have parent/
      child relationships set up in the individual link properties?
    - Are you using the free version of Simple Links?
    - Are you using the latest version of Simple Links?
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous User 13704156
 * (@anonymized-13704156)
 * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/#post-5114800)
    - I have no link categories
    - No attributes are specified for any links
    - Yes, free version
    - Version 2.5.8
 *  Plugin Author [Mat Lipe](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mat-lipe/)
 * (@mat-lipe)
 * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/#post-5114865)
 * Hi priehl,
 * It look it is only affecting the one link, so it’s probably something strange
   with the description.
 * What is the description you currently have saved to this link?
 * If you would like to send me a temporary admin account to the site I will be 
   happy to take a look. [mat@matlipe.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/mat@matlipe.com?output_format=md)
 * Cheers
 *  Thread Starter Anonymous User 13704156
 * (@anonymized-13704156)
 * [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/#post-5114866)
 * Hi Mat,
 * The issue is only affecting one link, because that one link (unheated houses)
   was the only one with no html description, only the meta description, which I
   did to illustrate the problem.
 * I have now added the html description to the “cold houses” link, and removed 
   it from the “Uruguay expats group” link, with the (predictable) result that now
   no description text appears under the latter.
 * Consistently, the html description is all that matters in terms of appearance;
   the meta description serves no apparent purpose.
 * Also, I removed all descriptions one on link to test this: “If the description
   field is left blank, a description meta tag will be automatically generated from
   the first paragraph of the content.” Absolutely not true; it generates nothing.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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## Tags

 * [display description](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/display-description/)

 * 6 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: Anonymous User 13704156
 * Last activity: [11 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-display-description/#post-5114866)
 * Status: resolved