#keep reading break

So, we have all encountered posts that we love, but that go on forever. We really wish that the OP had used a “Keep Reading” break. This post will help you to make the changes necessary to do just that.

Let’s say I want to reblog the post above, but I don’t want to subject my followers to the monster post - especially if I am going to add even more to it by responding. It would be really useful to add a “keep reading” break myself.

But.

The 2015 tumblr infrastructure changes made this nearly impossible. It is completely impossible on photo posts and asks, for example. But, it is still possible for us to cheat and place breaks in text posts by using the HTML editor.

First, I need to demonstrate why adding a “keep reading” break isn’t automatic in the new format. 

As we know, in order to add a “keep reading” break we need to trigger the RICH TEXT editor to pop up the happy little + MENU. 

We also know that the way that tumblr uses to indicate the hierarchy of responses is by a succession of indentations.  

Here is the reblog view:

Take note of the little line that indicates that a the material is within a blocked quotation:

In order to preserve that hierarchy, adding a “keep reading” break MUST keep the series of block quotations (indentation) intact.   

It would be logical to prompt the + MENU by adding a line break in the post where I want to insert the “keep reading” break. However, if I’m typing within a blockquote designation, the + MENU will NOT be prompted, no matter what. 

Below I have highlighted the line break I created, and you can see the menu fails to appear.

The only way to prompt the + MENU in the RICH TEXT editor is to take the monster post OUT of the blocked quotation.

That’s great! 

But.

Again notice that the picture line is NOT highlighted. And that is the biggest consequence of messing with the indentation system: images will be displaced and bulleted or numbered lists will be unformatted. 

Here is the result.

The line spacing is really screwed up, the picture remains in a blocked quotation and is now out of place, creating an order problem. Finally the bulleted list just below the picture has been unformatted.

The reason tumblr implemented this, I think, was to try to ensure that I can’t go in and change an OP’s words to twist the post, making it look like s/he said something that they did not say.(That’s also why I called this solution a “cheat.” The tumblr system can be beaten pretty easily. So, I’m trusting that readers will not abuse what I’m demonstrating.)

To accomplish the change and still leave the hierarchy of blocked quotations intact, I must switch from the default RICH TEXT editor to the HTML editor.

Click the gear icon in the upper right of the post. At the “Text Editor” item, click the drop down menu and change from RICH TEXT to HTML.

***It is important to take clear note of where I want to place the “keep reading” break before changing over. (In this case, I want to place the break just before the image.)***

Once the editor is switched, I need to sort through the jumble of code to find the last thing that I want to display before the break. In this case, the last thing I want displayed ends with “...the point is very clear.” Because it is text written in a paragraph format, I also want to be sure that I include the close of that paragraph (</p>).

Place the cursor following the final character and press enter twice in order to create a line break and a little space to work in. Now, there are several small edits to make:

After the final character of what I want before the break, insert </blockquote>. This ends the block quotation and allows for the space for the break.