How can I display "read more" without any other post text?

Question

I have created the Read more in my posts, but when I add the php tag

<?php the_content(); ?>

...it shows the post content with read more button. I only want to display the button, with no post content.

Here is a picture of my design .

In the picture, I only display the button without text from the post. How can i do that with WordPress php code?

Answer 1

You can achieve this with many ways. First thing you need to use

the_excerpt() 

instead of

the_content()

and in your functions.php file you can add this function to return 0 text from post text.

function custom_excerpt_length($length) {
    if (is_home()) {
        return 0;
    }
}

add_filter('excerpt_length', 'custom_excerpt_length');

This code check if this is homepage you can change the condition to met your needs.

Answer 2

If you JUST need the button, there's probably a different way to go about this:

<a href="<?php the_permalink();?>" class="your-button-class">Read More</a>

Only loads what you need (the permalink) and doesn't bother with extra functions, excerpt length, etc.