Distraction-free reading is a feature that allows readers to focus solely on the content without any distractions such as ads, latest posts, newsletter forms, and social media widgets. While this feature has been available on apps like Evernote’s Clearly, Pocket, and Reeder, it is also possible to add it to your WordPress website to improve your visitors’ reading experience. In this article, we will discuss how to add distraction-free reading to your WordPress website in five simple steps.
1. Isolating Post Title and Content
To target the post title and content in a jQuery function, we need to use the add_filter function to wrap both title and content in divs that we can easily target. Since themes use different elements to display those two, we need to use the add_filter function to wrap both title and content in divs we can then easily target.
2. Adding Distraction-Free Reading Toggle
We will use jQuery to add a toggler for distraction-free reading. Since distraction-free reading won’t work with JavaScript disabled, we will only add the toggler for users with JavaScript enabled.
3. Switching to Distraction-Free Reading Mode
Once the toggle link is clicked, we will show the distraction-free reading modal using jQuery. We will clone the post title and content and add them to the modal. We will also add a close link that will remove the modal and bring back the toggle link.
4. Styling Distraction-Free Reading Content
We need some CSS to position our modal and toggle link and give them some basic styling. We will also create specific enough CSS selectors that will override theme’s default CSS to style the content inside the modal.
5. Developing a Fully Featured WordPress Plugin
The plan is to develop this concept into a fully featured WordPress plugin. If you’d like to join in and contribute, you can visit the project’s Github page.
In conclusion, adding distraction-free reading to your WordPress website is dead simple. By following the five steps outlined in this article, you can improve your visitors’ reading experience and make your content stand out.
