Stop WordPress automatically adding tags to post content

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Is there a way to stop WordPress from automatically inserting <br> tags when adding returns in the WordPress text editor.

I would like for it to behave more like a code editor where I can structure the code how I like and make it easy to read.

The code I am using in the editor is: 

[one_third][team_member image_url="team_member.jpg" name="Laser vision" role="WordPress Designer"][custom_button url="#"]For more information[/custom_button][/team_member][/one_third][one_third][team_member image_url="team_member.jpg" name="Laser vision" role="WordPress Designer"][custom_button url="#"]For more information[/custom_button][/team_member][/one_third][one_third][team_member image_url="team_member.jpg" name="Laser vision" role="WordPress Designer"][custom_button url="#"]For more information[/custom_button][/team_member][/one_third]

I would like to structure it like this so it is easier to read and edit:

[one_third]
[team_member image_url="team_member.jpg" name="Laser vision" role="WordPress Designer"]
[custom_button url="#"]For more information[/custom_button]
[/team_member]
[/one_third]

[one_third]
[team_member image_url="team_member.jpg" name="Laser vision" role="WordPress Designer"]
[custom_button url="#"]For more information[/custom_button]
[/team_member]
[/one_third]

[one_third]
[team_member image_url="team_member.jpg" name="Laser vision" role="WordPress Designer"]
[custom_button url="#"]For more information[/custom_button]
[/team_member]
[/one_third]

However, when do this there will be invisible <br> tags added to the post content which will mess up the layout of my page.

8

The answer by shea is not ideal as in many cases:

  • You don’t want to strip everything from <br>, <p> etc. You want it as a default behavior for your WP visual composer which the above code will delete
  • In many cases it is considered as “hacking the core” as this is changing the
    default core behavior of WP – for example such a thing will not pass
    on ThemeForest

As I can see you mainly have issues with you shortcodes. The right way to approach this is not to change the default behavior (hack the core) but to just filter the content. So just add a filter and in a variable pass an array of your shotrcodes you want to filter like this:

function the_content_filter($content) {
    $block = join("|",array("one_third", "team_member"));
    $rep = preg_replace("/(<p>)?\[($block)(\s[^\]]+)?\](<\/p>|<br \/>)?/","[$2$3]",$content);
    $rep = preg_replace("/(<p>)?\[\/($block)](<\/p>|<br \/>)?/","[/$2]",$rep);
return $rep;
}
add_filter("the_content", "the_content_filter");

The content inside will be filtered and therefore your shortcodes will be free of <br>, <p> etc. but the other parts of content – for example standard text in the WP editor created by user – will still have full functionality of WP.

References:

  1. the_content WP filter
  2. Regex “translator”
  3. join PHP function
  4. preg_replace PHP function

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