The Text Block widget shows formatted text, like Elementor’s own Text Editor, and adds two things it lacks: a limit on the length of the text and GSAP text animations.
This overview walks through every setting of the Text Block widget from The Plus Addons for Elementor (on our website it is listed as Advanced Text Block): the text, alignment, Description Limit, Text Animation and styling.
Requirement – This widget is a part of The Plus Addons for Elementor, make sure it’s installed & activated to enjoy all its powers.
Before You Start
- Edition: Free — the Text Block widget and all its Content, Text Animation and Style settings are part of the free plugin and work the same with Pro.
- Widget to enable: Text Block, switched on under The Plus Addons > Widgets.
- Required plugins: Elementor and The Plus Addons for Elementor, both installed and activated.
How to Activate the Text Block Widget
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to The Plus Addons > Widgets.
- Search for Text Block and switch it on.
Content
- In the Elementor editor, search for Text Block and drag the widget onto the page.
- Type or paste your text into Content > Description. The toolbar adds bold, italics, lists and links, and the field accepts Elementor dynamic tags.
- Set Alignment to left, center, right or justify. Use the device icon next to the label to set a different alignment for tablet and mobile.
The Import Presets button at the top of the section loads ready-made designs. This doc does not cover them.
Description Limit
Switch on Description Limit to shorten the text to a set number of characters or words, with optional dots at the end. Every option is explained in How to limit word or character count in the Text Block widget.
Text Animation
Open Content > Text Animation and switch on Enable Animation. You can pick a Basic animation and set it up in the widget, or a Global animation saved in Site Settings. The animation can start when the page loads, when the visitor scrolls to the text or when the pointer moves over it.
A Normal animation halfway through, fading the text in character by character:
All animation types and settings are explained in How to add text animation in the Text Block widget.
Style
- Text Style: Typography and Text Color of the text. The colour is grey (#888) until you change it.
- Text Swap Style: the colour and typography the text changes to. This section only appears when Animation Type is Text Style Swap.
- On Scroll View Animation: the same settings as in other The Plus Addons widgets, described in On Scroll View Animation.
Text Block Settings
| Setting | Where | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Description | Content > Content | Placeholder text (I am text block…) |
| Alignment | Content > Content, per device | Not set (the theme’s alignment) |
| Description Limit, Limit on, Count, Display Dots | Content > Content | Off, Character, empty, on |
| Enable Animation | Content > Text Animation | Off |
| Typography, Text Color | Style > Text Style | Site text typography, #888 |
Free and Pro
Everything in this doc is part of the free plugin and works the same with Pro. With Pro active, the Advanced tab also shows Pro sections such as Plus Extras, Tooltip, Continuous Animation and Display Condition. Without Pro, a Pro Features box appears in the Content tab instead.
How It Behaves
- Alignment switches at Elementor’s default breakpoints: the tablet value applies from 1024 px down, the mobile value from 767 px down. A device without its own value uses the next larger device’s value.
- Bold text, italics and links in the Description are kept on the page.
- The animation scripts are only loaded on pages where Enable Animation is on.
Limitations
- Description Limit with Character counts HTML code and bytes, so the visible text can be shorter than the Count and accented letters can break.
- The Typing Effect and Scramble Text animations remove bold text, italics and links from the text.
- Animations that split the text into Characters can break words across two lines.
- Text set to animate On Scroll stays invisible when the widget sits so low on the page that it never scrolls up to about 70% of the screen height.
Troubleshooting
The Text Block widget is missing from the panel
Switch it on under The Plus Addons > Widgets, then reload the editor.
The text is light grey
That is the default Text Color (#888). Change it in Style > Text Style.
The alignment is different on phones
Click the device icon next to Alignment and set a value for tablet and mobile.
