Title: Visual Term Description Editor
Author: Shea Bunge
Published: <strong>August 1, 2013</strong>
Last modified: August 17, 2024

---

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This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/visual-term-description-editor.svg)

# Visual Term Description Editor

 By [Shea Bunge](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bungeshea/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/visual-term-description-editor.1.8.1.zip)

 * [Details](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-term-description-editor/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-term-description-editor/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-term-description-editor/#installation)
 * [Development](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-term-description-editor/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/)

## Description

-Replaces the term description editor with the WordPress TinyMCE visual editor, 
allowing you to use HTML in term descriptions and write them in rich text. Works
on all taxonomies, including tags, categories and link categories, as well as custom
taxonomies.

This plugin is multisite-compatible; if you would like to use it on every blog, 
network activate the plugin from the network dashboard. Otherwise, activate the 
plugin for individual sites.

This plugin’s code is [available on GitHub](https://github.com/sheabunge/visual-term-description-editor).
Please feel free to fork the repository and send a pull request. If you find a bug
in the plugin, open an issue.

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * Adding a new tag using the visual editor
 * [[
 * Editing a tag using the visual editor
 * [[
 * Viewing a tag archive page with the formatted tag description (using the Twenty
   Fourteen theme)

## Installation

#### Simple Installation

 1. Search for ‘Visual Term Description Editor’ in the ‘Plugins > Add New’ menu and
    click ‘Install’
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

#### Manual Installation

 1. Download the [latest version of the plugin](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/visual-term-description-editor.zip)
 2. Upload the `visual-term-description-editor` directory to the `/wp-content/plugins/`
    directory
 3. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c7229529f9a6b40a35655dfd271146c079a81154f3c24bd6d5444492e494a5d4?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[still very useful](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/still-very-useful/)󠁿

 [Daniel](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dhoffmann/) February 1, 2025

I Have still pages with the old themes and this is really useful for adding text
on the category pages.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/1dba75a903be8eb13bae6f961d81a99e5c76d5ca8c327a18bc25e96df2417b99?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great plugin – works with WP 6.3](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-plugin-works-with-wp-6-3/)󠁿

 [Hugh Lashbrooke](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hlashbrooke/) August 21, 2023

Great plugin to allow you to make your term descriptions more visually appealing.
It works just fine with WP 6.3 in lieu of implementing the block editor for term
descriptions.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/59782af36f33316654f7235973ecc58013a87b3cdcbb7cf3a3a328e910e2e995?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Great plugin!](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/great-plugin-35537/)󠁿

 [marcomassimo](https://profiles.wordpress.org/marcomassimo/) November 16, 2022 
1 reply

Very simple and useful

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/88ea286f4d2cc41f8cdd070c9fd4f3e14dfd9446d400e93e00c838f744612e52?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Love the simplicity](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/love-the-simplicity-20/)󠁿

 [Verdi Heinz](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ver3/) October 7, 2022

You cannot help but love the simplicity. Can a code Snippet do this as well?

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/dc876ea23541d407ae8a11ffd83f6ca35e0d42fc818aea8e7039d38f85600be6?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[This is very helpful](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/this-is-very-helpful-9/)󠁿

 [Jayson Garcia](https://profiles.wordpress.org/hallowichig0/) August 26, 2021 1
reply

This plugin is very helpful specially for those client user who want to use the 
classic editor. Hope to update and maintain this plugin. Thank you.

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f5a446a60fb81290566f43726ff57b45d53c37a5e0844902038f3b63773887fb?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Hassle Free](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hassle-free-16/)󠁿

 [Howdy_McGee](https://profiles.wordpress.org/howdy_mcgee/) March 17, 2021 1 reply

No settings to configure. Works as expected out of the box. Easy Peasy 5 stars.

 [ Read all 21 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Visual Term Description Editor” is open source software. The following people have
contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Shea Bunge ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bungeshea/)

“Visual Term Description Editor” has been translated into 2 locales. Thank you to
[the translators](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/visual-term-description-editor/contributors)
for their contributions.

[Translate “Visual Term Description Editor” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/visual-term-description-editor)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/visual-term-description-editor/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/visual-term-description-editor/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/visual-term-description-editor/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/visual-term-description-editor/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.8.1

 * Prevented console error when trying to clear editor content.

#### 1.8.0

 * Fixed: prevent description from persisting in editor field after adding a new
   term [[#](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/description-content-remains-after-adding-new-term-in-visual-mode/)]
 * Fixed: always load underscore as a dependency of the word count script

#### 1.7.0

 * Added compatibility with qTranslate-X

#### 1.6.0

 * Disabled evaluation of shortcodes in the administration area
 * Constrained image widths in description administration column

#### 1.5.0

 * Fixed action hooked to wrong method
 * Added word count feature to visual editor
 * Added a warning and graceful recovery if plugin is used on PHP < 5.4

#### 1.4.2

 * Update field HTML to match what is used in WordPress 4.5

#### 1.4.1

 * Update HTML elements and class names to match latest version of WordPress (props
   to [@ThatStevensGuy](https://github.com/ThatStevensGuy))

#### 1.4.0

 * Add `visual_term_description_taxonomies` filter
 * Add support for oEmbed in term description

#### 1.3

 * Add visual editor for administrators without the `unfiltered_html` cap [[#](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-user-issues?replies=6#post-4820263)]

#### 1.2

 * Evaluate shortcodes in term description
 * Convert smilies in term descriptions
 * Unsimplify add term editor [#](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wysiwyg-on-create-taxonomy-page)

#### 1.1.1

 * Load plugin as late as possible to ensure all custom taxonomies are registered

#### 1.1

 * Fix text (HTML) editor buttons from displaying full width
 * Stripped down add term editor
 * Updated screenshots for WordPress 3.9

#### 1.0

 * Initial release

## Meta

 *  Version **1.8.1**
 *  Last updated **2 years ago**
 *  Active installations **20,000+**
 *  WordPress version ** 3.3 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.6.5**
 *  PHP version ** 5.4 or higher **
 *  Languages
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/visual-term-description-editor/),
   [Polish](https://pl.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-term-description-editor/), and
   [Russian](https://ru.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-term-description-editor/).
 *  [Translate into your language](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/visual-term-description-editor)
 * Tags
 * [categories](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/categories/)[rich text](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/rich-text/)
   [tags](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/tags/)[tinyMCE](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/tinymce/)
   [wysiwyg](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/wysiwyg/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://sna.wordpress.org/plugins/visual-term-description-editor/advanced/)

## Ratings

 5 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  21 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  0 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  0 3-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/reviews/?filter=1)

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Shea Bunge ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bungeshea/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/visual-term-description-editor/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](https://sheabunge.com/donate/)