Troubleshooting Common WooCommerce Display Issues with GeneratePress

Many WordPress users pair the lightweight GeneratePress theme with WooCommerce to build their online stores. While this is a powerful combination, users sometimes encounter display issues with product titles, category descriptions, and checkout fields. This guide covers the most common problems and their solutions, based on community support threads.

Common WooCommerce Display Issues and Fixes

1. WooCommerce Category Description Not Showing

The Problem: The category description field in WordPress admin is filled out, but the text does not appear on the live category archive page.

The Solution: The GeneratePress theme should display product category descriptions by default. If they are not showing, the issue is likely unrelated to the theme itself. First, ensure you are editing the correct WooCommerce product category, not a standard post category. Clear any caching plugins or server-level cache. If the problem persists, check for conflicts with other plugins by temporarily deactivating them one by one.

2. Styling WooCommerce Category Titles

The Problem: A user wanted their WooCommerce category titles to be bold, larger, and centered under the category image on archive pages.

The Solution: This can be easily achieved with a small snippet of custom CSS. Add the following code to your Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS panel:

.woocommerce.archive .woocommerce-loop-category__title {
    text-align: center;
    font-weight: 700;
}

This CSS targets the category title on WooCommerce archive pages, centers the text, and applies a bold font weight.

3. Hiding Specific Checkout Fields

The Problem: A user tried to hide the country field at checkout using CSS, but their code was not working.

The Solution: The issue was using an incorrect CSS selector. To hide the billing country field, the following code is effective:

#billing_country_field {
    display: none;
}

Using CSS in this way does not cause performance issues. However, for a more robust solution that also handles data validation, the WooCommerce platform provides hooks and filters that allow you to programmatically remove fields.

4. Hiding Product Categories with CSS (And Its Limitations)

The Problem: A user wanted to seasonally hide a specific product category from their shop page.

A Partial Solution: While you can hide a category list item with CSS, it often leaves an empty "hole" in the product grid layout. This is because WooCommerce's grid system creates rows of items; removing one does not make the others re-flow to fill the space.

/* This will hide an item but likely create a layout gap */
.woocommerce-archive-wrapper ul.products li:first-child {
    display: none;
}

Why This Happens: The WooCommerce product grid is structured with separate flex or grid containers for each row. Hiding an item with CSS only removes it from view; it does not change the underlying layout structure. A more permanent and visually pleasing solution is to make the category temporarily private or draft from the WooCommerce category settings in WordPress admin.

What GeneratePress Does NOT Control

It's important to understand the boundaries of theme functionality. Based on common support threads, the following issues are typically not caused by the GeneratePress theme:

• Minification/CSS Compression Problems: If minifying your CSS causes input fields to compress or text to disappear, the issue lies with the optimization or minification plugin. You will need to exclude specific WooCommerce CSS files from being minified, a setting managed by your optimization plugin.
• Product Title Line Breaks: How the product title is output is controlled by WooCommerce templates, not the theme. Forcing a line break in a title requires custom code that filters WooCommerce's output.
• ACF Fields in Sidebars: Getting Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) to display on archive pages is a function of where and how you call the ACF data, which is unrelated to the theme.
• Sites Using Other Themes: If your site is not using GeneratePress, you must contact the support for the theme you are actually using.

General Troubleshooting Steps

1. Confirm the Theme: Always verify that GeneratePress is your active theme.
2. Check for Conflicts: Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Four and disable all plugins except WooCommerce. If the problem is resolved, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify the conflict.
3. Clear Your Cache: Clear any caching from plugins, your browser, or your server.
4. Provide a Link: When seeking help, always provide a link to the page where the issue occurs so others can inspect the problem directly.

By following this guide, you can resolve the most frequent display conflicts between GeneratePress and WooCommerce, leading to a better-looking and functioning online store.