---
title: Plugin Settings
date: 2026-06-11T17:07:00+01:00
author: John Henry Donovan
canonical_url: "https://johnhenry.ie/plugins/matrix-block-anchor/docs/guide/plugin-settings"
section: Plugins
---
esc

↑↓ to navigate↵ to selectesc to close

Menu On this page 

- [Return to top](#)

Documentation

Documentation

# Plugin Settings

The plugin offers a handful of configuration options in the Matrix Block Anchor plugin settings:

![](https://johnhenry.ie/images/plugins/docs/matrix-block-anchor/plugin-settings.png)## Custom Anchor Settings

The plugin includes an "Allow Custom Anchors" setting that lets editors create their own anchor IDs instead of using the auto-generated ones. That's useful for:

- Creating meaningful, human-readable anchor links
- Improving SEO with descriptive anchor text
- Maintaining consistent anchor links even if content is reordered

Warning Changing this setting will break any existing links that point to auto-generated or custom anchors.

When custom anchors are enabled:

- Anchor IDs must start with a letter
- Anchor IDs can only contain letters, numbers, hyphens (`-`), and underscores (`_`)
- Anchor IDs must not contain spaces or other special characters
- Anchor IDs must not exceed 100 characters
- Each anchor must be unique within the same entry

## Anchor Prefix

The default prefix for anchor IDs is `blockIdAnchor`, which you can change in the plugin settings. In most cases, the default works fine. A prefix is required because an ID can't start with a number, and block IDs are numbers.

Warning Changing the anchor prefix will break any existing links that point to auto-generated anchors.

## Legacy Separator Setting

The "Use Legacy Separator" setting is for backward compatibility if you're upgrading from an older plugin version (prior to v3.0.0).

**For new installations:** Leave this disabled (default). Anchors with a prefix will generate cleanly as `#blockIdAnchor123` instead of `#blockIdAnchor-123`.

**For existing installations upgrading from v2.x or earlier:** If you have existing anchors in the format `#blockIdAnchor-123` (with a leading dash when no prefix was set), enable this setting to maintain the same format and prevent broken links.

## Field Usage

Shows you where the Matrix Block Anchor field is used across your site.

On this page