How to display more characters (Item description)?

The layout design is not that great for displaying a large amount of text which is why its default capped at 150. With that said, a simple template edit will do the trick for you

template: nflj_showcase_layout_list_view_item

Find this block of template syntax:

HTML:

            <div class="description">
                <xen:if is="{$item.item_state} == 'deleted'">
                    <span class="deletionNote">{xen:phrase nflj_showcase_this_item_has_been_deleted}
                        <xen:if is="{$item.delete_user_id}">
                            {xen:phrase nflj_showcase_item_deleted_by_x, 'name={xen:helper username, {xen:array "user_id={$item.delete_user_id}", "username={$item.delete_username}"}}'}, <xen:datetime time="{$item.delete_date}" /><xen:if is="{$item.delete_reason}">, {xen:phrase reason}: {$item.delete_reason}</xen:if>.
                        </xen:if>
                    </span>
                <xen:else />
                    <span>{xen:if '{$item.description}', '{xen:helper snippet, $item.description, 150}', '{xen:helper snippet, $item.message, 150}'}</span>
                </xen:if>                           
            </div>

towards the bottom of that block, you will find this line of code:

HTML:

                    <span>{xen:if '{$item.description}', '{xen:helper snippet, $item.description, 150}', '{xen:helper snippet, $item.message, 150}'}</span>

Simply change both instances of 150 to 250 (or what ever amount you want).

 

You'd need to modify the layout. Its not something that is designed to be an ON/OFF for that layout, in fact, its pretty much the point of that layout.

Why not use Article View instead of List View?