Blog 'Excerpt Length' doesn't seem to do anything

Support
#1

Hello,

It would streamline a lot of elements on my site if the blog excerpt control in theme options worked, but it doesn’t seem to have an effect on my site. Am I doing something wrong? I disabled ‘full post content’ and experimented with different numbers in the ‘excerpt length’ field, but nothing happens on my blog posts.

Is that field reading my number as a word or character count? I’ve tried 5, 25, 100 … nothing changes what I see on my site. I looked around in the support forum and couldn’t find a solution. I’m attaching a screenshot for reference.

Thank you,
Shannon

#2

That image seems to get cropped, so here’s the portion that relates to my post:

#3

Hello Shannon,

Thanks for posting in! Could you please update to the latest versions?
Our latest versions are:

  • Pro theme 2.1.6
  • X theme 6.1.6
  • Cornerstone 3.1.6

This latest release contains fixes for several issues so be sure to check out the changelog (http://theme.co/changelog/).

_After doing the updates, always remember to clear all caches (if you are using WP Rocket, WP SuperCache or W3 Total Cache) when updating so that the code from the latest release is always in use. This will help you to avoid any potential errors.-

Please let us know how it goes.

#4

Hi @RueNel,

How do I know that I have these versions? I use Pro.

I just did one update to my theme, and there are no other updates available to me in the ‘Updates’ section of my Wordpress dashboard. After the update, I cleared my cache, and the excerpt feature still doesn’t work. I also tried viewing my site from a different browser. No luck.

Also, is the excerpt number in reference to characters or words? What does the number mean?

Thank you,
Shannon

#5

Hello Shannon,

I am not sure which of your site has this issue. I noticed that your first site is up to date and the second one is not. Simply go to Dashboard > Updates to check if there are any updates. You can get the version that is installed in your site by going to X > Validation or Pro > Validation.

By the way, to save time in resolving the excerpt length issue, could you please provide us the url and the access to the site so that we can take a closer look?

Thanks.

#6

Hi @RueNel, see secure note for info.

#7

Hello There,

I can confirmed that you are up to date. Did you add a manual excerpt? Please be advised that if you added manual excerpts, it may not follow the blog excerpt length. Would you mind if you give us access to your site so that we can investigate further?

Please provide the username and password in the secure note.

Thanks.

#8

Hi @RueNel,

I do not have manual excerpts activated, although I previously experimented with them. I deleted them all, though.

Here is a link that will temporarily give you access to my Wordpress backend … see secure note.

Thank you,
Shannon

#9

Hello There,

You are experiencing this issue because you have modified the excerpt template:

<?php

// =============================================================================
// VIEWS/GLOBAL/_CONTENT-THE-EXCERPT.PHP
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Display of the_excerpt() for various entries.
// =============================================================================

?>

<?php do_action( 'x_before_the_excerpt_begin' ); ?>

<div class="entry-content excerpt">

<?php do_action( 'x_after_the_excerpt_begin' ); ?>

<?php the_content(); ?>

<?php do_action( 'x_before_the_excerpt_end' ); ?>

</div>

<?php do_action( 'x_after_the_excerpt_end' ); ?>

I have updated it and change the the_content() into the_excerpt().

Please check your site now.

#10

Oh, wow. I feel like an idiot. Haha. Thank you! (I don’t remember modifying that! I’m not a developer, obviously, and don’t know how to read PHP.)

I appreciate your help, once again. Thank you!!

#11

@RueNel, one more question, please. When the excerpt is set to ‘50’ I see the link “Read more …” but if I change the excerpt to 100 or 500 (or anything besides ‘50’), the “Read more” link disappears. Can you help?

Update: after some testing, I see that it works up to 95, then “read more” disappears!

#12

Hello There,

The excerpt length is the number of words to display in the excerpts. If your content length is lesser than the assigned excerpt length, the read more will not display. For more details, please check this out: https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Filter_Reference/excerpt_length

Hope this helps.

#13

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