Multiple Excerpt Lengths Plugin

Do you have excerpts on multiple pages? Do you want to have them at different lengths?

With the Multiple Excerpt Lengths plugin, you can now control the length (in words) of excerpts present at various different templates throughout your WordPress site.

By default, WordPress sets the length of excerpts at 55 words. It is fairly simple to change this length – it only requires you to add a short piece of code to your functions.php file. However, once you add that code, it changes the length of ALL the excerpts present on your site, and you may not want that.

For example, you might want to shorten the length of the excerpts on your Front Page where you have 3 recent blog posts displayed horizontally in columns but you might not want to change the length of the excerpts on your Blog Page (which may be displaying 10 of your recent posts).

With this plugin, you’ll be able to change the length of excerpts present at various different locations throughout your site. By default, the plugin will keep the excerpts at 55 words. If you wish to change the length for a given page/template, you can do so by specifying a number for the appropriate page/template.

Installation is similar to any other plugin that you would install.

1. Upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/multiple-excerpt-lengths directory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress
3. Use the Dashboard->Settings->Excerpt Lengths screen to configure the plugin

What is the default length of excerpts set by the plugin if I don’t specify any length in the plugin settings?

By default, just like WordPress, the plugin sets the excerpts at 55 words.

How and in what cases will I have excerpts on the Front Page?

This is determined by the theme in use. Some themes allow you to display a Blog Posts sections on the front page, and some don’t. You should consult your theme developer for any queries regarding this.

What is the maximum length allowed?

The plugin allows a maximum length of 999 words – but it wouldn’t really be an “excerpt” with as many words.

1.1

*Added support for Search pages

1.0

*Plugin Released