Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › How to start excerpts at Paragraph #3 instead of Word #1
Tagged: associate theme, excerpts, mp3
- This topic has 10 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 9 months ago by Anita.
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June 28, 2013 at 2:00 am #48185purplemagpieMember
Hi Everyone,
Haul out your How Tos, please.
I'm struggling with Excerpts and having trouble finding a How To that addresses my problem.
I'm wanting to know how to start the excerpt in a certain place...say 3 paragraphs or sentences in and to show 1 or 2 paragraphs instead of a number of words.
The site is AlaskaFishRadio.com. If you go to the story about trails and beach clean-ups you'll see what I mean.
What we do is post the scripts to the daily radio show and the mp3 with a player so people can listen to show. And there's a related photo which becomes a thumbnail photo on the Home Page.
But what happens is that the excerpt includes stuff at the top of the post page that is important on the post's page, but makes no sense on the Home Page as a "teaser" in the excerpt.
EXAMPLE: Kodiak’s Island Trails Network Tackles Trash and Marine Debris
ITN-Marine-Debris-Clean-Up.mp3 This is Fish Radio. I’m Stephanie Mangini.
Now does that mp3 title taken from the player on the post page make sense there? NO. Neither do funding credits which usually also show up in the excerpt simply because they are at the top of the post page text.
How come it shows "mp3" but doesn't put the player there? I don't need a player in the excerpt on the Home Page but would consider it if it can be done easily enough.
Mostly, I just want to start the excerpt where the "meat" of the story starts. And to have it end at a point that makes sense in terms of reading flow.
Is that something that can be coded, or should we rethink the way the post is set up? But we really need that player at the top of the story on the Post Page--that can't be changed.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Maggie
alaskafishradio.comFor others who might be interested here are a few sites that cover making excerpts, limiting size, and thumbnails:
http://www.alaskafishradio.com
http://www.problogdesign.com/how-to/the-2-methods-of-showing-excerpts/
http://www.wpsquare.com/customize-genesis-post-excerpts/June 28, 2013 at 7:09 am #48200rfmeierMemberMaggie,
The WordPress excerpt-- if not specified-- will always grab the first x amount of characters and use that as the excerpt. In addition, any html will be stripped from the excerpt. That is why links and other embedded objects will not show up within the excerpt.
While creating/editing a post, you can specify the excerpt. This will allow you to define the content you wish to see on the home page.
If this does not show up by default, you can click the 'Screen Options' tab in the top right corner and check the 'Excerpt' check box. This will show the excerpt box where you can specify your excerpt.
I hope this helps or points you in the right direction.
June 28, 2013 at 12:08 pm #48241SummerMemberManually specified excerpts sounds like the best bet for you. I've been using that for years on many of my sites... never understood why so many people seem to hate or avoid them... they are perfect for creating teasers that aren't just a rehash of part of your article.
As for the MP3 player, what are you using for that? I know that the two big podcasting plugins, Powerpress and podPress, both have options to display the player in excerpts, which I have set up on several sites, using Metro, Associate and News.
But if you don't have your feeds set up as a podcast, those plugins might be overkill for what you need.
If your player plugin is using shortcodes to embed the player, I think there are ways to make the excerpt use HTML and shortcodes. I've used Advanced Exceprt in the past, but that plugin hasn't been updated since 2011.
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkJune 28, 2013 at 12:20 pm #48242AnitaKeymaster@purplemagpie, try the Advanced Excerpt plugin. WordPress by default strips out any special coding in the Exercpts. With this plugin, it leaves the coding in tact. Read it over and test it out. Good luck.
http://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-excerpt
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
June 28, 2013 at 12:28 pm #48247SummerMember@anitac, you still use Advanced Excerpt, even though it says it's only tested up through WordPress 3.3.2, and hasn't been updated since December 2011?
That didn't concern me back when updating sites to WP 3.4, but now that we're closing in on a lot of changes with 3.6, I have to wonder a little bit...
WordPress / Genesis Site Design & Troubleshooting: A Touch of Summer | @SummerWebDesign
Slice of SciFi | Writers, After DarkJune 28, 2013 at 12:43 pm #48248AnitaKeymasterRead what I wrote... I said "test it out." Not everything that hasn't been updated fails to work. If you TEST IT OUT and it works for you - it works for you. If it doesn't, you don't have to use it. There are plenty of plugins that haven't been updated in a while. I don't use plugins that haven't been updated in 2 years - when WP places the WARNING sign. So again.. even if it's developed today - there's not guarantee it will work for you. Every situation is different.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
June 28, 2013 at 1:40 pm #48255purplemagpieMemberThanks Ryan, Summer and Anitac,
You folks are all so smart...
Ryan, I smacked myself on the head when you said to open the window more. We were just discussing how we thought we had that figured out once and didn't it have a box we could put things in and on and on.
Now, I realize we weren't delusional. I think that is my answer.
I will try all your suggestions, and try a few things out and decide what will work best for this site and these gals.
I'll let you know and get back to you.
June 28, 2013 at 1:45 pm #48256SummerMemberThis reply has been marked as private.June 28, 2013 at 6:04 pm #48301AnitaKeymasterThis reply has been marked as private.June 28, 2013 at 6:30 pm #48306SummerMemberThis reply has been marked as private.June 28, 2013 at 7:03 pm #48314AnitaKeymasterI have marked several previous message private and will now close this discussion as the comments being made now are not pertinent to the originators question.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
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