Categories in navigation

[Janice]

Hello Bill,

In my top navigation I have added “Articles” and in the dropdown some sections that are categories.

For example I have a category called “Interviews” under “Articles”.

When this is clicked on it will show all the posts under that category. However it shows the full posts.

Is there a way I can fix this so only a summary of each post shows?

Only as I keep adding more posts this is going to get a very long page!

I would rather there were summaries and people clicked on the title to view the full post.

Hope you can help!

Many Thanks
Janice

[Bill Robbins]

A long page indeed. There are a couple of options for you. The first is to insert what is called a “more” tag into each post as you write. WordPress will stop the content on your blog page at that point and display a link to your full post. There is a button in the editor that will insert that tag for you.

The second option is to make a quick edit to the theme. Here’s how to do that:

1. Go to the appearance section and select edit to open up the theme editor.
2. From the list of files on your right, choose archive.php and look for this spot (it’s on line 9):

   
   the_content(__('Read more', 'organizedthemes'));
   

3. Replace that with this:

   
   the_excerpt();
   

4. Save your changes.

Either option will keep your page from getting out of hand.

[Janice]

Many Thanks Bill,

I just tried the second option as this seems the easier one long term.

However the code shows up on the page under each post heading. Is there a way to remedy this?

Janice

[Bill Robbins]

If you’d like to replace the complete code of the archive.php page, it’s here:

Give that a try and let me know if you have trouble.

[Janice]

That works!

http://totalhealthproject.org/?cat=65

However it still looks abit messy as the sentences just stop midway with no explanation as to READ MORE.

Would it be better to utilize the READ MORE tag individually in each post?

Thank you so much for your patience, it is much appreciated!

[Bill Robbins]

If you’re using the excerpt, another option is to manually write an excerpt of your post. You can custom craft what you’d like to have it say in the excerpt box (just below the main content box when you’re writing a post).

If you don’t want to write something that’s different, you could always just copy the first paragraph so you make sure your content is cut off.

Or you could go back to the full content and use the more tag.

[Janice]

okay, now it’s getting a little freaky. There is no excerpt box underneath the main content box in the posts.

I have reverted back to the original code for archive.php page, but still nothing in any post pages under the main content box.

Am I going mad???

[Bill Robbins]

You’re not mad. WordPress likes to hide things sometimes. You can probably find it by clicking the “Screen Options” tab in the top right hand corner when editing a post. In the drop down that appears, there will be a list of elements that you can make visible. Make sure the box next to excerpt is checked to have it show up.

[Janice]

God Almighty… I keep forgetting about that Screen Options at the top!

Thank you so much Bill … I will attempt not to trouble you further … at least for today! 😉

[Author]

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