http://wordpress.org/support/ WordPress › Support Topic: Changing the default length of the_excerpt en Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:51:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/support/topic/231952#post-948375 Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:09:11 +0000 LenK 948375@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>Dupe post. Answered <a href="http://wordpress.org/support/topic/231953?replies=2">here</a>. </p> http://wordpress.org/support/topic/231952#post-948348 Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:48:26 +0000 dominoeffect 948348@http://wordpress.org/support/ <p>Hi all,</p> <p>On my new site I'm using the following to pull up a list of recent posts &#38; their excerpts on the sidebar:</p> <pre><code>&lt;?php query_posts(&#39;showposts=10&#39;); ?&gt; &lt;?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;&lt;?php the_permalink() ?&gt;&quot;&gt;&lt;?php the_title() ?&gt; &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;?php the_excerpt() ?&gt; &lt;?php endwhile; endif; ?&gt;</code></pre> <p>Does anyone know of a way to shorten the length of the_excerpt?</p> <p>I'm looking for a way for customise the excerpt length automatically, to something more brief, say, ten words. </p> <p>I'm aware of the custom field but that adding an excerpt to that extra field would be very time-consuming since I post at least once a day - I would have to count out the correct length of excerpt, and then paste it in, every time I post. </p> <p>Thanks, MS </p>