Limit Character Count in the_content; keep MORE link

i found this post in the forum that explained how to reduct the character count.

however, the “More” attribute disappears. How can i include the “More” link while incorporating this function?

thanks!

function content($num) {
$theContent = get_the_content();
$output = preg_replace('/<img[^>]+./','', $theContent);
$output = preg_replace( '/<blockquote>.*<\/blockquote>/', '', $output );
$output = preg_replace( '|\[(.+?)\](.+?\[/\\1\])?|s', '', $output );
$limit = $num+1;
$content = explode(' ', $output, $limit);
array_pop($content);
$content = implode(" ",$content)."...";
echo $content;
}