Highlight showing html code

In the blog-function.php I have this :

if ( ! function_exists( 'backpacktraveler_mikado_excerpt' ) ) {
	/**
	 * Function that cuts post excerpt to the number of word based on previosly set global
	 * variable $word_count, which is defined in mkdf_set_blog_word_count function.
	 *
	 * @param $length - default excerpt length
	 *
	 * @return string - formatted excerpt
	 *
	 * It current post has read more tag set it will return content of the post, else it will return post excerpt
	 *
	 */
	function backpacktraveler_mikado_excerpt( $length ) {
		global $post;
		
		//does current post has read more tag set?
		if ( backpacktraveler_mikado_post_has_read_more() ) {
			global $more;
			
			//override global $more variable so this can be used in blog templates
			$more = 0;
			
			return get_the_content( true );
		}
		
		$number_of_chars = backpacktraveler_mikado_get_meta_field_intersect( 'number_of_chars', backpacktraveler_mikado_get_page_id() );
		$word_count      = $length !== '' ? $length : $number_of_chars;
		
		//is word count set to something different that 0?
		if ( $word_count > 0 ) {
			
			//if post excerpt field is filled take that as post excerpt, else that content of the post
			$post_excerpt = $post->post_excerpt !== '' ? $post->post_excerpt : strip_tags( strip_shortcodes( $post->post_content ) );
			
			//remove leading dots if those exists
			$clean_excerpt = strlen( $post_excerpt ) && strpos( $post_excerpt, '...' ) ? strstr( $post_excerpt, '...', true ) : $post_excerpt;
			//if clean excerpt has text left
			if ( $clean_excerpt !== '' ) {
				//explode current excerpt to words
				$excerpt_word_array = explode( ' ', $clean_excerpt );
				
				//cut down that array based on the number of the words option
				$excerpt_word_array = array_slice( $excerpt_word_array, 0, $word_count );
				
				//and finally implode words together
				$excerpt = implode( ' ', $excerpt_word_array );
				
				//is excerpt different than empty string?
				if ( $excerpt !== '' ) {
					return rtrim( wp_kses_post( $excerpt ) );
				}
			}
			
			return '';
		} else {
			return '';
		}
	}
}

But If I do so, I’m afraid it’s gonna change all of the actual exceprt, not just the ones from the search list, isn’t it ?

By the way, I did try your solution, in case, with no luck…

Ok, That’s a useful information since I remembered seing it somewhere, and here is the file I have, loop.php

<?php if ( $query->have_posts() ) : while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post(); ?>
	<article id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
		<div class="mkdf-post-content">
	        <?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) { ?>
		        <div class="mkdf-post-image">
			        <a itemprop="url" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>">
				        <?php the_post_thumbnail( 'thumbnail' ); ?>
			        </a>
		        </div>
	        <?php } ?>
	        <div class="mkdf-post-title-area <?php if ( ! has_post_thumbnail() ) { echo esc_attr( 'mkdf-no-thumbnail' ); } ?>">
		        <div class="mkdf-post-title-area-inner">
			        <h5 itemprop="name" class="mkdf-post-title entry-title">
				        <a itemprop="url" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
			        </h5>
			        <?php
			        $mkdf_my_excerpt = get_the_excerpt();
			        
			        if ( ! empty( $mkdf_my_excerpt ) ) { ?>
				        <p itemprop="description" class="mkdf-post-excerpt"><?php echo wp_trim_words( esc_html( $mkdf_my_excerpt ), 30 ); ?></p>
			        <?php } ?>
		        </div>
	        </div>
        </div>
    </article>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php else: ?>
	<p class="mkdf-blog-no-posts"><?php esc_html_e( 'No posts were found.', 'backpacktraveler' ); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>

The only problem remaining is that, if I remove that esc_html, I indeed don’t see html anymore but the highlight is not working then…

Awesome ! That made the trick ! Thanks a lot, gonna put 5 stars to your plugin straight away !