You’re in good company, this is indeed a confusing feature of WP. The standard format or full text for feeds settings have nothing to do with read more and excerpt vs. full content. It’s entirely theme dependent, which is why you see different results with various themes.
As it’s theme dependent, what theme are you using? Where do you want excerpts with read more? Where do you want full content? (besides single post view, if anywhere else)
Joy
(@joyously)
It’s fairly simple. The single page always shows the entire content. It’s the list pages that show differently depending on the theme. Some themes give an option to choose which to use and some do not.
If the theme uses the_content() for list pages, the author can control how much is shown by putting <!--more--> tags in the content. The function will display up to the first more tag (or all if there are none).
If the theme uses the_excerpt() for list pages, the author can control how much is shown by writing a manual excerpt. The function will display the manual excerpt as is, or generate one (strips all HTML tags from the content and take the first 55 words) if there isn’t one. Themes can also give an option of how many words to use in the generated excerpt.
I am still testing various themes and playing with child themes .. but the site is https://uticarecipes.com
Just for some more information, the setting you’re referring to is “For each article in a feed, show”. The feed being referenced is the site’s RSS feed. It has nothing to do with the post lists on the front-end of the website.
The thing is that it’s not always possible for a theme’s design to support both options. For example, if the theme author has designed a theme where the posts are laid out in a grid, it would never look good to display the full post, so they use the excerpt, while other themes, like Twenty Seventeen, are specifically designed to display the full post content.
Since you are not sold on a particular theme and are aware of child themes, we cannot help with specifics, but we can offer general advice. Don’t let the use of excerpts and read more, or the lack of their use, be a determining factor. Pick a theme where you like the general appearance. Preferably a theme that is well supported and actively maintained. You can always tweak the appearance through a child theme.
Decide how you want to manage excerpt content. Manually in content with the <!–more–> tag, manually in the separate excerpt field, or automatically take the first 55 (number can be altered with a filter) words. Pick the appropriate function as Joy described and use it on the related templates in your child theme.
I don’t see how to create a new topic, but here is my dilemma.
I need to know how to find the exact line where the Read More link will take the reader to so I can copy it and paste it in my Mailchimp newsletter.
I did this before but I have forgotten. Thanks so much!
