Short posts on blog home page
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I have seen blogs which show a short paragraph of several posts on the home page with the instructions to “read more.” How do I accomplish that?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi Sherrey,
You can accomplish this by using the More Tag as described here:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/
Please let me know if you have any questions with implementation!
Best,
Jeremey
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Jeremey, I had read these instructions previously and always tried to insert the More Tag after I’d gotten a good way into drafting. Today I tried it just as the instructions state, inserting it after I reach the point of where I want the excerpt to end, and once it was inserted I continued on with drafting my post. When I published that test post, I got everything I’d typed in, no excerpt. What am I doing wrong, she asks?
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Hi Sherrey,
Can you point me to a post where you have the More tag inserted? I’m looking at your latest post “Story of Fierce Determination | Gracianna by Trini Amador | Blog Tour Sponsored by HFVT” and don’t see it in action currently.
Cheers,
Jeremey
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Jeremey, I haven’t actually used it yet, only attempted to. I must be missing something as yesterday I tried a test post where I did insert the more tag where I wanted the excerpt to end. Then I resumed typing and published the post. When I viewed the post as published, there was no break in it at all. It’s not a big deal — it just sounds like a handy little tool for that extra long synopsis that you’d like to keep a bit shorter but allow folks to read all of.
If you have ideas or things for me to try, I’m willing to keep at it.
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Hey Sherrey,
When you viewed the post after testing the more tag, were you viewing it from your homepage (foundbetweenthecovers.wordpress.com) or from a page-specific URL (foundbetweenthecovers.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/story-of-fierce-determination-gracianna-by-trini-amador/). You will need to be viewing it from the homepage. If you don’t mind, could you include a tag in your next published blog post so I can see it in action?
Cheers,
Jeremey
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Be happy to do that. Next post is already up. I’ll have another early next week. I’ll let you know when. Thanks for your patience and help.
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Sounds great Sherrey! I’m looking forward to getting this working for you.
Best,
Jeremey
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Jeremey, just a note to let you know I’ve used the tag in a post that will go up Monday, 11/18 at 00:30am PST. It’s on Found Between the Covers and titled Poignant Story of Surrogacy | Bringing in Finn by Sara Connell. I’m hoping I’ve gotten it right this time. :)
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Hi Sherrey,
Everything looks good! I’ll check this out on Monday morning to make sure everything worked properly.
Best,
Jeremey
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Jeremey, you are a fantastic support! Have a great weekend, and let’s keep our fingers crossed.
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Hi Sherrey,
I checked your blog post this morning, and it looks like the More tag was removed from your post. Did you do that manually or was it removed automatically when it posted?
To make sure the function worked properly, I added it in temporarily to your post so I could snap a screenshot of it in action. You can find that here:
I’ve since removed it so everything should look like the original post now (without the More tag). Let me know if you removed this on purpose or if it was removed accidentally when it posted!
Best,
Jeremey
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Hi Jeremey! Yes, I deleted it intentionally this morning after looking at the post. And it was working just as it should and as seen in the screenshot you shared. What I was hoping for was a tag that would take the reader to the balance of the synopsis and then back to the entire post to read my comments, etc. Is there a way to do that? Sort of a “more” and then a “less” tag.
Hope you’re having a good Monday!
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Hi Sherrey,
Are you referring to a revealing tag of sorts? So, when someone clicks “more”, the page expands down to reveal your comments. Then, when they click “less”, the post contracts down to showcase just the synopsis? I’m afraid a dynamic tag like that is not supported. Using the more tag requires loading a new page (i.e. clicking the “more” link loads the full blog on the individual blog page).
However, you could use the more tag, but customize the text in a way that says “Click for My Thoughts” or something to to that effect. That way, the reader would see the synopsis then a link to click for your thoughts. The link would take the reader to the full blog page. Does that make sense? For reference, here’s a guide to customizing the text of the more tag:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/more-tag/#custom-read-more-message
As a note, if you choose to use this method, you could customize the link of the more tag so that it jumps straight to the “My Thoughts” section of the page as described here under “Page Jumps”:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/page-jumps/
This would require a bit of manual tweaking with the links, but certainly doable.
Let me know what you think!
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Jeremey, I think I knew the answer would be that what I was hoping for was not a supported feature. However, I think I’ve found a work around. My major concern was that book reviews were too long when the synopsis was lengthy and the author had a bio that went on too long. What I’ll be doing is linking to an external site, such as Goodreads, for the synopsis, and the author’s site for the bio and more info. It works and it’s easier than what you’re describing I’m pretty sure. But I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the quality time you’ve spent with me on my question! You’re tops in my book!
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Great Sherrey! I’m sorry that we don’t support the expanding text feature just yet. I’m glad you were able to find a workaround! In the future, if you want to experiment with page jumps, I think that will be the second best way to get the look you’re going for:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/splitting-content/page-jumps/
If you want, you could also post the expanding text idea to our ideas forum here:
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/forum/ideas
We’re always looking to add new features!
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