I'm using the latest version of wordpress and theme twentytwenty.

When using the latest post block in the block editor, I am showing excerpts.

It appears that using [more] to handle the length of automatic excerpts is not working properly.

I tried fiddling with the max number of words setting..

I expect to be able to set the max words to, say 25, and in some post "B" put the [more] marker in at word 20, that I would get an excerpt of 25 words in post A, and 20 in post B.

That doesn't work, so I try setting max words to 100, still not respecting the [more] marker.

I'm a pretty good hacker, Where do I start? Is this a known problem and harder than I might expect?

Thanks!

I'm using the latest version of wordpress and theme twentytwenty.

When using the latest post block in the block editor, I am showing excerpts.

It appears that using [more] to handle the length of automatic excerpts is not working properly.

I tried fiddling with the max number of words setting..

I expect to be able to set the max words to, say 25, and in some post "B" put the [more] marker in at word 20, that I would get an excerpt of 25 words in post A, and 20 in post B.

That doesn't work, so I try setting max words to 100, still not respecting the [more] marker.

I'm a pretty good hacker, Where do I start? Is this a known problem and harder than I might expect?

Thanks!

• theme-development
• block-editor

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2 Answers 2

Gutenberg blocks are not stored in the Wordpress files in a readable or debuggable format. Instead, they have their own separate git repos.

Here is the source for the Latest Posts Block: https://github/WordPress/gutenberg/tree/master/packages/block-library/src/latest-posts

Something you might try, I found this solution years ago and it's worked well - it does more than just allow overriding the number of words limitation, it also allows for some basic styles so that if your excerpt contains bolded words those will show in the excerpt.

// Improves the look of the excerpt, more words, allows bolding

function improved_trim_excerpt($text) {
$raw_excerpt = $text;

$excerpt_more = '&hellip;<a class="more-link" href="'. esc_url( get_permalink() ) . '" title="' . esc_html__( 'Continue reading', 'wp-answers' ) . ' &lsquo;' . get_the_title() . '&rsquo;">' . wp_kses( __( 'Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">&rarr;</span>', 'wp-answers' ), array( 'span' => array( 
        'class' => array() ) ) ) . '</a>';    

if ( '' == $text ) {
    $text = get_the_content('');
    $text = strip_shortcodes( $text );
    $text = apply_filters('the_content', $text);
    $text = str_replace('\]\]\>', ']]&gt;', $text);
    $text = strip_tags($text, '<b><strong><del><em>');
    $excerpt_length = apply_filters('excerpt_length', 55);//change 55 to whatever word limit you want
    $newexcerpt_more = apply_filters('excerpt_more', ' ' . $excerpt_more);
    $words = preg_split("/[\n\r\t ]+/", $text, $excerpt_length + 1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
    if ( count($words) > $excerpt_length ) {
        array_pop($words);
        $text = implode(' ', $words);
        $text = $text . $newexcerpt_more;
        $text = force_balance_tags( $text );
    } else {
        $text = implode(' ', $words);
        $text = force_balance_tags( $text );
    }
}
return $text;
}
remove_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt');
add_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'improved_trim_excerpt');

This would go in your (hopefully child) theme's functions.php file or a custom plugin file.....