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1. julietmartine
   Member
   Jan 17, 2013, 11:18 AM

   Hi... newbie here to WP.com and not all that technically savvy... but i am wanting to increase the length for the excerpts of my blog postings shown on the front page (they're currently limited to the 55 word count showing the [...] at the end of the excerpt (that doesn't even hyperlink to the full posting page). I would also ideally like to be able to include a thumbnail image from the individual blog posts within the excerpts on the front page, if that is possible.

   In the html editor I inserted the 'more' tag after approx 200 words: <!--more-->
   But it hasn't had any affect on the front page. I've been searching the internet for hours and there's lots of postings but too complex for my limited understanding and they don't seem to be helping.

   I do have CSS upgrade facility on my blog, so I'm sure I should be able to add in some coding in the facility 'Add-on CSS', but the only coding i could find within the 'theme's CSS' was as follows:

   /* Post excerpts
   -------------------------------------------------------------- */

   .entry-summary p {
   margin: 0 0 1em 0;
   }

   There doesn't seem to be any reference to excerpt length within this coding, so it's not obvious to me where the excerpt length limit is set and I don't know what to do.

   Thanks heaps for any assistance for the newbie :)

   The blog I need help with is julietmartine.wordpress.com.

2. justpi
   Member
   Jan 17, 2013, 11:49 AM

   This isn't a CSS issue: the limit for auto excerpts is set in the underlying files of the theme, which you cannot access or edit.
   And the more tag cannot override this: it will work only if you insert it before the limit.

   You can either switch to a theme that normally displays full posts on the main page (so that the more tag will work the way you want), or create your own custom excerpts by adding content (including code for formatting or images) in the Excerpt module of the post editor. If you're not seeing the Excerpt module while on the post editor screen, click Screen Options (top right) to activate it.

   The link to the single post view is the post title.

3. randyln
   Member
   Jan 17, 2013, 1:15 PM

   /* Post excerpts
   -------------------------------------------------------------- */

   .entry-summary p {
   margin: 0 0 1em 0;
   }

4. julietmartine
   Member
   Jan 17, 2013, 10:37 PM

   Dear Justpi... thank you thank you thank you. You explained it so clearly and of everything i have read for the past 24 hours, you have got it spot on! What a relief to find the simple and straightforward solution. Can't thank you enough! Happy happy happy bunny now :)
   Have a great weekend SaintPi... your work is done!

   Juliet :)

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