Combining the_excerpt with the_content

Question

I have some html:

<div class="container">
<p class="accent">The first paragraph...</p>
<p>The rest of the article...</p>
</div>

I'd like to put "the_excerpt" in the first paragraph (with a special colour / font size) but then have the following text be "normal".

Is there a way to subtract the_excerpt from the_content so the section "The rest of the article" does not repeat the excerpt?

Answer 1

The key is to use user-defined excerpts, rather than auto-generated excerpts. For example:

<div <?php post_class(); ?>>
<?php
// If post has defined excerpt, output it here
if ( has_excerpt() ) {
    ?>
    <div class="first-paragraph-excerpt">
    <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
    </div>
    <?php
}
// Now output the content
the_content();
?>
</div> <!-- .post -->

You'll need to adapt to your needs, but this will output a div with the Excerpt, if it exists, and then output the content.

Answer 2

Maybe doing it with css?

.container p:first {
    font-weight: bold;
}

And the html from your example:

<div class="container">
<p>The first paragraph...</p>
<p>The rest of the article...</p>
</div>