The excerpt stips all html tags, a feature that frustrates many. I have written a custom excerpt that stops the excerpt from stipping any html tags. It also breaks the excerpt after the sentence after the set amount of words. If you need to cut the excerpt at exact words, you will just need to modify my code.
You will first need to remove the original excerpt, and then register the new excerpt. To do this, add the following code in your functions.php
remove_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'wp_trim_excerpt');
add_filter('get_the_excerpt', 'pietergoosen_custom_wp_trim_excerpt');
Now for the custom excerpt. Add this below the code above
function pietergoosen_custom_wp_trim_excerpt($pietergoosen_excerpt) {
global $post;
$raw_excerpt = $pietergoosen_excerpt;
if ( '' == $pietergoosen_excerpt ) {
$pietergoosen_excerpt = get_the_content('');
$pietergoosen_excerpt = strip_shortcodes( $pietergoosen_excerpt );
$pietergoosen_excerpt = apply_filters('the_content', $pietergoosen_excerpt);
$pietergoosen_excerpt = str_replace(']]>', ']]>', $pietergoosen_excerpt);
//Set the excerpt word count and only break after sentence is complete.
$excerpt_word_count = 75;
$excerpt_length = apply_filters('excerpt_length', $excerpt_word_count);
$tokens = array();
$excerptOutput = '';
$count = 0;
// Divide the string into tokens; HTML tags, or words, followed by any whitespace
preg_match_all('/(<[^>]+>|[^<>\s]+)\s*/u', $pietergoosen_excerpt, $tokens);
foreach ($tokens[0] as $token) {
if ($count >= $excerpt_word_count && preg_match('/[\?\.\!]\s*$/uS', $token)) {
// Limit reached, continue until ? . or ! occur at the end
$excerptOutput .= trim($token);
break;
}
// Add words to complete sentence
$count++;
// Append what's left of the token
$excerptOutput .= $token;
}
$pietergoosen_excerpt = trim(force_balance_tags($excerptOutput));
$excerpt_end = ' <a href="'. esc_url( get_permalink() ) . '">' . ' » ' . sprintf(__( 'Read more about: %s »', 'pietergoosen' ), get_the_title()) . '</a>';
$excerpt_more = apply_filters('excerpt_more', ' ' . $excerpt_end);
$pos = strrpos($pietergoosen_excerpt, '</');
if ($pos !== false)
// Inside last HTML tag
$pietergoosen_excerpt = substr_replace($pietergoosen_excerpt, $excerpt_end, $pos, 0);
else
// After the content
$pietergoosen_excerpt .= $excerpt_end;
return $pietergoosen_excerpt;
}
return apply_filters('pietergoosen_custom_wp_trim_excerpt', $pietergoosen_excerpt, $raw_excerpt);
}
If you need just specific tags, you can use the code below. Just add the code below, and the delete the tags that you need stripped.
function pietergoosen_get_allowedtags() {
// Add custom tags to this string that will be used as allowed tags
return '<head>,<title>,<base>,<link>,<meta>,<style>,<script>,<noscript>,<body>,<section>,<nav>,
<article>,<aside>,<h1>,<h2>,<h3>,<h4>,<h5>,<h6>,<header>,<footer>,<address>,<main>,<p>,<hr>,
<pre>,<blockquote>,<ol>,<ul>,<li>,<dl>,<dt>,<dd>,<figure>,<figcaption>,<div>,<a>,<em>,<strong>,
<small>,<s>,<cite>,<q>,<dfn>,<abbr>,<data>,<time>,<code>,<var>,<samp>,<kbd>,<sub>,<sup>,<i>,<b>,
<u>,<mark>,<ruby>,<rt>,<rp>,<bdi>,<bdo>,<span>,<br>,<wbr>,<ins>,<del>,<img>,<iframe>,<embed>,
<object>,<param>,<video> ,<audio>,<source>,<track>,<canvas>,<map>,<area>,<svg>,<math>,<table>,
<caption>,<colgroup>,<col>,<tbody>,<thead>,<tfoot>,<tr>,<td>,<th>,<form>,<fieldset>,<legend>,<label>,
<input>,<button>,<select>,<datalist>,<optgroup>,<option>,<textarea>,<keygen>,<output>,<progress>,<meter>,
<details>,<summary>,<menuitem>,<menu>';
}
Just add this line $pietergoosen_excerpt = strip_tags($pietergoosen_excerpt, pietergoosen_get_allowedtags()); below this line $pietergoosen_excerpt = str_replace(']]>', ']]>', $pietergoosen_excerpt);
Hope this will help you
the_contentin combination with<!--more-->quicktag is best choice. See codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/the_content