Whenever you use the “More Tag” or what some refer to as the “Read More” link, you ultimately split your post into two parts, one being the summary (the part you see in a blog home page) and then the full post (the post single view). You also get the choice with Preferential to choose between an excerpt for your post summaries or content.
Excerpts
Excerpt is a specific number of words in your summary, but also gives you the ability to use a custom excerpt instead of a snippet of your actual post content. By default, WordPress strips out all HTML formatting from this excerpt summary. This means if you have any links, images, text that is styled to be bold, underlined, etc., this gets stripped out and what gets seen is unformatted text.
The excerpt can be used if you insert images directly into your post in the area that will be part of your post summary but do not want this image to show on the summary view. Once someone clicks on “Read More”, then your image will show as well any formatting you may have in that part of your content.
You also get the option to create your own custom excerpt instead of using your actual post content.
Content
The content method maintains all HTML formatting and images within the “Read More” portion of your post. So if you have bold text, links, and an image in your summary part, this will show in the blog, including the full post view. You also can decide where in your content to insert the “Read More” split.
Choose Content or Excerpt
By default, your theme will have the “Content” option selected.
- Go to Appearance >> Customize >> Basic Settings
- Find “Content or Excerpt” and choose which one you want
- Click Save and Publish
Screencast – Content or Excerpt
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