Problem

Currently, excerpts are automatically generated by truncating the first 100 words of the blog post. This way, the authors don't manually control what shows in the excerpt, and sometimes, this can lead to less meaningful or effective previews, especially when the first 100 words don’t capture the essence of the post or lure readers to want to read about the post.

Description

This feature would add an optional excerpt field to the contents.lr blog template for new authors to fill. Authors would have the option to manually add a custom excerpt to their posts, which would be used as the preview text. If the excerpt field is left empty, the current logic will apply, and the system will truncate the first 100 words of the post body.

The logic would be then modified to check for the presence of the excerpt field. If provided, the custom excerpt will be used; if not, the fallback behaviour will generate the excerpt from the body content.

Alternatives

Continue using only the automatic truncation of the first 100 words. This limits control over the excerpt and may not provide ideal previews.

Additional context

In #351, it was suggested that the Write a blog post page documentation be updated to include how to add excerpt:

• Update Write a Blog Post by adding excerpt suggestion. #351

Implementation

• I would be interested in implementing this feature.