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Advanced Excerpt

By WPKube

Content Management / Blog & Article Publishing

Advanced Excerpt Review - In-Depth Analysis

Enhance WordPress post excerpts with customizable features. Control length, HTML tags, and add read-more links.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.56/10

User Rating

4.3/5 (based on 101+ reviews)

Active Installations

80,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin adds several improvements to WordPress' default way of creating excerpts.

It keeps HTML markup in the excerpt, allowing users to choose which tags are included. The excerpt can be trimmed to a specified length using either character count or word count, while only the real text is counted, ignoring HTML but keeping it intact.

Users can customize the excerpt length and the ellipsis character used. The plugin completes the last word or sentence in an excerpt to avoid awkward cuts and adds a read-more link to the text. Additionally, it ignores custom excerpts and uses the generated one instead.

Theme developers can utilize the function the_advanced_excerpt() for even more control over excerpts. Most features are optional and customizable by users or developers.

Comparing to Alternatives

Advanced Excerpt is a plugin designed to enhance the display of excerpts in WordPress posts. When compared to other excerpt management plugins, it offers a straightforward approach without additional complex features.

Top alternatives

Advanced Excerpt

Strengths

Simple and easy to use interface.
Improves the appearance of excerpts on blog homepages.
Compatible with many themes like Twenty Twenty-One.
Lightweight and does not add unnecessary bloat.

Weaknesses

Lacks updates and maintenance in recent WordPress versions.
Does not fully support stripping HTML tags in newer WordPress releases.
Limited customization options compared to some alternatives.
No dedicated support or active development noted.

User Sentiment Analysis

User feedback highlights both appreciation for the plugin's functionality and concerns about compatibility and maintenance.

Positive highlights

"Love love love this plugin! It really makes the excerpts look fantastic." - nealumphred
"Working almost totally fine with Twenty Twenty-One theme." - eoik
"Potentially a fantastic addition." - ncw0123

Common complaints

Plugin does not strip tags properly in WordPress 6.6.1 and later.
Read-more link sometimes does not display or align correctly.
No updates or support for over a year.
Plugin has no effect on default Excerpt block in latest WordPress versions.

Weaknesses

Compatibility issues with WordPress 6.8.x versions.
Lack of active maintenance and developer support.
Some alignment and display bugs with certain themes and blocks.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users looking for a simple and lightweight plugin to improve excerpt appearance on classic blog layouts without needing advanced features.

Not ideal for

Users running the latest WordPress versions who require full compatibility, active support, or advanced excerpt customization options.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers basic excerpt customization such as length control and simple formatting improvements without any cost or premium upgrades.

Final Verdict

Advanced Excerpt provides a straightforward solution for enhancing post excerpts, appreciated by users who prefer simplicity and minimalism.

However, its lack of updates and compatibility issues with recent WordPress versions limit its usefulness for many users, especially those seeking reliable support and modern features.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Advanced Excerpt plugin.

WordPress excerpts

excerpt customization

post excerpt control

Screenshots

FAQ

A short version of a post that is usually displayed wherever the whole post would be too much (eg. search results, news feeds, archives). You can write them yourself, but if you don’t, WordPress will make a very basic one instead.

The plugin automatically hooks on the_excerpt() and the_content() functions and uses the parameters specified in the options panel.

If you want to call the filter with different options, you can use the_advanced_excerpt() template tag provided by this plugin. This tag accepts query-string-style parameters (theme developers will be familiar with this notation).

The following parameters can be set:

length, an integer that determines the length of the excerpt
length_type, enumeration, if set to words the excerpt length will be in words; if set to characters the excerpt length will be in characters
no_custom, if set to 1, an excerpt will be generated even if the post has a custom excerpt; if set to 0, the custom excerpt will be used
no_shortcode, if set to 1, shortcodes are removed from the excerpt; if set to 0, shortcodes will be parsed
finish, enumeration, if set to exact the excerpt will be the exact lenth as defined by the “Excerpt Length” option. If set to word the last word in the excerpt will be completed. If set to sentence the last sentence in the excerpt will be completed.
ellipsis, the string that will substitute the omitted part of the post; if you want to use HTML entities in the string, use %26 instead of the & prefix to avoid breaking the query
read_more, the text used in the read-more link
add_link, if set to 1, the read-more link will be appended; if 0, no link will be added
allowed_tags, a comma-separated list of HTML tags that are allowed in the excerpt. Entering _all will preserve all tags.
exclude_tags, a comma-separated list of HTML tags that must be removed from the excerpt. Using this setting in combination with allowed_tags makes no sense

A custom advanced excerpt call could look like this:

the_advanced_excerpt('length=320&length_type=words&no_custom=1&ellipsis=%26hellip;&exclude_tags=img,p,strong');

Contributors and developers

“Advanced Excerpt” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

WPKube

FancyThemes

Free Version

WPS

6.56

Average

Pro version

Ratings

4.3 out of 5 | 101

Version

4.4.1

Last updated

2 years ago

Active installations

80,000+

WordPress version

6.4.8 or higher

PHP version

or higher

Languages

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Advanced Excerpt Review - In-Depth Analysis

Performance Overview

What It Does

Comparing to Alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

Who Should Use This?

Pricing & Value

Final Verdict

Other Notable Features

Screenshots

FAQ

Contributors and developers

Ratings

Reviews (101)

Sort by:

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

Security Status

Secure

No Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Known Vulnerabilities (0)

WPS

6.56

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