[Support request] Videos and Excerpts working at the same time?

[Kim]

Hi!

Since it seems I’m a ‘vlogger’ I’ve got YouTube videos at the top of each of my posts, followed by text. I’d like to use ‘Show excerpt’ (Customize>Blog>Blog Content>Blog Post Content), but: If I choose Show excerpt and set the post Format to Video, nothing changes (the whole text is displayed on the front page). And if I set post Format to Standard the excerpt-functionality starts working, but the video disappears…

What can I do to have both videos and excerpts working at the same time?

Best, Kim

[Leo]

Hi Kim,

WordPress excerpts strip all HTML (including images).

However, you could set a manual excerpt using the more tag in Standard format which will include HTML:
https://docs.generatepress.com/article/using-the-more-tag/

Let me know if this helps.

[Kim]

I tried the More Tag and like it. The only niggling problem is its layout is a bit messy compared to Show excerpt (IMHO – see screenshots: More tag, Show excerpt). Is there a way to get the More Tag to show dot-dot-dot and ‘Read more’ on the same line, like Show excerpt does?

Best, Kim

[Tom]

When you use the more tag, it displays all of the HTML including paragraph tags. This makes it so the read more link can’t be inline with the last line of the text unfortunately.

One thing you can do is leave them as excerpts, and add your video HTML into the Page Header add-on content, then click the “Add to excerpt” button.

[Kim]

Thanks for the workaround:) Does it make any difference what post format I choose (Standard or Video)?

Kim

[Tom]

Video will always show full content (so it includes video HTML).

Standard will use whatever you have set in your Blog Content settings 🙂

[Kim]

OK:) It seems this method requires the usage of YouTube embed codes, rather than urls. Am I correct?

Kim

[Tom]

If you’re adding them into the Page Header add-on then yes that’s correct 🙂

[Kim]

Goody, I’ll stick with the Page Header method for the moment then:) In a future update, would it be possible to perform some code wizardry to make ‘Show excerpt’ work with video straight out of the box?

One way of doing it would be to let Page Header have a video-section where you could paste a video url. Magically, this would make the video (fully responsive, of course) show up at the top of the post. On top of everything, it would be independent of the WP Editor, so More Tags, Show excerpt etc. worked as normal… Don’t even know it that’s technically possible, but it would be great🙂

Best, Kim

[Tom]

I definitely want to improve the post format features.

Thanks for the suggestions! 🙂

[Roman]

Hi Tom,

Any deadline for fixing excerpts for a video post format? That is almost no go for me when I cannot use the video post format because full article is shown on the blog home page. And if I choose a standard post format I always see a link to video before the excerpt…

Cheers
Roman

[Tom]

No deadline yet – not a lot of people have requested it so it’s a bit lower on the list.

Have you looked into a plugin like this?: https://wordpress.org/plugins/featured-video-plus/

[Roman]

Thank you for a plugin suggestion, I will have a look at it.

My point is not about seeing a video like the featured image (I can live with static thumbnail as the featured image), but cannot live with showing all the post content (instead of the excerpt) on blog and archives while using video post format. In case I migrate the website with huge amount of posts using also video post format to GP it would mean a lot of manual updates… And why not to have post format compatibility…

This video plugin is what I use on my sites until now https://wordpress.org/plugins/fluid-video-embeds/

Anyway I live GP: lightweight, fast, well structured, modular 🙂

[Tom]

So for the video post format to be perfect for you, you would want the theme to grab the video from inside the post and add it as the featured image/video, and then show the excerpt below (with no video/full content)?

[Roman]

Hi Tom,

As you suggested I use https://wordpress.org/plugins/featured-video-plus/

The problem is that it works as expected on home page and archieves, but not for posts. For posts, the standard featured image is displayed instead of the featured video. I have tried the Featured videos plus plugin with another themes and there it works even for posts.

Any ideas?

[Author]

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