WordPress: how to replace the output of the the_content() function with the post's excerpt

  • WordPress
  • Gabriele Romanato

When you change your mind, sometimes it's difficult to restore the original design of your WordPress theme without breaking something. Suppose that you've been using the the_content() function in your theme files for quite a while until you realize that the amount of content shown on the home, tag and category pages is actually too long. So you decide to use the the_excerpt() function but you should manually modify all your files. Fortunately, there's a solution.

You can create the following filter:


function replace_content_with_excerpt($content) {
	global $post;
	$id = $post->ID;
	
	if(!is_single($id) && !is_page($id)) {
		$content = get_the_excerpt($id);
		$more = '<p><a href="' . get_permalink($id) . '" class="more-link">Continue Reading</a></p>';
		
		return $content . $more;
	}
	
	return $content;
}

add_filter('the_content', 'replace_content_with_excerpt');

The above function replaces the output of the the_content() function with the contents of the post's excerpt. Of course this replacement takes place only when it's actually needed.

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