display an excerpt of a channel field

Question

I have a channel field that is a description of an audio file. I want to list that entire field on the actual page for the selected audio. On the main listing of all the audio files, I'd like to have only an excerpt of that field, giving the user some idea of what the audio is about, but not the entire field. I would like the excerpt to end with elipses, indicating that there is more to be read by clicking the link.

I know I can accomplish this by having multiple channel fields, but I am sure there's a way to do it with just the one field, I'm just unaware of what it is, and I can't seem to locate anything in the user guide.

I'd appreciate any help you can provide. thanks!

(by the way, I love this community! One day I hope to be knowledgeable enough to contribute, and not just consume.)

Answer 1

An add-on I've used for this purpose is David Dexter's Snippet. Does just what you're looking for. Keep in mind however that if your full description is a RTE field, you may have to use an HTML stripper before using the shortening tool.

Answer 2

Hacksaw is also a great plugin for that. It has a few more options than Snippet, like the ability to omit HTML tags and more refined cutoff parameters.

Answer 3

You can also just use the 'Word Limiter' plugin by Rick Ellis of Ellis Labs. I believe it comes with the basic install.

{exp:word_limit total="50"}{audio_summary}{/exp:word_limit} …

I frequently use with a 'strip HTML tags' plugin, to do this. Personally, I like when people write an actually summary, but there's plenty of time when the first 25, 50, or 100 words is just fine as a teaser.