Creating excerpts with Windows Live Writer

Since I’ve set up this blog, I’ve wondered how other blogging sites include the “Continue reading…” link at the end of some posts. It’s a great way to shorten the amount of text on the main page, and allows you to create longer posts that users have the option of reading.

After downloading and installing plugins for Wordpress that I didn’t need, and reading many Google search results, I figured it out. Windows Live Writer provides a quick and easy way to create a logical break in your post text.

The Wordpress rich text editor allows you to add breaks by clicking the “more” button on the “code” tab of the editor.

This is great if you use the new post editor from the admin side of Wordpress. But what if you’re using another tool to post? With Windows Live Writer, you can use the “Split Post” feature.

Splitting a post inserts a More link that Wordpress will understand and display as a “Continue reading” link. The link leads to the full post on a new page.

Once you publish your post, everyone can continue reading at their heart’s content!