The two most common ways to change the excerpt length are either by doing it manually or by using a WordPress plugin. Manually Changing WordPress Excerpt Length The manual method involves tweaking the code. However, you don’t need to have in-depth knowledge in any programming language to do this. Here are the steps to manually change the length of an excerpt: Hover on the Appearance tab and select Theme Editor . Open the functions.php file and insert the code: function mytheme_custom_excerpt_length( $length ) { return 20; } add_filter( 'excerpt_length', 'mytheme_custom_excerpt_length', 999 ); Change the word limit from 80 to any number you like, and press the Update File button. For some themes, like Twenty Sixteen WordPress, you’ll need to edit the content.php file as well. Follow the guide below: While still in the Theme Editor , scroll down until you find template-parts . Under that heading, click on the con...