Theme Horse

Hi Amy,
Yes you can show the less text from each page. Please goto
Dashboard -> Appearance-> Theme – Options -> Advanced Options ->excerpt options.
From here you can define the excerpt length.

Thank you!

You welcome Amy
Thank You!

Hi David,
Sorry we don’t have this feature. We only have the excerpt words to define.
Thank you!

Oops , the post above should read functions.php – just to avoid confusion

Thank You! That works beautifully. I posted a mistake above where it says <?php get_excerpt(); ?>
it should read
<?php echo get_excerpt(); ?>
Here is the code in my functions.php in it’s entirety.

<?php
/**
*Function that trims excerpt by number of characters and ensures that the last word doesn't get cut off
 */
function get_excerpt(){
$excerpt = get_the_content();
$excerpt = preg_replace(" (\[.*?\])",'',$excerpt);
$excerpt = strip_shortcodes($excerpt);
$excerpt = strip_tags($excerpt);
$excerpt = substr($excerpt, 0, 360);
$excerpt = substr($excerpt, 0, strripos($excerpt, " "));
$excerpt = trim(preg_replace( '/\s+/', ' ', $excerpt));
$excerpt = $excerpt = '<p>'.$excerpt.'... </p>';
return $excerpt;
}
/**
 * Widget for business layout that shows selected page content,title and featured image. Uses function above to control excerpt length by number of characters and not words
 * Construct the widget.
 * i.e. Name, description and control options.
 */
class interface_child_service_widget extends WP_Widget {
	function interface_child_service_widget() {
		$widget_ops = array( 'classname' => 'widget_service', 'description' => __( 'Display Services by no.of chars( Business Layout )', 'interface' ) );
		$control_ops = array( 'width' => 200, 'height' =>250 );
		parent::WP_Widget( false, $name = __( 'Theme Horse: Services Custom', 'interface' ), $widget_ops, $control_ops);
	}

	function form( $instance ) {
		$instance = wp_parse_args( (array) $instance, array( 'number' => '8','page_id0'=>'','page_id1'=>'','page_id2'=>'','page_id3'=>'','page_id4'=>'','page_id5'=>'','page_id6'=>'','page_id7'=>'',));
		$number = absint( $instance[ 'number' ] );
		for ( $i=0; $i<$number; $i++ ) {
			$var = 'page_id'.$i;
			$defaults[$var] = '';
		} ?>
		<p>
			<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('number'); ?>">
				<?php _e( 'Number of Services:', 'interface' ); ?>
			</label>
			<input id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('number'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('number'); ?>" type="text" value="<?php echo $number; ?>" size="3" />
		</p>

		<?php	for ( $i=0; $i<$number; $i++ ) {
			$var = 'page_id'.$i;
			$var = absint( $instance[ $var ] );
		}
		?>
		<?php for( $i=0; $i<$number; $i++) { ?>
		<p>
			<label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id( key($defaults) ); ?>">
				<?php _e( 'Page', 'interface' ); ?>
				:</label>
				<?php wp_dropdown_pages( array( 'show_option_none' =>' ','name' => $this->get_field_name( key($defaults) ), 'selected' => $instance[key($defaults)] ) ); ?>
			</p>
			<?php
		next( $defaults );// forwards the key of $defaults array
	}
}

function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
	$instance = $old_instance;
	$instance['number'] = absint( $new_instance['number'] );

	for( $i=0; $i<$instance['number']; $i++ ) {
		$var = 'page_id'.$i;
		$instance[ $var] = absint( $new_instance[ $var ] );
	}

	return $instance;
}

function widget( $args, $instance ) {
	extract( $args );
	extract( $instance );
	$number = empty( $instance['number'] ) ? 8 : $instance['number'];

	global $post;
	global $interface_theme_setting_value;
	$options = $interface_theme_setting_value;
	$page_array = array();
	for( $i=0; $i<$number ; $i++ ) {
		$var = 'page_id'.$i;
		$page_id = isset( $instance[ $var ] ) ? $instance[ $var ] : '';

		if( !empty( $page_id ) )
 				array_push( $page_array, $page_id );// Push the page id in the array
 		}
 		$get_featured_pages = new WP_Query( array(
 			'posts_per_page' 			=> -1,
 			'post_type'					=>  array( 'page' ),
 			'post__in'		 			=> $page_array,
 			'orderby' 		 			=> 'post__in'
 			) );
 			echo $before_widget; ?>
 			<div class="column clearfix">
 				<?php
 				$j = 1;
 				while( $get_featured_pages->have_posts() ):$get_featured_pages->the_post();
 				$page_title = get_the_title();
 				if( $j % 4 == 3 && $j > 1 ) {
 					$service_class = "one-fourth clearfix-half";
 				}
 				elseif ( $j % 4 == 1 && $j > 1 ) {
 					$service_class = "one-fourth clearfix-half clearfix-fourth";
 				}
 				else {
 					$service_class = "one-fourth";
 				}
 				?>
 				<div class="<?php echo $service_class; ?>">
 					<div class="service-item clearfix">
 						<?php
 						if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
 							echo'<div class="service-icon">'.get_the_post_thumbnail( $post->ID, 'icon' ).'</div>';
 						}
 						?>
 						<h3 class="service-title"><?php echo $page_title; ?></h3>
 					</div>
 					<!-- .service-item -->
 					<article>
 <?php echo get_excerpt(); ?>
 					</article>
 					<?php if( !empty( $options[ 'post_excerpt_more_text' ] ) ) { ?>
 					<a class="more-link" title="<?php the_title_attribute(); ?>" href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
 						<?php echo $options[ 'post_excerpt_more_text' ]; ?></a>
 						<?php } ?>
 					</div>
 					<!-- .one-fourth -->
 					<?php $j++; ?>
 					<?php endwhile;
		 		// Reset Post Data
 					wp_reset_query();
 					?>
 				</div>
 				<!-- .column -->
 				<?php echo $after_widget;
 			}
 		}
function myplugin_register_widgets() {
	register_widget( 'interface_child_service_widget' );
}

add_action( 'widgets_init', 'myplugin_register_widgets' );
 		/**************************************************************************************/
?>