Excerpt

Write the summary once, on the page it belongs to, and it appears wherever it is included. Change it there and every page that includes it changes too. Common uses: the one-paragraph summary of each project, shown on a page listing them all; a product description shown on the sales, support and training pages. The first paragraph of this page is an excerpt: the line down its left side marks it.

Insert it

Type the command at the end of a paragraph, after a space, and press Enter. Or choose + on the toolbar, then Excerpt. If you select several paragraphs first, choosing it from the + menu marks them all.

What an excerpt can hold

A paragraph

Most excerpts are one paragraph, like the one at the top of this page. Write it so it makes sense on its own, since readers of other pages see it without the rest.

Several blocks

An excerpt can hold anything a page can: paragraphs, a list, a table, a picture. This one holds a paragraph and a list:

Seen from another page

This is an Excerpt include block pointing at the Page properties page. What it shows is the excerpt from that page, fetched as you read this one:

Changing and removing it

Edit the text inside an excerpt as you would any text. With the cursor in it, a bar appears above it with Remove excerpt, which takes the mark away and keeps the text. Pages that include it show the change once you publish.

Good practice

• Put it at the top of the page, as its opening summary.

• No “as described below”. On another page there is no below.

• Keep it short. An excerpt is a summary; for a whole page, use Include page.

Related elements

• Excerpt include shows another page’s excerpt.

• Include page shows the whole of another page.

• Page properties marks facts about a page for a report to collect.