Excerpt include

Excerpt include shows one marked part of another page, rather than the whole of it. The part is marked on that page with the Excerpt element, and is usually its summary: the paragraph that says what the page is about.

For example, give every project page an excerpt that says what the project is and where it stands. A status page can then show each project’s excerpt, one after another, and when a project’s summary changes, the status page follows.

Insert it

Type the command at the start of a line, or after a space, and press Enter. When the list shows more than one block, use the arrow keys or click the one you want. Or choose + on the toolbar: live content blocks are at the end, under Live content. With text selected, the + menu puts the block in place of that text, so click on an empty line first.

Until you choose a page in its settings, it says Choose the page whose excerpt to include.

Step 1: Mark the excerpt

Open the page to borrow from and edit it. Select the part to share, and choose Excerpt from the + menu. See Excerpt.

Step 2: Include it

On the page that should show it, insert Excerpt include, click it, and choose the page from step 1 in its settings.

Live on this page

How live content works marks its first paragraph as an excerpt. This block shows that paragraph and nothing else; compare it with the example on Include page, which shows the whole page.

Changing and removing it

While you are editing, click the block. It gets a colored outline, and a small box opens above it with the block’s name and its settings. A change shows in the block straight away; readers see it once you publish or update the page.

• Page: the page whose excerpt to show. Type two or more letters of its title in Search for a page, then choose it; each result shows its space’s key. You can also paste a page’s id.

Only a page’s first excerpt is shown. If the page has none, the block says That page has no excerpt to include. If the page was deleted or the reader cannot see it, it says Nothing to show: the page is missing, or you cannot see it.

To remove the block, click it and press Delete or Backspace. Only the block goes: the pages, files or tasks it showed are not touched.

Good practice

• Write the excerpt to stand on its own. It is read without the page’s title and headings around it, so “This project…” works better than “As above…”.

• One excerpt per page. Only the first is ever shown.

• Keep it short: a sentence or two. For the whole page, use Include page.

Related

• Excerpt marks the part to share.

• Include page shows the whole of a page.

• Page properties report collects facts from many pages, rather than text.

• How live content works: what every live content block has in common, such as who sees what, and what happens in an export.