# Why do most (all?) themes truncate posts on the main page? **URL:** \ **Category:** Themes\ **Created:** [April 26, 2022, 10:28pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802 "2022-04-26T22:28:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Matthew\_Bogart](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/matthew_bogart/32/17535_2.png) [@Matthew\_Bogart](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Matthew_Bogart)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 10:28pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/1 "2022-04-26T22:28:42Z")
I’m using ghost to make a blog. I’ve been scouring the internet for a ghost theme that presents the entire body of each blog post in a reverse-chronological list on the front page of the site. Like blogs like [daringfireball.net](https://daringfireball.net) or [https://kottke.org](https://kottke.org). This was the way most blogs were designed for many years, and I’m surprised that I can’t find a ghost theme _anywhere_ that does this, let alone several to choose which I like the style most. They all provide a list of posts, with a variation of a “read more” button to take you to a new page with the full post. **Is this somehow a technical limitation of the ghost theme engine?** I’m surprised I can’t find a single one, let alone several, that I could decide which I liked best. Do I need to hire a designer to create a theme like this, or am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![Stromfeldt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/stromfeldt/32/13572_2.png) [@Stromfeldt](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Stromfeldt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 11:08pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/2 "2022-04-26T23:08:23Z")
Off the top of my head I don’t know of any themes that allow for this out of the box, so yes you’d have to have a theme customised yourself. Here’s one example of what I presume you’re after, utilising Ghost: > **[Coding Horror](https://blog.codinghorror.com/)** > > programming and human factors ---
**Author:** ![vikaspotluri123](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/vikaspotluri123/32/24_2.png) [@vikaspotluri123](https://forum.ghost.org/u/vikaspotluri123)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 11:24pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/3 "2022-04-26T23:24:24Z")
> [@Matthew\_Bogart](#): > > **Is this somehow a technical limitation of the ghost theme engine?** I’m surprised I can’t find a single one, let alone several, that I could decide which I liked best. For “index” pages (pages that are a list of posts), Ghost provides the theme with both an excerpt and the full post. Most themes include the excerpt since that’s what a lot of people want - with the new “theme settings” feature, it’s possible themes might support choosing letting you choose in the future 🤔 If you’re willing to modify your theme, it’s a “relatively simple” change - you need to change `{{excerpt}}` to `{{content}}` for the templates you want to update. Here’s where you would change it for Casper: > ---
**Author:** ![Matthew\_Bogart](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/matthew_bogart/32/17535_2.png) [@Matthew\_Bogart](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Matthew_Bogart)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 12:12am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/4 "2022-04-27T00:12:20Z")
Yep. That’s what I was thinking. I’ve been to that site before and didn’t realize it was ghost! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Matthew\_Bogart](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/matthew_bogart/32/17535_2.png) [@Matthew\_Bogart](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Matthew_Bogart)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/5 "2022-04-27T00:24:35Z")
> [@vikaspotluri123](#): > > {{content}} Thanks for the reply. Making this change in Casper helps me understand how I might be able to adjust other themes to do the same. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Henry\_Junior](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/henry_junior/32/25808_2.png) [@Henry\_Junior](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Henry_Junior)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 5:41am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/6 "2023-09-29T05:41:16Z")
> [@Stromfeldt](#): > > Ghost A) Speaking of truncating…while you can set the number of words to something like: excerpt words=“20” that’s often gonna end in a random part of the sentence which looks kinda janky. Are there any plans (or existing re-usable code) to have it truncate (1) always at the end of a sentence after “20” words (2) and, to optionally add a link that says “Continue reading” kind of like how it’s done on [https://om.co](https://om.co) Or, is this something I need to custom author in JS? Seems like many folks would want the text to truncate nicely. B) Regarding pagination…I see a lot of themes use “Load more” vs page number (like the Coding Horror example.) Is that a simple tweak? Admittedly, haven’t looked into it. ---
**Author:** ![Cathy\_Sarisky](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/cathy_sarisky/32/25750_2.png) [@Cathy\_Sarisky](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Cathy_Sarisky)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2023, 12:52pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/7 "2023-09-29T12:52:56Z")
You can control the exact excerpt by filling it in - excerpt is an option in the right menu, right below tags. ---
**Author:** ![Henry\_Junior](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/henry_junior/32/25808_2.png) [@Henry\_Junior](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Henry_Junior)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2023, 6:25am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/8 "2023-09-30T06:25:42Z")
> [@Cathy\_Sarisky](#): > > excerpt Well golly, it’s a bit of extra work but I can handle that. Thank you! > **[Custom Excerpts](https://ghost.org/changelog/custom-excerpts/)** > > What's a custom excerpt? It's this! This piece of text, you're reading it right now! Click through for the full story on why these are useful 🕺🏻 ---
**Author:** ![Cathy\_Sarisky](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/cathy_sarisky/32/25750_2.png) [@Cathy\_Sarisky](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Cathy_Sarisky)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2023, 10:14am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/9 "2023-09-30T10:14:15Z")
I think it’s worth it! Maybe I need a better copy editor, but I don’t always want my first sentence as my excerpt, so it’s nice to have the control. ---
**Author:** ![Henry\_Junior](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/henry_junior/32/25808_2.png) [@Henry\_Junior](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Henry_Junior)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 4:13am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/why-do-most-all-themes-truncate-posts-on-the-main-page/29802/10 "2023-10-01T04:13:24Z")
The 300 character limit is a little annoying…