--- title: Content Summaries linktitle: Summaries description: Hugo generates summaries of your content. date: 2017-01-10 publishdate: 2017-01-10 lastmod: 2017-01-10 categories: [content management] keywords: [summaries,abstracts,read more] menu: docs: parent: "content-management" weight: 90 weight: 90 #rem draft: false aliases: [/content/summaries/,/content-management/content-summaries/] toc: true --- With the use of the `.Summary` [page variable][pagevariables], Hugo generates summaries of content to use as a short version in summary views. ## Summary Splitting Options * Hugo-defined Summary Split * User-defined Summary Split It is natural to accompany the summary with links to the original content, and a common design pattern is to see this link in the form of a "Read More ..." button. See the `.RelPermalink`, `.Permalink`, and `.Truncated` [page variables][pagevariables]. ### Hugo-defined: Automatic Summary Splitting By default, Hugo automatically takes the first 70 words of your content as its summary and stores it into the `.Summary` page variable for use in your templates. Taking the Hugo-defined approach to summaries may save time, but it has pros and cons: * **Pros:** Automatic, no additional work on your part. * **Cons:** All HTML tags are stripped from the summary, and the first 70 words, whether they belong to a heading or to different paragraphs, are all put into one paragraph. {{% note %}} The Hugo-defined summaries are set to use word count calculated by splitting the text by one or more consecutive white space characters. If you are creating content in a `CJK` language and want to use Hugo's automatic summary splitting, set `hasCJKLanguage` to `true` in you [site configuration](/getting-started/configuration/). {{% /note %}} ### User-defined: Manual Summary Splitting Alternatively, you may add the <!--more--> summary divider where you want to split the article. For [org content][org], use `# more` where you want to split the article. Content that comes before the summary divider will be used as that content's summary and stored in the `.Summary` page variable with all HTML formatting intact. {{% note "Summary Divider"%}} The concept of a *summary divider* is not unique to Hugo. It is also called the "more tag" or "excerpt separator" in other literature. {{% /note %}} * Pros: Freedom, precision, and improved rendering. All HTML tags and formatting are preserved. * Cons: Extra work for content authors, since they need to remember to type <!--more--> (or `# more` for [org content][org]) in each content file. This can be automated by adding the summary divider below the front matter of an [archetype](/content-management/archetypes/). {{% warning "Be Precise with the Summary Divider" %}} Be careful to enter <!--more--> exactly; i.e., all lowercase and with no whitespace. {{% /warning %}} ## Example: First 10 Articles with Summaries You can show content summaries with the following code. You could use the following snippet, for example, in a [section template][]. {{< code file="page-list-with-summaries.html" >}} {{ range first 10 .Data.Pages }}

{{ .Title }}

{{ .Summary }}
{{ if .Truncated }}
Read Moreā€¦
{{ end }}
{{ end }} {{< /code >}} Note how the `.Truncated` boolean valuable may be used to hide the "Read More..." link when the content is not truncated; i.e., when the summary contains the entire article. [org]: /content-management/formats/ [pagevariables]: /variables/page/ [section template]: /templates/section-templates/