---
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

* Automatic Summary Split
* Manual 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].

### 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. You may customize the summary length by setting `summaryLength` in your [site configuration](/getting-started/configuration/).

{{% note %}}
You can customize how HTML tags in the summary are loaded using functions such as `plainify` and `safeHTML`.
{{% /note %}}

{{% note %}}
The Hugo-defined summaries are set to use word count calculated by splitting the text by one or more consecutive whitespace characters. If you are creating content in a `CJK` language and want to use Hugo's automatic summary splitting, set `hasCJKLanguage` to `true` in your [site configuration](/getting-started/configuration/).
{{% /note %}}

### Manual Summary Splitting

Alternatively, you may add the <code>&#60;&#33;&#45;&#45;more&#45;&#45;&#62;</code> summary divider where you want to split the article. 

For [Org mode 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 <code>&#60;&#33;&#45;&#45;more&#45;&#45;&#62;</code> (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 <code>&#60;&#33;&#45;&#45;more&#45;&#45;&#62;</code> 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 .Pages }}
    <article>
      <!-- this <div> includes the title summary -->
      <div>
        <h2><a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">{{ .Title }}</a></h2>
        {{ .Summary }}
      </div>
      {{ if .Truncated }}
      <!-- This <div> includes a read more link, but only if the summary is truncated... -->
      <div>
        <a href="{{ .RelPermalink }}">Read More…</a>
      </div>
      {{ end }}
    </article>
{{ 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/