Can Infinite Scroll Display Excerpts Instead of Full Posts?

Hi @erskine4730

I’m interpreting this to be referring to TwentyFifteen’s infinite scroll feature

Twenty Fifteen does not come with Infinite Scroll. If you have IS active on your site, that must be coming from a plugin like Jetpack, or another plugin offering IS.

If you’re referring to the site in your profile, I’m seeing posts pagination and not IS at the moment, so maybe you already got this sorted by deactivating the Infinite Scroll module in Jetpack, or via another plugin you might have been using.

If this isn’t the site you’re referring to, could you provide a link to the site in question?

does TwentyFifteen have any way to display only excerpts instead of complete posts?

No, this isn’t a built-in option, but you could create a child theme and then make some code changes to the files that control the blog display.

Ideally, I’d still like to display the full current lead post, but only excerpts for the infinite scroll posts that follow.

For this, I’d suggest another route altogether:

• Create a static page with two Query Loop blocks.
• The first block would be restricted to just the latest post and include a Post Content block.
• The second Query Loop block would offset the posts by one, so the first post would always be excluded from the display. This Query Loop block would include the Post Excerpt block.
• Then, at Settings > Reading, set your front page to your newly created static page.

Let me know how it goes.

Hi, Kathryn P:

Thank you for the response!

I’m shocked! I’ve always thought that infinite scroll was a feature of the TwentyFifteen theme, but then I’ve had Jetpack since day one, too. When I look at Jetpack>Settings>Writing after receiving your response, I now see the following situation, which I can’t remember ever having even looked at before:

“Theme enhancements Save settings Learn more Infinite Scroll

Create a smooth, uninterrupted reading experience by loading more content as visitors scroll to the bottom of your archive pages.

Load more posts using the default theme behavior

Load more posts in page with a button

Load more posts as the reader scrolls down”

The first of these 3 options “Load more posts using the default theme behavior” is the one selected. Does this essentially mean that Jetpack is not affecting TwentyFifteen as far as how posts are loading? Seems to be what it implies, and you’re telling me that I don’t have Infinite Scroll active at the moment, which also seems to support this conclusion.

Since I always thought that TwentyFifteen did have infinite scroll as a feature, I always thought that the behavior I’m seeing on my homepage WAS infinite scroll. I can scroll down from my most recent lead post down through a number of other full posts before finally coming to the end you displayed above.

I only recently discovered that I could go from my WP dashboard to Settings>Reading and change a setting labeled “Blog pages show at most _ posts. Apparently it had been set at a default reading of 10 all these years. When I changed it to 6, it did change the number of posts I was able to scroll through from the homepage from 10 to 6. I thought this was a way to control the infinite scroll feature, but apparently this setting is just part of basic WP functionality?

In any case, you’ve answered my question on whether TwentyFifteen incorporates any way to display only excerpts instead of a full post. Nope! I also use the Classic Editor plugin, so if I get the drift of your proposed solution, I’d have to switch to Gutenberg, which would be a whole new learning curve.

I’m thinking that the short, quick solution is to simply dial down the number of posts that can be scrolled though using the “Blog pages show at most _ posts” setting, since apparently it’s all considered part of my homepage and slowing things down. One might think this will make a substantial difference. Would be better to at least have the excerpts available, but oh well.

Thank you for straightening me out on Infinite Scroll, Kathryn P!

The first of these 3 options “Load more posts using the default theme behavior” is the one selected. Does this essentially mean that Jetpack is not affecting TwentyFifteen as far as how posts are loading? Seems to be what it implies, and you’re telling me that I don’t have Infinite Scroll active at the moment, which also seems to support this conclusion.

That’s correct!

I only recently discovered that I could go from my WP dashboard to Settings>Reading and change a setting labeled “Blog pages show at most _ posts. Apparently it had been set at a default reading of 10 all these years. When I changed it to 6, it did change the number of posts I was able to scroll through from the homepage from 10 to 6. I thought this was a way to control the infinite scroll feature, but apparently this setting is just part of basic WP functionality?

You’re right again!

I’m thinking that the short, quick solution is to simply dial down the number of posts that can be scrolled though using the “Blog pages show at most _ posts” setting, since apparently it’s all considered part of my homepage and slowing things down. One might think this will make a substantial difference.

Yes, you could do that. Or you could turn on Infinite Scroll and see how you like that option and how it affects page speed.

Thank you for straightening me out on Infinite Scroll, Kathryn P!

You’re very welcome! I’ll go ahead and mark this as resolved, but feel free to start a new thread if you have more questions.