search results excerpts lose formatting

There are several ways to do this. One way is to manually code your excerpts instead of letting WP create them from the contents. Manual excerpts retain the HTML. The Ultimate TinyMCE plugin has an option under ‘Admin Options’ to use the same editor for excerpts as content to make this easier.

Another way is to add your own filter to replace the WP filter that creates the excerpts. Here is an article that describes how to do that: https://bacsoftwareconsulting.com/blog/index.php/wordpress-cat/how-to-preserve-html-tags-in-wordpress-excerpt-without-a-plugin/

A third way is to use a plugin, although most of them seem outdated now. Try this one: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/advanced-excerpt/

You rock! Thank you for taking the time to answer this.

Max