ygiv

Hi,
If you change the code just a tiny bit you can add a “read more” with a link to the post at the end.

/**
* Edit our excerpt output
*
*/

/*
add_filter( 'display_posts_shortcode_output', 'update_excerpt_format', 10, 7 );
function update_excerpt_format( $output, $atts, $image, $title, $date, $excerpt, $inner_wrapper ) {

	// First check if an excerpt is included by looking at the shortcode $atts
	if ( $atts['include_excerpt'] )
		// Now let's rebuild the excerpt with the read more link at the end
		{
		$read_more ='<p><a href="'.get_permalink() . '"> Read More...</a></p>';
                //Now we can truncate
		$excerpt = '<p><span class="excerpt">' . truncate_phrase( get_the_excerpt(), 150) . $read_more . '</span></p>';
		}
	else $excerpt = '';

	// Now let's rebuild the output. Only the excerpt changed so we're using the original $image, $title, and $date
	$output = '<' . $inner_wrapper . ' class="listing-item">' . $image . $title . $date . $excerpt . '</' . $inner_wrapper . '>';

	// Finally we'll return the modified output
	return $output;
}
*/

/**
 * Truncate Excerpt
 *
 */

function truncate_phrase($phrase, $max_characters) {

	$phrase = trim( $phrase );

	if ( strlen($phrase) > $max_characters ) {

		// Truncate $phrase to $max_characters + 1
		$phrase = substr($phrase, 0, $max_characters + 1);

		// Truncate to the last space in the truncated string.
		$phrase = trim(substr($phrase, 0, strrpos($phrase, ' ')));

	}

	return $phrase;
}