Title: [post_excerpt] Shortcode comes out empty
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# [post_excerpt] Shortcode comes out empty

 *  Resolved [martinej](https://wordpress.org/support/users/martinej/)
 * (@martinej)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/post_excerpt-shortcode-comes-out-empty/)
 * Good Afternoon All,
    We recently installed BNWP plugin 0.2.1 beta for use with
   WP 3.9.1. (We also tried this with WP 3.5.1)
 * When trying to do a notification for New Publish there is this bit of code that
   comes stock with the formatting:
 *     ```
       <p>Here's an excerpt: <br /></p>
       <em>[post_excerpt]</em>
       ```
   
 * No matter how I format or use [post_excerpt] the result comes out empty.
    What
   is the anticipated behavior of this shortcode (ie. does it print 3 lines of a
   paragraph?) Are other users having this issue as well?
 * Aside from this, I have found this plugin to be great and very easy to use, especially
   for a beta. I highly anticipte a full production version!
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/bnfw/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/bnfw/)

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Jack – BNFW](https://wordpress.org/support/users/voltronik/)
 * (@voltronik)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/post_excerpt-shortcode-comes-out-empty/#post-5083545)
 * Hi,
    Thanks for using our plugin and i’m so pleased that you find it easy to 
   use.
 * I’m fairly sure the [post_excerpt] shortcode only grabs an excerpt if one is 
   manually added.
 * Try manually adding one and seeing if outputs it in an email. If it doesn’t, 
   i’ll do some testing too and if I can replicate it, will put it on our ‘bugs 
   to fix’ list.
 * Thanks,
    Jack
 *  Thread Starter [martinej](https://wordpress.org/support/users/martinej/)
 * (@martinej)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/post_excerpt-shortcode-comes-out-empty/#post-5083584)
 * Thank you for the quick reply, I’m new to WordPress as a user (I’m used to installing
   and configuring for users). This now seems glaringly obvious. The stock install
   didn’t have the Excerpt field enabled for posts. It is coming through just fine
   now. Thank you and appologies for the misdirected question!
 *  Plugin Author [Jack – BNFW](https://wordpress.org/support/users/voltronik/)
 * (@voltronik)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/post_excerpt-shortcode-comes-out-empty/#post-5083592)
 * Not a problem at all.
    If you liked the plugin, please leave us a rating and 
   a review.
 * Many thanks,
    Jack
 *  [BPLS](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bpls/)
 * (@bpls)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/post_excerpt-shortcode-comes-out-empty/#post-5083597)
 * Is there any plans to update this shortcode to use an excerpt from the full post
   content when the excerpt field has a length of 0?
 *  Plugin Author [Jack – BNFW](https://wordpress.org/support/users/voltronik/)
 * (@voltronik)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/post_excerpt-shortcode-comes-out-empty/#post-5083632)
 * Hi BPLS,
    Not currently but I will add it to the list of things to develop.
 * Thanks,
    Jack

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘[post_excerpt] Shortcode comes out empty’ is closed to new replies.

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## Tags

 * [Better](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/better/)
 * [empty](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/empty/)
 * [excerpt](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/excerpt/)

 * 5 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Jack – BNFW](https://wordpress.org/support/users/voltronik/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/post_excerpt-shortcode-comes-out-empty/#post-5083632)
 * Status: resolved