Wordpress Shorter Link Names

[macnpaul]

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I display links to recent posts in the sidebar of my wordpress sites (using widgets) but I'd like to make the post link names shorter than the post title. For example if my post title is -

"Samsung HT-BD1252 5.1ch Blu-ray Home Cinema System"

I'd like to have a link name of "Samsung HT-BD1252" as obviously that's going to look/fit much better in the sidebar.

Aside from manualy creating the links in html is there a better/quicker way to achieve this?

[ian]

You'll have to set up a new custom field for each post i.e. 'shortTitle' and populate with your new short link text, then add some code to your sidebar.php

<ul>
<?php
query_posts('showposts=30');
while (have_posts()) : the_post();
echo "<li><a href=".get_permalink($post->ID).">".get_post_meta($post->ID, 'shortTitle', true)."</a></li>" ;
endwhile;
?>
</ul>

If you want it to look the same output from the widget, take a look at the source code that it chucks out and work the css into the code above.

[macnpaul]

Thanks ian, that looks like a good way to do it.