Appearance → Customize → Archive. These settings apply to every listing the theme draws: the blog home, category and tag archives, author and date archives, custom post type archives, and search results.
The row, in order
+---------------------------------------------+---------+
| CULTURE <- categories, if | |
| set to "above" | +----+ |
| The bridge that took <- title | |img | |
| forty years | +----+ |
| | ^ |
| Two councils, three <- excerpt | thumbnail
| enquiries and one ... | |
| | |
| Culture . Mira O . 4 Mar . 3 comments | |
| ^ the meta row | |
+---------------------------------------------+---------+
| Piece | Setting | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Thumbnail | Show thumbnail | on |
| Title | — | always |
| Excerpt | Show excerpt | on |
| Categories | Show categories | on |
| Author | Show author | off |
| Author avatar | Show author avatar | on |
| Date | Show date | on |
| Comment count | Show comment count | on |
The title has no switch. A listing of untitled rows is not a listing.
The meta row
Categories, author, date and comment count share one line under the excerpt, in that order. Each drops out when its switch is off, and the separators close up — you never get a stranded middle dot.
The categories can be moved out of this row and printed above the title instead; see categories and author.
The comment count is hidden on a post with no comments, whatever the switch says — a row reading “0 comments” is an advertisement for the fact. It appears as an icon and a number once the first comment lands.
Posts only
The meta row is printed for the post type only. A listing of pages, or of a custom post type, gets the title, excerpt and thumbnail with no meta line — there is no category, author byline or comment thread that means anything there.
A starting point for a news site
The defaults suit a personal blog. For a news or magazine site the usual changes are:
| Show author | on — a byline is part of the story on a news site |
| Category position | Above the post title — it reads as a section label |
| Thumbnail width | 30% of the row, or 200px |
| Thumbnail ratio | 3:2 landscape |
| Excerpt length | 25–30 words |