WordPress best way to embed post content in a static page

This is a common problem, which has many contributing factors.

Here's how I fix this.

1) Use https://wordpress.org/themes/generatepress for your theme.

Reason: Many themes are broken... in so many different ways... so many variations... the conflict with plugins + WP Core + Gutenberg...

Rather than deal with these complexities, only use a light weight theme.

2) Use https://wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor to disable the entire Gutenberg editing facility.

Reason: Same as #1. The complexities... at least for now... of Gutenberg + many themes + page builders leading to all manner of content rendering problems is large.

Rather than deal with trying to understand + debug + push back on developers to fix their code, just disable Gutenberg.

Especially for a simple site.

3) Elementor... sigh... Many page builders - Elementor + Beaver especially - use a similar implementation approach... which increases round trip POST data payloads as site complexity increases.

This eventually causes Apache memory overruns + seriously odd errors.

I've opened tickets for years against both page builder to fix this problem.

There are 2x solutions....

a) If you hit this problem, usually using an incognito window fixes the problem.

b) Or better, rather than using a Page Builder, use a show posts plugin.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/show+posts lists 100s of these plugins.

https://github.com/search?q=wordpress+show+posts+plugins lists 200+ more of these plugins.

The other potential problem is if there's a plugin installed which is munging the Text/HTML view + Text/HTML save of posts.

Try this to debug problem...

1) Install the classic editor enabler above.

2) Deactivate all plugins, except classic editor enabler.

3) Now visit your post. Make sure you've selected "Visual" representation. Save post. Publish post.

If problem clears, then likely 1x of your plugins is the problem.

4) Then enable 1x plugin at a time, execute #3 again, rinse + repeat (continue #3) till you identify the problem plugin.

Thank you so much David for your response.

But I suspect I've not been clear enough about my issue.

First thigs first, I'm using Astra theme and, I confess, one of its starter templates: As far as I know, Astra is a light enough theme, but I'm not sure about starter templates.

Anyway, what's important to highlight is this: the post itself looks exactly as I expets it looks in its own page: bold text is bold, red text is red and so on (my client will use this to announce some special offer).

But I want to show this post in the home page: so I've used (my last trying) the post block addon provided by Unlimited Elements for Elementor plugin: it looks good enough but it doesn't reflect the formatting rules set in the post: bold text is bold, red text is black... The only rules applied are the ones set through the addon itself. And this happens with any plugin I've tried out.

I might be happy with what I've got because I don't hink my client will spend hours formatting the text of its announcements. But, as usual, I would like to know if there is a way to publish an excerpt of a post respecting the formattin rules set in the post itself.

Thank you.

Marco, I think the issue is you are using the Excerpt instead of the post. The excerpt does not have formating.

Create a shortcode https://codex.wordpress.org/Shortcode in your functions.php file that takes the content from a specific post

Then grab the content of a specific post to output to the shortcode

$specials_post = get_post(100);   //ASSUMES THE POST ID IS 100
$specials_content = apply_filters('the_content', $specials->post_content); 

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If that is something you want to try, I can refine this for you.

1) The Astra theme is fairly lightweight, similar to GeneratePress, so is also a good choice.

Also Astra... plays nice with Elementor, where other themes... play poorly with Elementor...

2) But I want to show this post in the home page: so I've used (my last trying) the post block addon provided by Unlimited Elements for Elementor plugin: it looks good enough but it doesn't reflect the formatting rules set in the post: bold text is bold, red text is black... The only rules applied are the ones set through the addon itself. And this happens with any plugin I've tried out.

This seems... odd...

Likely someone will have to log into this site to debug this.

3) I might be happy with what I've got because I don't think my client will spend hours formatting the text of its announcements. But, as usual, I would like to know if there is a way to publish an excerpt of a post respecting the formatting rules set in the post itself.

A good reason why this sort of work is always best billed by the hour, with a paid-up-front retainer.

This way a client can ruminate for hours about font point size or some other... formatting element... while you keep your bill rate at an acceptable level.

Sorry guys, I've been busy...
@Scott, that seems to be interesting, I'll check if it work as I expect (and if I'm able to do it :)) and I'll come back to you
@David you're right but if I'd try to get paid by hour here in Canary Island I'd just lose clients :D  Or simply i'm not a good commercial...

Thank you both for your advices. Come back to you soon.

@Scott your code works fine. I've just changed it a bit to get the latest post:

// [specials]
function specials_func( $atts ) {
   $recent_posts = wp_get_recent_posts( array( 'numberposts' => '1' ) );
   $thePostID = $recent_posts[0]['ID'];
   $specials_post = get_post($thePostID);   //ASSUMES THE POST ID IS 1
   $specials_content = apply_filters('the_content', $specials_post->post_content);
   
   //print_r($specials_post);


   return $specials_content;
}
add_shortcode( 'specials', 'specials_func' );

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But I have noticed it doesn't get the featured image. No problem: I've dropped the feature image and put the image directly in the post content, centering it. And now in the post the image is centered but in the home page it is aligned to the left. But adding a line of custom CSS solved the issue.

So this is the solution I was looking for. Thank you both for helping.
Cheers

I think to get the featured image you can use  get_the_post_thumbnail_url

https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_the_post_thumbnail_url/

Oh, I'll give it a try just for learning purposes: I think it will be easier for my client to put any images directly in the body of posts.
Thank you for the additional help, Scott. :)

I have a different perspective on Classic vs Gutenberg.

"Gutenberg" is now only a beta testing plugin for WordPress devs to try out latest features. WordPress now ships with "Block Editor", which at this point in time is INCREDIBLE. A lot of work has been done since November 2018 when it debuted with WP 5.0. It was woefully awkward and profoundly frustrating to work with. Now, it's the bomb!

Also, for fans of GeneratePress, GenerateBlocks is fantastic, you can build an entire site out of 'em. And if you go pro, there are endless block templates. It's amazing what you can do with the 4 blocks they provide. So many cool options. Who needs a page builder. Seriously, people are crafting beautiful sites with the Block Editor alone, so there is no need to play nicely with a page builder.

Also, WP devs are working on full page editing which should hit our admins by the end of the year. Sticking with Classic editor will put you out of sync with the innovations happening with WordPress. I stuck it out with Gutenberg and I'm so glad I did! 

@Alicia, thanks for posting.
I confess I have tried to use the Block Editor (with Astra theme) and I have built a decent web page. But I found difficult enough manage things like aligning, padding, margins without write some custom css. Things that are terribly easy in Elementor become tricky with the Block Editor.
Maybe I have to learn how to use it better or maybe it can be improved in the future (I heard about some new features and options), but I'm not enthusiastic yet with it.
Can you suggest some learning resource?

You mentioned, "paid by hour here in Canary Island"...

I live in Austin, Texas... Best I can tell... I currently only have 1x client in Austin.

Tip: If you have Internet Connectivity (you're reading this comment)... might be a great time to consider expanding your client base + income.

If I only had local clients... I'd be living... under a bridge... in a box... with a cat on a leash... with an unhappy wife... :-)

If I only had local clients... I'd be living... under a bridge... in a box... with a cat on a leash... with an unhappy wife... :-) 

Exactly like me, David... LOL