# Little Book of CMS **URL:** \ **Category:** Elements\ **Created:** [January 14, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635 "2026-01-14T18:32:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thominator](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thominator/32/35233_2.png) [@thominator](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thominator)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 6:32pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/1 "2026-01-14T18:32:21Z")
Just to keep everyone up to date, The Little Book of Elements CMS is currently sitting at 90 pages (!). I’ve got 7 Punch List things to finish as well as another full editing pass on it. Dan/Ben/Tom have a copy and are looking at it. My hope is that we can get this thing ready for the public in the next week to ten days. The more I work on this project, the more I’m a fan of the CMS. It really is dirt simple, with a touch of complex. The complexity is really just understanding what does what, where it is, and how you build the linkages initially. The dirt simple is that, once built, running a blog is very, very simple and to the point. Yes, for the time being, you have to enter posts in Elements and publish from there, but Realmac has promised an optional create/post-on-Web tool down the road that should remove that last (perceived) barrier. I’m almost convinced now that my 91-year old mom could run her own blog using Elements if I just design it for her. ---
**Author:** ![MikeV](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/mikev/32/34985_2.png) [@MikeV](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MikeV)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 6:41pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/2 "2026-01-14T18:41:33Z")
can’t wait ! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thominator](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thominator/32/35233_2.png) [@thominator](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thominator)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:18pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/3 "2026-01-14T19:18:36Z")
You’re going to see me about to call @elementsbot for something. This example is in the book. How do I show just the first 200 characters of item.body when using twig in the CMS? ---
**Author:** ![elementsbot](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/elementsbot/32/33134_2.png) [@elementsbot](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/elementsbot)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 7:18pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/4 "2026-01-14T19:18:42Z")
Ah, a classic case of “how do I trim this down?”! In Twig, you can use the `slice` filter to get just the first 200 characters of `item.body`. Here’s how you can do it: ```twig {{ item.body|slice(0, 200) }} ``` This will give you a nice, neat preview of your content. If you want to make it even fancier, you can add an ellipsis: ```twig {{ item.body|slice(0, 200) ~ '...' }} ``` Now your 91-year-old mom can blog away without overwhelming her readers! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dan](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/dan/32/28516_2.png) [@dan](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/dan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2026, 8:28pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/5 "2026-01-14T20:28:55Z")
@thominator I’ve had a quick scan through and the content looks really great! I’d still love for it to be part of the [CMS docs](https://docs.realmacsoftware.com/elements-docs/cms) 😉 Seems silly for us to re-invent (or rewrite) the wheel! ---
**Author:** ![thominator](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thominator/32/35233_2.png) [@thominator](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thominator)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 5:06pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/6 "2026-01-15T17:06:29Z")
Check your email. ---
**Author:** ![curlypaws](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/curlypaws/32/3964_2.png) [@curlypaws](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/curlypaws)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 4:36pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/7 "2026-01-17T16:36:10Z")
It would be lovely to see the book extended to cover “Related Items” in the CMS as I find that particularly inscrutable! ---
**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 5:07pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/8 "2026-01-17T17:07:21Z")
Can you give us chapter lists? Do you have info on RSS setup and implementation? Thanx 🙂 - Mike ---
**Author:** ![thominator](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thominator/32/35233_2.png) [@thominator](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thominator)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 5:53pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/9 "2026-01-17T17:53:18Z")
> [@curlypaws](#): > > It would be lovely to see the book extended to cover “Related Items” in the CMS as I find that particularly inscrutable! Yes, it’s a tough thing to get your head around. I want to see how the basic book shell works first. ---
**Author:** ![thominator](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thominator/32/35233_2.png) [@thominator](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thominator)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/10 "2026-01-17T17:55:54Z")
> [@MichaelDroste](#): > > Can you give us chapter lists? Just download the book, it’s free after all. > [@MichaelDroste](#): > > Do you have info on RSS setup and implementation? I do the most simple version of RSS in the book (enable it and call it feed.xml). That appears to work with the readers that I use without having to do anything else. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelDroste](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/michaeldroste/32/37212_2.png) [@MichaelDroste](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/MichaelDroste)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/11 "2026-01-17T18:11:55Z")
I didn’t want to impose… wanted to buy 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![thominator](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/thominator/32/35233_2.png) [@thominator](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/thominator)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2026, 7:32pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/12 "2026-01-17T19:32:51Z")
Not an imposition. Once I’ve collected enough user comments, I’ll revise the book and put it on sale for a small fee. But for now, it’s free. ---
**Author:** ![JGWeiland](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/jgweiland/32/31448_2.png) [@JGWeiland](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/JGWeiland)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 9:22pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/13 "2026-01-22T21:22:19Z")
Hi Thom. Would be great do have a look at your publication and use it for CMS creating inside Elements. Where can I get a copy? Thanks a lot for your work, Jürgen ---
**Author:** ![sbchasin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/sbchasin/32/26943_2.png) [@sbchasin](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/sbchasin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/14 "2026-01-22T21:35:06Z")
See: [Announcing: Little Book of Elements CMS](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/announcing-little-book-of-elements-cms/53670/) ---
**Author:** ![JGWeiland](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex005/user_avatar/forums.realmacsoftware.com/jgweiland/32/31448_2.png) [@JGWeiland](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/u/JGWeiland)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2026, 7:26am UTC](https://forums.realmacsoftware.com/t/little-book-of-cms/53635/15 "2026-01-23T07:26:18Z")
Thanks so much. Fantastic work!!