title: How to include html tags within a wordpress excerpt?
body: <p>Currently in a wordpress template, if you use the code <code>the_excerpt()</code> it will display the first 55 words of a post and strips all html from the post.</p>
  
  <p>I need to include <code>&lt;a href...</code> tags in the excerpt so that links are still visible.</p>
  
  <p>Existing methods include:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Hacking the wordpress core - definitely not an option.</li>
  <li>using a plugin - don't want to use, it's dependent on the developer keeping the plugin up to date</li>
  <li>writing code within functions.php to re-write the excerpt filter. - I'd prefer not to use this as it might have to be changed in future versions of WP</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Is there a filter hook or other known method to include html easily without hacks?</p>
  
  <p>All help is appreciated!
  Cheers.</p>