Don't think is, Peter.

That's what I thought too, but maybe that "Post Excerpt" has something special somewhere? I'll wait for Phil's response...

Thank you for your feedback!

This is what I do too.
I Type in my own, usually the first 160 characters of my post with keywords included.

Certainly Peter.

I'll have to go back and check, but I thought I made it clear that you can just type it in, but I use the excerpt to "kill two birds with one stone". Many themes use the excerpt, for example, when displaying a summary of posts (mine certainly do) so I make it a practice to always include an excerpt with a new post. Then if you set your meta description to be the excerpt, it's automatically taken care of for you.

Also, not many people know about the excerpt "tip" so that's why I mentioned it. Also, as I said, it's my preferred method.

I've given you a couple of responses, Peter. Thanks for the comment.

Hi Phil,

Still, I don't understand... You make your own excerpt of a maximum of 160 characters and then use the "Post Excerpt" tag.

I immediately type my text... You can't use the same "Post Excerpt" on another page, can you? So you create a "Post Excerpt" with some other text, right?

In fact, you are using an intermediate step that is actually (in my view) superfluous. Maybe I really don't understand, but at least my meta description looks good.

Thanks for your response.

That's perfectly OK. I always create an excerpt for a new post, so setting the meta description to use it makes good sense.

After I've created a new post, I summarize it in 160 characters or less in the Post Excerpt panel (in the right sidebar under the featured image). That automatically becomes my meta description. It's not superfluous because the post excerpt is used elsewhere. It's saving me a step.

Yes, Maria, getting it right is something the search engines like.

My pleasure, Muslimah.

Thank you, Monica. I'm glad you found it useful.