Many times this has been asked how to get short desciption for product listing. Here it is in simple steps.

Note: Besure to backup your files before making any changes.

1. Copy piece of code in includes/function/general.php

// product description
function tep_get_products_description($product_id, $language = '') { global $languages_id; if (empty($language)) $language = $languages_id; $product_query = tep_db_query("select products_description from " . TABLE_PRODUCTS_DESCRIPTION . " where products_id = '" . (int)$product_id . "' and language_id = '" . (int)$language . "'"); $product = tep_db_fetch_array($product_query); return $product['products_description'];
}
// end product description

2. Modify templates/TEMPLATE_NAME/mainpage_modules/new_products.php

Find,
while ($new_products = tep_db_fetch_array($new_products_query)) {

Add below it,
$new_products_description = tep_get_products_description($new_products['products_id']);

Find,
$new_products['products_name'] . '<br>' . $products_price);

Modify like below,
$new_products['products_name'] . '<br>' . $products_price . '' . preg_replace('/sS*$/i', '', substr($new_products_description, 0, 200)) . '...');

* In above mod, I am setting product description to first 200 charecters. If you need more charecters, change 200 to required value.

Note: Do not use, short description, if you are using tables, many formatted text in product desciption, that will damage layout.

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