Creating and using categories
July 1st 2006 05:57
Categories allow your readers to more easily browse all your old posts and find what they are looking for more efficiently. They are also useful for attracting search engine traffic -- a topic for another post.
To create categories for your blog go to my.orble.com, login if you have not already, and then click on the "Modify" link for the appropriate blog if you have more than one.
A little way down the page you will see a section called "Post Categories" and a line that says: "Post Categories for this Blog can be modified here". Click on the "here" link
You will then be taken to the Category page for your blog where you will find a single box with "Categories" written in it along with a number of buttons to the right. The "Categories" box is the default "parent" category. You cannot place posts in parent categories, they are merely used to group sub-categories.
To create your first sub-category click on the second button from the left which looks like this:
Use this button whenever you wish to create a sub-category of another category.
This will create a new empty sub-category box. You can tell it's a sub-category of the parent "Categories" box because it's aligned slightly to the right. Enter the name of the new category into this box. To create another sub-category, click on the same sub-category button to the right of the "Categories" box. Don't click on the sub-category button next to the category you just created!
Use the arrows to move categories up and down or promote/demote them within the category structure. The "A" and "Z" buttons will place all of a categories sub-categories in alphabetical order. The "X" button will delete a category.
Usually you will only need to create sub-categories of the main "Categories" parent category. However sometimes you may want to create another type of category. For instance the ZCars blog has parent categories for "Car Manufacturers", "Car Types" and "Motor Shows" all with their own sub-categories.
To create a new parent category click on the first button to the right of the "Categories" box.
Once you have given this new parent category a name, you can then create sub-categories for it in the same way you did for the original "Categories" parent category.
After creating your categories, they will be listed at the bottom of the page when you create or modify a post. You can select any number of categories for a post to belong to. A category will only be displayed on your blog when there is at least one post in it.
Some of the categories used by the OnlineGames blog.
| 99 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Very helpful post, but I still have a question: Can't we place a single post into more than one category? For example, I just wrote a post about a website where poets can publish their work, but since my blog is aimed at writers, in general, I normally place it into the Arts>Writing category. However, this time, I placed it into the Arts>Poetry category, thinking it would also be posted to its usual category at the same time, but it wasn't. (It was a Spotlight post.)
I will go to "Manage Blogs" and see what I can find out. However, judging from what you said, it sounds like our posts can appear in only one category at a time.
Thanks for any help you can give me!
Jeanne
P.S. Would you mind telling me whether my Profile photo is appearing in my comments, because it isn't appearing (after posting my comments on blog pages, at least) from my vantage point, anyway (though it is appearing when I preview my comments before posting them. Seems odd that this should suddenly begin happening.)
Comment by jon
Orble News
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
I think here you are referring to the Orble Channels (which are used on the Orble homepage) rather than regular than the categories you can create and use on your homepage.
At the moment you cannot place a post in more than one channel to stop people posting to lots of channels in order to try to gain more exposure for their post.
I take your point about some posts belonging in more than one category though. Perhaps we should think about allowing up to 2 channels per post.
Regarding your posting image it does seem to be working -- for instance in your comment above. Can you give me an example (URL) of a page on which it is not working?
Jon.
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
[LINK=http://www.mumsword.net/love-sleeping-children/#comments]link[\LINK]
Thanks for your help!
Jeanne Dininni
Comment by jon
Orble News
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Jon.
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Jeanne
Comment by jon
Orble News
Blog Adviser
Jon's Bookmarks
Debate Battle
Orblepedia
Orble Notes
Comment by Jeanne Dininni
Writer's Notes
Comment by Anonymous
I followed your directions for selecting categories, but when I select Modify under one of my blogs, I do not see the "Post categories...here" option you describe.
Best,
Keith