Categories & Pages

  • Unknown's avatar
    nyparalegal · Member ·

    Please excuse this novice but . . .

    I’m using Andreas09 theme.

    I want to set up my home blog page to show a list of subjects, so that posters can pick the subject they want, click on it and read the posts there for that subject. Lets say the blog is about colors. I want visitors to see the list of colors and be able to read just about red alone . . .or blue, etc.

    I tried to set up pages but none show up on my home page. Same with categories. The word “Catdgories” is there but the individual categories I created do not appear.

    Do I use pages or categories to do what I want to do? Do I need to upgrade to do it?

    Thanks.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    airodyssey · Member ·

    Hi. Please note that categories will not appear unless they contain at least one post. Did you assign any posts to your categories yet?

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    ~~airodyssey

    @nyparalegal
    You can assign Categories to posts but not to pages. Please see here for how that is done > http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories/ and how to display a Categories widget > http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/categories-widget/ Also note what airodyssey posted. there must be at least one post published in a Category before the widget will display a link to it.

  • Unknown's avatar
    nyparalegal · Member ·

    Thank you both for responding and for your advice.

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    You’re welcome from me. :) May I share something else with you please? The categories and tags depending on your theme will display either at the top, bottom or side of the posts. When clicked those links direct to the wordpress.com global tag pages. The links in the Categories widget direct only to the posts in your own blog.

    It’s important to read this entry and avoid getting carried way with tags and categories. Less is more – use only the most relevant ones and don’t exceed a combined total of 10 on any post. http://en.support.wordpress.com/global-tags/#missing-posts

  • Unknown's avatar
    nyparalegal · Member ·

    Thank you again for your help.

    I have managed (with your help) to set up the menu with the categories showing. I created a post and saved it into the target category. It appears there.

    But, it also appears on the main blog page, right above my introduction post which is uncategorized.

    Can I get it (and subsequent posts) off of the main blog page but remain in the category?

    I’m sorry for being such a noob. I read the support and forum, but much doesn’t make sense to me, and some instructions sometimes just don’t work (I’m assuming there is some intermediate steps I should know but don’t know).

    Thanks again.

  • Unknown's avatar
    raincoaster · Member ·

    All blog posts go on the main blog page and into their respective category pages. There is no way to suppress that. What you can do (if you don’t care about search engine optimization) is to set a static front page on your blog, so that’s the main page people see.

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    Picking up on what raincoaster said the instructions for setting up a static front page are here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/
    The consequences are here > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/05/12/better-blogging-at-wordpress-com-pages-and-posts/
    We organize our posts by assigning Categories to them. Although there is only one dynamic page in a blog for posts and we cannot post to more than that one page, we can create the appearance we have done so by creating a custom menu. In that custom menu you will be displaying Categories in tabs along the horizontal navigation to achieve what you want.

    1. You create a custom menu. http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/

    2. You add the Categories you want to display and arrange them in the order you want.

    3. Then you add and drop and drag the sub-categories below the appropriate Categories, and when you have everything arranged in the menu that you want you save the menu.

    4. Go to the “theme location” module at upper left on the menu page. Select your custom menu name from the pull-down labeled “primary location.” Click the save button in that module.

    (You can also add Pages and subpages and Custom links of your choice to a custom menu. )

  • Unknown's avatar
    nyparalegal · Member ·

    Thank you all again and again and again. I’m finally getting a handle on this, although I must admit, I am a noob here . . . I don’t know what RSS is, I don’t own a blackberry or any type of mobile device, I don’t do FaceBook . . . . . . . I have my desktop, my Wii & PlayStation, and that’s about it.

    I am a litigation paralegal and I’m just trying to set up a blog where I can write articles with links about examples of injustice in our legal system.

    Thanks again. You are all very kind and helpful.

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    It sounds to me like a conventional blog structure would suit you best by that I mean one that does not have a static front page. The most Google juice of all goes to the Front page of a blog, because blogs are structured in reverse chronological order, and search engines are programmed to locate fresh dynamic content on the front page.

    Pages and sub-pages can be used very effectively for several purposes on a blog but choosing to create a static front page, rather than having posts displaying on your front page is a traffic quenching choice, that has a negative impact on discover-ability, SEO, and holding reader attention.

    Anyway – best wishes with your blog. :)

    P.S.
    Staff have prepared a tutorial and you can find it here > http://learn.wordpress.com/ Best wishes with your blogging.

  • Unknown's avatar
    nyparalegal · Member ·

    Thank you to all of you that helped me.. I am on my way.

    I know it may not be a big accomplishment but to me it is. This will be a research-heavy project that will take time to get up & running but I’m on my way, thanks to you.

    http://innocenceandinjustice.wordpress.com/

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    You’re welcome from me. :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    gkucera · Member ·

    Hello,
    I am also a noob, and am having two challenges, one that is relevant to this topic.
    The issue related to this is that there seems to be no way for a viewer to navigate to an entry specific view…i.e., if they want to click on an entry “recent posts” on the right bar, then it doesn’t take them to either the location on the page where that is or open/navigate to a page with that entry at the top. This is abnormal blog behavior (from my end user experience). How can I fix it so that typical blog navigation is supported?

    The other issue is related to comments. While my end users can enter comments, I can approve them and reply, and there is a #comments link at the bottom of each entry (and recent comments on the bar lists them), there is no entry area for new comments nor is there a way to see the typical scrolling/listing of comments.
    An interesting side note is that if I type in the post URL it shows up as normal…but navigating from my url homepage is dysfunctional. Thanks for any/all help.

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member ·

    @gkucera
    Hello there. Your questions are off-topic for this resolved thread. Please start another thread using this link and we Volunteers will answer you in it. https://en.forums.wordpress.com/?new=1
    Also note that we require the complete URL for the blog in question starting with http:// in order to provide correct answers to the questions posted.

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