How do you keep the same blog entry at the top of your blog page?
-
Does anyone know how to set up your blog so that the same post always shows at the very top of your list of blog entries? I created a Table of Contents post, which includes the names of each one of my individual posts, and which are hyperlinks, along with brief descriptions of each blog entry, and date of the posts. I want this Table of Contents to always be the first post at the top of my blog. However, my next post entry will automatically shove this Table of Contents post down the list because it is the latest blog entry, and thus supercedes the Table of Contents post. That obviously won’t work. What good is a Table of Contents that is constantly shoved down the page until you can’t find it? I searched the WordPress Help/How To files for quite a while, but I could not find an instruction on this particular issue. In advance, thanks for any ideas.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
-
Yes, make that post a “sticky” post.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/post-visibility/#sticky-posts
-
Search Engines like to find fresh contents at the very top. So I don’t think turning a post into a sticky is a good idea. Since the sticky has to be accessed at all times in your blog, maybe you should create a “Table of contents” page and set that page to be shown at the top.
To do that, please go to your blog’s admin side, choose Setting and then Reading (from the list of links on the left) and choose that page by choosing a static page for Front page.
-
I use the Recent Posts and Most Popular Posts Widgets in the sidebar to help visitors see other subjects on the site –
I have also set up a Page that is an index of Posts – they are alpha by title so I had to hand craft the Page. The Posts / Articles are also divided into 3 groups so there is not so much clutter.
-
Thanks auxclass, sanjidas (great eyeball), and thesacredpath for this helpful information. Not sure which way to go. I may end up trying each alternative suggestion, one at a time, to see what works best for me. I will not do so right away: I am a complete Internet idiot and what is intuitive to others is always gibberish to me. So, trying out new things on the Internet is always a terror-filled exercise for this dumbhead. I will need to muster up my courage before changing things around. I know that sounds silly, but what can you do? Anyway, I definitely will try these alternative solutions out. Thanks for them.
-
Yeah, just get comfortable with your surroundings before you get yourself in a clusterf$*k :)
-
One sticky post at the top of the main page is not going to harm you much with the search engines. They always look at the entire page so they will see any fresh content below the sticky.
If the post happens to be a long one though use the “read more” tag in it so that people don’t have to scroll down a long ways to get to the new content. If I use a sticky, I try to keep it to a short single paragraph, maybe two at most.
-
-
-
To auxclass and sanjidas:
I tried sanjidas’ suggestion of going to setting to create a Table of Contents page. However, I lost the thread as soon as I got to settings. I saw nothing there about creating a T of C page. You wrote of a “list of links on the left” but I don’t see that list. And what do you mean by “choose that page by choosing a static page for Front page.” What is “that page?” What is a “static page?” What is a “Front page?” Sorry. but I just don’t understand.
As far as auxclass’ suggestion: How do you set up a page that is an index of posts? What do you mean “alpha by title?”
I have tried to search all of this out on the Codex but can’t find anything helpful. Thanks.
-
Alphabetic by Title.
My http://captnmike.com/site-listing/ page is hand crafted – I used the Archives Short Code – http://en.support.wordpress.com/archives-shortcode/ – to make a listing on a Draft Page – I then copied the Title for each Post / Article onto a new Page one Title at a time and made the new list in alphabetic order – Took a while to put all the Titles into an unordered list by hand – I divide the new list into three sections. I also increased the line spacing a bit to make it easier to read.
The early feedback from a couple of friends is that they like the new Site Listing Page – and yes – each time I add a new Post / Article I will need to add the new Article to the Site Listing Page by hand.
Hope this helps.
-
-
auxclass: After querying you, I found a PAGE tab on the dashboard. I clicked on it and created a new page which I call Table of Contents. I did not add the info but I think all I have to do now is list my articles. I will copy the titles, which are hyperlinks, so people can click on them to go right to the article. This hopefully will work. I will now go and check out what you mean by “set a static page.” Thanks for your help.
-
mickeymurphy,
I must make myself more readable, I guess!
Set a Static Page: http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/as suggested by auxclass is what I meant here…
Search Engines like to find fresh contents at the very top. So I don't think turning a post into a sticky is a good idea. Since the sticky has to be accessed at all times in your blog, maybe you should create a "Table of contents" page and set that page to be shown at the top. To do that, please go to your blog's admin side, choose Setting and then Reading (from the list of links on the left) and choose that page by choosing a static page for Front page.Sorry for the confusion I caused.
-
auxclass,
Took a while to put all the Titles into an unordered list by handJust in case you are interested…
I don’t have to edit out the unwanted tags manually.I have created a draft where I copied all the posts titles along with links from my archives page. Of course they have the li and ul tags. I replaced the tags automatically using FoxReplace – a handy Firefox extension.
Another automatic process would be to paste the html contents in a text file (in a text editor on your computer) and edit out the tags using the “Find and Replace” function. I put nothing in the Replace field and the unwanted tags were gone.
Not having to do it by hand is a huge time-saver (not to mention the automatic process makes sure no unwanted tags remain by mistake.)
-
Dear auxclass and sanjidas: Thanks for all of your help. auxclass: you explain things well. The problem is, I do not understand things well. I remember a funny line from It Happened in Boston, a great old novel about an artist in touch with the devil. The devil, in the guise of an old man, says something complicated to the artist. The artist replies, “I don’t understand.” The devil replies, “Don’t hold me responsible for your paucity of comprehension.” That is the situation here. My head is made of cement, so things other people easily get take me forever. Quite an affliction for a professional writer. sanjidas: This week when I have time, I am going to try to set up a T of C using whatever seems to work best. I will definitely carefully consider your helpful ideas when I have this job done. And when it is, if you two don’t mind, I will notify you both so you can see how well (or poorly) I did. Thanks for all your help.
-
-
To auxclass, sanjidas, thesacredpath, and xxmy2ndjobxx: Thanks for all of your valued encouragement and help. I created a T of C page that I am real happy with. Please check it out at http://mickeymurphy.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/.
-
mickeymurphy,
Hey, your T of C is looking great! Hmm, maybe I should make mine ASAP too! :)
-
@mickeymurphy – nice job and great articles –
The one sentence description works well for your articles, they will help visitors decide which Posts they want to read – my site uses just the titles in most cases, but “Navigation exercise # 1″or “Correcting a Compass” are somewhat self explanatory on a boating safety site.
- The topic ‘How do you keep the same blog entry at the top of your blog page?’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 