making a list of my posts available
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I am interested if anyone knows if I can list all of my posts in my side bar so that people can scroll through my posts when then come to my blog. Now, my visitors have to go into my archives and hunt for my posts. Many people are just not going to take the time to do this work. I would like all my posts to be visible to the people that visit my blog. Is there a widget that can set up a list of my posts? Thanks
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You can use a text widget to place a link to every title of every post you make in your sidebar if the Recent Posts widget display of 15 titles is not enough for you. Then you can update the text widget manually by adding a link to every new title of a post that you make.
However, by doing so you will eventually not have the space required for other widgets in your sidebar and your front page will be miles long.
Alternatively, you can make a page listing links to all the titles and manually update it. It will not take up any sidebar space and will not result in lengthening your front page.
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Only way I know of is the text widget and that is doing it manually. No automatic way of listing them all that I know of, plus that may get a bit too long for the sidebar. Maybe make a text widget up that has the “Best of ______” and you can highlight some posts you think people will want to look at. Otherwise point them to the search box.
Looked at your site and you have come a long way. Good job setting it up. One suggestion, if I may, on your about page would be to make your strong text “My Journey thus Far” an actual link to that post so the reader doesn’t have to hunt and find it
<a href="http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/my-journey-thus-far/">My Journey thus Far</a>[edit: some duplication with timethief, but her static page idea is also a great one]
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Thank you so very much for your time and kindness. I have a question as I am not familiar with how to do what you both are suggesting. Can you please tell me how to:
1. text widget to place a link to every title of every post you make in your sidebar if the Recent Posts widget display of 15 titles is not enough for you. Then you can update the text widget manually by adding a link to every new title of a post that you make.
2.Alternatively, you can make a page listing links to all the titles and manually update it.
3. One suggestion, if I may, on your about page would be to make your strong text “My Journey thus Far” an actual link to that post so the reader doesn’t have to hunt and find it
Thank you for your encouragement too ryannejen!!!
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Well I will cover #3
It depends how you edit pages/posts. If you use the “Visual” tab when editing then:
a) Dashboard > Manage > Pages and then click on the EDIT link for the page “About Second Chance to Live”
b) While on the Visual tab then find the text that you have already made bold (or strong in HTML language) “My Journey thus Far”
c) Then with that text highlighted select the chain link icon (aka Insert/Edit Link) See this FAQ page and look at number 10:
http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/05/15/what-do-all-the-icons-mean/
d) Then paste the link url into the field at the top of that pop-up that comes up. In this case it will be:
http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/my-journey-thus-far/
This is the direct link to that post
e) Then click on Insert on that pop-up and Save the page. Then someone can click on that text and go directly to that post from your About page.The code I pasted above in the previous post is if you were to edit the page with the Code tab, but I think this way would be easiest for you at first. Hope it makes sense. Just a thought for some easier maneuvering within your own site.
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In answer to
(1) Mark has provided instructions for how to use text widgets here http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/using-the-text-widget/(2) The same thing can be done on a Page as can be done in a text widget.
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Thanks so very much for the specific details / help Ryannejen. Worked like like a charm. Thank you for providing the link too. I copied that into my the barbell type icon and clicked insert and save and I was in business. You Rock!!!
Time thief, I know how to use a text widget. I guess I am a little confused. Do I have to enter a code for each of my posts to put those into the text widget? If so, this could be a laborious process. Can you please give me specific details about creating a text widget for all my posts? Would you recommend that I use a page to place all my posts so that anyone who wanted to have an easy over view would have access, with one click?
Ryannejen, can you please give me your opinion on how to best go about this process. Thank you.
There is much wisdom in a multitude of counselors. I would appreciate as much detail in your explanations, as I am a concrete literal learner. Thanks again. Craig
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(1) Do I have to enter a code for each of my posts to put those into the text widget? If so, this could be a laborious process. Can you please give me specific details about creating a text widget for all my posts?
Yes, you would have to enter the code for the url link for each title of each post into the text widget. And every time you write a new post you will have to open the text widget and add that new link in manually.
Yes, it’s a very laborious process and I would never consider doing this on my blog as I find the 15 entries that the Recent Posts widget displays are sufficient for my needs.
To create a single text widget
-> Presentation -> Widgets
scroll way down the page to find:
Text Widgets
How many text widgets would you like? ___ [SAVE]
Enter the number in the blank and click [SAVE](2) Would you recommend that I use a page to place all my posts so that anyone who wanted to have an easy over view would have access, with one click?
To be honest I would recommend the use of a Page over and above the use of a text widget to list all the linked titles to all your blog entries. Blogs grow and the space a text widget would take would be substantial.
I simply supplied the information that what you can do in a text widget you can also do on a Page to address two potentialities. Using a Page instead of a text widget will ensure that you still have space for other widgets in your sidebars. Using a Page instead of a text widget will ensure that your front page will not grow to be miles long.
P.S. I am also a concrete literal learner. :)
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Hi TimeThief,
You are very kind. I agree with you. I am needing a bit more clarity. I think it would be best to place a list of all my posts on one page and have that page accessible on my blog for my readers to open and select from if they chose. This brings me to my question.Specifically, how do I make a list of all my posts on one page. Please, if you would, give me a step by step procedure for doing this my friend. Thank you so very much.
Craig -
I agree with what timethief stated above. The best way to do this with wordpress right now is to make a page then put the post titles there and then link them to the actual post. Just like you did with your about page. How you set this up, organize it, and make it look is up to you.
I personally would not go through that headache as it is time consuming (finding each post title and URL link), tedious (every single new post), and I do not think it adds any real value for the reader. I personally would not try and sift through all of the posts titles. Imagine what it will look like in 6 months, or 8, or even a year from now :)
Maybe use the new tag cloud widget or the drop down categories widget so they can find posts on specific topics. It is possible just laborious like you said earlier.
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Craig,
I would agree I think that listing your posts on one page is a good idea, as opposed to putting them all in the sidebar. Listing posts on a separate page is exactly what I do on my blog as well, as that sort of setup is appropriate for what my blog is about. If you want to see an example, you can check it out:
http://shortexact.com/restaurant-index/
What you would want to do is first create a new page (My Dashboard–>Write–>Write Page), and then you can simply add links to all your posts on that page. You would have to do so manually for each new post that you write, but you don’t even need to use HTML if you don’t want. It’s just as easy as creating a link in a post. Then just publish that page. Your theme automatically displays separate pages underneath the header, so people can click the tab for that page, and then see your list of posts.
Best,
Eric -
Thank you ryannejen and shortexact. I have over 80 posts. I would like those posts to be more visible to my readers, who may not know that I have written on topics. I would like to avoid alot of work for myself so that I can use my energies in other ways. I am open to making such a list as shortextract is suggesting, but I really do not know how to proceed. Do you have any suggestions. (reason being is that many of my earlier posts could be of service to my readers, if they knew they existed).
Shortextract, I am clueless with how to do what you suggested. I would be interested in learning how to do what you suggested. Can you please be specific and detailed i.e. the exact steps that I would take to accomplish what you have with your site> and the whole HTML matter I am clueless about too. Any clarity in the context of making my topics or names of my posts easily accessible to my readers would be great.
Thank you for your time and kindness.
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Hey Craig,
Sure. To start, I will say that the initial task of making the list will be a pain, especially with 80 posts. But after you’ve made that, it won’t be so bad. I have a restaurant review blog, so I actually manually update about 5-6 separate pages each time I make a post, just so that readers can access reviews they are interested in very easily, according to various organization schemes (type of food, restaurant location, ranking, etc.) Once you have the structure in place, it only takes maybe a minute or two to update these after each post. The time-consuming part is setting it up in the first place.
The steps are pretty much as I described in the last post:
(1) Create a new page, under My Dashboard–>Write–>Write Page. This will give you a blank screen that looks like the page for new posts. Just as a post, type in a title. If you’re indexing posts, you might call it “Index of Posts”, or something similar. Or perhaps, if you’re listing posts on one subject (e.g. call it “Topic A”), you could name the page “Posts about Topic A” or something.
(2) Just type in text into the main screen. What you need to do is create a bunch of links, each going to one of your posts. So, for example, say that you want the link to read “Post X”. Then type in “Post X”, select the text, and click on the link button on the toolbar. Copy/paste the URL of that post into the “Link URL” field. That will create a link whose link text is “Post X”, but will direct your reader to the post in question. This is the same as creating links in actual posts.
(3) Just repeat this for each post you’ve written. To make it look nice, you may want to use bullet points, as these are a bit easier to read for long lists of items.
(4) Click “Publish” at the bottom of the page. Because of the theme you’re using, the page should automatically pop up under the header, right next to the “About Second Chance to Live” tab.
Hope that helps.
Best,
Eric -
Sorry, I forgot to mention that you don’t need to use HTML to do this, if you don’t want to. All you’re really doing here is creating a list of links, at that can be done in the standard editor.
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Craig,
if you do want to use HTML in the “Code” tab of the editor, it should look like this:
<a href="http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/XXXXXXXXXXX">Post YYYYYYYYYY</a>
the XXXXXXXXXX should be replaced with the rest of the post’s URL, and the “Post YYYYYYYYYY” should be replaced with whatever text you want the link to be (probably the post title).give a holler if you need more help ;)
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Hmm. Thank you shortextract and judy. Much appreciated. I have a couple of follow-up questions. Which is better in your opinion per directing readers to my posts, HTML code or the other way? I want to make things easy for my readers.
Secondly, if I go with the non-HTML procedure and it does not really matter, can you please give me a couple of examples per:
Copy/paste the URL of that post into the “Link URL” field. That will create a link whose link text is “Post X”, but will direct your reader to the post in question. This is the same as creating links in actual posts.
I am not quite sure what my URL of each post would look like. Please be as specific as possible, as I will use that prototype to set up all of my post in my “Index of my posts”.
Thank you again for your time and kindness!
Craig
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Craig,
Using HTML or not using HTML both have an identical effect. The point of using the text editor is that it hides the HTML. In other words, it makes it so that bloggers who don’t want to mess with HTML code don’t have to. If you use the text editor, the HTML code that Judy posted is automatically generated.
The URL of any post is exactly what Judy mentioned, e.g. “http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/…”. The URL is just the unique web address given to any page on the Internet. So, to make a link, you would copy/paste the URL from your browser (you should see the URL in a long white box towards the top of your browser window) into the “Link URL” field.
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Also, make sure you are using the URL of the actual post you want to link, not your blog in general. For example, the URL which points specifically to your most recently written post would be
http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/unleashing-your-greatness/
Whereas the URL for your whole blog is just
http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com
To get the specific URL of any given post, simply click on the title of the post in question. Then the URL will show up in your browser’s URL box.
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for example, the URL for your latest post is:
http://secondchancetolive.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/unleashing-your-greatness/wordpress organizes your posts by date (year/month/day) and title. The best way to figure out a post’s URL is to open it in another window and copy it.
[doh! Jinxed!]
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