Separate categories from custom menu categories
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I want to get the design of my blog down before I post, so maybe that’s part of the issue, but what I’d like is a drop down of Categories like “Fruits” “Vegetables” etc., and a custom menu of different categories like “spring” “summer”, etc. The custom menu categories show up on my blog, but when I created one post in draft form, but there is no way to select the custom menu categories (seasons), only the main categories. Ideally, I would like someone to be able to select by category, or browse by season,without having the category dropdown contain ALL those categories. However, it seems from my reading that I would need to include the seasons on the main categories as well if I want related posts to show up – is that right? Or once I start having posts, if I tag the post with “spring” will it show up if someone clicks “spring” in my custom menu? TIA!
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Categories will only show up for inclusion in the menu if there is at least one published post assigned to it otherwise if someone selected that category, there would be nothing to show them, which would produce an 404 not found error.
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You do not have any posts so please read this very carefully. You cannot post to pages. Pages are static and sit outside the blog structure. With wordpress, you use categories to organize posts into subjects and then you can add those categories to your navigation using a custom menu.
Staff have provided help for those who want to structure their blog like a website. > http://en.support.wordpress.com/using-wordpress-to-create-a-website/
What’s critical is:
(1) a clear comprehension of the differences between pages and posts > http://en.support.wordpress.com/post-vs-page/
(2) a clear comprehension of the fact that there is only one dynamic page in a blog for posts and we cannot post to more than that one page. But we can create the appearance that we have posted to more than one page.We organize our posts by assigning Categories to them. When we publish a post it automatically appears on the running page for posts and also on the Categories pages and Archives pages. Note: There must be one published post in each Category in order for there to be anything to display. Create a Seasons category and sub-categories for each of the seasons and then you can assign them to your posts prior to publishing them. The sub-categories will appear as drop-downs from the season category when you create your custom menu.
A custom menu allows you to display Categories with drop-downs to sub-categories in tabs along the horizontal navigation where normally only Pages tabs are displayed. If you wish you can also include Pages with drop-downs to sub-pages and/or custom links in your custom menu as well. You are in charge of what appears in a custom menu. You choose the order in which to display any and/or all the foregoing in your custom menu. You choose which to display and which to hide. http://en.support.wordpress.com/menus
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Thank you for the quick replies, but neither address the issue I’m having. On my blog, the custom menu categories appear horizontally as desired – Spring, Summer, etc. They also appear as a widget in the sidebar, as desired. Where they do NOT appear is in my dashboard so that I can assign posts to these categories before publishing.
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In the post editor window, there should be a category module on the right side of the text area where you can select the categories. If that does not appear, go to the upper right, click “screen options” and activate the categories module. It should then appear at the right of the text area.
Also, scroll down below the text area and make sure it is not down there. All the modules can be rearranged by drag-and-drop. Just grab them by the title bar and you can reposition them in the order and locations you want.
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They do not appear in your dashboard because you did not create categories and sub-categories Adding Categories via Your DashboardYou have no published posts. You created pages.
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Thank you, I’m very new to this. When I created the custom menu, I created a category list – are you saying that this is not a category list then, it’s only pages? So back to my original question, is there a way to make this custom menu a custom category list without having these categories show up in the main category list? I want two separate category lists, not one big one and another that just duplicates half of it at the top. Thanks again
http://strangeandyummy.com -
Take a look at this support document on the differences between pages and posts. Pages are for static content that seldom, if ever, changes such as an about page. Pages cannot have categories assigned to them, only posts can have categories.
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I know that pages can’t have categories assigned, and these headers don’t show up on my pages menu either, so I don’t think I created pages. They’re not posts either, obviously, and maybe the whole problem is that I don’t have posts yet, but I’m not worried about the published page just yet, I’m concerned that I don’t even have the ability to select them on my drafts. The only place this list of categories shows up right now is in the custom menu page on my dashboard. I know I could put all of these categories into the main category list, but I don’t want them there… Is that a little more clear? I’m not sure how else to explain it.
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Categories have to have been created at posts > categories before you can assign them to a post in the editor. Have you done that?
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Yes, I did originally, but I deleted the ones I wanted only on the custom menu because they all showed up on the dropdown, and I didn’t want the sidebar dropdown to have the same categories as the horizontal. I know partially what I did wrong so far – I simply renamed the Uncategorized that was an option in the custom menu to be each of the names I wanted, which I’m guessing is part of the problem. I guess the only resolution would be – is there a way to hide certain categories from the dropdown, but include them in the custom menu category list?
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You cannot create categories that only show in the menu. What you can do though is to create a second custom menu and use the custom menu widget and then put the categories you want to show in the sidebar into that custom menu which you assign to the custom menu widget. The custom menu widget will not however have a “dropdown” ability.
Categories have to exist (at posts > categories), and putting links to non-existant categories in the top menu does not create a category. It just creates a link to something that does not exist.
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The menu tabs are, in essence, just links to stuff on your site. Making a menu tab does not create something. If the stuff you link to in the top menu does not exist, then the links go nowhere. They are dead and will return an error.
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Right, thank you – I have the second custom menu widget, and I know I have to create categories to make them appear there, and I know the custom menu can’t have a dropdown and I get that the menu tabs are just links – what I’m wondering is if there is a way to hide certain categories from the main category dropdown (not the custom menu) so there aren’t duplicate links on my home page? I’m guessing no since I’ve now been at this a few hours. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
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