Creating the Front Page of Your Web Site

 

With the page feature, you can create an unlimited amount of static pages separate from your blog posts. People commonly use this feature to create About Me or Contact Me pages, among other things. Table 2-1 illustrates the differences between posts and pages by showing you the different ways the WordPress platform handles them.

Differences between a Post and a Page

WordPress Options                             Page                         Post

Appears in blog post listings            No                            Yes

Appears as a static page                      Yes                           No

Appears in category archives           No                            Yes

Appears in monthly archives            No                            Yes

Appears in Recent Posts listings       No                            Yes

Appears in site RSS feed                        No                            Yes

Appears in search results                     Yes                           Yes

 

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Understanding the Difference between Posts and Pages

In this post, we go into great detail about how WordPress archives
your published content on your site by filing it under categories and tags, as
well as by date (year/month/day/time of day), and through the use of pages,
rather than posts.

Pages, in WordPress, are different from posts because they don’t get
archived the way your blog posts/articles do: They aren’t categorized or
tagged, don’t appear in your listing of recent blog posts or date archives,
and aren’t syndicated in the RSS feeds available on your site — because con-
tent within pages generally doesn’t change. Pages are considered static or
stand-alone content and exist separately from the archived post content on
your site.

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Arranging post modules

Aside from being able to make the Post text box bigger (or smaller), as we
discuss in the section “Creating Your Own Workspace for Writing,” earlier in
this chapter, you can’t edit the Post text box module. You can configure all
other modules on the Add New Post page (and the Edit Post page); you can
remove them (in the Screen Options panel, as we discuss in the preceding
section), expand and collapse them, and drag them around to place them in
a different spot on your screen.
Collapse, or close, any of the modules by hovering your mouse over the
module title and then clicking the down arrow that appears to the right of
the module name, as shown in Figure 1-10 for the Categories module (like-
wise, you can expand, or open, a module by doing the same when it’s
collapsed).

You can also drag and drop a module on the Add New Post screen to position it wherever you want. Just click a module and, while holding down the mouse button, drag it to different area on the screen. WordPress displays a dashed border around the area when you have the module hovering over a spot where you can drop it. Because Lisa uses the Featured Image module on every post she publishes, she’s dragged that module to the top right of her writing space, as shown in Figure 1-11.

You can really configure your own custom workspace on the Post page

within your Dashboard that suits your style, work habits, and needs. WordPress remembers all the changes you make to this page, including the screen options and modules, so you have to set up this page only once. You can drag and drop modules on any Dashboard page in the same way you do on the main Dashboard page, as covered in Book III, Chapter 2.

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Adjusting screen options

Several items appear on the Add New Post page, as described in the section, “Composing Your Blog Post,” earlier in this chapter. You may not use all these items, and in fact, you may find that simply removing them from the Add New Post page (and the Edit Post page) makes writing your posts easier and more efficient. To remove an item, follow these steps:

2. Select or deselect items below the Show on Screen heading.

Select an item by placing a check mark in the check box to the left of its name; deselect it by removing the check mark. Selected items appear on the page, and deselected items are removed from the page.
If you deselect an item that you want to include again on the Add New
Post page, it’s not gone forever! Revisit the Screen Options panel and
reselect its check box to make that item appear on the page once again.
3. Select your preferred Screen Layout.
You can choose whether the layout appears in one column or two columns (the default option).
4. Click the Screen Options tab when you’re done.
The Screen Options panel closes and the options you’ve chosen are saved and remembered by WordPress.

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Creating Your Own Workspace for Writing

1. Click the Screen Options tab at the top of the screen.

The Screen Options panel drops down,

2. When you find the post you need, click its title.

Alternatively, you can click the Edit link that appears below the post
title.
The Edit Post window opens. In this window, you can edit the post and/ or any of its options.
If you need to edit only the post options, click the Quick Edit link. A
drop-down Quick Edit menu appears, displaying the post options that
you can configure, such as the title, status, password, categories, tags,
comments, and timestamp. Click the Save button to save your changes.
3. Edit your post; then click the Update Post button.
The Edit Post window refreshes with all your changes saved.
Creating Your Own Workspace for Writing
You can discover how to organize the Dashboard to create your own customized workspace by rearranging modules and
screen options for your Dashboard. The Add New Post page, where you
write, edit, and publish your post, has the same options available, allowing you to fully control the workspace arrangement to create your own custom, unique space that suits your writing needs.
To start customizing your workspace, open the Add New Post page by click-
ing Add New in the Posts drop-down list on the Dashboard.One of the first
things we do when we visit this page on a new WordPress site is make the
Post text box (where you write the content of your post) bigger. You just
need to click your mouse in the bottom corner of the box, and while hold-
ing down your mouse button, drag it until it’s the length you want, and then
release your mouse button (conversely, you can make the box smaller by
dragging it up, rather than down).

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Being your own editor

While we write this book, we have editors looking over our shoulders,
making recommendations, correcting typos and grammatical errors, and
helping us by telling us when we get too long winded. You, on the other
hand, are not so lucky! You’re your own editor and have full control of what you write, when you write it, and how you write it. You can always go back and edit previous posts to correct typos, grammatical errors, and other mistakes by following these steps:
1. Find the post that you want to edit by clicking Posts in the Posts drop- Book IV
down list. Chapter 1
The Posts page opens and lists the 20 most recent posts you’ve made to
your blog.
To filter that listing of posts by date, select a date from the Show All
Dates drop-down list at the top of the Posts page. For example, if you
select February 2011, the Posts page reloads, displaying only those
posts that were published in the month of February in 2011.
You can also filter the post listing by category. Select your desired category from the View All Categories drop-down list.

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Refining Your Post Options

This option is otherwise known as a sticky post. Typically, posts are

displayed in chronological order on your blog, displaying the most
recent post on top. If you make a post sticky, it remains at the very top,
no matter how many other posts you make after it. When you want
to unstick the post, deselect the Stick This Post to the Front Page
check box.
✦ Password Protected: By assigning a password to a post, you can publish
a post to your blog that only you can see. You can also share the post
password with a friend, who can see the content of the post after he
or she enters the password. But why would anyone want to password-
protect a post? Imagine that you just ate dinner at your mother-in-law’s
house and she made the worst pot roast you’ve ever eaten. You can
write all about it! Protect it with a password and give the password to
your trusted friends so that they can read all about it without offending
your mother-in-law. Figure 1-7 shows a published post that’s private;
visitors see that a post exists, but they need to enter a password in the
text box and then click Submit in order to view it.

✦ Private: Publish this post to your blog so that only you can see it — no

one else will be able to see it, ever. You may want to protect personal
and private posts that you write only to yourself (if you’re keeping a per-
sonal diary, for example).

✦ Publish Immediately: Click the Edit link to make the publish date

options appear, where you can set the timestamp for your post. If you
want the post to have the current time and date, ignore this setting
altogether.
If you want to future-publish this post, you can set the time and date
for anytime in the future. This feature has come in handy for Lisa many
times. For example, when you have a vacation planned and you don’t
want your blog to go without updates while you’re gone, you can write
a few posts and set the date for a time in the future. Those posts are
published to her blog while you’re somewhere tropical, diving with the
fishes.
✦ Publish: This button wastes no time! It bypasses all the previous draft,
pending review, and sticky settings, and publishes the post directly to
your blog immediately.
After you select an option from the Publish drop-down list, click the Update button. The Write Post page saves your publishing-status option.
If you click Publish and for some reason don’t see the post appear on the front page of your blog, you probably left the Status drop-down list set to Unpublished. Your new post appears in the draft posts, which you can find by clicking Edit in the Posts drop-down list.

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Publishing your post

After you give your new post a title; write the content of your new blog post; maybe add an image or other type of media file to your blog post (see Book IV, Chapter 4); and configure the tags, categories, and other options, now the question is: Publish? Or not to publish (yet)?
WordPress gives you three options for saving or publishing your post when
you’re done writing it. The Publish module is located on the right side of
the Add New (or Edit) Post page. Just click the title of the Publish module to
expand the settings you need. Figure 1-6 shows the available options in the
Publish module.

The Publish module has several options:

✦ Save Draft: Click this button to save your post as a draft. The Add New
Post page reloads with all your post contents and options saved; you
can continue editing it now, tomorrow, the next day, or next year — the
post is saved as a draft until you decide to publish it or delete it. To
access your draft posts, click the Posts link on the Posts menu.
✦ Preview: Click the Preview button to view your post in a new window,
as it would appear on your live blog if you’d published it. Previewing the
post doesn’t publish it to your site yet. It gives you the opportunity to
view it on your site and check it for any formatting or content changes
you want to make.
✦ Status: Click the Edit link to open the settings for this option. A drop-
down list appears, from which you can select Draft or Pending Review:
• Draft: Save the post in draft form but don’t publish it to your blog.
• Pending Review: The post shows up in your list of drafts next to a
Pending Review header. This option lets the administrator of the
blog know that contributors have entered posts that are waiting for
administrator review and approval (helpful for blogs that have mul-
tiple authors).Generally, only contributors use the Pending Review
option.
Click the OK button to save your Status setting.
✦ Public: Select this option to make the post viewable to everyone who
visits your site.
✦ Stick This Post to the Front Page: Select this check box to have
WordPress publish the post to your blog and keep it at the very top of all blog posts until you change this setting for the post.

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Refining Your Post Options

After you write the post, you can choose a few extra options before you
publish it for the entire world to see. These settings apply to the post you’re
currently working on — not to any future or past posts. You can find these
options below and to the right of the Post text box (see Figure 1-4). Click the
title of each option — the settings for that specific option expand.
You can reposition the different post option modules on the Add New Post page to fit the way you use this page.

Here are the options that appear below the Post text box:

✦ Excerpt: Excerpts are short summaries of your posts. Many bloggers
use snippets to show teasers of their blog posts, thereby encourag-
ing the reader to click the Read More links to read the posts in their
entirety. Type your short summary in the Excerpt box. Excerpts can be
any length, in terms of words; however, the point is to keep it short and

sweet, and tease your readers into clicking the Read More link. Figure

1-5 shows a blog post published to Lisa’s site; however, it displays only an excerpt of the post on the front page — requiring the reader to click the Continue Reading link to view the post in its entirety.

✦ Send Trackbacks: If you want to send a trackback to another blog, enter

the blog’s trackback URL in the Send Trackbacks To text box. You can
send trackbacks to more than one blog; just be sure to separate track-
back URLs with a space between each. For more on trackbacks, refer to
✦ Custom Fields: Custom fields add extra data to your posts, and you can
fully configure them. You can read more about the Custom Fields feature
in WordPress in Book IV, Chapter 6.
✦ Discussion: Decide whether to let readers submit comments through the
comment system by selecting the Allow Comments on this Post check
box. By default, the box is checked; uncheck it to disallow comments on this post.
✦ Author: If you’re running a multi-author blog, you can select the name
of the author who wrote this post. By default, your own author name
appears selected in the Author drop-down menu.

Here are the options that appear to the right of the Post text box:

✦ Publish: Publishing and privacy options for your post, which we cover
in more detail in the following section of this chapter.
✦ Categories: You can file your posts in different categories to organize
them by subject. (See more about organizing your posts by category.
Select the check box to the left of the category you
want to use. You can toggle between listing all categories or seeing just
the categories that you use the most by clicking the All Categories or
Most Used links, respectively.
Don’t see the category you need? Click Add New Category, and you can
add a category right there on the Add New Post page that appears.
✦ Post Tags: Type your desired tags in the Add New Tag text box. Be sure
to separate each tag with a comma so that WordPress knows where
each tag begins and ends. Cats, Kittens, Feline represents three
different tags, for example, but without the commas, WordPress would
consider those three words to be one tag. See Book III, Chapter 7 for
more information on tags and how to use them.
✦ Featured Image: Some WordPress themes are configured to use an
image (photo) to represent each post that you have on your blog. The
image can appear on the home/front page, blog page, archives, or any-
where within the content display on your Web site. If you’re using a
theme that has this option, you can easily define the post thumbnail by
clicking Set Featured Image below the Featured Image module on the
Add New Post page. More information about using Featured Images can
be found in Book VI, Chapter 6.
When you finish setting the options for your post, don’t navigate away from
this page; you haven’t yet fully saved your options. The following section on
publishing your post covers all the options you need for saving your post
settings!

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Composing Your Blog Post

Composing a blog post is a lot like typing an e-mail: You give it a title, you
write the message, and you click a button to send your words into the world.
This section covers the steps you take to compose and publish a blog post
on your site. By using the different options that WordPress provides — like
discussion options, categories and tags, for example — you can configure
each post however you like.
You can collapse or reposition all the modules on the Add New Posts page to suit your needs. The only part of the Add New Posts page that can’t be collapsed and repositioned is the actual Title and Post text boxes (where you write your blog post).

Follow these steps to write a basic blog post:

1. Click Add New on the Posts drop-down list.
The Add New Post page opens, as shown in Figure 1-1.
2. Type the title of your post in the Enter Title Here text box at the top
of the Add New Post page.
3. Type the content of your post in the large text box below the Enter

Title Here text box.
You can use the Visual Text Editor to format the text in your post. We
explain the Visual Text Editor, and the buttons and options, later in this
section.
4. Click the Save Draft button in the Publish module, located at the top
right of the Add New Post page.
The page refreshes with your post title and content saved, but not yet published to your blog.

By default, the area in which you write your post is in Visual Editing mode,

as indicated by the Visual tab that appears above the text. Visual Editing
mode provides WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) options for for-
matting. Rather than have to embed HTML code in your post, you can simply
type your post, highlight the text you want to format, and click the buttons
(shown in Figure 1-1) that appear above the text box in which you type your
post.
If you’ve ever used a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word, you’ll recognize many of these buttons:

✦ Bold: Embeds the <strong> </strong> HTML tag to emphasize the

text in bold. Example: Bold Text.
✦ Italic: Embeds the <em> </em> HTML tag to emphasize the text in italic.
Example: Italic Text.
✦ Strikethrough: Embeds the <strike> </strike> HTML tag that puts
a line through your text. Example: Strikethrough Text.
✦ Unordered List: Embeds the <ul><li> </li></ul> HTML tags that
create an unordered, or bulleted, list.
✦ Ordered List: Embeds the <ol><li> </li></ol> HTML tags that
create an ordered, or numbered, list.
✦ Blockquote: Inserts the <blockquote> </blockquote> HTML tag
that indents the paragraph or section of text you selected.
✦ Align Left: Inserts the <p align=”left”> </p> HTML tag that lines
up the paragraph or section of text you selected against the left margin.
✦ Align Center: Inserts the <p align=”center”> </p> HTML tag that
positions the paragraph or section of text you selected in the center of
the page.
✦ Align Right: Inserts the <p align=”right”> </p> HTML tag that
lines up the paragraph or section of text you selected against the right
margin.
✦ Insert/Edit Link: Inserts the <a href=” “> </a> HTML tag around the
text you selected to create a hyperlink.
✦ Unlink: Removes the hyperlink from the selected text, if it was previ-
ously linked.
✦ Insert More Tag: Inserts the <!--more--> tag, which lets you split the
display on your blog page. It publishes the text written above this tag
with a Read More link, which takes the user to a page with the full post.
This feature is good for really long posts.
✦ Toggle Spellchecker: Perfect for typo enthusiasts! Checking your spell- Book IV
ing before you post is always a good idea. Chapter 1
✦ Toggle Full Screen Mode: Lets you focus purely on writing, without
the distraction of all the other options on the page. Click this button to
make the Post text box expand to fill the full height and width of your
browser screen. To bring the Post text box back to its normal state, click
the Toggle Full Screen button again. Voilà — it’s back to normal!
✦ Show/Hide Kitchen Sink: Lisa saw this button and thought, “Wow!
WordPress does my dishes, too!” Unfortunately, the button’s name is a
metaphor that describes the advanced formatting options available with
the Visual Text Editor. Click this button to make a new formatting list
drop down, providing options for underlining, font color, custom charac-
ters, undo and redo, and so on — a veritable kitchen sink full of options,
such as

• Format: This drop-down list allows you to select the different text for-
matting available.
• Underline: Inserts the <u> </u> HTML tags around the text to dis-
play it as underlined.
• Text Color: Displays the text in the color chosen.
• Paste as Plain Text: Useful if you copy text from another source, this
option removes all formatting and special/hidden characters from
the text and adds it to your post as unformatted text.
• Paste from Word: Useful if you’re copying text from a Microsoft Word
document because Word inserts a lot of hidden HTML and charac-
ters that could make your post text look funny on your Web site.
Use the Paste from Word feature to transfer posts from Word to
WordPress to preserve formatting without the hidden mess.
• Remove Formatting: Removes all formatting inside the post.
• Insert/Edit Embedded Media: Easily embeds media (video or movie)
files such as Flash, Quicktime, Shockwave, Windows Media or Real
Media video files from outside, third-party sources. Here, you can
configure options for the size of the embedded media, alignment
within your post (top, right, bottom or left) and background color
(optional), for example.
• Insert Custom Character: If you click this option, a pop-up window
appears, offering different characters (see Figure 1-2) such as $, %
&, and ©. In the pop-up window, click the symbol that you want to
include to add it to your post.

• Outdent: Moves indented the text to the left one preset level with

each click.
• Indent: Moves text in to the right one preset level with each click.
• Undo: Click to undo your last formatting action.
• Redo: Click to redo your last formatting action.

• Help: Pops open a window that displays helpful information about

using the text editor, including timesaving keyboard shortcuts.

You can turn off the Visual Text Editor by clicking Your Profile in the Users

drop-down list. Deselect the Use the Visual Editor When Writing check box
to turn off this editor if you want to insert the HTML code in your posts
yourself.
If you want to embed your own HTML code and skip the Visual Text Editor, click the HTML tab that appears to the right of the Visual tab. If you’re
planning to type HTML code in your post — for a table or video files, for example — you have to click the HTML tab before you can insert that code. If you don’t, the Visual Text Editor formats your code, and it most likely looks nothing like you intended it to.

WordPress has a nifty, built-in autosave feature that saves your work while Book IV
you’re typing and editing a new post. If your browser crashes or you acci- Chapter 1
dentally close your browser window before you manually save your post, you can access it again when you get back.
Directly above and to the left of the Visual Text Editor row of buttons, an Add Media area has a row of four icons. These icons let you insert images/ photos, photo galleries, videos, and audio files into your posts. WordPress has an entire Media Library capability, which we describe in great detail in Chapters 2 and 3 of this minibook.

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Creating and Editing Tags

In this post, you can find out all about publishing your posts in
WordPress and how you can assign different tags to your content. This sec-
tion takes you through the steps of managing tags, which is similar to the
way you manage categories. To create a new tag, follow these steps:

1. Click Post Tags in the Posts drop-down list.
The Post Tags page opens.
Unlike categories and links, WordPress doesn’t create a default tag for you, so when you visit the Post Tags page for the first time, no tags are listed on the right side of the page.
2. The left side of the Post Tags page displays the Add New Tag section.
3. Type the name of your new tag in the Name text box.
Suppose that you want to create a tag in which you file all your posts
about the books you read. In the Name text box, type something like
Fictional Books.
4. Type a name in the Slug text box.

The slug is the permalink of the tag and can help identify tag archives on
your site by giving them their own URL, such as http://yourdomain.
com/tag/fictional-books. By default, the tag slug adopts the words
from the tag name.
5. (Optional) Type a description of the tag in the Description text box.
Some WordPress templates are set up to actually display the tag
description directly beneath the tag name. Providing a description fur-
ther defines the category intent for your readers. The description can be as short or as long as you want.
6. Click the Add New Tag button.
That’s it! You’ve added a new tag to your blog. The Add New Tag page refreshes in your browser window with blank fields, ready for you to add another tag to your site.
7. Repeat Steps 2 through 7 to add an unlimited number of tags to
your blog.

You use the Tags and the Categories pages in your Dashboard to manage,

edit, and create new tags and categories to which you assign your posts
when you publish them. Book IV, Chapter 1 contains a lot of information
about how to go about assigning tags and categories to your posts, as well
as a few good tips on how you can create new categories and tags right on
the Edit Posts page itself.
Many WordPress Web sites have a cool feature called a tag cloud, which is a unique way to display a list of tags used on your site to give your readers navigation options to view your content. Figure 7-7 shows the tag cloud displayed on the sidebar of Lisa’s design blog.

At the top of the right sidebar in Figure 7-7, the tag cloud gives you an at-a-

glance peek at the topics Lisa writes about. You can tell the topic she writes about most often because that tag appears in the largest text; likewise, the topics displayed in small text aren’t written about quite as often. You can tell by her tag cloud that Lisa’s quite a fan of WordPress.

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Creating new categories

Today, tomorrow, next month, next year — while your blog grows in size and age, continuing to add new categories further defines and archives the history of your blog posts. You aren’t limited in the number of categories and subcategories you can create in your blog.

Creating a new category is as easy as following these steps:
1. Click Categories in the Posts drop-down list.
The Categories page opens.
2. The left side of the Categories page displays the Add New Category
section (see Figure 7-5).

 

3. Type the name of your new category in the Name text box.

Suppose that you want to create a category in which you file all your posts about the books you read. In the Name text box, type something like Books I Enjoy.
4. Type a name in the Slug text box.
The slug creates the link to the category page that lists all the posts you
made in this category. If you leave this field blank, WordPress automati-
cally creates a slug based on the category name. If the category is Books
I Enjoy, WordPress automatically creates a category slug like http://
yourdomain.com/category/books-i-enjoy. If you want to shorten
it, however, you can! Type books in the Category Slug text box, and
the link to the category becomes http://yourdomain.com/
category/books.
5. Select the category’s parent from the Parent drop-down list.
Select None if you want this new category to be a parent (or top-level)
category. If you want to make this category a subcategory of another
category, select the category that you want to be the parent of this one.
6. (Optional) Type a description of the category in the Description
text box.
Some WordPress templates are set up to actually display the category
description directly beneath the category name (see Book VI). Providing a description further defines the category intent for your readers. The description can be as short or as long as you want.
7. Click the Add New Category button.
That’s it! You’ve added a new category to your blog. Armed with this
information, you can add an unlimited number of categories to
your blog.
You can delete a category on your blog by hovering your mouse pointer on the title of the category you want to delete, and then clicking the Delete link that appears below the category title.

Deleting a category doesn’t delete the posts and links in that category.
Instead, posts in the deleted category are reassigned to the Uncategorized category (or whatever you’ve named the default category).
If you have an established WordPress blog that has categories already cre-
ated, you can convert some or all of your categories to tags. To do so, look
for the Category to Tag Converter link on the right side of the Category page
in your WordPress Dashboard — click it to convert your categories to tags.
(See the nearby sidebar, “What are tags, and how/why do I use them?,” for
more information on tags.)

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Changing the name of a category

When you install WordPress, it gives you one default category called
Uncategorized (see the Categories page shown in Figure 7-3). This cat-
egory name is pretty generic, so you definitely want to change it to one
that applies to you and your blog. (On Lisa’s blog, she changed it to Life in
General. Although that name’s still a bit on the generic side, it doesn’t sound quite so . . . well, uncategorized.)
The default category also serves as kind of a fail-safe. If you publish a post
to your blog and don’t assign that post to a category, the post is assigned to
the default category automatically, no matter what you name the category.

 

So, how do you change the name of that default category? When you’re logged in to your WordPress Dashboard, just follow these steps:

1. Click Categories in the Posts drop-down list.
The Categories page opens, containing all the tools you need to set up and edit category titles for your blog.

2. Click the title of the category that you want to edit.

If you want to change the Uncategorized category, click the word
Uncategorized to open the Edit Category page (see Figure 7-4).

3. Type the new name for the category in the Name text box.

4. Type the new slug in the Slug text box.
The term slug refers to the word(s) used in the Web address for the spe-
cific category. For example, the category of Books has a Web address
of http://yourdomain.com/category/books; if you change the
Category Slug to Books I Like, then the Web address is http://your
domain.com/category/books-i-like (WordPress automatically
inserts a dash between the slug words in the Web address).
5. Select a parent category from the Parent drop-down list.
If you want this category to be a main category, not a subcategory, select None.
6. (Optional) Type a description of the category in the Description
text box.
Use this description to remind yourself what your category is about.
Some WordPress themes display the category description right on your
site, too, which your visitors may find helpful. (See Book VI for more

about themes.) You know that your theme is coded in this way if your site displays the category description on the category page(s).

7. Click the Update button.
The information you just edited is saved, and the Categories page reloads, showing your new category name.

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Building categories

In WordPress, a category is what you determine to be the main topic of a
blog post. By using categories, you can file your blog posts into topics by
subject. To improve your readers’ experiences in navigating through your
blog, WordPress organizes posts by the categories you assign to them.
Visitors can click the categories they’re interested in to see the blog posts
you’ve written on those particular topics. You can display the list of catego-
ries you set up on your blog in a few different places, including the following:
✦ Body of the post: In most WordPress themes, you see the title followed
by a statement, such as Filed In: Category 1, Category 2. The reader can
click the category name to go to a page that lists all the posts you’ve
made in that particular category. You can assign a single post to more
than one category.
✦ Sidebar of your blog theme: You can place a full list of category titles in
the sidebar by using the Categories widget included in your WordPress
installation. A reader can click any category to open a page on your site
that lists the posts you made within that particular category.
Subcategories (also known as category children) can further refine the main
category topic by listing specific topics related to the main (parent) cate-
gory. In your WordPress Dashboard, on the Manage Categories page, subcat-
egories appear directly below the main category. Here’s an example:

Books I Enjoy (main category)
Fiction (subcategory)
Nonfiction (subcategory)
Trashy romance (subcategory)
Biographies (subcategory)
For Dummies (subcategory)
You can create as many levels of categories as you like. For example,
Biographies and For Dummies could be subcategories of Nonfiction, which is a subcategory of the Books category. You aren’t limited to the number of category levels you can create.

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Archiving Content with WordPress

When you create a post on your WordPress blog, you can file that post
under a category that you specify. This feature makes for a nifty archiving
system in which you and your readers can find articles/posts that you’ve
placed within a specific category. Articles you post are also sorted and orga-
nized by date (day/month/year) so that you can easily locate articles that
you posted at a certain time. The archives page on Lisa’s Web site (see it at
http://ewebscapes.com/sitemap) contains a Chronological Archive
section, which has a list of months followed by the content she published in
that particular month and year. If you click a date on that page, a listing of
articles from that month drops down, and each article title is linked to that
article.
You can easily create an archive listing like the one on Lisa’s Sitemap page

by using a WordPress plugin called Clean Archives
Reloaded, which you can find in the WordPress Plugin Directory at http://
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/clean-archives-reloaded. This
plugin is easy to install, and to use it, you just need to create a page and add
a short code segment ([cleanarchivesreloaded]) to the page content;
that code automatically builds a Chronological Archives page that links to all
the content you’ve published on your site. Easy archives!

WordPress archives and organizes your content for you in more ways than

by date and by category. In this section, I give you an overview of the several other ways — then later in this chapter, I show you how you can leverage those archive types to create a dynamic Web site that’s easy to navigate for your readers. The different types of archives and content include

✦ Categories: Create categories of topics in which you can file your
articles so that you can easily archive relevant topics. Many Web sites
display content by category — typically referred to as a magazine
theme, in which all content is displayed by topic, rather than in a simple
chronological listing. Figure 7-2 shows an example of a magazine theme.
You can find out how to create one of your own by using the information
in Book VI; also be sure to check out Book VI, Chapter 6 to discover how
to use template tags and category templates to display category-specific
content — exciting stuff!

 

✦ Tags: Tagging your posts with microkeywords, called tags, further

defines related content within your site, which can improve your site for SEO purposes by assisting the search engines in finding related and relevant content, as well as provide additional navigation to help your readers find relevant content on your site.
✦ Date Based: Your content is automatically archived by date based on
the day, month, year, and time of day you publish it.
✦ Author: Content is automatically archived by author based on the
author of the post and/or page — you can create an author archive if your site has multiple content contributors.
✦ Keyword (or Search): WordPress has a built-in search function that
allows you and your readers to search for keywords, which presents an
archive listing of content that’s relevant to your chosen keywords.
✦ Custom Post Types: You can build custom post types based on the
kind of content your site offers — you can find detailed information on
custom post types and how to create them in Book VI, Chapter 7.
✦ Attachments: WordPress has a built-in media library where you can
upload different media files such as photos, images, documents, videos,
and audio files (to name a few). You can build an archive of those files
to create things such as photo galleries, eBook archives (PDFs), or video
galleries.

✦ Links: Build your own link directory of resources by using the built-in

Link Manager in the WordPress Dashboard, and then create a page to
display the links on your site.

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Displaying Link Lists on Your Site

With the different options you have available with the Link feature (categories, images, RSS feeds, and so on), you can display a simple listing of links in your sidebar by using widgets, or you can create a full page dedicated to your links in your Dashboard’s link lists.
Some site owners use the Link feature to create a full-blown link directory on
their sites, which you can easily do by using link categories, images, descrip-
tions, and so on. Following the instructions provided in this chapter, you
can create your link categories, add your links to the categories, and then
display them on a page by using different template tags that are available in
WordPress.

A page of resource links on a business Web site. You
can create this kind of page by using the Image Address on the Add New
Link page in your Dashboard, discussed previously in this chapter. Figure
6-6 shows another way of displaying a listing of links that appears more like
a directory than just a simple list. This page was made possible by creating
several link categories, assigning links to the categories, and then (with a

simple WordPress template tag and a little CSS magic) creating the page to display the links like a directory page.

 

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Editing existing links

You can edit the links in your blog by clicking the name of the link you want to edit on the Links page; the Edit Links page opens.
When you first view the Links page, some links are already assigned to your
blog. By default, WordPress provides seven links in your link list. These links
go to some helpful Web sites that contain information and resources for the
WordPress software. You can delete these links, but we recommend saving
them for future reference.

Here’s what you can do with your links:

✦ Edit an existing link. Click the name of the link you want to edit. The
Edit Link page opens. Edit the fields you need to change, and then click
the Save button at the top right of the page.
✦ Sort the links. Select Link ID, Name, Address, or Rating from the Order
by Name drop-down list. Likewise, you can sort your links by category
by selecting the Link Category you want from the View All Categories
drop-down list.
✦ Search for specific links by using keywords and phrases. Enter your
keyword in the text box at the top-right side of the Edit Links page and
click the Search Links button. If any links match the keywords and/or
phrase you typed, those links appear on the page.

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Organizing Your Links

Sometimes, having a large list of links below the Blogroll heading is just too
generic, and you may want to display groups of links with different headings
that further define them. Like with posts, you can create multiple categories
for your links in the WordPress Dashboard if you want to have more than
one link list.
By default, WordPress provides one link category called Blogroll. You can
keep this name as-is or change it by using the same method you use to
change a post category name (for more on changing the name of a category,
see Book III, Chapter 7) — simply click the name of the link category to view
the Edit Link Category page and edit the details however you want.

You can organize your links by creating link categories in the Dashboard
and then assigning links to the appropriate categories. To create link categories, follow these steps:

1. Click the down arrow to the right of Links menu title in the left navi-

gation menu, and then select Link Categories from the drop-down list
that appears.
The Link Categories page opens, as shown in Figure 6-1. The left side of the Link Categories page displays the Add Link Category section.

2. Type the name of the link category in the Link Category Name text

box.
3. Type the slug of the link category in the Link Category Slug text box.
The term slug refers to the word(s) used in the Web address for the specific category.
4. (Optional) Type a description of the link category in the Description
text box.
Providing a description further defines the category for your readers.
You can make the description as short or as long as you want. Some
WordPress themes are set up to actually display the category descrip-
tion directly beneath the category name (check out Book VI for informa-
tion on template tags that allow you to add category descriptions).

5. Click the Add Category button.

The Link Categories page refreshes and displays your new link category.

You can create an unlimited amount of link categories to sort your link lists
by topics. (We know one blogger who has 50 categories for his links.) Revisit
the Link Categories page any time you want to add, edit, or delete a link. To
edit or delete a link category, hover your mouse over the link category you
want to manage, and then click one of the three links that appears below the
link category name:
✦ Edit: Open the Edit Category page, where you can edit the name, slug,
and description of the category.
✦ Quick Edit: Opens an inline menu (the menu drops down without leav-
ing the Link Categories page) on the Link Categories page, where you
can edit the name and slug of the category.
✦ Delete: Delete the link category completely, but not before confirming
your decision to delete the category in question by clicking OK on the
message that pops up.
Adding new links
After you create your link categories, you just need to add some new links! Book III
To add a new link, follow these steps: Chapter 6
1. Click Add New in the Links drop-down list.
The Add New Link page opens, as shown in Figure 6-2.
2. Type the name of the link in the Name text box.
Enter the actual name of the site that you’re adding to your link list.
3. Type the URL of the link in the Web Address text box.
You want your visitors to go to this destination when they click the
name of the site. Don’t forget to include the http:// part of the Web
address (http://lisasabin-wilson.com, for example).
4. (Optional) Type a description of the site in the Description text box.
Providing a description helps further define the site for your readers. Some WordPress templates display the link description directly below the link name by using a specific WordPress template tag.
5. (Optional) Assign your new link to a category by selecting the check
box to the left of the category in the Categories module.
If you don’t select a category for your new link, that link is automatically assigned to the default category. Figure 6-3 shows the list of link categories that Lisa has in her blog.
If you don’t use the Link Category option regularly, you can collapse

(close) this module by clicking anywhere in the Categories title bar. You can also move the Categories module to a different position on the Add New Link page by dragging and dropping it to a new location.
6. (Optional) Select a target for your new link by selecting a radio button
in the Target module.
Select one of the following radio buttons:

• _blank: Loads the link in a new browser window

• _top: Loads the link in the top frame (if your site is designed with
frames)
• _none: Loads the link in the same browser window as the one you
are currently browsing in
The third option — None — is the standard/default option here — leaving your visitors to decide how they want to open links on your site. If they want to open a link in a new browser window, they can use their browser tools to make that happen.
You can reposition the Target module by dragging and dropping it to
a new location on the Add New Link page. You can also collapse this
module.
7. (Optional) Set the Link Relationship (XFN) options.
XFN stands for XHTML Friends Network and allows you to indicate the relationship you have with the people you’re linking to by defining how you know, or are associated with, them. Table 6-1 lists the different relationships you can assign to your links.
You can reposition the Link Relationship module by dragging and drop-
ping it to a new location on the Add New Link page. You can also col-
lapse (close) this module.

You have four options in the Advanced module:
• Image Address: In this text box, enter the URL of the picture that you
want to appear next to the link in your link list.
This option associates an image with the link. To use it, you need to
know the direct URL to the image source (such as http://your
domain.com/images/image.jpg). Figure 6-5 displays the
Resources page on a business Web site; that page uses the
WordPress Links feature to assign image addresses to links.
To find the URL for an image that appears on a Web site, right-
click the image and choose Properties from the pop-up menu that
appears. Copy the image address (URL). The image’s URL starts with
http:// and looks like a Web address. Then paste it into the Image
Address text box in the Add New Link page.
• RSS Address: Add the site’s RSS feed alongside the link that appears
on your site. (Not all WordPress themes accommodate this feature.)
To find the RSS URL of the site you’re linking to, visit that site and
locate the RSS link. (It’s usually listed in the sidebar or footer of the
site.) Right-click the link, and from the pop-up menu that appears,
choose Copy Shortcut (in Internet Explorer) or Copy Link Location
(in Firefox). Then in WordPress, paste the link in the RSS Address
field.
• Notes: Type your notes in the Notes field.
These notes don’t appear on your site, so feel free to enter whatever notes you need to define the details of this link further. A month from now, you may not remember who this person is or why you linked to her, so add notes here to remind yourself.

• Rating: Select a number from the Rating drop-down list to rate how

well you like the link from 0 to 10, 0 being the worst and 10 being the
best. Some WordPress themes display your link list in the order in
which you rate your links, from best to worst.
You can reposition the Advanced module by dragging and dropping it to
a new location on the Add New Link page. You can also collapse (close)
this module.
9. In the Save module, choose whether to make the link public or
private.
To keep the link private, select the Keep This Link Private check box. No one can see the link. If you want the link to appear publicly on your blog, leave that check box deselected.
You can reposition the Save module by dragging and dropping it to a
new location on the Add New Link page. You can also collapse (close)
this module.
10. To save your changes, scroll to the top of the Add New Links page and
click the Add Link button.
The Add New Link page refreshes and displays a message to you that your new link has been added.

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Tackling Spam with Akismet

Before blogs came onto the scene, you often saw spammers filling Internet
guest books with their links but not leaving any relevant comments. The
reason is simple: Web sites receive higher rankings in the major search
engines if they have multiple links from other sites. Enter blog software, with
comment and trackback technologies — prime breeding ground for millions
of spammers.
Because comments and trackbacks are published to your site publicly —
and usually with links to the commenters’ Web sites — spammers got their
site links posted on millions of blogs by creating programs that automati-
cally seek Web sites that have commenting systems, and then hammer those
systems with tons of comments that contain links back to their own sites.

No blogger likes spam. In fact, blogging services such as WordPress have
spent untold hours in the name of stopping these spammers in their tracks,
and for the most part, they’ve been successful. Occasionally, however,
spammers sneak through. Many spammers are offensive, and all of them are
frustrating because they don’t contribute to the ongoing conversations that
occur in blogs.
All WordPress installations have one significant thing in common: Akismet, a WordPress plugin.

Tackling Spam with Akismet
It’s our humble opinion that Akismet is the mother of all plugins and that no WordPress blog is complete without a fully activated version of Akismet run-
ning in it.
Apparently, WordPress agrees because the plugin is packaged in every
WordPress software release beginning with version 2.0. Akismet was created by the folks at Automattic, the same folks who brought you the WordPress. com-hosted version.
Akismet is the answer to combating comment and trackback spam. Matt
Mullenweg of Automattic says Akismet is a “collaborative effort to make
comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blog-
ging, so you never have to worry about spam again” (from the Akismet Web site at http://akismet.com).
Lisa has been blogging since 2002. She started blogging with the Movable
Type blogging platform and moved to WordPress in 2003. While blogging
became more and more popular, comment and trackback spam became
more and more of a nuisance. One morning in 2004, she found that 2,300
pieces of disgusting comment spam had been published to her blog.
Something had to be done! The folks at Automattic did a fine thing with

Akismet. Since the emergence of Akismet, she’s barely had to think about comment or trackback spam except for the few times a month she checks her Akismet spam queue.
We cover the use of plugins in Book VII. However, this chapter wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t show you how to activate and use the Akismet plugin on your site. Book VII covers the use, installation, and management of other plugins for your WordPress site.

Akismet is already included in every WordPress installation, so you don’t
have to worry, at this point, about downloading and installing it because it’s already there. Follow these steps to activate and begin using Akismet:
1. Click the Plugins link in the left navigation menu of the Dashboard to
load the Plugins page.
2. Click the Activate link below the Akismet plugin name and
description.
A yellow box appears at the top of the page, saying Akismet Is Almost
Ready. You Must Enter Your WordPress.com API Key for It to Work (see
Figure 5-7). An API key is a string of numbers and letters that functions
like a unique password given to you by WordPress.com; it’s the key
that allows your WordPress.org application to communicate with your
WordPress.com account.

3. Click the link in the yellow box to navigate to the Akismet

Configuration page.
The Akismet Configuration page asks you to enter your Akismet API key.
You can obtain an API key free from your WordPress.com account. If
you’re a professional or corporate user, click the Get Your Key link to
visit the Akismet Web site, where you can purchase an API key.
You need to register for an account on WordPress.com (http://word-
press.com) in order to get access to a free API key. Be sure to visit the WordPress.com Web site to register your account before you proceed with the following steps.
4. In a new browser window, log in to your WordPress.com account and
click the Edit My Profile link in the WordPress.com menu.
The My Public Profile page opens in your Web browser.
5. Click the API Key and Other Personal Settings link.
The Personal Settings page appears in your WordPress.com Dashboard. Your WordPress.com API key appears at the top of that page, as shown in Figure 5-8. (We blurred out Lisa’s API key.

6. In your Dashboard on the Akismet Configuration page, enter the API

key in the WordPress.com API Key text box and click the Update
Options button to activate the Akismet plugin fully.
A message appears, telling you that your Akismet API key has been
verified. You’re now protected against comment spam because you’re using the Akismet plugin.

Akismet catches spam and throws it into a queue, holding the spam for 15
days and then deleting it from your database. It’s probably worth your while to check the Akismet Spam page once a week to make sure that the plugin hasn’t captured any legitimate comments or trackbacks.
You can rescue those non-spam captured comments and trackbacks by following these steps (after you log in to your WordPress Dashboard):

1. Click Comments in the left navigation menu.
The Comments page appears, displaying a list of the most recent comments on your blog.
2. Click the Spam link.
The Comments page now displays all spam comments that the plugin
caught.

3. Browse through the list of spam comments, looking for any comments

or trackbacks that are legitimate.
4. If you locate a comment or trackback that’s legitimate, select the
Approve link directly below the entry.
The comment is marked as legitimate. In other words, WordPress recognizes that you don’t consider this comment to be spam. WordPress then approves the comment and publishes it on your blog.

Check your spam filter often. Lisa just found four legitimate comments
caught in her spam filter; she was able to de-spam them, releasing them from the binds of Akismet and unleashing them upon the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dealing with Comment and Trackback Spam

If you have your options set so that comments aren’t published to your blog

until you approve them, you can approve comments from the Comments
page, as well. Just click the Pending link to list the comments that are pend-
ing moderation. If you have comments and/or trackbacks awaiting modera-
tion, they appear on this page, and you can approve them, mark them as
spam, or delete them.
WordPress immediately notifies you of any comments sitting in the modera-
tion queue, awaiting your action. This notification, which appears on every
single page, is a small circle, or bubble, in the left navigation menu, to the
right of Comments. Figure 5-6 shows that Lisa has 20 comments pending
moderation. She’d better get busy and deal with those comments!

 

Ugh. The absolute bane of every blogger’s existence is comment and trackback spam. When blogs became the “It” things on the Internet, spammers saw an opportunity. If you’ve ever received spam e-mail, the concept is similar and just as frustrating.

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