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page atrributes

  1. folkcatalogue
    Member

    Hi, i want to organise my blog with a static home page, then separate posts divided into various sections.

    So, for example, whatever post i'm reading, on the right i want to be able to see the following:

    Argo catalogues (header)
    catalogue 1 (post)
    catalogue 2 (post)
    catalogue 3 (post)

    Albums 1951-1960 (header)
    Album 1 (post)
    Album 2 (post)
    Album 3 (post)

    Albums 1961-70 (header)
    Album 1 (post)
    Album 2 (post)
    Album 3 (post)

    ...and so on.

    is this possible? i understand there's a 'page attributes' facility, but i can't find it. Sorry if i'm being thick. any help much appreciated.

    The blog I need help with is folkcatalogue.wordpress.com.

  2. ellaella
    Member

    We need a link to your blog, please.

  3. folkcatalogue
    Member

    Link to my blog is:

    http://folkcatalogue.wordpress.com

    That's two of mine you've answered in 5 minutes. Cheers.

  4. ellaella
    Member

    Thanks. It will save everyone time in the future if you link your blog to your username as outlined in the link I provided in your other thread.

    The Attributes module appears when you are creating or editing a Page.

    http://support.wordpress.com/pages/page-attributes/

    I'm unclear what you mean "on the right" - do you mean the Pages widget in the sidebar?

  5. 1tess
    Moderator

    folkcatalogue
    Or are you asking about categories?
    http://support.wordpress.com/?s=categories+
    http://support.wordpress.com/widgets/categories-widget/

  6. folkcatalogue
    Member

    Thanks again ellaella. have now linked my blog to my username as you suggested.
    Thanks 1tess. I'm not sure whether I mean categories or not!

    What I'm trying to achieve is to have info about the posts that i've published structured in the sidebar - whether that's the pages widget or the categories widget I'm not clear.

    I'd like to be able to give a list of the posts I've published so far under general headings, e.g.:

    Argo folk catalogues (heading)
    1951-1960 (post)
    1961-1970 (post)

    Argo folk albums 1951-1960 (heading)
    (1952) Gamelan Orchestra from Pliatan - Music from Bali (post)
    (1953) Jean Ritchie - Songs from Kentucky (post)

    ...and for the reader to be able to click on an item in the list of posts under each heading and be taken to the post itself.

    Am going to undo the attempts i've had so far at organising info in the sidebar and will start again from scratch with any advice you may have.

    Thanks again to both

  7. folkcatalogue
    Member

    Update: Using the categories widget, I've set up 3 categories that now appear in the sidebar, but when I come to allocate each post to one of these in the edit page I'm not offered them...

  8. ellaella
    Member

    You need to do that in the editor.

    And if you still want a list available for people to see without doing anything, uncheck the option in the category widget to display it as a drop-down. It might not display the children with the theme you have, but I'm not sure which (if any) do.

  9. 1tess
    Moderator

    Chaotic Soul displays child categories, but they are indented or otherwise marked as sub-categories. Parent and child categories display as a flush left alphabetical list. There are work arounds, if you decide to go this route.

  10. 1tess
    Moderator

    GGRRRRR wish we could edit:
    Should say: :Chaotic Soul displays child categories, but they are NOT indented…"

  11. folkcatalogue
    Member

    Hmmm. You're both very kind and patient. Here's where I've got to.

    Using the categories widget, I set up three categories, having unclicked the drop-down menu option. The categories duly appeared on my page.

    I then went to the edit page of each post and allocated each post to the appropriate category.

    What now appears below the categories on my page is a list of all the categories (with the number of posts in each)....e.g. under the first heading I get:

    FOLK MUSIC LABELS INTRO (main category)

    Argo folk albums 1951-60 (5)
    Argo folk catalogue by decade (1)
    Folk music labels intro (1)
    Uncategorised (1)

    ...when all i really want to do (as dylan used to say) is to have it say:

    ARGO FOLK ALBUMS 1951-60

    1952 Gamelan Orchestra from Pliatan - Music from Bali
    1953 Jean Ritchie - Songs from Kentucky

    etc etc.

    It does sound like a parent and child thing, as long as the child is the post and not another sub-category (if you see what i mean). If you've had enough, just say and i'll battle on. In the meantime, thanks a lot.

  12. 1tess
    Moderator

    Actually, you are using the "links" widget, not the category widget.

  13. folkcatalogue
    Member

    Ahhh! But i wasn't aware i'd gone near the "links" widget. Honest!

  14. 1tess
    Moderator

    Well, it looks like a "links" widget with your category pages in it. (???)
    This is a category page:
    http://folkcatalogue.wordpress.com/category/argo-folk-albums-1951-60/
    The problem with using that is there is not a way to make child categories in a links widget.

    You could make "1952 Gamelan Orchestra from Pliatan - Music from Bali" and
    "1953 Jean Ritchie - Songs from Kentucky" child categories. Then they'd show up in the categories widget. But as I said, in that theme, they will all be in a straight list. There are tricks to overcome the formatting, like using   or punctuation or dashes. But the other problem is that "1952 … Bali" etc. all have to be categories. Not very search engine friendly.

    I think what you really want is a sort of index of your posts in your sidebar. Is that right?

  15. ellaella
    Member

    Or you could combine categories and their children with tags (think of the latter as sub-sub cats in this case)

    ie:

    FOLK MUSIC LABELS parent category)
    ARGO FOLK ALBUMS 1951-60 (child)
    Jean Ritchie (child of above child)
    Songs from Kentucky (tag)

    You might well have to create pages with manual links or hand-linked text widgets to do what you want or go to self-hosting with the free software from wordpress.org. Those blogs and their themes are far more adept at doing double duty as a CMS and some do it extremely well. There is certainly some ability to do that with a wordpress.com blog, but the fact that a cat can sit up and beg like a dog doesn't make it a dog.

    (btw, I knew I was finally an adult when I could freely and happily admit Bob Dylan can't sing worth a lick.)

  16. 1tess
    Moderator

    Uncle Bobby!! can't sing??? LOL

    I think you could use text widgets with cut and paste (not purely manual) from the category pages.
    One of the problems with that theme is the formatting of the parent, child, sub-child formatting.
    Also, there is the issue of getting the pages in other than alpha-numeric order.

    There is a limit to how much fussing you want to do. Just because you CAN do it doesn't mean you should.

  17. ellaella
    Member

    Oh, I meant copy and paste as manual, as opposed to anything generated automatically.

    If I were in the blogger's shoes, I'd leave it till morning and see what ideas occur between now and then. I'm a great believer in letting my subconscious solve these things if I get out of its way. But that's just me.

  18. 1tess
    Moderator

    Or drag and drop would work. but yes still manual.
    and yes, subconscious is often helpful.

  19. folkcatalogue
    Member

    Hey you two, i feel really bad. i sneaked out to the bar for a couple of hours - and there you were, being constructive and creative and discussing Bob Dylan. i don't want to go to wordpress.org! but i will leave it till morning. thanks and thanks

  20. 1tess
    Moderator

    Ha! Here's a toast to you having a brilliant inspiration in your dreams, or at least a fresh brain in the morning. ≥^,^≤

  21. folkcatalogue
    Member

    No inspiration in my dreams. I got out of the way of my subconscious, as you suggested ellaella, but it wandered off elsewhere.

    1tess, you asked: "I think what you really want is a sort of index of your posts in your sidebar. Is that right?" Yes, it is, but controllable in terms of what goes under each heading and in what order, if that were possible.

    I'm not wedded to the Chaotic Soul theme. would another one be more flexible?

    hope you guys are well. it's raining and i keep postponing working...

  22. ellaella
    Member

    Good morning, folkie - conrollable re: headings and their order. The simplest, most controllable way to do that is with a text widget. You enter the links you want in the order you want.

    Apparently some changes are in the works for the blogroll links widget; they might make its use more flexible, but until the new version appears -- and nobody knows when that will be -- what the changes might be is pure conjecture.

  23. carocat
    Member

    I'm not wedded to the Chaotic Soul theme.

    LOL, I find that comforting to hear!

    I feel like I'm missing something, how come child cats aren't displayed? They should be with the cat's widget, no?

  24. 1tess
    Moderator

    A large half dead branch of a tree blew down and landed on my neighbors' car. Stuff blew off my roof. Must have been a storm…
    Anyway, I don't think it matters which theme you use, because making an index will still involve using a text widget. If you had only 3 or 4 items, you could just use the category widget and finesse the formatting with spaces and punctuation to get order the way you want, but you want more than a few items. As I said before.

    So, as ella suggested, you could move to wp.org and go self-hosting
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/page-atrributes?replies=21#post-332682

    Or make categories. Then, put a category widget in your sidebar. Open a second browser window, add a new blank page, and resize the windows so you can see both of them on your screen.
    Drag the items in the category widget to the new page (in the Visual Editor you'll be copying and pasting the links and text by doing this). Then select and drag the items on your new page into the order you want.
    Switch to HTML Editor, copy the code and paste it into a text widget. Or divide the code and make separate text widgets for each parent category. This part is not difficult once you try it.
    The problem comes when you add more titles. You'll have to remember to add them to the appropriate text widget.
    That's the hard part: remembering.

  25. folkcatalogue
    Member

    Hey ellaella, with the text widget i can make it look the way i want (for which, thanks), but can i make some of the individual text entries active (so if you click on them, they take you to the post)?

    I guess that's what you were referring to when you said "you enter the links you want" rather than the "text" you want. how do I enter the links?

    ...still haven't got down to any work.

  26. 1tess
    Moderator

    carocat
    The OP wants them to look like an index and in Chaotic Soul, they are all left aligned. And in any theme they would be in alpha-numeric order, not necessarily the order desired.

  27. 1tess
    Moderator

    Seems we are all talking at the same time!

  28. folkcatalogue
    Member

    hey 1tess, we had a storm too, which kept blowing the windows open like a malicious ogre outside...and yes, the hard part is remembering.

    will check out the wp.org link (but who would look after me then?) and will try and get my head round the two-page category and text widget drag and drop and cut and paste mullarkey. but that will take me time. you know by now i'm a bit slow on the uptake.

    thanks to all. again.

  29. 1tess
    Moderator

    You can just do the regular select/copy/switch/paste but drag 'n' drop is less boring and faster.

  30. ellaella
    Member

    But if you're working in tabs, not two windows, copy and paste is faster.

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