Tips: Categorize Blogger Posts

Before read this article, I need to tell you that I have implemented a Web services to generate cateogry list for blogger. You can check out at BlogCat, which is easier to maintain than the method introduced in the following paragraphs.


This article give a tip to categorize ur posts. With tricks given, u only need to add several words in ur posts to put them into a certain category. And then, following a hyperlink, u can list all posts of a category.
Before you read this post, plz refer to another post, which bring a idea to categorize ur blogger archives. Its basic idea is to:

1. generate a permanent link for each post on blogger, actually, this is the default action of most blogger template
2. build some category pages that list those permanent links.

The shortcoming of this method is that u must maintain these category pages, oh, thank god, we need not to do it anymore.

1. plz confirm whether u have generate a permanent link for each post, if no, plz follow this post to generate them.
2. add a site search for ur blogger. I know google is the choice for most ppls, here, i recommend PICO, as i am using it. Why to use PICO? As it can index ur website when you need, and no need to wait several months for google reindexing. U donna know what's PICO site search? plz visit its homepage. :-), or try the sample in my right panel. its codes are:
   <FORM METHOD="GET"
         ACTION="http://www.picosearch.com/cgi-bin/ts.pl">
   <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="index" VALUE="223786">
   <TABLE  CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 BORDER=0><TR><TD>
   <TABLE  CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=0 BORDER=0>
   <TR>
   <TD colspan="2"><A HREF="http://www.picosearch.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?wherefrom=picobox&type=all" TARGET="_blank">
   <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="http://www.picosearch.com/picosmall.gif" ALT="PicoSearch"></A>
   <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="query" VALUE="" SIZE="19"></TD>
   </TR>
   <TR>
   <TD>
   <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="Go" name="SEARCH">
   </TD><TD ALIGN=RIGHT><SELECT NAME="opt"><OPTION SELECTED VALUE="ANY">Find ANY word  <OPTION VALUE="ALL">Find ALL words <OPTION VALUE="EXACT">Find EXACT phrase</SELECT></TD></TR>
   <tr><td><FONT SIZE=-2><A HREF="http://www.picosearch.com/cgi-bin/ts.pl?index=223786&help=help" >Help </A></FONT></td><td align=right><font size=-2><a href="http://www.picosearch.com/cgi-bin/index.pl?wherefrom=picobox&type=all" target=_blank>Site Search by PicoSearch</a></font></td></tr>
   </TABLE></TD></TR></TABLE></FORM>
3. add a form to ur blogger template: <form METHOD="GET" ACTION="http://www.picosearch.com/cgi-bin/ts.pl">
   <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="index" VALUE="223786">
   <INPUT TYPE="HIDDEN" NAME="opt" VALUE="ALL">
   <SELECT NAME="query" width="100"><OPTION SELECTED VALUE="xxxxx Category-Research">Research   
   <OPTION VALUE="xxxxx Category-Life">Life</SELECT>
   <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" VALUE="List Posts" name="SEARCH">
   </form> plz replace the index INPUT value with ur own value. Mine is 223786. Your can find it in the FORM codes given by PICO. Here, i build two categories in my blogger --- "Research" and "Life". The pith is coming. :-) plz set the value of the select input's value to some words corresponding to categories. Corresponding to research category, I set the value to "xxxxx Category-Research", where xxxxx is a word (or phrase) appearing in pemanent posts only. (I use xxxxx here is because if I use the real phrase i am using, this post will taint my category.) To life category, i set it to "xxxxx Category-Life".
4. add the word "Category-Research" to the post, anywhere u want. Then, it is categorized to "Research" category.
5. reindex ur pico

When writing a new post, u only need to do step 4 and 5. That's all. Now u can choose a category using the combo list, and press the button. Try the pull-down menu below. Cheers.

--------------------- -------Research------ ---------Life-------- -------Software------