Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Blogger labels -- now how do I make an archive

I've been waiting for blogger to implement categories (what they now call labels) for over a year. Finally they are here, but I am a little stumped at how I can use them to create a recipe archive. Say I have a category called "appetizers". If I got to http://beyondsalmon.blogspot.com/search/label/appetizers

I get to see all posts with that label in their entirety. This is not practical at all if I have 20 appetizers and I am just trying to scan the post titles. I have to scroll through these posts one by one to find the one I am looking for.

Has anyone used blogger labels for the purpose of creating a recipe hierarchy/archive? Any tips?

Thanks!
-Helen

This Post was written by Helen from Beyond Salmon

6 comments:

FJKramer said...

I recommend you search the Blogger User Group and see if you can find answers there.

I did a quick search and found this thread, including a hack:
http://groups.google.com/group/blogger-help-customizing/browse_thread/thread/177eabcf1fe3971f/6222025922af16b5?lnk=gst&q=label%2Barchive&rnum=13#6222025922af16b5

Good luck. Let us know what you did and how it works, others might find it useful, too.

Sam said...

I don't know that is possible - I don't think so - I just build all my indices by hand.
I like that I have control and once I set up my template initially, adding each new item doesn't take so long.
Other blogging software that uses this method (ie typepad) behaves the same way - just dumps all the posts in one folder that you have to scroll through to find anything.

Kalyn Denny said...

Personally I'm not sure if I think the Blogger labels are that useful. I started thinking of them as another way to categorize recipes, but I noticed after I had 20 or so posts labeled "chicken" it took 2-3 minutes for that page to load. I didn't think readers would find that very helpful, so I took most of the labels off. Like Sam, I just add recipes manually to my archives. It took a bit of time to set it up, but not too much, and now it takes me only a few minutes each week to keep it updated. I'm using the labels only for special things that aren't filed in the recipe archives.

FJKramer said...

I had another thought, very inelegant and not at all what you asked for, but how about having very specific labels (which of course would mean you'd have to display a lot of labels on your side bar -- a whole other issue)

For example, have Chicken -- Main Course, Chicken -- Soup, Chicken -- Appetizer, etc.

It does seem odd that after wishing so long that blogger would give us categories many of us (including me) are finding they are not the answer to our dreams after all. (there's a life lesson for ya)

KT said...

I still use the del.ici.ous method of making tags. The del.ici.ous site has added features that make it really easy to maintain, and when you click on the category list, it takes you to a page with just the post titles, so you can just scan down the post titles for the one you want, rather than wading through entire posts.

All I have to do to update my list of tags is click the "tag this post" button I installed in my toolbar and once the post is tagged with a label, it automatically updates in my sidebar category list, so I don't have to go in and change my template every time I post or make a new category.

Anonymous said...

I had the same question, but since I couldn't find an answer I just do what Kayln and Sam do--add it manually. I made a secondary blog just for my recipe archive.