Thursday, December 11, 2014

How to separate and tag your posts in Blogger




If you’re setting up a blog using Blogger, one of the first things you’ll want to do is provide your readers with a way to more easily navigate your blog. By default, Blogger’s home page will display the most recent posts you’ve made, depending on your content it can be useful to categorize your entries so they will be easier to find later. Using Blogger’s built in Labels makes it easy to build a navigation bar that will filter content based on whatever tags you want to use. This tutorial will help you set up Labels for your posts.




 First make a new post, or edit an old post. For each post you make, you can configure the Labels by clicking the button on the right side of the screen. Here you can enter descriptive words that will help readers understand what’s in your post.



I've added some that I think will be useful later on. 
Return to your blog’s dashboard page and go to Layout on the left side.

In the Layout section, we have the option to Add a Gadget. Gadgets can be placed in various locations, and moved around by dragging them. Depending on the Theme you chose for your blog the layout could look different than what I’ve shown here. Click on Add a Gadget.


Scroll down till you find Labels, choose the blue button with the white + sign.





The Gadget allows you to provide a title, but the title won't appear on your blog. Of note is the option to choose Selected Labels instead of All Labels. By choosing this option you can edit which labels will become different tabs in your navigation bar. Hit Save to close out the Gadget and remember to Save your arrangement as well.


 As you can see, I've selected the 4 labels from earlier to use as navigation tabs.

Once you're ready, save your choices and visit your blog page to check the results, you should find a clickable navigation bar that will filter your posts based on whichever Label you choose. Now any post that you label will appear when it's respective category is chosen.



You can further customize the navigation bar by returning to your Dashboard and choosing Template and then Customize. Under Advanced, you can modify the Tabs Text and Tabs Background to customize your navigation bar. You can easily add or remove tabs in the navigation bar by editing the Labels Gadget.


Don't forget you can add jump breaks in your posts to show only a preview of each post and the classic "Read more" link






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