Understanding Blogrolls, Links and Categories
Posted by on January 25, 2007
All wordpress.com blogs have only one Blogroll called Links and located in the Admin area where you enter all links and assign each link to one or more Categories. To learn how they function read this post WordPress blogroll, links widget, categories-widget
For more information on various aspects of linking read these posts:
Therefore as you will have multiple Categories it may look like you have multiple Blogrolls when you view your links in your sidebar.
I have never been able to make this work. Are there themes that don’t support it? No matter what categories I assign, I only get one blogroll in the sidebar.
@icedmocha
I’ve ruffled through my notes and found that the Blix theme default postioning of links is atypical. Then I confirmed this on my test blog.
On one hand, I’m sorry that you can’t achieve this using Blix. On the other, I’m glad you brought this is my attention so I can edit my post.
Thank you so much. At least now I know the reason. It troubled me not to know why it wouldn’t work. Too bad I like the theme so much.
You’re welcome. I don’t know anything about css customization but perhaps this could be changed through it. That’s a question I’d put either to sunburntkamel or to wank or to both.
Thanks timethief. I’ll have to take a look into categorizing my blogroll. At the moment, they’re all just lumped together. As it grows, I should sort them.
Reply: You’re welcome.
Is there a way to order the links by date added? Would I have to do that through the css?
-M
Css customization is not used for making changes to blog functionality. You can only make changes to appearance by creating cascading style sheets that super-cede the original style sheets. The changes are cosmetic only.
On a wordpress.org blog you can edit the underlying template and change the coding.
There are two methods I can suggest for achieving what you want on a wordpress.com blog:
A. Create Categories with dates for Links, example:
Categories
Links (January)
Links (February) and so on.
If you use this method then your can enter links into your Blogroll and assign them to the appropriate Category, place the Links widget in the sidebar and you will have automatic updating.
B. Create either a Links Page or Links Text Widget
The down side of creating either a “Links” page or a “Links” text widget is that neither will automatically update.
(1) do not enter links into the Blogroll;
(2) do not use the links widget at all;
(3) create a “Links” page with your links on it in the order you want along the lines of creating a site index (for reference sake see http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/05/11/how-do-i-make-a-site-index/); or
(4) create a “Links” text widget with your links on it in the order you want.
I hope this helps.
Thanks for the explanation here. It cleared up something that was completely baffling me.
I do think this system is very confusing. It seems to me that the word “categories” is being used to label two different things. It labels the categories-1 that posts are indexed by. And secondly it labels the categories-2 that subdivide the blogroll into groups. I can vaguely imagine that there is some value in having one list of categories that can be displayed in different places, according to different functions. But it makes setting up the sidebar very non-intuitive, I think. It means what you actually see in the sidebar are two different things, blogroll groups and post categories, but both described in the dashboard with the same word.
Those thoughts aside, is there any way to have the groups within the blogroll ordered not alphabetically, but as I would like them?
Also, can I change the heading of the “Categories” section where the index for posts is listed in the sidebar?
Thanks.
You do not need to use the categories widget if you do not wish to or any other widget for that matter. No there is no way to order your blogroll in a manner that is not alphabetical. And you cannot change the word “categories” for the widget to another word. But my suggestion is that you try using both before you make a decision.
Hello – I’m setting up a blogroll and wondering why the FONT is so different from everything else in my sidebar? And as I look at this page I’m posting this comment to – also Misty…you have the same thing going on!
Your category called Connecting with Bloggers is different from Need A New Screensaver? My preference is to keep mine consistent – not the big, bold one – any way to create a blogroll with a heading that is font consistent with the others? THANKS!!
OK – made some progress- I added it as a text widget – and put in the html code for the blog’s address I wanted to list…and the blog comes up (so I did something right!) and shows the header, but the actual web page says Error 404 Page Not Found (so I did something wrong!) I used this code from reading the other posts:
Your Link Name
and made it look like this:
Brooklyn Heights Blog
What did I do wrong? Thanks Very Much!!!
SCB
The font should be the same (see: http://timethief.wordpress.com). There appears to be some malfunction so I intend to report this to staff via a feedback and ask for assistance. As staff are not available on weekends except for urgent matters so I will report this after the weekend. I also advise you to do the same.
OK, thanks – you have so many links on your sidebar – do you enter them through the text widget (which I tried but have the problem as in my post #11) or as “Blogroll” which doesn’t have the link problem, but has the font problem.
Thanks again,
SCB
You do not need a text widget for your links and using one will result in a change in font.
You enter your links here => Dashboard => Blogroll => Add links and you assign each link to a Category (or more than one categories).
Then, once you place your Links widget in your sidebar the links you entered into your Blogroll will be displayed in the sidebar in alphabetical order in accord with the Categories assigned to them.
It would be easier to help you is you linked your blog’s url to your username. Go to the forum and on the top right hand corner you will see “Welcome, ! View your profile (Log out)”.
Click “View your profile” then once you have it click “edit this information” and type your complete url for your wordpress.com blog into “website” then click “Update Profile”. This will link your blog to your username.
WOO HOO! I just discovered why the change in font is happening. Go to => Presentation => Sidebar Widgets and look down at the available widgets box you will see two “Links” widgets. One comes with the theme and has the font we want and the other does not.
All I did was drag out the Links widget I had in the sidebar widgets box out and put it in the available widget box. Then I replaced it with the other Links widget and clicked “Save changes” and now I have the font we want.
Problem solved – I don’t have to send in a feedback.
WOW! Amazing how you figured that out…thanks very much. And I added my blog URL to my profile, for future use – THANKS!!!
You’re welcome.
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hey..i’ve tried addin the blogroll to my blog..but it hasnt worked so far…i’ve done everythin u mentioned here…i added 3 link in the blogroll along with their categories…and also added the link widget to my side bar..but the blogroll still doesnt appear on my blog…what should i do?
The Bloroll does not need to be added to your blog. It’s already there on every wordpress.com blog -> Dashboard -> Manage. The Links widget does have to be added to display the links you entered into the blogroll in the sidebar.
-> Presentation -> Widgets
Find the Links widgets and drag it out of the Available Widgets box.
Now drop it into the position you want in the Sidebar widgets box and click “Save Change”.
View your blog and the Blogroll links should appear in your sidebar.
All sidebar information is cached and it maybe delayed by a few moments. If you don’t see it immediately on your sidebar then clear your browser and “refresh” the page.
heyyy…its workin now..thanks a lot
i kinda forgot to save changes…after addin the links widget to my sidebar !!
Sometimes it’s the little things that we overlook that threaten to drive us crazy. I’m so glad to hear you solved the problem. Happy blogging!
Hi, I’ve got a problem with the order of links in my blogroll. Please see http://domain-vergleich.info/ somehow I can’t change the order, and as far as I see, they are not alphabetically ordered.
The order should be «.at Domain» then «.au Domain» then «.biz Domain» and so on …
Do you have an idea why my links are ordered after date?
The information in this blog is applicable only to wordpress.com blogs. Your blog is not a wordpress.com blog. I cannot help you. WordPress.org blogs and wordpress.com blogs operate on entirely different software. If you need support for a wordpress.org blog then you need to go to this forum http://wordpress.org/support And if you need information with regard to how your theme is designed to work you need to contact the designer http://www.ndesign-studio.com/
I’ve got a blogroll working on my blog (http://sdcitybeat.wordpress.com) but I can’t get any links in other categories to work. So, I add links, and Iput them under the category “news.” But those two links won’t show up. What do I do?
Never mind
Hi,
I’m trying to display the 2 categories of blogroll links I have in two different widgets/columns in WP2.2.
So far I tried with breaukie’s links, but it doesn’t seem to be doing the trick…
Do you think there’s a simple way I could do this?
Thanks,
Diego
@dkatzman
My blog is hoste by wordpress.com and the information I provide pertains to other blogs hosted by wordpress.
This wordpress.com blogging platform is a multi-use platform that runs on different software than what you have.
As you are self hosting a blog you need to go here and ask your question http://wordpress.org/support