Blog categories group blog posts, in the same way that categories group news. Staff use them to narrow the Blog page to a subject, such as wellbeing or leadership. Blog categories are hierarchical, so a category can have sub-categories. This page explains how to add and change blog categories and where they appear. To write the blog posts themselves, see Add or edit a blog post.
Who can manage blog categories
Usually only administrators can add, rename and delete blog categories. Contributors, authors and editors choose from the existing categories when they write a blog post, but cannot add new ones. Your intranet may have changed these roles.
Add a blog category
- In the left-hand menu, select Blog posts, then Blog categories. The Blog posts menu only exists when the Blog module is switched on under Options, then Modules.
- Type a Name, such as “Wellbeing”. Keep names short: each top-level category becomes a button on the Blog page.
- Leave Slug empty and the intranet makes one from the name. The slug is the version used in web addresses, such as /blog-category/wellbeing/, and in the [listposts] shortcode.
- Optional: choose a Parent Category to make this a sub-category, for example “Mental health” under “Wellbeing”.
- Optional: add a Description. It is for your own reference and is not shown to staff.
- Select Add new blog category.
The screen works like every other WordPress category screen. See Add terms to taxonomies for the general instructions.
Rename or delete a blog category
On the Blog categories screen, hover over a category and select Edit to change its name, slug, parent or description, or Delete to remove it. Deleting a category does not delete any blog posts. The posts simply lose that category, so tick a different one on each of them afterwards if you want them to stay findable. The Count column shows how many published blog posts use each category; drafts and scheduled posts are not counted. Select the number to list them.
Give a blog post a category
On the blog post edit screen, tick one or more categories in the Blog categories box in the right-hand column. A post with no category still appears on the Blog page under All, in the Blog posts widget and in search, but staff cannot filter to it by category.
Where blog categories appear
Filter buttons on the Blog page
The Blog page shows a row of buttons: All, then one button for each top-level blog category that has at least one published post. Selecting a button shows only posts in that category, including posts in its sub-categories. If the category has sub-categories, a second row of buttons appears so staff can narrow the list further; sub-categories do not get a button in the first row. The Blog page is the page chosen under Options, Modules, Blog page: see Blog listing template. A web address of the form /blog-category/wellbeing/ redirects to the Blog page filtered on that category.
Links on each blog post
The sidebar of a blog post lists the post’s categories under a Blog categories heading. Selecting one takes staff to the Blog page filtered on that category.
The Blog posts widget
The (Govintra) Blog posts widget has a Blog categories setting. Tick categories to limit the widget to them, for example a homepage widget that shows only wellbeing posts. When the widget is limited to a single category, its More blog posts link opens the Blog page filtered on that category.
The listposts shortcode
Editors can list the latest posts in one category anywhere in a page with the shortcode [listposts type="blog" cat="wellbeing" num="3"], using the category’s slug. The shortcode inserter on the editor toolbar fills this in for you.
Aggregator pages and search
A Blog listing block on a page that uses the Aggregator page template has a Blog category filter: tick one or more categories to limit the listing to them. On the search results page, each blog post result shows its blog categories under the title.
Targeted messages
An Ultravert that targets blog posts can be limited to posts in one chosen blog category, so the message appears only alongside those posts.