Guidelines for the use of Categories

What are Categories?

Categories are flags that are added to each post by the Author, to ensure that the post is displayed in the correct part of the website – without the need to “code” the layout each time. For example a post can be assigned a group category to ensure that it appears in the appropriate Group area on the front page of the website and also on the page for that group.

Also categories can be useful to group posts for insertion in newsletters.

It is possible to apply Tags to posts to facilitate searching for them in the WordPress Dashboard. Contact the webmaster for more information about this.

Historic Posts that no longer have any relevance on the website do not need a category. However most areas of the website normally display the latest posts so the older posts are gradually replaced and no longer visible.

Note that posts can automatically be removed from the front page of the web site at a date and time when they are no longer relevant using the Post Expirator to change the category to Archived.

List of Categories as of January 2018

[table id=14 /]

How to use categories

Each post can be assigned more than one category, but in general it is not useful to apply more than two categories as this will just repeat the post multiple times on the front page.

Note that the hierarchies within the list of categories have been removed, except for Groups and Associate Groups. It is not necessary to select the Groups category as well as the underlying Group.

The suggested guidelines for the use of specific categories are as follows:

News. This is the most commonly used category an is used for events that have happened recently or will happen in the near future. The most recent 10 News posts are displayed prominently on the front page.

Group Page should only be applied (by the Groups Coordinator) to the posts in the list of Groups accessed from the Groups Menu item.

Groups. As noted above it is not necessary to apply this category to any post, it just creates the hierarchy in the list. If a post relates to a group the particular group should be selected. In contrast, Associate_group should be used for all posts relating to associate groups.

U3A should be used for all posts relating to U3A admin and operation. This includes Agenda, AGM, Renewals, Meetings and Social Events but NOT Minutes. Minutes should be used for the minutes of the General Meetings which will also be held in an archive. Posts with the categories of U3A, Minutes or Spotlight will be displayed in the U3A area on the front page of the website. Spotlight is used to “pin” a post in to the U3A area so that it is not superseded by subsequent posts.

Slider is currently undefined. The slider is displayed prominently on the front page but may be removed.

Local Events can be used to post information from the Ayuntamiento for example about events scheduled in our area.

Cultural Arts is used by the Cultural Arts coordinator to post information about Cultural Arts events in our area.

Most of the other categories are used by the webmaster for other areas of the website.