Help:How to use Categories to help users find entries

From SN Guides

Introduction

Adding Category links to your Guide helps users locate Directory entries. If you don’t add Category links, the only way of locating your Directory entry is via the Search tool.

Users clicking on Categories on the left hand toolbar, are taken to the top level of the Category hierarchy and can drill down to find what they are looking for - providing you have put the links to enable this in place during construction of the Guide.

For example, you may have created a Directory entry containing information about an historic P&O passenger liner from the 1900s. This could be added to the following Categories:

• P and O
• Passenger Liners
• 1900s

How to do it

Follow these simple steps:

1. Check out the Categories you want to link your Guide to and note down the exact names.
2. Open your Directory entry for Editing
3. Go to the bottom of the text input window
4. At the foot of the Directory entry, add one item for each of the Categories to which you want to connect your Guide in the format shown in the Examples section below
5. Click on the Show Preview button below the Edit window and confirm that the Category appears at the foot of the page and is shown in White.
6. Save the entry by clicking the Save Page button

Examples

[[Category:Rustbuckets]]

Usage Notes

• You must use square brackets and the “:” character exactly as shown
• Don’t leave a gap between the “:” character and the first letter of the Category name
• It doesn’t matter if you put multiple Category links on separate lines or one line – the system will space them out for you.
• There is no limit to the number of Categories you can use - but common sense is needed

Gotchas

1. "Whatever I do, the Category is showing up in green"
   • The most likely cause is a typing error – especially if the Category you are trying to link to contains dashes or spaces. Try displaying the Category on the screen and selecting it’s title, copying it to the clipboard using <CTRL-C> and pasting it into your entry using <CTRL-V>
2. "I can’t find a suitable Category for my entry"
   • If you can’t find a suitable Category or think there should be additional ones, send a PM to one of the SN Moderators for advice. It is possible that there may be something suitable already, or an existing category has not been created correctly. If necessary the Moderators will create a new Category for you.