Saturday, January 27, 2007

New Blogger Update #3: Labels in Blogger


Rousillon
coloured pencil on Canson Mi Teintes
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

With the switch to New Blogger I get to use the new labels function. Which is both a plus and a minus

A plus because.........
  • I can now categorise all my blog posts - so if you want to see everything related to cats (feline art) or all drawings in in (Pen and ink) or anything to do with exhibitions or visits to art galleries and museums (art galleries and museums) you can just click a label.
  • by including labels I seem to be generating extra traffic to the blog.
A minus because.........
  • when you start labelling you think of all sorts of labels/categories - and then see this enormous long list emerging - yikes!!!
  • and then when you start reorganising you find it's not possible to delete labels and that for some reason they start listing posts against the name of the label which don't exist.
  • BUT Blogger doesn't yet appear to have recognised this as a glitch and doesn't appear to be doing anything about it (see Blogger blog re status for new Blogger - and the page about labels)
  • the classic templates only recognise the last 20 posts for each label (an issue which has been recognised).
So basically DO take a look at my new labels (listed just above the archives at the bottom of the right hand column) and DO NOT pay any attention to the ones at the bottom of the list which have less than 2 or less posts against their name. (There are also a very few with more than 2 posts which are also now redudant).

Also - if you have switched to New Blogger (or are about to) and haven't got to grips with labels yet I have a few TIPS.
  • if you like lists you will love the labels function; if you hate lists you will hate it. If you;re one of the latter I suggest you just ignore it.
  • make sure you change from the classic template to one of the new ones if you want to use the function for all posts on your blog
  • your labels do not have to be called labels - mine are called 'categories'. Edit the heading in the page element section of the layout to make it whatever you want to call it.
  • you can change the way in which they are ordered - mine are ordered in terms of frequency, others might want to make it alphabetical
  • before you start to label make a list of the sorts of categories which are the main ones you want to use - that stops your list of labels becoming irritatingly long
  • start by labelling all new posts and then, if you want to make this function really useful for readers, gradually work you way back through all old posts and label those as well
  • use the posts page - accessed via dashboard - to speed things up.
    • tick the boxes of all those which need to be labelled with a particular category (eg feline art)
    • then create a new label and apply that to all those posts. That way you don't have to open each and every post to label it
  • if you have some labels you want to delete in future try to remember this and don't use them any more!!! So this post has a generic label of 'blogging' rather than a specific label of 'blogger' - but I had to check!
The drawing at the top of the post is one I did a while back and is of a small town in the Luberon valley in Provence which has ochre quarries - where I once got interviewed and filmed drawing by the BBC!

Links:

7 comments:

  1. Katherine - you just made my day! (and it's still morning, so it'll be a great day).
    I LOVE Roussillon!!! I spent some days there last summer and ache to go back. We used to sit on the little terrace cafe looking over the provance countryside, enjoying a café au lait and a pain au chocolat... I took some pictures I plan to turn into a painting... soon....
    The ocre quarries are great, I had great fun watching a cute little WHITE! dog running here and there... took probably one minute and the cutie was'n white anymore ;-)

    Amira

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  2. I am not an "early adopter" and have been waiting for others to boldly go into new blogger so I can follow after.

    I appreciate your details on your experience with switching!

    Thanks!

    -- Vicki in Michigan

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  3. Katherine, the terra cotta colored texture that shows through in this drawing is the toned paper itself? It looks almost as if some of that wonderful Rousillon ochre were ground and scattered across the surface of the piece. You have really caught the look and feel of that lovely village.

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  4. Go figure that I, a new blogger who started out with New Blogger, has no idea what to do with labels!
    I have been using them as the link categories at the foot of each post. Now I see the potential for organizing the labels, especially for isolating my own work among all of the other content.
    Your pleasing Provence drawing certainly illustrates the power of the drawing. Each line directs the eye; thanks for posting it.

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  5. Amira - you and me both. I love Rousillon - it's a perfect size and a perfect place if you're outside peak holiday season. I'll be interested to see what you do with your pics. I've got some left over still to do and I haven't been there in years - but I'm beginning to feel like maybe I need a dose of the south of France again sometime soon. Did you got to Gordes and see the olive stalls in the market place and the views? I've still got to do the fountain again from there..........

    Laura - yes, I've found that the mid and light values of the terracotta, apricotty shades to be perfect for doing places like Provence and Italy as you can skim over the surface and let the colour come through. It's very much what I'm used to doing in pastels - scumbling glazes over coloured supports.

    Vicki - I won't tell you how long it was before I got round to buying a CD player so you and me both. Trouble is with this blog it's now so big that when I got the invite I knew I needed to go sooner rather than later to avoid adding more blog posts and making an even bigger mess if it went wrong. They've still got teething troubles but they're most of the way there. The main problem at the moment seems to be with the servers I'd suggest picking a really quiet time to do the move and definitely don't move when internet traffic is peaking.

    Casey - glad to be of some help!

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  6. Tagging/labelling can be described with such a fantastic term - folksonomy! I find it a really useful tool for searching through data, and I think it will be a great way to view all the different things your blog discusses.

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  7. Lovely drawing, Katherine. The perspective in your sky works beautifully too. Makes me long for summer again!

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