IMPORTANT: This article references blogs and blog articles. Depending on your product model, you might see news and news articles in your site. These are different names for the same feature and references to blogs in this article are also applicable to news.

NOTE: Only Super Admins can create and edit Blog Categories.

However, all users with permissions to create blogs can group their blog articles in any available categories, both during the creation process and when editing existing articles.

By default, ALL new blog articles display in the All Blogs List widget, which is typically used on a community's Blogs tab and on the All Blogs page. An example of each is shown below.

NOTE: These names are based on the default Higher Logic configuration; your organization may use custom names, like "News" or "Articles."

Community Blogs tab

All Blogs page

While you can apply a few sorting options on the All Blogs page to sort the list, blog articles are not categorized in any way, by default. That's where Blog Categories come in. 

Why use Blog Categories?

These categories allow your organization to filter a list of blogs (via the All Blogs List widget) to only show blog articles belonging to a specific category (you can only choose one category per widget). Why would you want to do this? Read the example below for a popular use-case.

EXAMPLE: You could add a "Blogs" menu option to your site's main navigation bar, and then create two (or more) unique pages under this menu, each containing the All Blogs List widget. Next, you could filter each widget to a specific category. This way, your users could browse only the blog articles they're interested in. In this example, our users can view articles pertaining to hiking or hot destinations.

Create a Blog Category

1. Navigate to the Blogs tab for a community OR the Browse > Blogs page.
2. Click the Settings button (highlighted below) above the blog list. (It doesn't matter which page you access the Settings button from; once created, Blog Categories are universally available.)
3. In the dialog, enter a name in the available field and click Add. Keep in mind you cannot have duplicate category names.
4. Repeat step 3 to add additional categories.
5. When finished, click Close to exit the dialog.

NOTE: At least one blog must be published on your site for the Settings button to display.

NOTE: When managing via the All Blogs page, the Settings menu is in a slightly different location.

Edit & delete Blog Categories

1. Navigate to the Blogs tab for a community OR the Browse > Blogs page.
2. Click the Settings button (highlighted below) above the blog list. (It doesn't matter which page you access the Settings button from; once created, Blog Categories are universally available.)
3. In the dialog, you'll see your existing categories listed.

1. Click Edit to update the name of a category. (You cannot have duplicate category names.)
2. Click Delete to remove one.

WARNING: There is no confirmation upon clicking Delete, and categories are immediately removed. Also note that any All Blogs List widgets using a deleted category will appear empty, so be sure to either update them (choose a new category or none at all) or remove the widget altogether.

4. When finished, click Close to exit the dialog.

Filter an All Blogs List widget

Once you've created at least one Blog Category, then what? At this point, you can then apply a category to any of your All Blogs List widgets to filter them. Let's learn how.

1. Navigate to a page containing the All Blogs List widget you want to filter (the typical use-case for this feature is a custom CMS page).
2. In the Admin Toolbar, click (or right click for a new tab) Edit Page.

3. Click to select the All Blogs List widget, and then click the Edit button (pencil and paper icon).
4. In the widget dialog, click the Blog Category menu and select one of your categories (you can only select one).

5. Click Save at the bottom of the widget dialog.
6. In Page Designer, click Publish to apply your changes.

Apply a category to a blog article

Once you've created at least one Blog Category, all users with permissions to create blog articles can begin applying them to their articles:

• during article creation
• and by editing an existing article at any time.

TIP: Admins can, of course, apply them to any articles, which is a great way to retroactively "group" blog articles for any widgets they want to filter.

When creating or editing an article, you'll notice a new Category menu, from which you can select one of the available categories (Blog Post is the default category).

NOTE: Blog articles tagged with a category are automatically added to any All Blogs List widgets across your site filtered to that category.

For example, if you have three widgets across your site filtered to the 2021 Annual Conference category, and three users each create an article set to that category, those articles will automatically display in those widgets.

Conversely, then, this means those articles will not display in widgets filtered to a different category.