Fix for Blogger Lack of Categories

In the short time I have been blogging, I have learned much. The biggest lesson so far: check out blog editor features before you commit. I went with Blogger, mainly because of its apparent ease of use -- in hindsight, perhaps not the best choice since this tool does not provide the ability to sort entries by category. Had I known this, I might have chosen another tool, such as Wordpress. By the time I realized the limitation, however, switching was not an option as I had created several entries and didn't need the headache of starting over.

Maybe there's a workaround, I thought. Once again, the Internet to the rescue. A quick query made it obvious that others have struggled with this issue. The many fixes proposed include:

• create multiple blogs and rely on heavy linkages among them


• rely on the tagging feature of tools like Technorati or Del.icio.us


• embed a piece of custom code in your blog template to do the job

I chose the third option, an elegant solution proposed in Daniel Chong Jyh Tar's .Net Compact Framework Tutorials blog, which abounds with helpful advice. He, too, uses Blogger and was bothered by the lack of categories. His fix, based on the Blogger search feature, is quick and easy to implement and clearly explained. Code jockeys can bypass the instructions and go straight to his free Javascript code generator. The result of this hack is evident in the list of categories to the right. Thanks Dan!