Labels

To put it simply, this feature rocks.

Here's a dynamic search for all posts about Beta Problems (label "beta problems"), in this blog. Why dynamic? Because it's evaluated each time that you click on the link (possibly within limits of your cache).

And instead of an ugly search hit list, where you get snippets of useful information, that you have to hunt for (ever try finding an article title, or the URL, in a typical search hit entry?), you get a customised main page view of your blog, with all of your customised amenities and layout, showing only the posts relevant to the label selected. Very user friendly.

And look at the end of this post. See the labels listed? Click on any one. Yep - another dynamic search - on that label. Keyword cross referencing.

To add them, just type any keywords, as desired, into the box at the bottom of the post edit window. They aren't case sensitive, so just lower case, comma delimited, as many as relevant for any post. And as you type, you'll get a popup menu of already entered labels, so you can pick ones already in use when possible. No misspelled labels. When you feel the need to change any, just add, change, or delete words, in the list, in each relevant post.

There's even a selection to the right of the Labels box, called "Show all". That opens a cloud display, showing all labels defined, for all of the posts in that blog. Just click on each relevant label, and it gets added to the list for that post. What could be easier?

Start using labels early, while your blog is young. It's easy to type in 2 or 3 keywords, into the labels field, whenever you add or update a post. When you have a couple dozen posts, and have to add the labels then, it won't be quite so much fun. I speak from experience here.

When you have labels defined for your posts, you have numerous options for referencing them.

• Already there for you - the labels menu at the end of each post.
• In the sidebar, or at the bottom, you can add a Page Element, listing the labels in your blog. You can, of course, rename the list - mine are called "Topics aka MultiStyle Labels". Or you can forget about the plain one style label list, and go straight to MultiStyle Labels.
• You can have a feed for each label.
• You can even have a link, in the post. Look here for other posts about How Do I Use Various Beta Features, as an example.

Now, for the next step in the evolution of The Real Blogger Status - Beta, check out MultiStyle Label Lists, courtesy of HackOSphere and CumulusBlogs.