Tags and Categories
January 3, 2010
According to TypePad:
“Categories are tags that can help you organize your blog posts for easier
reference. We’ve provided a default set of categories to get you
started; you can also create your own custom categories.”
That’s not the conventional way to organize things. Note that TypePad provides for keywords and Technorati Tags, so there is a way to use TypePad in more conventional wat.
More generally:
Categories are more like folders, while tags are more like topics or keywords. The conventional way to index posts is to assign them to one or a few categories, and use as many tags as needed to index the content. The main idea is that you can use as many tags as makes sense for a particular post.
Another comparison is with Gmail labels. Their “system” labels — Inbox, Starred, Sent, Trash, etc. — function somewhat like folders, while user labels are nothing but tags.
Linking to Category pages (TypePad help):
Links to category pages can be added to the Post Footer or as a
sidebar list. At Design > Organize Content, the Category list or
Cloud module can be added to the sidebar content. The categories
assigned to the post can be added to the Post Footer by clicking the 
icon and selecting Category.
