How to: Create a seperate archives page for your blog
My site - http://apparentlynothing.my-expressions.com has a link to an archives page http://apparentlynothing.com/archives.html
Step 1: First we'll create the template for the archives page. So, go to "Templates" and "Add". Click on "Create a Template". Name the template Archives and set the background image and colour to whatever you want. Select whatever layout you want, but I would recommend Layout 1 as simple is always better on archive pages. NOTE: You can have components on this page as well if you wish, but these will have to be seperate from your main blog page. For instance selecting the "Recently Added" component will not show the recently added from your main blog page. Lastly, select "Edit template in Advanced Mode"
Step 2: Now we are going to edit the template and add in our archive links. In the HTML locate this code:
< tmpl_var name=comp_content>
You'll replace this with your archive links and/or titles.
For instance, on my archives page (http://www.apparentlynothing.com/archives.html) my first title is "Archives by Category" followed by links to those archives.
You will be individually entering the categories for your archives. NOTE: When you add in a gallery/category or when a new month comes along, you will need to go into your template for your archives and add these in yourself.
You will need to grab the individual gallery link URLs. To do this look under your images where you have "Galleries:" listed. Right click on each gallery (for instance: Black & White or Colour) and copy/save the link to your clipboard. Now, in your template paste this as the URL for that gallery link. For instance:
< a href="http://my-expressions.com/expressions/page.cgi?id=133_1839388013&type=category&tid=563">Color< /a>
Do this for all your categories/galleries that you wish to have on your Archives page. be sure to save your changes!
Step 3: With your account you get 3 blog pages. You will need to use one of these blog pages as your new archives page. So, add a new blog page: Go to "Pages" and then "Add". Name your page archives.html and then the Blog name "Archives" or "YourBlogName > Archives" (such as Apparently Nothing > Archives). Select the template you just created in step 1 named Archives and make sure "Page is Private" is selected. Click on "Next". You can just click on "Next" on the following page and then "Finish". Don't worry about making any selections on those two pages.
Step 4: The last step - we need to add a link on your main blog page to your new Archives page! Now, click on the template name under your main blog page, or go to "Templates" and click on "Edit" next to the template that is being used on your main blog page. Whereever you want a link to your archives to appear place this code:
< a target="_top" href="http:youraccount.my-expressions.com/archives.html">Archives< /a>
Of course you can name the link whatever you want - this is just an example. NOTE: In the URL change the "youraccount" to your account name. Also, if you have named your archives page something other than archives.html, be sure to put that in place of archives.html.
And, you're done!