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Add a ‘Recent Posts’ list to any iWeb 09 page.

As you can see in the side bar to this blog (and in the footer too) I display a list of my most recent posts so that frequent visitors to this site can view in an instant what posts have been added since the last time they visited the site without having to scroll down the whole page. And now in iWeb 09 we can recreate this effect on any page we want.So for example, if you didn’t have your blog start page as your main home-page in your iWeb site but you still wanted visitors to see what information they are missing on your blog, you could display this little list to whet their appetite. It’s also an extra method of navigation if you add it to your post’s sidebar.

SO HOW DO WE DO IT?

If you have iWeb 09 you will know that there is now a selection of ‘widgets’ to choose from and it is one of these we will be using for this tutorial.

So open iWeb and pick the first page you want to add the ‘recent posts’ listing to.

Open the ‘media bar’ and select the RSS widget. Drag it across to your page and put it where you need the post list to appear.

add_rss_widget_iweb_09

In the RSS Feed input box enter your RSS feed details and edit the article length to minimum; then adjust the number of articles you want to display in your list.

edit_rss_settings_iweb_09

For the list in my example, I set the Number of Entries to 5, left the Layout as it was and reduced the Article Length to minimum so that only the titles show. You can also choose to display the date or not; for a blog I left it showing.

iweb_09_edited_rss_widget

And here is what the semi-complete post list looks. We now need to add a bit here and there to make it look part of the iWeb site.

add_header_to_rss_widget_iweb_09

So I added a header for the posts making sure I used the same font as the rest of the site. As this tutorial is using an inbuilt iWeb 09 widget the formating of the list is taken from the theme of the site so you won’t have to worry about that.

To get rid of the RSS feed name at the bottom of the widget I inserted a white rectangle shape to cover it up.

cover_feed_name_iweb_09_rss_widget

And that what’s the finished Recent Comments list looks like. You can see it inserted on the right of the page below.

add_recent_posts_to_iweb_page

I didn’t think I would ever find a useful use for an iWeb 09 widget so I am pleasantly surprised with this little trick. I shall have to keep looking though now, I might find something else.

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27 Comments

  1. Hey there!
    I tried this feature last week when I first got ’09. It didn’t work when I gave the subscription URL as http://klafournaise.blogspot.com – I notice in your screen shot that you use Feedburner? Do you think I should use a feedburner too?

    1. Hi Kerilyn,
      Personally, yes I think you should use Feedburner for your RSS. Why? It allows you to add your RSS button to any page on your site; not just your blog, you can get stats on your feeds and you can even get Google Adsense on them too.

      Hope that helps,
      Tim

  2. Thanks for the tips. I’m a new MBPro user and to all the associated software (I use Adobe products to build sites for others). I added the feed to my Welcome page, but even though I have 7 blog entries and told the feed widget to post 8, it is only feeding 4. Any ideas why? The entries are all 2009. Is the cause with my iWeb template, or with the feedburner (used the same one you use)? Any thoughts? Thanks!

    1. Jan,

      I had the same problem as you. I think the issue is with Feedburner, but I am investigating. I asked for 10 and it showed 5 when I tried the first time.

      Tim

  3. Also wanted to ask how you got “Categories”? Is it a limitation of the template I selected? Or have I just not found the “Category” feature?

  4. I can see why the RSS feed only feeds my 4 most recent blog entries. It is because iWeb only allows that in its own iWeb RSS Subscribe xml. This is not a good thing. I’ve looked for a feature to tell the RSS Subcribe to feed more, but haven’t found it. I reported it as a Bug in the iWeb Bug form.

    If I move my iWeb site off MobileMe to my hosting service, I could change the number. I haven’t figured how to do that when publishing to MobileMe. Looks like I may be leaving MobileMe due to all the constraints…which don’t seem to be outweighed by the virtues.

  5. Ok, the number selected in the blog properties pop-up for number of entries to show up on the blog page also controls the number of entries iWeb will RSS feed.

    If you want to feed all of your entries, you have to have them all on your primary blog page. Seems to me there should be a second option to control the RSS Subscribe feed.

  6. Seems like this website should be displaying an iWeb and not a WordPress site.

    1. Jan,

      Thanks for your comments. I understand what you are saying but, as I explained in my About Me page I wanted to get this site up and running sooner rather than later and new more about WordPress and CSS than iWeb. I do have an iWeb site, however it is still on my Mac and not yet live. I am planning on launching it during the last week of March/first week of April and it will used for my custom iWeb themes. That is my real passion at the moment (I spend hours on it, ask my wife) and I think there are nowhere near enough themes ‘out there’. I feel that holds iWeb back (amongst other things) and feel passionately about the fact that too many iWeb sites look the same as they use the same themes. That is not the users fault of course, iWeb is designed to make publishing a web site easy and it does that very well, I just wish there was more individuality in the sites.

      That is one of the reasons I launched my competition to win an iPod shuffle. I wanted users who had made the effort to create something a little differently get their site noticed; by creating lots of iWeb themes I hope to help ease the problem. Okay I know there are a few sites on the net where users can buy new themes but there could be so many more.

      Tim

      Tim

  7. Hi i put up my Recent post and it worked but Im having a problem with scrolling over it with my mouse. What i mean is, as i scroll any part of my page its fine once i scroll over the “recent post RSS” the scrolling slows down. so what i did i moved it to the back and it made the scrolling normal but it took away the actualy purpose which was to click the recent posts…so what do i do? my website is dar2review.com please feel free to give me any suggestions

  8. Hi Tim — Naturally, I didn’t read your ‘About’ page…sort of like forgetting about reading the rules until you’ve done the very thing the rules would have told you not to do.

    I’ll be watching for your iWeb site. I agree, themes are limited. If iWeb could just add an HTML & CSS view for developers, and/or a “Developers” theme — that is a plain white theme no one else but a developer would appreciate, and in that particular theme, have accessibility to code views — then I think a following for iWeb would gain tremendous momentum.

    Because — for someone like me who develops webs for others, I want something really simple for myself where I can toss the photos in, type, throw in a video, and have the software do it all for me! So I love the simplicity of iWeb. Just have been frustrated that I can’t easily get to the brown tile in the background to change it, or add anchors so I can link to specific places, stuff like that. I don’t have time for the involved work-arounds to get anchors to work that I have seen suggested. So I am living with iWeb as it is, and hoping future upgrades will be worth the cost and facilitate more versatility (the 09 upgrade has done almost nothing for my needs).

    I really appreciate your efforts! I will be putting this URL in my blogrolls. — Jan

  9. Can something similar be done in iweb08?

    1. Hi Justan,

      You could take a look at http://www.rssfeedconverter.com/ and add the code it gives you as an HTML snippet.

      Let us know if it works.

      Tim

  10. I wish it would open in the same frame and not in a new window. Can’t figure out how to do that if it’s even possible.

  11. Is there any way to add categories to iWeb blogs. Also , the tag cloud link you posted doesnt work anymore. Keep up the good work and hope to see your iWebsite soon.

    1. There is a long winded manual way of doing the categories with iWeb, but no easy way. With regards Zoom Clouds, I don’t know what’s happened there, I shall investigate.

  12. Hi There,
    I used this tutorial on my site and it works brilliantly expect for one little thing which I believe one other user also mentioned. Do you know if it’s possible to have the links open within the same window rather than a new one?
    Cheers.

    1. Lisa,

      To open posts in a new window, check out the ‘Questions of the Week 2’ post.

      Tim

  13. Hey, Tim,

    I’m having an issue with my RSS feed widget. I’ve linked it to the RSS feed on my “Recipes” blog, with the option to just load photos, a little square of four posts. I have 5 posts listed right now (it’s a new site), but only 3 are showing. When I open the RSS feed in Safari, all five show there. When I look at other RSS feeds online and put in my RSS link, all five show, but not in the iWeb widget… I tried unmasking the images, but it didn’t seem to do any good.

    Any suggestions?

    Frankie

  14. Oh and the RSS feed widget won’t publish the changes I made to the text at the bottom. In iWeb it’s white, but on the site it’s gray for some reason.

    1. Frankie,

      I have noticing loads and loads of post appearing on the Apple iWeb forums saying just the same thing as you. It seems there is a problem with the RSS widget in iWeb and apparently Apple are looking into it.

      I hope that helps, keep checking for updates,

      Tim

  15. Hi,

    I tried this, but I keep getting “The RSS feed source can’t be reached. Try again later”

    for the URL I just copied the URL of my blog. Am I doing anything wrong? Thanks for the help!

    Total iWeb Newbie

  16. Hello, All about iWeb!

    I’m trying to make this feed on my page, but I can’t find the URL from my page. Where can I find that code?

    Thanks!

    1. have you tried clicking on the RSS icon in your iWeb blog?

      Tim

  17. My RSS feed will not update when loading up the page. It brings up the last 3/4 posts, but not the most recent post. Any ideas? Thanks.

  18. Hi Tim,
    Thx for the recent post info. How can I add popular post or related post feature? I can’t find anything on the web. Hopefully u can help.

  19. Hello,

    Thanks for the great info. I was searching around the site for how to also post the “Recent Comments” feed.

    Thank you,
    Marisol

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