Erika

Those aren't 'newbie' questions! (At least, they're not newbie answers) ;)

(1) From the Back Office ... NO. (At least, not that I'm aware of). I don't know what "GTD" is, so I don't know (exactly) what you're trying to accomplish. However, to populate the category list in one shot, one method would be to create a text file & then use myPhpAdmin to upload it directly into the database. I'm sure that would work (the good news). The bad news is that I don't know what the textfile needs to look like (I've never done what I'm suggesting .. other than a complete restore operation) :(

One suggestion, get into myPhpAdmin & export (into Excel or a comma-delimited file) ... that might give you some insight. There's probably more info on the MySQL site too.

Maybe someone else does?

(2) Again, not within the general flow of the software. But, because b2evo is so readily customizable ... the answer is again YES!

You would have to modify the uploading php file & run queries against the database. Not sure how you would get the list of words in, but your suggestion of <tags> might work.

I'm sorry that I don't know the mechanics, but I wanted to let you know that your ideas are 'doable'.

EdB, Whoo & some other folks have WAY more programming experience than I do ... I bet they could help you more than me. : :)

you can create a sql file (txt file with ext sql) and populate the evo_categories mysql table using phpMyAdmin like stk suggested.

INSERT INTO `evo_categories` VALUES (54, 51, 'Film', 1, NULL, NULL, NULL);
INSERT INTO `evo_categories` VALUES (53, 51, 'Improv', 1, NULL, NULL, NULL);
INSERT INTO `evo_categories` VALUES (52, 51, 'Theatre', 1, NULL, NULL, NULL);
INSERT INTO `evo_categories` VALUES (51, NULL, 'Arts', 1, NULL, NULL, NULL);

category #, category above or NULL, 'title', blog # , NULL, NULL, NULL

last three NULL's have to do with short & long description and icons (I think these have been junked because they aren't available in the Back Office, but I could be dead wrong.)

As for a flicker like category addition, you can probably create a pop-up screen to add categories from the backoffice write section... the only issue would be refreshing the page without loosing any previously added info. (this would act exactly like the category page... I just use a seperate tab in firefox if I need to add categories during a post...)

hope this helps.

Thank you both! :D I'm pretty sure I can manage the SQL, but a popup screen?...let's just say I still have a LOT to learn. BTW, GTD stands for 'getting things done' - which refers to a book and a method of organization. Sorry to have been jargonesque unintentionally.

Thanks again and I'll keep plugging away.

popups ain't that tough (look up javascript popup in google)