A del.icio.us way to make a previous post list

I feel as though I've just cracked the DaVinci code!! I am geek.a.licio.us!!! (Watch, I'll write this post on how to accomplish this wonderful tweaking/hacking discovery only to find out someone else has.) But anyway, here goes.

Have you ever wanted a previous post list that wasn't the standard 'come with the blog' one? I have found a method that uses del.icio.us, Firefox and Greasemonkey. (But, if you use IE, it can still be done but not as seamlessly.) The end product produces a post containing all of your posts links and a small link in your sidebar to that post. (Look in my left sidebar under "Finding Your Way Around". Click on 'complete list of all posts'.)

First open your del.icio.us account and got to "Help/link rolls". In the show items box, make that a large enough number to include all your posts and many to come. This can always be changed at a later date if need be. For our purpose here, it will be 500. I left the title box, show tags, show extended boxes empty. This was just a matter of choice. Same way with bullets...I choose none. Sort is your preference also, but I picked alphabetically. The last box I left empty also. Copy the code in the box.


Second get Greasemonkey if you don't have it. Get this script, Blogger del.icio.us publishing and post categorizing helper, and install.

Third open your template and paste the code you copied from del.icio.us at the bottom of the page somewhere before </html>. It doesn't make any difference because you are going to alter the code a bit to make it invisible. Change the number in 'count=500' to 'count=0'.

Fourth create a new post. Pre-date it to before your first post. You will see 'Post and Comment Options' in the lower left corner of the post box. This is where you can change the date. In this post, paste the code you copied from del.icio.us. This time leave the 'count=500' as is. Publish the post. You will end up getting an error message about html blah blah. I pretty much ignored that and clicked the 'Status' tab and clicked the 'Link at del.icio.us' link. (That is the part the Greasemonkey script created.) It will take you to the del.icio.us site. Save it. And remember this part for future posts (and to back track and re-publish old posts) because clicking that link tells del.icio.us about your new post.

Fifth go back to blogger and republish.

If you look at that post, I went via the archives at this point, you should see a current list of all posts!!! Your sixth and final step is to open the permalink post link and copy the URL. I put this code in my sidebar where I wanted it:

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Finding your way around</h2>
Here is a
<ul><a title="Click to see the list" target="_blank" href="your permalink post link.html">complete list of all posts</a></ul>

Of course, you can edit it ever how you like. That creates a handy link to that post and your complete list of previous posts!!!

If there ever comes a time you want to delete a post, you have to go to the del.icio.us site and delete it from 'your bookmarks'.

That is my new way of showing a list of all posts. What do you think?

UPDATE: 9/15/06 With Beta, you are not able to use the Greasemonkey script. But, I still use my 'Previous Post' list by simply going to the del.icio.us site and tagging my post. Still works!