Tags in WordPress 2.3

WordPress 2.3 introduces a new feature to the popular blog platform: tagging. Sure, you’ve been able to do it with plugins like Ultimate Tag Warrior in the past, but WordPress’ built-in tag system is simple, unobtrusive, and easy to use.

In order to get tags to display on individual posts, we’ll use the_tags.

<?php the_tags('before', 'separator', 'after'); ?>

Here’s how I currently have things setup:

<?php the_tags( 'Tags: ', ', ', ''); ?>

This gives me something like this at the bottom of each post that has tags:

Tags: Tag 1, Tag 2, Tag 3

Another new tagging feature in WordPress 2.3 is the introduction of wp_tag_cloud. The tag cloud takes all of your tags and displays them based on how much you use them on your site. You can see a live example of it on my archives page. To get the tag cloud on your site, you’ll use the following syntax in one of your templates:

<?php wp_tag_cloud(??); ?>

Where might you display the tag cloud? Well, you could put it in your sidebar, but I am not sure how system-intensive generating it is… I’d recommend creating a stand-alone page for it, or limiting the use of it on key pages only.