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This page is designed to help you understand how to create and share your own custom Topic Lists.
At its core, a Topic List is nothing more than a simple text file that contains a list of keywords, each placed on a separated line:
Notepad (which is a simple text editor found on most Windows computers) is a great tool for creating Topic Lists, but any text editor that creates 'clean' text files (without hidden special characters) will do.
When the text file is saved (as a .txt file) and then loaded into FORCE (which we'll discuss in a moment), the keywords become an interactive list of items, which when particular item is clicked, initiates a search using the selected keyword(s):
NOTES:
- A Topic List can contain as many items as you wish (within reason, of course).
- For various reasons, certain characters cannot be used in your Topic List. These include: quotes (""), apostrophes ('), and greater than or less than symbols (> or <). If you include any of these symbols, they will be removed when loaded into FORCE.
A Topic List, once you've created it, is saved as a .txt file to a location you choose on your hard drive - just like any other file you may create.
You load a Topic List file into FORCE using the Load File option on the Topic List section of FORCE's interface
Once loaded, you can begin using its contents immediately.
In addition to saving a Topic List to your hard drive, you can also upload it to a Web server, so that it can be accessed via a URL.
Doing so allows you to share it with others. All you do is provide them the URL to the uploaded .txt file.
Once they have the URL, they can load it into FORCE using the Load URL option on the Topic List section of FORCE's interface:
What's great about this feature is that any changes or updates you make to the list are automatically reflected the next time someone loads it.
A URL doesn't have to point to a literal .txt file, but can also point to a script (such as a PHP file) that returns text formatted as described above. This functionality allows you to create dynamically generated Topic Lists from various sources, including users, RSS feeds, Google Trends, and so on.
Get creative!
Why Share A Topic List?
Perhaps you're asking yourself why you would want to create and share a Topic List.
Well, here are a few reasons to consider:
- Teachers - Interactive lesson guides for your students
- Families - A vacation/wedding/everything planning tool
- Clubs - Help those in your social circles discover great content online
- Marketers - An interactive resource related to your product/service
- Companies - Market research for members in your organization
If you need ideas for keywords to add to your Topic List, here are a couple ideas.
Brainstorming
Yes, it seems obvious, perhaps, but if you simply sit down, clear yourself of distractions, and just start writing down keywords that come to your mind that are related to your topic, you'll likely create a fairly complete list without too much hassle. Remember to consider relevant/related:
- People
- Places
- Things
- Events
- How-to's
- Products
Keyword Tools
There are a number of tools online that help you discover popular keywords related to a topic. One of my favorites is Google's keyword tool. You may be familiar with it, but if not, you simply enter a search term/keyword, click the Get keyword ideas button, and Google will return a list of related keywords and keyphrases. Add any of the keywords you feel are relevant to your Topic List.
For a more automated process, you can scroll to the bottom of the page to download the entire keyword list as a text file - an instant Topic List!
A modifier is a 'tag' you add to a keyword in a topic list in order to tell FORCE to do something special when that item is clicked or interacted with.
For example, look at the following screenshot, which shows a Topic List containing 4 items, each 'tagged' with a modifier:
When loaded into FORCE, this list looks like this:
As you can see, attaching a modifier to a keyword in the list has caused a related icon to appear next to the keyword. The icon is used to indicate that when the item is click or interacted with, a predefined action will occur (all of which are described to the right of this page). Here's what will happen when items on the sample list are clicked:
- Google Images will open with results related to hawaii sunset
- Google Maps will open with results related to buckingham palace
- YouTube will open with results related to news bloopers
- Your browser will open a new tab and load www.searchautomator.com
You don't ever have to use modifiers in your Topic Lists, but they are a very useful tool when you want a specific action (usually a search) to occur.
When using modifiers, they should be written in lowercase, and are followed by a colon (:) then a keyword:
images:happy
The right of this page contains a complete list of modifiers, what they do, and code examples.
Have fun! |
