I want something to “make” me choose a category before posting

You can try setting default_category to nothing. Go to https://yoursite/wordpressdir/wp-admin/options.php and look for that option. Delete whatever it is set to and save the options.

Tried that, thanks for the idea. Didn’t work – operated exactly as before, with the “General” category as default.

Also tried removing the relevant stuff from the section just below. All I got was “Customizing WP” for default instead of “General”. Tried all permutations of editing the two sections….

I just spent about 4 hours digging through the Codex, and through a couple of hundred pages of google results, to no avail. I also went back and tried the “mess with it” mark suggested again. Still nothing.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Tape a post-it note to the monitor? Actually, I feel your pain. I have to edit at least 3/4 of my entries to correct the category selection.

*laughing hysterically* Jenn, I had JUST DONE THAT VERY THING! That’s just TOOOOO funny!

But it’s a bit silly, isn’t it?

Great minds ??

With some javascript that I’m to lazy to figure out. It basically checks, when the Publish button is clicked on, is the category still on default, if so ::sirene::.

Hm. I didn’t run across any js mentioned in the searches etc. I did earlier. Maybe I didn’t phrase correctly?

[The trick, boys and girls, is not to remember to “search” – it’s knowing WHAT QUESTION TO ASK!]

I believe no body has done it or asked this question before.

Oh. Eww. Bummer then, because I am no coder! I can tweak stuff that’s already “there”, but that’s it. *sigh*

@ mark, you cannot have set category to “nothing”. Every post has to have a category, otherwise it won’t work. That’s why there is always one (the default) selected. Posts (as opposed to Pages) cannot exists without being associated with a category.

But moshu, I don’t want there “not” to be a category at all, I just want something to poke at me to make sure I choose the appropriate category BEFORE I hit “Publish”.

I know you want that, that’s why I addressed my reply to mark ??
I even agree with you… and now for a moment I was thinking maybe to include on the Write admin page some bold red 50px text for myself next to the Publish button, like
YO MORON, CHOOSE THE RIGHT CATEGORY! ??

Okay – that would be even better than the post-it note! Let me know where you put that okay? I really need that…. I think and write too fast….

Here is what I did.
Open the wp-admin/edit-form-advanced.php file. (Note: I use the advanced interface!). Around line 114 find this:
<p class="submit"><?php echo $saveasdraft; ?>... etc
and right above insert something like
<p class="warning">IS IT IN THE RIGHT CATEGORY???</p>
Then in the same folder (wp-admin) open the wp-admin.css file and add this to the end of it:
.warning {
text-align: right;
font: normal bold 25px;
color: #ff0000;
}

Here is the result