There are several ways to make an “about” page in WordPress. One is to create a separate “about.php” page in your root folder, hollow it out, and put in the text you want as your content. Or, you can create a link (or Link Category) for your “About Me” page like I explain below, and just enter the correct URI (www.myblog.com/about.php), and assign it to your link category.

I wanted to be able to create a post called “About Me” so that if I wanted to edit it later, I could do so within WP, without having to change my index.php file, or create a separate “about.php” file. Here’s how to do that:

• First, download and install MooKitty’s Show Categories plugin. It’s a great plugin that’s very customizable and makes it very easy to show and hide categories and posts in your index.php file with a minimum of code. Follow the directions and put the proper code in your index.php file.

• Create a category and call it “About” (or whatever you want). Take note of the category number.

• Create your post called “About Me” (or whatever). Assign it to your category “About”. Publish it.

• View your home page, click on your new post and copy the permalink URI.

• Go to Links, and add a Link Category called “About”, then create a link called “Me”. Paste the permalink URI into the appropriate field, and assign it to the Link Category “About”. Now, you’ll have a Link Category and a link under it that people can click on. In my case, I have two about pages, one for DF&C, one for me personally, so this is why I’ve done this. If you want the “About” link category at the top of your links list, you’ll have to reorganize (and possibly delete) all of your previous link categories.

• In your index.php file, find the following code:

  <?php if ($hcp_posts) : foreach ($hcp_posts as $post) : start_wp(); ?>
  

This is the code that Kitty had you insert in your index.php file.

• Now, place the following code BEFORE her code (or, if you already did it when you installed her code, modify it to this):

  <?php hide_category_posts( 'category=x' ); ?>
  

Where “x” is the category number of your link category. This hides posts in your archive category “About” from showing up on your home page. If you are hiding the posts of more that one category from your index page, the code should look like this:

    <?php hide_category_posts( 'category=x,y,z' ); ?>

Now, you’ll want to hide the category itself, so that it doesn’t show up in your categories list.

• Find this code in your index.php file:

  <li id="categories"><?php _e('Categories:'); ?>
          <ul>
              <?php wp_list_cats(); ?>
          </ul>
      </li>
  

• And change it to this:

   <li id="categories"><?php _e('Categories:'); ?>
          <ul>
              <?php wp_list_cats('exclude=x'); ?>
          </ul>
      </li>
  

Where “x” is the category number. This hides the archive category “About” from your categories list.

If you haven’t done so already and want to alphabetize your category list, do this:

      <?php wp_list_cats('sort_column=name&exclude=x'); ?>

If you want to have the number of posts in each category shown after the name, do this:

      <?php wp_list_cats('optioncount=1&sort_column=name&exclude=x'); ?>

Now, you should be able to click on your “About Me” link in your links list, and it should come up as its own separate entry in your blog, and the archive category should be hidden. If you want to hide the options for comments or pings on your “About Me” page, just un-check the boxes at the top of the new post window in WP.