The MSN Spaces Beta launched with a simple built-in category picker for filtering blog posts. When added to a space this module stays up-to-date with all the blog categories currently in use, providing readers with a way to drill down on a topic with one click from your home tab.

But here's where the critic in me wants to jump in and clutter up a simple and elegant design (the PMs on the team are starting to cringe about this point in this post)... There are some things that the category list doesn't do/allow that I think would be incredibly useful. They are:

• Have a customizable module title.
• Allow me to add comments for each category
• The ability to hide old topics that I'm no longer keeping current
• A link to get back to an "all categories" view.
• Control the order of the listed categories
• And finally, once I click on the category I'm interested in, I'd like an expand view of just those posts (nice and wide, like what I get when I select the "Blog" tab)

Well, if you agree with me that these would be (really * N) nice to have then, until we build it for you, you'll have to build it yourself. Have a look at the "Blog Category Picker" I created on my space. Note that if you're not on my home tab (say you just followed a permalink/trackback) click the home tab now. You'll find it in the leftmost column (my take some scrolling). Go ahead and click on "MSN Spaces" and you'll see this post become/return to full width... Now read on.

Lists in the Spaces Beta are generic structures. The book/custom/blog lists don't really have to contain that type of information at all. You've probably already figured that out by now. But how do you turn something like a blog lists into a category filter for you own blog roll

Follow these steps to roll you own:

1. From the lists tab of your own space, create a new blog list
2. Rename the list to something clever like "Extended Category List" (...and that's why developers are not allowed to name things around here)
3. Add a new list entry
4. In the first field put one of your category names
5. Skip to the last field (rightmost) and add comments that would best describe this category for your readers
6. In the middle field (normally reserved for URLs) enter the following address and replace the [X] sections with the values indicated inside the brackets

spaces.msn.com/members/[your space alias]/?partqs=cat%3d[your category name]&blogpart=blogmgmt&_c=blogpart

If your category name has any spaces in it you'll have to replace them with "%2b". Why? Internet address can't have spaces and the %2b is just a code used to represent a space to our system.

Use my address for this category as an example: spaces.msn.com/members/myworld/?partqs=cat%3dMSN%2bSpaces&blogpart=blogmgmt&_c=blogpart

7. Repeat steps 3-6 for each category you wish to expose in your list
8. (Optional) To add a "Show All" link perform step 3. Then, for step 4 enter something witty like "Show All" instead of a category name. Skip step 5 and for step 6 use the following address format:

spaces.msn.com/members/[your space alias]/?blogpart=blogmgmt&_c=blogpart

E.g. spaces.msn.com/members/myworld/?blogpart=blogmgmt&_c=blogpart

9. (Optional) To order the items in you lists see my post on how to do this (you may want to come back to this step after you test out all your links)

Now all this cool functionality doesn't come without a price. The drawbacks to doing this yourself are: First, you have to keep your list updated manually. This may not be that big of a deal to the average blogger who has a category set that remains fairly static; and it's really the level of control you need anyways so that you can hide dead categories. Second, you'll have to work directly with these "funky" address (I'll have some more on that in another post). Finally, since you're technically using query string arguments that we have not formalized, you can't count on them to remain immutable as we release updates to the site... I can keep you guys updated on any changes that will break the steps listed above but that means you'll need to read my blog on a regular basis (-:

Cheers, and I hope this helps to improve your space.