If you have a large number of questions and answers, it's often useful to be able to put them into different categories. This can be achieved by enabling the "Taxonomy" module and checking the "Categorize questions" checkbox on the FAQ categories settings page (admin/settings/faq/categories).

To start using categories, it is necessary to enable the "Taxonomy" module at Administer >> Site Building >> Modules (D6) or Administration >> Modules (D7) . You will then need to set up a vocabulary and enable it for the FAQ node type at admin/content/taxonomy/add/vocabulary (D6) or admin/structure/taxonomy and add a term reference field on the FAQ content type referencing this vocabulary (D7) . Once you have your vocabulary created, you will need to add your terms/categories to it. Finally, when creating or editing your FAQ nodes, you will need to place each node in one or more categories. Use of sub-categories is only recommended for very large lists of questions.

The category name will be displayed above its associated questions and any description you add for a category will be displayed underneath the category name on the 'faq' page. In addition to the 'faq' page, you will now also have one page for each of the categories configured in the FAQ vocabulary. These will have a path like 'faq/tid' where 'tid' is the id of your term/category, e.g. 'faq/123'.

Category layout

This controls how the categories are displayed on the page and what happens when someone clicks on the category. There are three layouts to choose from.

  • Categories inline - Each category name and description is printed with its questions printed directly underneath. Clicking on the category name will take the user to the individual category page, i.e. 'faq/tid'.
  • Clicking on category opens/hides questions and answers under category - A list of all the categories, and their descriptions, which have FAQ nodes associated with them are displayed. Clicking on any of the categories will cause its questions to be displayed underneath. When the category name is clicked on again, the questions are once again hidden.
  • Clicking on category opens the questions/answers in a new page - A list of all the categories, and their descriptions, which have FAQ nodes associated with them are displayed. Clicking on any of the categories opens up a new faq page for just that category, i.e. 'faq/tid'.

Miscellaneous layout settings

  • Categories listing style - This allows to select how the categories listing is presented, wherever it applies. An ordered listing would number the categories, whereas an unordered list will have a bullet to the left of each category.
  • Show FAQ count - This displays the number of questions in a category after the category name.
  • Display category name for answers - This allows the user to toggle the visibility of the category name above each answer section for the 'Clicking on question takes user to answer further down the page' question/answer display.
  • Group questions and answers for 'Categories inline' - This controls how categories are implemented with the 'Clicking on question takes user to answer further down the page' question/answer display.
  • Only show sub-categories when parent category is selected - This allows the user more control over how and when sub-categories are displayed. It does not affect the 'Categories inline' display.
  • Show sub-categories on FAQ category pages - Sub-categories with 'faq' nodes will be displayed on the per category FAQ page. This will also happen if 'Only show sub-categories when parent category is selected' is set.

Advanced Settings

  • Omit vocabulary - Terms, and their faqs, from these vocabularies will be excluded from the FAQ pages.
  • Enable FAQ taxonomy links - Node links to taxonomy terms will be re-written to point at the FAQ pages instead.

Note, if you wish to re-order the faq categories themselves, then you will need to adjust the weight of the taxonomy terms under Content Management > Taxonomy > [vocab name]