Steven Zahm@ Erika
RE: Right now entries are ordered by date of entry.
Actually they are ordered alphabetically by default unless changed by the order_by shortcode option.
RE: is there a way to either change their date of entry, or specify a grouping of entries i want to show first? I want those entries who are Certified to show first.
Example 2 on the order_by shortcode option doc page shows how you can order specific entries in a specific order.
But, I do not think that will yield the results you are looking for. I think you will need the Custom Entry Order extension
With this you could set the order of the entries you wish to have list top and in a specific order.
To set an entry to display at the top, you would set the entry order to 1. To have an entry show second, after the entry assigned to 1 you would assign that entry the order of 2. If there is no entry assigned as 1, then the entry assigned 2 would actually be first.
That said, I would recommend setting order by 10’s or even 100’s. This will allow you the opportunity to insert entries in between others. For example having entries assigned orders of 100, 200 and 300 would display those entries in that order at the top. So you could insert an entry in between 100 and 200 by assigning the order as 150.
Entries assigned the same order would be grouped together, sorted alphabetically.
When filtering by category, the entry order would still be applied.
Hoe this helps, let me know.