The Settings Tab...

Most Blog providers will have a 'tab' or a 'screen' dedicated to adjusting the settings for your blog. This tab can be a little intimidating when you first look at it. With so many options, and often some words used in a context you haven't seen before, it would be easy to see why some people might give up.

When you first create a blog, most blog providers have the default settings already set up so that you will be the only person who can post, but the whole world can view and comment. It's possible that you want your students to be able to contribute as authors, but not have full control of the blog (like access to the settings), or perhaps you want only them to be able to read the blog, not the entire on-line community. These things are possible by adjusting the settings to your blog.

In Blogger, most of the options have a fairly good description of what they do right beside them, so be patient and read it over. I'll go over some of the settings here.

I have found that the most important setting to adjust is the "Comment Moderation" option. For me, I just want to take a quick look at what someone has to contribute before it 'goes worldwide'. The pictures below will show you where to make this change.

Navigate to the Settings tab, and locate the 'comments' link below.



Scroll until you find the 'comment moderation' option.



When you enter your e-mail address, Blogger will send you a notification each time someone leaves a comment. In this situation I would have to log in (there is a link provided in the email), and approve or reject the comment before it appeared on the blog.

Another option you may want to change in the settings is who can publish to the blog. Again with Blogger, it would look like this:

In the settings tab, select the Permissions link;


Select the Add Authors button;



and sent invitations by email. I have noticed that many of the invitations are recognized by email software as automatically generated so it sorts them into the recipient's trash. Anyone you invite may need to be promted to look for the invite there.


You can also control who can see the blog by selecting the desired option below. This is also found in the Permissions link.


As your blog grows, you may find that your needs change and consequently so may your Settings. If you're not sure and the help section isn't 'helpful' you can always create a 'Sandbox' blog to try out different changes to see what happens.

Or, since you're reading this, leave your question in the comment section. I'll be notified by email, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Enter the WYSIWYG...

So now that you have a blog, how do you add pictures and other interesting stuff?

Most blog providers have a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get) to make things as easy as possible. Get to know yours. Most of them work well and you never have to touch any 'code' at all.

With the WYSIWG editor comes a few other functions like "Add image" or "Add video". Typically it's a push button process. For example, after pressing the Add image button you'll get a screen like:



Now if you use the browse button, you can upload an image from your computer or enter the web address of an image you would like to use. Yes, sometimes there can be copyright issues. I have found though, that most images I'd like to use are under a Share-alike license. Overall it says if you're not making money by using the image you can use it. Sometimes the owner would like a credit or a link back to them.

This is to make posting to your blog as easy as possible. Most of them work like a word processor so play a little.

How To Get a Blog...

To start off you will need to set up an account. Most web services require an e-mail address and a password. Most free blogging services have an automated set up screen that will walk you through the porocess. I found Blogger to be quite straight forward and their help section is good, so I've remained with them. Each Blogging service has most of the same basic features, but they have some differences too. If the first one you try seems awkward or difficult, try another one.

With Blogger you arrive at a screen that looks like this:




If you click on the big orange arrow on the bottom you can get started.

The first screen you encounter is this one.





When I first started blogging I was worried that the e-mail address I used would immediately become a dumping ground for everything aweful about the internet. After almost two years my e-mail address remains junk free. If you like, set up a web-mail address with hotmail, yahoo, or google, and use that one.

Pick a password and the name you would like to be added to each post you write. I use Mr. A as my display name. Select the checkbox that indicates you accept the terms of service and click the orange arrow again.

Now you get to name your blog. Be creative, but be prepared with several ideas as the Blog address part is sometimes a bit tricky. The "www.-------" that you would like may already be in use. For now you could use just about anything, since after you've set one up, you can always set up another one (you can have several blogs with one account).





Still on step 2, you arrive at a new screen to choose a template. You can change it something else at any time if you change your mind afterwards.





And there you are. Your first blog. There are some settings you might want to adjust, but we'll talk about that in another post.




I have found the help offered from Blogger to be pretty good so far. Most of the basics are covered well. Personally I like the short explanations given for most topics. Short and simple to understand.

A Post to show just how easy this is...

Type your message here.

Use the buttons at the top to format your message any way you like

You can even make links

Or center your title...

etc....