The Blog Posting Past and The Upcoming Email Agenda

 Last class was Thursday, October 15, and the main topic was blog settings, specifically publishing posts. After everyone signed in to their blogs, we talked about the area you immediately see, which Blogger calls the Dashboard. We spent some time learning about the Dashboard, so...

The Blogger Dashboard:

1.) Your Profile:

The Dashboard allows you to edit your profile information. Your profile is information about yourself that is required (your name, etc.), and other information that you can add if you want (a photo, your phone number, etc.). You can make your profile either public or private.

2.) Blog Management:

The Dashboard also lists all blogs you have created so you can manage them. You can create multiple blogs for different purposes (personal journal, hobbies, news, etc.), and you can access the editing features of your blogs from the Dashboard. These include writing a new post, editing older posts, and accessing your blog settings and your blog layout.

From the Dashboard, the class published a new post. Remember, publishing a post is making it viewable on your blog.

Here are steps to publishing a new post...

Publishing a New Post:

1.) After signing-in to Blogger, left-click on the blue "New Post" button on the Dashboard under your blog title. This will take you to the text-editor.

2.) The title-box will be under the "Posting" tab, and under the "New Post" sub-tab. (Both in the upper left of the view area). You can type a title in the title box located under the "New Post" sub-tab.

3.) Under the title-box is the text-box. Type a message in the large blank text-box provided.

4.) At the bottom right of the text-box is the word "Labels". Next to the word is the label-box where you can enter words that relate to your post. (Ex: If your post is generally about movies, type the word "movies"). A person can view these labels on your blog, and clicking on these labels will allow them to view all the posts with that label.

5.) At the bottom left are two buttons under the words, "Post Options". There is an orange button called "PUBLISH POST," and a blue button called "Save Now". Clicking "Save Now" allows you to save your message without making it viewable on your blog. Clicking "PUBLISH POST" allows your post to be viewable on your blog.

Along the top of the text-editor's text-box, is a toolbar with icons that are editing buttons, we spent some time talking about these. They vary somewhat depending on the version of the text-editor you're using, but generally are very similar. Here is the step-by-step layout we went over in class...

The Text-Editor's Editing Buttons:

> In the upper left of the text-box there is the "Font" style box, Clicking the arrow on the right of the word "Font" will allow you to select different fonts.

> Next is the "Font size" button (it looks like two letter TT's). Clicking on this button allows you to change the font size.

> Next is the "Bold" button. Clicking on this will allow you to put your text in bold.

> Next is the "Italic" button. Clicking on this button allows you to put your text in italics.

> Next is the "Text Color" button. Clicking on this button allows you to change the text color.

> Next is the "Link" button. Clicking on this button allows you to make your text into a link.

> Next are the...
..."Align Left",...

..."Align Center",...

... and "Align Right" buttons.

> Next is the...

1. ..."Numbered List" button...

• ...and the "Bulleted List" button.
  

> Next is the...

..."Blockquote" button. Clicking on this button allows you to place your text into the form of a block quote.

> Next is the "Check Spelling" button (ABC with a check mark under it). Clicking on this button will check your text for spelling errors when your done.

> Next is the "Add Image" button. Clicking on this button allows you to add images (pictures, clipart, etc.) to your post...

> Next is the "Add Video" button. Clicking on this button allows you to add video to your post.

> Next is the "Remove Formatting from selection" button. Clicking on this button will... (actually I've never used this button, let's leave it as a surprise for now.)

> In the upper left there is the "Preview" button to preview your work before you save it.

After writing a message in the text-box, you can then edit your post before you publish it, using the editing buttons.

Class this Thursday, October 22 will focus on email. We will discuss Google's email service (Gmail), and Yahoo!'s email service (Yahoo! Mail). We'll talk about their differences and similarities, the fact that we actually sign up for these companies' Account services when we sign up for their email service, and how an Account is used besides email.

Until next time!