June 3, 2014 at 10:00AM Blogging

Blogging 101 – June 3, 2014 at 10:00AM

Instructor – Jerry Ronan

Navigating the Senior Center Web Page

We will surf the pages of the site for the Activities

and other Information about the Senior Center.

Introduction

What is a Blog?

A blog is a type of website that is updated regularly with new content. 
We will review how to:

  1. Create a Header.
  2. Choose a Template.
  3. Layouts.
  4. Gadgets.
  5. Directory.

Most blogs contain short, informal articles called blog posts. These posts usually contain some combination of text, photos, videos, and other media.

If you spend much time browsing the web, you've probably read a blog post before, even if you didn't realize it at the time. Some of the most-read blogs are a bit like online magazines, as they're written by a team of people who are paid to update the blog with new posts several times a day.

However, the majority of blogs are written by one person. As a result, the average blog is fairly personal, reflecting the interests and personality of the person who writes it. This is the type of blog we'll focus on in this tutorial.

To start a blog with Blogger

On Blogger.com, enter your Gmail Username and Password, and click Sign in.

Enter a display name and accept Blogger's Terms of Service. Then click the Create a Blog link and get started!

Pick an address (URL) and a blog title. Then, choose your favorite blog template (this is how your blog will look when you publish it). Now get creative, add information to your personal profile, and customize how your blog looks, if you feel up to it. Start blogging now!

Customizing your layout

Your template is a fun way to customize your blog. When creating a new blog, you're first asked to choose a default template, this is the basic design of your blog. You can choose from many templates for your blog; simply pick the one that best fits your needs.

In addition, you can customize your blog's design using. You can also add powerful gadgets such as slideshows, Changing the fonts and colors on your blog is easy, too.

Click the Layout link from the drop-down menu on your dashboard below the blog you would like to customize.

Click on Edit Header and you can make changes to the Header at the top of the page.

From there, click Edit to edit existing gadgets, or Add a Gadget to add new ones.

To add a new gadget after you've clicked Add a Gadget, simply click the plus sign next to your desired gadget. You can choose from gadgets by category, or search for a specific gadget in the top right of the pop-up window.

We will select the Text format by clicking the + sign.

Once you've added the necessary information to your selected gadget, click the orange Save arrangement button. Your layout changes will appear instantly.

Write your post

Once you've signed in to Blogger, you'll see your dashboard with your list of blogs. Here's what you need to do:

Click the orange pencil icon to write a new post, and enter anything you want to share with the world.

     

          Next, you'll see the Post Editor page. Start by giving your post a title (optional), then enter the post itself:

  

When you're done, click the Preview button at the top to make sure it's ready to go, and then

click the Publish button to publish your post.

Add an image

You can add an image from your computer or the Web to your blog. Click the image icon in the Post Editor toolbar. A window appears prompting you to browse for an image file on your computer, or enter the URL of an image on the Web.

Once you've selected your image, you can then choose a layout to determine how your image will appear in your post:

The 'Left', 'Center', and 'Right' options allow you to customize the way your blog text will flow around your image.

The 'Image size' options will determine how large the image will appear within your post.

Click UPLOAD IMAGES to add your image, and then click DONE when the notification window appears telling you that 'Your image has been added.' Blogger will then return you to the post editor, where you'll see your image ready to be published to your blog.

You can also publish images to your blog using Google's free photo software Picasa.

Add a video

To add a video to your blog post, click the film strip icon in the Post Editor toolbar above where you compose your blog text. A window appears prompting you to 'Add a video to your blog post.'

Click Browse to select the video file from your computer that you'd like to upload. Note that Blogger accepts AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real and Windows Media files and that your video must be less than 100MB in size.

Before uploading your video, add a title in the 'Video Title' box and agree to the Terms and Conditions (you'll only have to do this the first time that you upload a video with Blogger). Then click UPLOAD VIDEO.

While your video uploads, you'll see a placeholder in the post editor showing where your video will appear. You'll also see a status message below the post editor letting you know that your upload is in progress. Depending on the size of your video, this usually takes about five minutes. When it is complete, your video will appear in the post editor.

Privacy and permissions

By default, your blog is completely public, and can be read by anyone on the internet. However, if you want to keep it private, you can do that, too. You can change these settings on the Settings |

Basic tab.

Under the 'Blog Readers' section, you'll probably see 'Anybody' selected as the default. When you change this to 'Only these readers,' you'll get an Add Readers button.

Click the Add Readers button and then enter the email address of a person to whom you'd like to grant access to your blog. To add multiple people, separate their addresses with commas.

For each address entered, the Google Account associated with that address will be given access to view your blog. If an address is not associated with an account, that person will receive an invitation email with a link allowing them do one of three things:

Sign in to an existing account.

Create a new account.