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HOME - Bloglines Tips - Composer Tips - Writing Tips - Technology Tips |
Web Browsers: Important Note. In general for this course, you need to use Firefox (Mac and Windows), Mozilla (Mac and Windows) or Internet Explorer (Windows-only). You cannot use Safari for this class. Both Desire2Learn and Bloglines are not Safari-compatible, so you may run into problems if you try to use Safari. For more information, see this information Desire2Learn Web Browsers.
Do NOT use Microsoft Word I repeat: Do NOT use Microsoft Word The word processing program Microsoft Word is designed for creating printed documents. If you want to create a document and print it, or send it to someone as an attachment, Word is a good choice. Word is basically terrible at everything else - especially anything having to do with the web and webpages. So, whenever you are creating a blog post, please do NOT use Word! It can really cause problems with the formatting, leaving out whole words and phrases and making your post into a complete mess. For better options, using free software like Mozilla Seamonkey Composer or Google Documents, see these notes about Spellcheck, Word Counts and Saving Your Work. |
STEP ONE: Writing your text. When you publish a post for this course, you are expected to spellcheck the post. In addition, there are usually minimum and maximum wordcounts for each assignment. You can spellcheck and do the word count as you are writing your post, or you can do the spellcheck and word count when you are finished and ready to publish; it's up to you. Although you are free to use whatever system you like best for spellchecking your post and checking the number of words - provided that you do NOT Microsoft Word (see note above). For some tips on good methods to prepare text for the web, see these notes about Spellcheck, Word Counts and Saving Your Work.
STEP TWO: Creating your blog post. Go to Bloglines and then click on the MyBlog tab to access your blog. Then click the New Post link to create your post:
This will open up an HTML Editor which works basically like the HTML Editor you use in other web-based applications. Because this opens up a new window in your browser, you may need to adjust any pop-up blocking software you are using so that it will allow pop-up windows from bloglines.com.
Title. Make sure you give your post a Title and then type the text that you want to include. Pay attention to any specific requirements in the assignment for the title you are supposed to use!
Text. You can type directly into the box - but that means you will have to check the wordcount and spelling later on. You also run a risk of losing your work because by typing directly into Bloglines. I strongly recommend you do the wordcount and spellcheck before you start formatting the post, adding links, etc. For more information, see these notes about Spellcheck, Word Counts and Saving Your Work.
Formatting. After you have your text ready to go (spellchecked, good word count), you can start formatting the text. As you can see, Bloglines lets you use bold font and italics, right-left-center justification, bulleted and numbered lists, and different font colors. You can also change the font, along with the font style and font size. It's up to you if you want to spend a lot of time formatting your post with these special tools - it's perfectly fine to just use the default font settings and not make any changes at all to the font display.
Adding a link. To create a link, you must first type the LINK TEXT - the underlined words that people will click on. Do not just use the webpage address; you need to provide some descriptive link text, such as the name of the website or specific instructions ("Click here to read more").
After you have typed the link text, you need to highlight the text and then click on the link icon.
This will open up a dialogue box. Next, paste the exact web address, including the http:// portion, into the box provided. You should always copy this address from a browser address bar so make sure the address is absolutely correct. Do not try to type the web address by hand! You will make mistakes if you try to do that. Instead, copy-and-paste the address (Control-C, Control-V) from your browser address bar, including the http part.
When you have pasted in the link address, click the OK button. That's it. You should see the link text now underlined in your post. If you want to link to another Bloglines blog or a Bloglines post, here are some Instructions for Linking to Bloglines.
Inserting an image. To insert an image, you need to find an image on a webpage already on the Internet. The image must already be an appropriate size. With Bloglines, you cannot make an image larger or smaller after you publish it (if you try to do that, you will distort the image). So, before you insert the image, FIRST make sure the image is going to look good in your blog post. In general, the image should be not more than 600 pixels in width. If the image is too large, find another image!
Then, right-mouse click on the image, and choose Properties. This will show you the address of the image, beginning with http:// and ending in jpg, gif or some other image file extension. You can also check on the dimensions of the image, making sure it is not more than around 600 pixels or so in width.
Copy the address including the http part and then go to your Bloglines post.
First, position the cursor where you want the image to appear, click on the image icon, and paste the web address, including the http:// portion, into the box provided.
When you have pasted in the link address, click the OK button. That's it. You should now see the image displayed in your post. If you do not see the image displayed, you may need to choose a different image. There are a few websites which will not allow you to "remote-link" images in this way. So, if your image does not display correctly, just choose another image.
STEP THREE: Publish. When you are done, click on the Publish
to Blog button, and
you are done.
That's it! If you need to edit the post, that's also easy - just follow these Instructions for Editing a Bloglines Post.