How to Post to this Blog

This is about posting to our blog... not making comments to a previous post, but how to make your own post! If some of you more experienced bloggers want to add suggestions, please do so in the comments to this post.

1. Open this blog through your regular internet service.
2. Notice at the top of the page there is a navigation bar. On the right hand side of the bar, there are some choices: Create Blog and Sign In. Click on Sign In.
3. If you do not already have a Google account, you will be directed to set one up. You'll need a name (which is also an email address) and a password for this. I think you will need to use the same email address that you gave me when you joined the BJP, which is the email address I gave to Blogger so that you could become an author on this blog. There's no charge or strings attached to having a Google account that I can see.
4. Back to number 2 above, clicking on Sign In will open the Dashboard.
5. Now click on New Post in the Dashboard window.
6. You're now in the posting window, which has three important parts.
7. Title: Give a name to your post.
8. Text window: Type your post here. You can type your post in Word, then copy and paste it to the text window if you wish. You can mess around with the font style and size (although I generally don't). You can highlight a portion of text, and then click b to make your it bold, click i to make it italic, or click T to select a different color than black for it. After T, there is a link symbol. To make a link in your text, first highlight a certain word or phrase of text, then click on the link symbol to open a hyperlink window. Type (or copy and paste) the URL of your link into the appropriate box and click OK. (Note you can also use this as a link to an email address by selecting mailto: with the down arrow, then type the email address.) The second symbol from the end allows you to add an image. Please make sure your images are sized for the web prior to uploading to the blog. They should be 72 or 96 ppi and under 70 KB in size. I'll do a later blog about sizing pictures if anybody is interested.
9. Text window modes: You can enter and format text in the compose mode, which is easy, but kind of has a mind of it's own (understatement). If you're familiar with HTML, you can better control formatting by writing your own code. Click on Preview to get an approximate idea of how your post will look after you publish it.
10. Labels: I think this is a fabulous feature that we all need to use. It allows categorization of the posts... a filing system for them. Later, for example, if you want to reference this post again, you can find it easily by checking the categories (located in the side bar under Labels). Click in the lower right corner of the text box on Show All to see currently available labels. Click on any that apply to your post and they will show up in the Labels for this post window at the bottom of the text window. If you don't see a label that applies to your post, type in your own label for it. One or two word generic labels are good.
11. Now it's time to publish! Just click that bright orange Publish button at the bottom of the page, and instantly your post in on line! I'm going to do it right now!
12. Next you'll get a window which will allow you to see your post (view in new window). Check it out. If it's good to go, you're done. If you're like me, you'll find something you don't like, or a spelling mistake (there's no spell check in Blogger) will jump out at you, or you'll think of something else you want to say. Easy! Close the new blog window, and click on Edit Post. This puts you back to the text window, and you can continue writing, edit, adding links, whatever. When you're ready click Publish again.
13. Continue until you are satisfied with your post.

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Idea! If you're new to posting to Blogger, click and drag over all the text in this post, right click and copy. Open a Word window and paste the information to a blank Word document. Print it out as a handy reference to making your first posts to BJP.

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Blogger Help: Actually the Help topics are pretty good. That's how I managed to set up this team blog. You can access the Help topics at any time by clicking on Help at the top right corner of the page. Click on Help Center and either click on a topic of interest or type your topic in the search box.

Posted by: Robin