Publish vs. Save Now

I've noticed that there are many saved drafts (un-published posts) in the list of BJP Posts. Most are published later, but the draft remains in our system. Why is that I've wondered?

Think I've got the answer... maybe...

When you write a post and are ready to make it official, you must click Publish Post (not Save Now).

If you start writing a post and get interrupted, you can click Save Now, which saves it as a draft. To get back to it, click on Edit Posts which is one of the tabs above the posting window. Read down the list to find the post you started. Click on edit to re-open your posting window with the original draft. When it is complete, click Publish Post.

Also, in case you didn't know, you can always edit one of your posts, either immediately after writing and viewing it or any time later. Follow the steps above.

Hope this may help a little. Robin A.

Flickr how-to's

Now, I may have gone about this the long way around, but I figured out how to post my pics to the BJP Flikr today. The first thing I did was go to www.flickr.com and sign up. This was easy for me, since I already had a Yahoo membership, and I think that's a must for signing up to Flickr. After I signed up, I clicked on the Upload Pictures link and followed the directions to upload my pictures. Again, not hard. Then I couldn't figure out how to add the pics to the bead journal page. OK, the FAQ's covered that! First I had to join the bead journal project group. I did that by searching for beadjournalproject, clicking on the link, and clicked on the Join this Group button. Then I went back to my Flicker page, found my pictures and double clicked each picture in turn and clicked on the send to group link that appears beneath the title and above the picture. Flicker then gives you a choice of what group to send your picture to (assuming you belong to more than one group), if you just belong to Bead Journal Project, you only get one choice, but you need to highlight it and click it, then click OK when prompted. The picture is then shared with the Bead Journal Project page. Cool!
Cheers,
Sarah/beadnik

Question for you Fab Bloggers

Hi!
Not sure even how to ask this question, but it's for those of you who have been blogging for awhile. I thought I had to answer the comments I received in my inbox on my blog, but I tried responding by email, & a couple got thru'! Whoa nellie!!! But then, some returned. Poo.
So if any of you understand about this, would you please explain it to us newbies???
Mahalo, Danke, Gracias, and Thanks!
With aloha,
CC
P.S. Not even sure if this is the right label! Ack! ;)

Siblings and Spacing

Hi everyone. No, I am not talking about the spacing of children! I am wondering about two different things.

First, due to the page I just finished I was asked by Robing if my siblings had seen the page. This brought up something that makes me wonder a lot. I seem to have to push my family to drop by my blog and see what I have done and am doing. My siblings and kids all like what I do and want me to make stuff for them but they don't seem to care about taking the time to see what I'm up to unless I remind them a lot and push for comments from them. Do any of you experience this? Am I expecting too much from them?

And secondly, I have trouble getting spaces between paragraphs. I can't seem to indent the paragraphs either. Others are getting those spaces I see, and I think they make longer entries easier to read. So any help there would be appreciated too.

Adding "Labels" to Your Posts

If you go to the side bar on the left, and scroll down until you see a drop-down window, you can click on the little arrow to see all of the "Lables" or "Topics" for our posts. Just now, I thinned the list a little, removing almost all of the labels that were not used more than 5 times. I hope nobody will be ticked at me about this... it's because the list was getting so long that it was difficult to find any one topic.

ADDING NEW LABLES/TOPICS

When you add a new topic to your post, it automatically gets placed on the drop-down list, and others can use it as well. Please, only add new topics that you think will be useful to others. Keep the topic brief and general.

Examples:

Don't add "August Bead Journal Project" as a topic. It's too long. Rather just add "August." (Note ~ I changed all of the variations on June's page to simply "June," and the same for "July.")

Don't add "How to sew on charms" as a topic. It's too long and too specific. Instead, call it "techniques," which is already an option.

Please don't add specific individual names. There are too many of us to start that.

PLEASE LABEL YOUR POSTS:

Labeling your post will help us to find it in the future. For example, if you wanted to take a look at everyone's June page, you would select "June" from the drop down topic menu. This would display all of the posts with this label but none of the other posts on our blog.

HOW TO LABEL YOUR POSTS:

At the bottom, right-hand corner of the post window you can see "Show all" next to a blank window. Click on "Show all" to reveal the possible labels (topics) already on the list. Click on any of the existing labels you feel apply to your post. After each click, the label will appear in the window, and you have labeled your post. Add a new label to the list by typing it into the window (see above for guidelines).

Thanks very much for your attention to this "housekeeping detail".... I appreciate it! Robin A.

Titles

Ah-ha! I went on the Blogger help forum and found the answer to using the title window when posting. I'm sure Blogger will get it fixed soon enough, but in the meantime, this is how you enter your title:

Hover the cursor at the top of the window, slightly crossing the top margin of the window and slightly toward the right of the left margin. Move the cursor around this area until you see the "ok to type indicator" in the window.

Robin A.

2 questions

I've looked on blogger info, but haven't found this. How do you set up your photo so that it will open in a new screen as a larger picture? Nothing happens when I click on my photos on my blog.

Second, how do you get that lovely printed background behind your blog? Is it part of a template or something you add yourself?

Thanks for the help!

Italiano, Deutsch, Francais, Espanol!

I hope I spelled all those languages correctly. I couldn't pull up the tranlator emblem like I wanted so am just putting the link here. If you need to translate a page or blog you can do it through this site. They have links to add to your blog to make it easier.

Spero che abbia ortografato correttamente tutte quelle lingue. Non potrei tirare su l'emblema di tranlator come ho desiderato in modo da che mette appena il collegamento qui. Se dovete tradurre una pagina o un blog potete farli attraverso questo luogo. Hanno collegamenti da aggiungere al vostro blog per renderlo più facile.

Ich hoffe, daß ich alle jene Sprachen richtig buchstabierte. Ich könnte nicht das tranlator Emblem hochziehen, wie ich also morgens wünschte, welches gerade hier die Verbindung setzt. Wenn Sie eine Seite oder ein blog übersetzen müssen, können Sie es durch diesen Aufstellungsort tun. Sie haben die Verbindungen, zum Ihrem blog hinzuzufügen, um es einfacher zu bilden

J'espère que j'ai orthographié toutes ces langues correctement. Je ne pourrais pas tirer vers le haut l'emblème de tranlator comme je voulais ainsi AM mettant juste le lien ici. Si vous devez traduire une page ou un blog vous pouvez le faire par cet emplacement. Ils ont des liens à ajouter à votre blog pour le faciliter.

Espero que deletreara todas esas idiomas correctamente. No podría levantar el emblema del tranlator como deseé así que apenas que ponía el acoplamiento aquí. Si usted necesita traducir una página o un blog usted puede hacerlo a través de este sitio. Tienen acoplamientos a agregar a su blog para hacerlo más fácil.

I hope this helps everyone.

Translations

I just put a translator link on my blog. I am wondering if it would be okay to put one on the BJP blog to make it simple for those who don't speak english. Robin? Anyone interested in this idea can see it at the top, right-hand side of my blog.

Trash Can

I have noticed a trash can at the bottom of the comments I make on the blog(s). I haven't seen this with anyone else's comments. Does any one know why I do. It is a delete button. Have I done too much talking and not enough beading so the beading fairy is getting back at me?

Blogging question... edit vs. new post

Question for the blogger savvy...

I have added a progress photo of my first BJP page to my own blog. When I'm ready to update with additional notes and another progress photo - would you edit the original post and add the new stuff or would you create a new post? What do you do? I don't know or even pretend to understand the differences.

Same would hold true on this blog for updates to original posts... edit original post or create a new one? If this isn't the proper place to pose this question, I'd be grateful to anyone that could point me in the right direction.

Thanks,
Grace

How to do LINKS in your post

It's sooo easy!

Write your text in the text window.

Highlight any word or phrase you want linked by the click and drag method.

Click on the link symbol (picture of globe and chain), located on the tool bar at the top of the text box. This will open a small window for you to add your link information.

Select type of link. Generally this would be the default setting (http:) used for a link to a website or blog. Sometimes, if I want to post a link to an email address, I click the dropdown arrow to select (mailto:) the setting for linking to email.

Type in the URL of your link. If you want the link to work properly, you must type every detail of it correctly. I don't trust my typing that much. If you're like me, minimize the posting window and open a new window in your browser. Get the website or blog online. Highlight the URL from the Address bar, right click on it, select copy. Close or minimize the window. Return to the posting window, right click on the blue-highlighted http: in the URL box, and click paste. The correct URL should now be seen in the box.

Click OK to close the link window. You should now see your link highlighted like this: (Robin's blog - new post). The underline, colored text indicates you were successful in making your link. When you finish posting, click PUBLISH, then VIEW BLOG.

Check your link! When viewing your post, click on your link to make sure it works properly. 99.9% of the time it will work fine. Once in a great while, I'll highlight a URL to copy, but miss a little bit on the end. If your link doesn't work, you can go to edit posts, click on edit and re-assign the link using the same steps as above.

Posted by Robin A.

Blog profiles and how to add your personal webpage link

Profiles: Blogger has a great way of finding each members blog (by clicking on a members name in a post or comment it should take you to their profile where you can see a link to their blogger blog if they've created one. However, if you have an outside webpage dedicated to either your beadwork, quilting, etc there is no way to find an outside webpage unless you add your webpage to your profile.

Soooooo, to add your personal webpage to a blogger profile do this:

Log onto blogger and go to your dashboard. click on Create (to create a post). Look up on the tan header that shows a b, i, a link thing, quote marks, abc spell check and then a photo.

in a second you'll be using the 3rd button that looks like a 2 link chain.

type words in the text box that show the name you want to call your webpage such as My beading journal webpage or Joe Blows beading journal webpage or whatever.

now highlight them by dragging your cursor over the words you just typed.

click the 3rd icon, the 2 link chain thing.

you'll get a popup box that asks for the address of the website. type your webapage address there. click ok.

in the post text box you will now see all the code you need to add to your profile.

copy all the text you just created; by selecting either copy or control A.

now go to your dashboard (it's up in the far upper right corner). click that and look for the section on the right that says Edit Profile.

click that.

scroll down to About Me and paste in the copied code to the About Me box and then scroll down and click Update Profile.

Now your profile will show your outside webpage. yay.

if you have any questions or need help please feel free to contact me. I'll be happy to walk you thru it. :-)

Unpublished Posts ~ How to Publish Them

A few of you have written posts that don't show up on our blog. They were automatically saved, but never published.

Hope you don't mind me naming names... but you are:

1. JoTee (NM)
2. Arlee (Canada)
3. Melodie (OR)
4. Kaytee (CA)

Since this could happen easily and because I believe we'd all like to hear from you, here's how to get back to your post, edit and publish it!

When you first sign in to Blogger, on the Dashboard, you'll see "Manage Your Blogs." Below that, on the left, is where you click to start a new post. On the right it says "Manage: Posts, Settings." Click on "Posts." This will open a window showing a list of the 100 most recent post titles (by all authors). You are able to click on "view" to view any of the posts written. For your posts only, you are also able to click on "Edit."

That's what you want to do. Scroll down the list of post titles until you see the one you wrote. To the left of the title, it may say "Draft" in red. If it does, it means that particular post was not published and is not available to read on our blog.

If you don't want to publish the draft, no problem. To the right of the word "draft," there is an option to "Delete." Click on "Delete" and you'll get a little window that asks "are you sure you want to delete this?" Click "delete it," and it's gone forever.

If you do want to edit and/or publish the draft, no problem. On the same line, to the far left, click on "Edit." This will re-open the posting window. Now you can edit your writing if you wish. When you are ready, click the orange "Publish" box on the bottom left of the window. After publishing, in the new window that comes up, click on "view blog" to be verify your post is there. If you don't like how it looks, you can always edit it again.

I hope this is clear, and we'll hear from your soon!

Posted by Robin A.

Reading & Writing Comments

June 1 is just around the corner, yay! It will be great to get off the computer (emails and registering all of you wonderful beaders), and start my project. I'll report later on the total number and characteristics of the participants.

In the meantime, I'd just like to encourage you to write comments on the posts and to check back from time to time to read the comments on any posts you write.

To make a comment, click on comments at the bottom of the post. A new window will open where you can see any comments already there and write your own. If you haven't already signed in on the Blogger dashboard (top right corner of the blog), you'll be asked to do that before you can publish your comment.

At the bottom of each post, you'll see the word comments preceded by a number. If it is 0, then there are no comments for that post. Any other number will indicate how many comments have been made on that post. To read, click on the word comments, and they will be displayed in a small window. Often the comments contain very interesting information and tips.

WANTED!!!

Any web-savy member out there who might take on the challenge of setting up comment notification for us? I went on the group help list and found out there is a way to do it so that the post author gets notified by email of any comments made on their particular post. So, there IS a way, but it's "Greek" to me. Please email me privately if you want to/can take this on. Thanks.

Posted by Robin A

Blogger search function

Blogger has a great search function that allows anyone to search a particular blog for anything within that blog. for those of you who are new to Blogger or don't know about it, I thought I'd post a How To.

Look up in the left-hand corner of the page. you should see a orange box with a white B in it, the blogger logo. to the right of that is a search box and just to the right of that is a clickable link labeled: SEARCH BLOG.

type in whatever specific phrase you want in the search box. click on SEARCH BLOG (or press the enter button).

you'll get the results of your search and all posts will have the searched for words in those returned posts only.

here is an example: search for the words: timtex. you'll find 4 posts (so far) that mention that word. LOL, actually you'll find 5 once I post this post. :-)

the more specific you make your search the fewer posts you'll get in return. if you search for the word bead, you'll get a ton of posts.

the search function is great for those days when you know you want to refer back to something you read last month but you can't remember the title or who wrote it. or if yo're like me and occasionally have brain fog.

i hope this helps in your daily blogger journaling.

Viv

HOW TO UPLOAD YOUR PHOTOS

Greetings BJP'ers from Downunder!

A long term sewer, beader and collector of all things gorgeous I live contendly in beautiful Sydney, Australia. The thrill of joining "The BJP" has a zillion, colourmad, beady ideas swimming round in my head that will eventually emerge. One definite choice is to create A5 size pages that will be held, for posterity, in either, a lavishly beaded binder or a tome.

I believe some of you have been having trouble uploading photo's so I held up my hand to write a 'How To'. Be warned I am no computer geek but have dabbled in blog land and have found it easy to add photo's ... once I got used to it that is!!

There is a schpeel on the Blogger page which is simple! Do yourself a favour and take the Blogger tutorial ... for now here's a step by step how to from a personal point of view!

1. Take your photo
2. Upload the photo to your computer.
3. 'save it' to somewhere that is easy for you to find - maybe on your desktop.
4. Sign in to Blogger.
5. Click on 'New Post'.
6. Be careful ... once you get to this page you cannot leave unless you are navigating through the Blogger icons -otherwise you will lose your text or pics.
7. Type in your title.
8. Now you can either upload the photo or write your text.
9. I've found it easier to add the photo first.
10. Click on the photo icon to the left of the beige heading in front of you.
11. You will see the Upload photo's page.
12. Click on 'add an image from your computer'.
13. Choose a layout is usually set at 'choose this layout every time'.
14. click on image size 'small'.
15. click on image size 'centre'.
16.To add the image ... it must be in jpg, gif, bmp and png images BUT ... JPG is the easiest ( I can't help you here you'll have to check how your pics upload to your computer).
17. Click on BROWSE.
18. You will then be asked to identify where your photo is stored.
this is where you will have to click on options in the drop down menu - see 'Desktop' it is easier to find than most other places and can be sent to your C drive or Photo Folder after you have uploaded.
19. Click on the orange highlighted box 'UPLOAD IMAGE'.
20. Wait till you see the message 'YOUR IMAGE HAS BEEN UPLOADED'.
21. Click on DONE
22. Return to the page where you started and click on 'PUBLISH POST'.

Blogger says 'The fastest way to understand blogging is to try it out'.

Trust me, that is very true... if I can do it you can too!

Don't be scared of Blogger just follow the steps or the links ... if anyone would like to add to this or change anything please do so!

Hope this Helps,
Beady Hugs,
Cherie aka Red.

Using "Labels" When You Write a Post

What Are Labels?
This is our filing system. It's a feature that can be very helpful for locating specific posts, especially down the road a bit. Already, in just two weeks, we have nearly 70 posts to this blog. How many will we have in a year?? Could be thousands!

How Do Labels Work?
When viewing our blog, labels appear in the side bar as a drop-down menu called Topics. If you want to review the discussions about a certain topic, let's say "bead embroidery," then you go to the Topics area of the side bar, click on the drop down arrow, and click on "bead embroidery." As a result, only the posts which have the "bead embroidery" label will show up. If you're not familiar with this blog feature, you might want to try it now.

How Can I Assign a Label when I write a Post?
At the bottom of the posting window, there is a thing called Labels for this post, a blank window, and the words "show all." Click on show all to see label choices. Click on one that applies to your post. It will now show up in the blank window. If more than one label applies to your post, repeat this process.

Can I Add a New Label?
Yes, but please, please give careful consideration to the wording of the label. Only add a new label if you think others will find it useful. We don't want a whole bunch of file folders with only one post in them. Labels should be general topics that we will all use. Because we have well over 100 author/participants, I suggest we not use individual names of participants as labels.

What are A. Labels?
A. labels, are for posts that should be read by all participants. These are the ones that are like Announcements; they are topics which might be referenced over and over again. So far we have A1. Protocol (which refers to rules or guidelines for posting and/or participating) and A2. Posting how-to. Please do not add any A. labels, without first contacting Robin, the project administrator.

Removing Labels
I have to admit that this morning, I went through the posts and removed some labels because I wanted to make labeling more consistent and more general. I'd like to keep the total number of labels under 25, if possible.

Thank you!
Thanks for remembering to label your posts, and for your attention to keeping our filing system useful for all of us.

posted by Robin

Inspirations and Pictures!

The picture above is an improvisational bead embroidery piece by a good friend, Christy Hinkle. (Be sure to click to enlarge!) This is her first completed piece since taking my bead embroidery class. I'm so very proud of her! It's framed in a shadow box and graces her living room. I wanted you to see it, because it feels like it could be a journal page. I don't know if Christy is going to join us or not... she's thinking about it.

Sharing our ideas, inspirations and pictures is part of the BJP for all of us... that's why I started this blog. However, participation in the blog is definitely not mandatory. I know wonderful artists who just are not into anything about the computer. I'm sure there are some in the project who will never even check this blog. But for those who love it, as I do, we'll have fun with sharing.

Would someone like to write a "how-to post" about how to post pictures, including how to size the images for posting? I could do it, but I'm swamped at the moment and don't have time.

Aurora's photograph of the vintage fabric sample book in the post below was just wonderful, wasn't it?!!! I love reading what everybody writes, but when there's a photo, every part of me is happy.

I'm thinking (just one member's opinion) that I'd like to see photos of inspirations and member's other bead embroidery (or related) photos here any time, but not finished BJP pages until after the third month. I feel that for some of us, we might start something, then see another person's work, and abandon what we started in favor of something inspired by what the other person did. For this project, I think it would be really good if we don't abandon our early efforts, no matter what. But, after 3 months, we will have a sense of where we are going and what our pages intend for us, and it will be easier to stick with them.

This dialog about sharing pictures of our BJP pages needs to continue a bit longer, as there are still many new participants coming on board. Feel free to post your opinions and/or put them in the comments to this post.

Posted by Robin

Trouble Getting to the Posting Window???

A few of you have emailed me that you aren't able to get to the posting window from the dashboard. I think the problem might be that you aren't approved yet as an author.

If you ARE approved, your name will appear in the "About Us" section in the side bar to the left of the existing posts. This is a different list than the "Participating Members" list further down on the side bar. If your name is in this list then you should be able to click on "post" on the dashboard.

If you are NOT YET approved, it could be for one of three reasons: 1. I didn't send you an invitation yet (maybe I accidentally overlooked you, so please let me know). 2. You didn't receive the invitation because your spam software rejected it. 3. You didn't reply to the invitation in the appropriate way.

The invitation to be a blog author will be from "BJP" and begins with this line: "The Blogger user BJP has invited you to contribute to the private blog: 2007 Bead Journal Project. " You are requested to click on a link to activate your authorship.

Please find your BJP email and click the link if you haven't already done so. If you need me to resend the invitation, please contact me and request that I do so.

Hope this helps. Posted by Robin