Handy Things to Know

1.  In Blogger, if you use the Dots theme, you have to add a page element to get the title of your blog to display on your blog’s main page. Sign in to your blog and that will take you to your “Dashboard”. Click on the Layout link and then on top left of your page, click on the link to “Add a Page Element.” You’ll see lots of choices here, but for now, choose “Add a Page Header” and click on the “Add to Blog” button. Add a title for your blog and a description, if you want to. You can even add an image but make sure it looks okay after you save it. (Mine didn’t.) Click Save changes and then click on the link to View Blog. Make sure everything looks the way you want it!See my example: http://bcpltestblog.blogspot.com/.
   

2. Add your blog address to your Flickr account by clicking on the down arrow next to the menu for “You.” Choose “Your Account” from the drop down list of menu items. Click on the “Extending Flickr” tab (it looks like a link). You’ll see something for “Your blogs” and can add your blog address here.

3. How do I post photos to my blog from Flickr? First you’ll have to configure your external blog so Flickr knows where to find it. You’ll be guided through the set-up process, and at the end you can try a test post to make sure everything works.  When that’s done, you can blog any public photo you see on Flickr. When you’re looking at a single photo, for example, http://www.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=23754, you’ll see a “Blog This” button above it.  Note: If you don’t see the “Blog This” button, you probably need to make the photo public (click “edit” next to the privacy indicator under “Additional Information” on the photo’s page).

Click the “Blog This” button for the photo you want to post. If you’ve set up your blog, you can post immediately by adding a title and body for the post. There’s a link to your blog as well so you can check that the entry looks OK.  You can set up as many blogs as you like.  You can also create your own Flickr moblog. When you upload a photo to Flickr via email, and you have at least one blog set up in Flickr, we can post your photo to your blog automatically.

 

4. Changing the blog identity.

>From the blogger Dashboard….

>From the Edit Profile link, we entered a non-identifying name.  She had entered her full name.  If this is left blank, the full name also appears so it’s good to put something in this field. Once the display name is changed, all the posts in the blog display the new name.  That’s handy.

We also changed the check box so that her profile would be private.

>From the Settings link, choose the Publishing link.  This gives you a

chance to change the actual blog URL. I was pleased to find this.  We changed her blog address to a new one.  Now when search engines reindex it, they’ll see it as a new entity and won’t refer back to the old one.

It also makes the old blog address a dead link.  Her name will probably continue to appear in the Google search results but only until it refreshes the search and finds that the links have dried up.One thing that doesn’t seem to change is comments posted on other people’s blogs. Once they’re out there, they stay with the old display name and continue to link back to the original poster. 

5)  Email to those who submit a blog address that doesn’t work:

I just tried the address for your blog and it doesn’t seem to work. People are frequently confusing the *title* of their blog with the *address* of the blog.  

The ADDRESS is found in the addressbar of your browser – Internet Explorer. It should look like http://bcpltestblog.blogspot.com/ where bcpltestblog is whatever name you gave your blog when you registered it at Blogger.com. This is the address I need from you so I can post your blog on the participants page and so that Jim and I can track your participation in the program and qualify you for the drawing for prizes. Copy this address and email it to me at ellen@bcpl.net.   The TITLE is the name that displays on your blog’s main page. In the example I gave has a title of Ellen’s Test Blog. You can see that it can be different than the ADDRESS.  If you have other questions, see if there is a co-worker who might be able to give you some help. Part of the program is working on this and learning with your co-workers. If you ever want to ask me for help, please feel free to do that. I’m off this week but available by email, ellen@bcpl.net.  Good luck with the program and don’t forget to send me your blog ADDRESS! Good luck with the program and don’t forget to send me your blog ADDRESS!6) How to add an animated avatar from Meez to your blogCreate the avatar at Meez.com and make sure you choose some animation while you’re setting it up. When you go to save it, you get about 6 or 8 choices of sizes to save it, 2 of those including the word (animated) next to the size. I chose the smaller size with the word animated next to it. When you do this, look lower down the page and you’ll see 3 lines of code. Copy the top one – I think it says HTML or Javascript.Leave Meez.com and go to your blog and log in. Choose to Customize your blog and you should then be on the Template tab of your blog. Click on the link to “Add a Page Element” and then choose the one that says HTML/Javascript. Paste the code you copied earlier into the main part of the HTML/Javascript box and save it. Save the changes to your blog and then view it. You should see your animated avatar now!

7) Here are the directions for adding a Rollyo searchbox to your blog. 1. Log into Rollyo and click on the Tools menu at the top of the page.
2. Click on “Put a Rollyo Searchbox on your site”
3. In the “Searchrolls” box, choose your roll and click the right arrows button
4. Choose a style (plain, plainer, gray, black, red) and you’ll see a preview of what you Rollyo Searchbox will look like to the right of your style choices.
5. Copy the code from the box called “Cope and paste Code” [use Ctrl-C]
6. Go to your blog and sign in
7. From your Dashboard, click the Layout link
8. Click “Add a page element” in your sidebar and choose the one called “HTML/Javascript”. Click the Add to Blog button.
9. Paste [Ctrl-V] the content from Rollyo into the large box and leave the title bar blank.
10. Click the Save Changes button.
11. If you have several things in your sidebar, click and drag the new box so that it appears in the order you want and click Save.
12. View Blog.

8. People are frequently confusing the *address* of their blog with their email address.  Go to your blog. The ADDRESS is found in the addressbar of your browser – Internet Explorer. It should look like http://bcpltestblog.blogspot.com/ where bcpltestblog is whatever name you gave your blog when you registered it at Blogger.com. This is the address I need from you so I can post your blog on the participants page and so that Jim and I can track your participation in the program and qualify you for the drawing for prizes and CEUs. Copy this address (Ctrl-C) and paste it (Ctrl-V) into a reply to my email message to you.