Q. How Do Community Network Blogs Work?

A. It's easy and fun to create your own blog. Initiative and personal blogs work similarly--here is how to find your own personal blog so you can practice:

• Click My Profile from the links at the top of any Community Network page.
• If you have NOT started a personal blog, find the blog link in the left column, and click that one, to get it started. For a Initiative blog, see Initiative Blogs: How can we access ours for the first time[new page] for instructions on making the Edit Blog link visible.
• If you already have a blog, click Edit My Blog from the links in the left column--at or near the bottom.
• This will take you to a screen that invites you to create a new post. Note that if you don't want to do this, the Edit My Blog column now has other options:
• Add Post -- lets you create a new entry
• Edit Posts -- lets you make changes to or delete previous entries
• Add Category -- lets you create categories or topics that you or others can search or sort your blog entries by. See How do I add categories to my blog for more on categories.
• Edit Categories -- lets you change or delete categories you have already set up

Creating a Blog Entry

• Type in a title for the entry, in the Title box.
• Write your blog entry in the larger box that says Text. If you don't want anything fancy, all you need to do is type and save!
• Formatting entries: You can add formatting by clicking the controls in the gray area above the text box. They are fairly standard. (If you do not see a gray area, try using Internet Explorer, and contact cnbugs@community.llli.org to let them know what computer and browser you are using)
• HINT: Don't know what a formatting icon means? Hold your mouse over it and an explanation will appear.
• You can change the font size in the font box. Highlight the text, then select the size from the drop-down menu on the left.
• You can choose bold, italic, underline or strikethrough on text by clicking the next set of buttons
• Paragraphs can be aligned left, center, right or justified by clicking the paragraph shapes.
• Text can be formatted into numbered or bulleted lists by selecting relevant text and clicking the appropriate list shape. Each paragraph will become a new number or bullet
• To insert a hypertext link (URL) in your blog, highight the text you want to link to, and click the image that looks like a chain (link). A box that lets you type in the URL will show up. You can even type in what you'd like to show up if you mouse over the link, too.
• To link to a picture (it has to be on the Internet somewhere, not your personal computer), use the image that looks like a picture frame.
• It helps to use "preview" to make sure you typed in the right link for the picture.
• Typing in a number in the "hspace" box means text won't cram right next to your picture.
• When you are finished, the picture will show up at the bottom of your post.
• Advanced Hint: To change the alignment, click the last thing on the gray bar, the angled brackets (see below) and find the word "baseline" in the scary looking HTML that makes your picture show up. Change that to "left" or "right" and the image will line up better. Then select the entire URL for your picture and move it to the top of the post, or where you'd like the picture to show up, and it will look beter.
• Hint: Don't use a really huge picture! It will mess up the formatting of your blog.
• To look at the HTML of your post, click the < > characters at the right of the gray editing box. You can try all the tricks you know, if you are a Web person (change font colors, etc.). Let us know if you discover anything cool.
• When you are satisfied with the content of your post, look under the text entry area.
• If you click Publish Now your blog entry will be added when you click Add Now at the bottom. Don't click this until you decide what you wan to do with the other options below, though.
• Clicking Publish Later will save the entry as a draft, which you can return to later by choosing Edit Posts in the left column menu.
• Clicking Mark as Deleted will mean the post will not show up for others.
• Under Comments, you can choose Allow readers to add comments or Email me when comments are added --comments are fun!
• If you have set up categories, you can choose which one or ones to file your post under. See How do I add categories to my blog for more on categories.
• When you are happy with your entry, click Add Now. You will be taken to the screen where you edit your blog posts. To see your blog as others will see it, click View Blog from the menu on the left.

Editing a Blog Entry

• Choose Edit My Blog and then Edit Posts from the menu on the left.
• You will see a listing of your posts.
• To edit, click on the title or on the icon on the right under Actions that looks like a pencil and paper. In the editing screen, you have the same options as you have when creating a new blog entry, except that the button on the bottom says Update rather than Add Now. When you are finished with your changes, click that button.
• To delete a post, click the icon on the right under Actions that looks like a letter "X" or click the box to the left of a post title and click the Delete button at the bottom of the list of posts. If you delete a post from your personal blog, only you will be able to see it. If you delete a post from a Discussion blog, everyone who subscribes to the Discussion will still be able to see it.

Viewing a Blog

• Choose View Your Blog from the menu on the left or click on the URL after Community Blog under your name and address.
• This will take you to a screen that shows the most recent posts. It also reveals options for viewing in different ways.
• Archive – appears in the menu on the left and lets you choose a month for which you'd like to view posts.
• Recent Posts – appears on the right and lists subject lines from recent posts. If you click on a subject line, you’ll see the whole post and most recent comments about the post. You’ll also see buttons at the top for viewing the next post or the previous post. Below the post, there is a button for creating a link to the post, although this doesn't do anything. Below the comments (you may need to page down), you can add your own “comment”.
• Categories -- appears on the right and lists categories available in the blog. The number of posts in the category appears in brackets. Posts can have one or more categories assigned.
• Calendar – appears on the right and lets you view posts from a particular day.
• Search – appears on the right and will eventually let you search for posts in some way.
• If you click Subscribe, in the upper right corner, you will see the results of an RSS feed (similar to how one would subscribe to a podcast on iTunes, for example) for the blog, in a more plain text format. In the future, we will use this RSS feed make available email subscription to CN blogs, password protected.

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