Using blogger 1415

A.2 Media2014-15

Using Blogger ………….. 1. Load Internet Explorer and go to either:

www.blogger.com This will now to take you to a Google Login Page as Blogger is a Google Service.

2. Type in your Username (Email Address) and Password:

Username :

Password : (Please do not change the password)

Click on: SIGN IN.

3. This will direct you to the Dashboard page. The Dashboard is where you will have editorial access to your blog. It is worth noting that more than one blog can be created under the same login (email address).

Look for the particular blog you would like to use by clicking on the title of the blog: Harrow College | 2014-2015 | A2 Media | Sam Group 1,2,3,4.

[ ADVANCED PORTFOLIO IN MEDIA ] 1

http://www.blogger.com/

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4. This will take you to the Overview page for your blog where you access all sort of information.

The main panels you will only need to focus on and use are the top grey bar with the four iconic buttons and the side navigation bar on the left of the page. Below & page 3 explain the buttons on the top grey bar and side navigation bar on the left in detail:

This button will take you back to the Dashboard page mentioned in step 3.

This will allow you to create a new post for your blog. Anytime you would like to enter a new entry, click on this button.

This button will let you view all the posts created on this blog. You will have further options to edit, view, and delete posts.

This button will let you view your blog in its current state. I would recommend right-clicking on this button and viewing the blog in a new tab/window.


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Like the ‘create new post’ button in the top grey bar, this orange ‘new post’ button will let you create a new post for your blog.

The Overview button will return you to Overview page mentioned in step 4 where you are review all aspects of your blog.

The Posts button is similar to the ‘View Posts’ button in the top grey bar where you can review all posts created on the blog.

The Pages button is a new function where you can add stand-alone informative web pages to your blog or add a link button to another website/blog. Your Lecturer will advise you whether you will need this.

The Comments button will let you review comments people have written on your posts.Comments have been disabled/hidden from your settings as this is a function is not needed.

As Blogger/BlogSpot is a Google company, you can link your blog to a Google+ account. Please do not enable or upgrade this function.

The Stats button is an analytic function where you can find out data such as how many times is your blog being viewed daily, monthly, where in the world is your blog being viewed from, what browsers and devices it is being seen on. Interesting facts if you are a Web Designer.

The Earnings button gives blog users the opportunity to make some money from their blog by placing advertising on the blog. Please do not enable this as your blog is for academic purposes only.

The Layout button lets you configure the layout of the blog. You can add/edit/delete panels.

The Template button lets you configure some parts of the blog. You can customise the background, colours, fonts, and more. You will be explained this in more detail later.

The Settings button let you configure advanced options of the blog. PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE/EDIT ANYTHING HERE AS THE BLOGS HAVE BEEN SPECIFICALLY SETUP FOR YOUR PROJECT.


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Notes:

Blog/Technical Queries:


Labels:

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Add your group Photograph to your blog

1. On the Blogger Dashboard or Overview page, click on the ‘Profile’ icon in the top right corner of the screen with your Group Number:

2. This will load a box as shown:

Click on Blogger Profile.

This will load Blogger Profile page.

3. At the top of the window and click on the orange button ‘Edit profile’.

4. This will load the Edit User Profile page.

Scroll down the options until you reach the ‘Profile Photo’ section. Here you can upload an image from your computer or from the Internet.

5. Click on ‘Browse...’ and locate an image from your computer to upload or type in the URL address of the image on the Internet.


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6. Once the image has been uploaded, a preview of the image will be shown at the bottom of the ‘Profile Photo’ section. Scroll to the bottom of the ‘Edit User Profile’ page and click the orange button ‘Save Profile’.

Add your Names to the ‘About Group’ panel to your blog

It is important you add your FULL names to the ‘About’ section of your group blog. This will let internal staff, moderators and external examiners know who was involved in which group. To do this:

1. Click on the Layout button in the side navigation bar.

2. Click on the Edit button in the About Group box of the layout template.

3. This will load a new (smaller) window where you can type and edit profile information.

Within the Description box, type in your group members full names.


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Ask your Lecturer if they would like your roles involved in the project to be mentioned next to your names.

4. Once you have typed in all your information, click on the orange ‘Save’ button.

Customising Blog Template

You can customise (change) the blog teample. You can change the layout, background, fonts, colours, adjusting width of boxes/panels, and more.

1. This can be done within ‘Template’ section. Click on the ‘Template’ button on the left side navigation bar.

2. You can scroll down the ‘Template’ page and choose a new template for your blog. Simply click on a design and you it will provided with a preview window with what the new blog would look like. If you like the design, click on ‘Apply to Blog’ or ‘X’ the window the continue browsing.


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All templates can be customised.

3. If you do not want to change the template and simply want to customise a few things like colour and fonts, you can do it by clicking on the ‘Customise’ orange button under the live image of your blog.

This will take you to the Blogger Template Designer.

4. Within the Blogger Template Designer window, you will be using the dark grey bar at the top of the screen to customise your template.

The left of the dark grey bar give you section headings to click on and let you:

Choose the same template design but with alternative colour or choose another template.Change the background colour of the blog or upload a photograph/image from your computer or the Internet.PLEASE DO NOT ADJUST ANYTHING IN THIS SECTION AS THIS COULD AFFECT HOW YOUR BLOG IS VIEWED.


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PLEASE DO NOT ADJUST THE LAYOUT AS YOUR BLOG NEEDS TO BE LAYOUT OUT SPECIFICALLY FOR MARKING.

You can the font style and colours of all parts of the blog.

5. Once you have finished customising your blog template, click on the ‘Apply to Blog’ orange button at the top right of the screen.

I would recommend creating some posts first before customising the layout so you can visually see if all your content fit correctly.

Creating a New Post

There are three main ways to create new posts. These have been explained on pages 1-3. This stage of the handout will explain what facilities are available when creating a new post and recommended formatting options.

1. Click/Create a new post.It will take you to the following window:


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2. The first thing to check is that you are working in ‘Compose’ mode. There are two buttons on the left of screen labelled ‘Compose’ and ‘HTML’. Click on ‘Compose’ so you can work in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) format.

3. It is very important you label each post with a Title. Type in a Post Title at the top of the page.

4. I would recommend typing and formating your text in Microsoft Word first and transfer it to your blog.

The transfer of text from a Microsoft Word document can be done by: a. Copy your text from your Micrsoft Word document.b. Go back to your New Post entry.c. Paste your information into the window (Ctrl+V or right-click, paste)

d. Hopefully your text will look exactly the same as it did in Microsoft Word. If not, you can decorate/format the text as you like using the tools in the Options bar.

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5. >>>> !!! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT !!! <<<< Ask your Lecturer to provide you with label headings... ...

Before saving & publishing your post, you need to add labels (Label Cloud) to EACH post.

Every post created needs to have a identification label on it. This will help recognise how much work every group member has done and what part of the assignment the post relates to..

You need to label your post with your first name and what part of the assignment you are doing and place it in the ‘Labels’ section on the right of the page.


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Insert an image into your post

There are a number of ways you can insert images onto your blog post. You can upload from you’re:

computer / image sharing websites / internet.

a) Click on the ‘Insert Image’ on the Options bar and locate your image file. You can upload more than one image and paste more than one image in your post.

b) Once you have uploaded an image, add it to your post, choose a suitable place to for it and configure it by resizing it, aligning it, or adding a caption to it. Look for the blue options bar at the top of the screen to do these configurations.

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Insert a video into your post


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You can upload videos into your post by using the ‘Insert a video’ button when creating a new post. I do not recommend this method. I would upload any videos onto a video sharing website like YouTube/Vimeo/SlideShare and embed the video into the post.

a) Create a YouTube/Vimeo/SlideShare account and upload your videos on to their first.ORFind a YouTube/Vimeo/SlideShare video you would like to use.

b) Take the embed coding and place it into the ‘Edit HTML’ format of the post. (See YouTube Example below)

YouTube Example

i) Select a YouTube video and click on the ‘Share’ button under the control bar.

ii) This will load a panel giving sharing options. Click on the ‘Embed’ button next to ‘Email’.

iii) This will load another panel giving coding. Copy this code and paste it into the ‘HTML’ format of the post.

6. When you have finished entering your information, you can:

The Publish button will save and publish your blog onto the blog for web users to see.

The Save button will save the post onto your profile but will not publish onto the blog. This is useful if you have not completed a post and would like to continue working on it at a later time or uncase you close your browser/computer or internet crashes.

The Preview button will let you preview your post on the blog before it is published for users to view .


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The Close button will close your post without saving changes and take you back to the ‘Overview’ page.

Editing Your Posts

Once you have published or saved a post, you can always make changes/edit your posts.

To do this:

1. Go to your Overview page,

2. Click on the ‘Posts’ button which is in between the Overview and Pages buttons on the left navigation bar.


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3. This will load the Posts page where it will list all the posts you have created. To edit a post, place your cursor on the particular post you would like to edit and under the ‘post name’ will appear two options; ‘edit’ and ‘delete’. Click on Edit to make changes to the post. This will redirect you to the post editor screen.Click on Delete if you would like to delete the post from you blog.

note:Orange text next to the post title are cloud labels.

Useful Websites

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SlideShare (http://www.slideshare.net)

SlideShare is a great website where you can upload documents such as PDF’s, Word Documents, PowerPoint Presentations and then link them to your posts.

Rather than re-creating/copy & pasting your information, you can upload files to your SlideShare account and embed them into your posts.

a) Create an account with SlideShare.

b) Upload your documents to your account.

c) Take the ‘EMBED’ coding of that document and paste into the ‘Edit HTML’ section of the Post.

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YouTube (http://www.youtube.com)

Share your videos.

Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com) A content sharing service that allows members to "pin" images, videos and other objects to their pin board.

Blog or Posting Issues / / Template enquires:

Email Vishal Raja on:

[email protected]

Get your Lecturer to invite Vishal to one of your lessons.


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.pinterest.com/

http://www.youtube.com/

Education

Using blogger 1415