Help Sheet 10

 Creating a Weblog
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Weblog and Noticeboard

The "Weblog" and "Noticeboard" services are both created in the same way.

A Weblog is like an online diary where you can record your ideas and thoughts and communicate them to users.

A Noticeboard is an item of content which is "date-stamped" and appears in a list arranged by date. You can view noticeboard items by clicking on the calendar date you are interested in on the Noticeboard page.

The steps below are based on using the ‘Weblog' service. Follow the same steps to develop the ‘Noticeboard' page.

Adding a Weblog entry

• Enable the ‘Weblog' page from the ‘Manage Website' and ‘Use standard pages' menu
• Select the ‘Weblog' page from the left hand navigation menu
• Go to ‘Manage Weblog' at the top of the page
• Click ‘Add new weblog entry' and fill in the details
• Create a title for your entry
• If your notice is related to another website page, then add the website address of that page to the ‘Title URL'. Don't forget to add the http:// before the www
• Add the content of your weblog entry
• Set the date for the weblog entry using the correct format
• Decide whether you want to publish the entry or save it as a draft. Publishing the entry will add it to your website and it will be available to be viewed by the public. Saving it as draft will store it so you can edit it further and publish it in future.
• Click ‘OK'

Editing and deleting Weblog entries

• From the Weblog page click on the ‘Edit' link underneath the displayed entry
• This will take you to your original form. Make any changes and click ‘OK'

Deleting Weblog entries:

• From the Weblog page click on the ‘Delete' link underneath the displayed entry
• Click ‘Yes, delete it' to confirm
• You will then be taken back to the Weblog page. The entry will have been removed.

Advanced features to the Weblog

These options are found under ‘Manage Weblog'.

‘Bookmarklet'
A bookmarklet allows you to easily take information that you have seen on another site and post it on yours. To use this feature you first need to right click on the link ‘Add this Bookmarklet Link to your Favourites/Bookmarks' and select ‘Add to favourites' (Internet Explorer users) or ‘Bookmark This Link' (Firefox users). Then any time you see text on another site you think is interesting, you can highlight the text, go to ‘Favourites' at the menu on the top of the page, and select the bookmarklet link you added.
The form for adding a weblog entry should appear. If it is too small, click on the square in the top right hand corner of the form to maximise it.

Related links
Tthis is a list of links to other people's weblogs which you think are interesting and relevant. To add a link click on ‘Add a Link' and complete the ‘Name' and URL sections. Click ‘OK' and the link will be displayed.

Email Subscribers
This shows you a list of users who have subscribed to have email updates sent to them every time you post a new weblog entry.

View draft entries
This shows all the draft entries that you have saved, from here you can edit, publish and delete these entries. To edit an entry click the pen and paper on the left hand side of the page. To publish an entry click on the ‘Publish link'. To delete an entry click the trash can image on the right hand side of the screen.

‘Manage your ping URLs'
This means that whenever you update your weblog the server will automatically contact the listed sites and notify them that your weblog has changed. Some services, such as Weblogs.Com or blogs, use this information to compile lists of recently updated weblogs. Other services, such as Technorati, will crawl your weblog shortly after it has been updated. To add ‘ping URLs' select the required ping URL from the list and click ‘Add Ping URL'.

You can reach the Help Desk on: 01245 436559 or via email support@essexinfo.net

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