Setting up a Blogger Account

The first thing you need to do is get yourself a Google Gmail Account. This is a really handy on line email account that you can access anywhere in the world from any computer in the world. It has a ton of storage space and you can use it to chat to others who also have gmail accounts.

Some people like to have a separate Gmail addresses or use their School email account to separate your private log in from your school one. There are reasons for and against both ways of setting up a blog log in.

Gmail Account

The big thing to remember with this one is you HAVE TO WRITE DOWN YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD as you go because you may have to change it and you don't want to forget what you have decided on.


Then go to Blogger and make yourself a blog. It is quite straight forward but again write down your username and password. I like to keep the same username and password for both so I don't confuse myself.

Here is a download printout that are much more detailed that hopefully will spell it out more clearly if you are stuck...

DOWNLOAD THE PAPER VERSION OF THE INSTRUCTIONS HERE

It may be useful to print it off and have it sitting next to you as you begin.

Click the orange download to download or scroll through.

If you like this clever way to embed a document in a blog John Sutton explains how to with a great video in this blog post.

Fine tuning your blog

Make yourself a post with a photo just to prove how clever you are. To do that click on the wee icon of a photo in the menu bar.




Now to the fine tuning...

Go to the SETTINGS


Then look for BASIC. Write in the description what the purpose of your blog is. What you hope to achieve.


SAVE the settings.

Next go to Formatting and change the number of posts to ten- you may as well have your posts showing for a decent length of time!

While you're there change the time zone to Auckland- if you're a kiwi!
SAVE the settings

Go to the settings - COMMENTS - and change who can comment to ANYONE.

Write in an email address that you often check for the moderation email to go to. For a school I think you need comment moderation to be turned on- moderation means that all comments get sent to the email address that you nominate and you get to decide whether you want to publish or delete the comment.


Turn word verification for comments off unless you find your self getting spammed- word verification means the commentor has to type a string of meaningless letters before posting so as to stop computers making comments but I have never found it to be a problem- more of a hindrance really.

Now scroll further down until you get to Comment Notification and type in an email address you want Blogger to send a note to to let you know someone has commented.

I have this turned on for when children who are already logged in leave comments- just so I know what is going on?

You may also like to write a statement in the Comment Form Message to let your readers know what to expect when they leave a comment.


And again save the settings.

And you're done apart from any other tinkerings that you might fancy.

Changing the Template and Layout

To change your blog design go to your DASHBOARD and click on DESIGN and then TEMPLATE DESIGN.

Choose a template from the selection- APPLY IT.

Now click on BACKGROUND and click on the wee arrow to the right of the background that you already have and you will be rewarded with some stunning new backgrounds to apply to your blog.

You can also ADJUST THE WIDTH of the main blog area and the sidebars by sliding the sliders. Apply it.

Adding a photo to your profile

Here is a HELP page from Blogger to help you add a photo to your profile so that when you comment you get a small photo to accompany it.

I will give you the same thing with a few more screen shots. First of all upload the photo to one of your blog posts as you would normally do and then click on the EDIT HTML tab next to compose.
You will see the code for your photo that similar to what I have highlighted in the above screen grab. Carefully select the whole bit of code but be careful get everything inside the speech marks and not to select the speech mark itself.

Now go EDIT and COPY the code. Now go back to your Dashboard and click where it says EDIT PROFILE.
Scroll down to where it says photograph and PASTE the code you just got into there.
Now scroll down to the bottom of the page and SAVE YOUR PROFILE.

Now when you make a comment people will see a little photo as well as the comment which is quite sweet really!

You may like to leave a comment on this post and let me know where in the world you are!

Getting Rid of the Navbar

The navigation bar at the very top of your blog can be a worry if your blog is going to be viewed by children as the NEXT BLOG option could lead them to random places that it is not good that they go.

This bar can be removed if you want by placing a little bit of code in the blog template (Look for the tab Edit HTML on the template tab). Tricky but cunning!


Here is how to do it.

To disable the navbar go to the dashboard and look for the tab that says TEMPLATE at the top. Click on it. You will see this bit.
Click the tab that says EDIT HTML. Copy and paste the code given below just before the tag in the css section.

#navbar-iframe {
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
display:none
}

Click on the photo to get a closer look!

I would add once more that it is a good idea to preview the changes before you actually publish them in case you have put the code in the wrong place. If you muck it up just discard the changes and try again.

One last thing- seeing you have got rid of the NEXT BLOG option you still want a link to the Blogger log in page.

Go to your template and add another element- this time a logo.



Now all you need to do is click on the Blogger logo and it will take you to the Blogger log in page.

Changing your Blogger Header

Affiliate Marketing have excellently created a screencast video that shows you in detail how to add a banner to the top of your blog. This could be a photo or a piece of art work from your class.

Click on the link or the screen grab to take you to the site.


Basically- you take a photo, crop and export it to make it the pixel width you need for your blogger template and add it to the banner of your blog.

Cropping can be a bit of a hit and miss sort of affair but 150x650 pixels seems to be about right.

Remember as always to preview any changes before saving in case you have mucked things up.

Adding a Standalone Page

To add a an extra page to your blog that will not disappear down the timeline go to design and click 'Add a Gadget'.
Scroll down the list until you find it and click on the little blue plus sign.

To move the page from the side bar drag it under the header. Or you can leave it in the side bar.
When you save the Pages widget nothing will actually happen because you haven't actually made a page yet.

To actually make a page go to your dashboard and click on 'Edit Page'.

Click to create a page. You can add anything you like to this page like you normally do to a blog post.


And there you are. A whole new page for your blog.