Setting up a Blogger Account

This blog is being made into an iBook for download in the iTunes Store.

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.

One you have a Google log in go to http://www.blogger.com/home

Then go to Blogger and make yourself a blog. It is quite straight forward but again write down your username and password.

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 button to download the instructions to your desktop.

Adding a new blog post with a photo

This blog is being set up as an iBook for free download from the iTunes Store.

Here are the instructions to get you started with your blog. 

To add a new blog post. Go to your overview page and click on the pencil in the top left corner.

Write the title, click on the little photo icon, navigate to your photos to upload some and write some words in the big text box.

When you're done click PUBLISH.

Adding a hyperlink from text or a photo

To add a hyperlink from some text.

1. Go to the web page you want to link to and copy the URL web address.

2. Open up the blog post and type the text that you want to hyperlink.

3. Highlight that text.

4. Click on Link in the Menu Bar and copy in the link from the other web site.

5. Tick the OPEN THIS LINK IN A NEW WINDOW Box and OK.

Allanah's Blog

Publish publish the page and now the words become a hyperlink to a new website.

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You can also add a hyperlink to photos.

1. Upload the photo. Here is how you do that.

2. Copy the URL web address of where you want the hyperlink to go to.

3. Highlight the photo and click on LINK in the Menu Bar.

4. Add the link that you have copied that you want the photo to link to.

5. Tick the OPEN THIS LINK IN A NEW WINDOW Box and OK.

When you publish the post and click on the link it will take you to the new web page.

Fine tuning your blog

Go to your OVERVIEW and look for the SETTINGS

1. Then change the 'Who can comment?' to ANYONE.

2. Add Comment Moderation to Always - so the comments come to you for approval.

3. Add in the email that you want to moderated comments to go to. For a school I think it is wise for 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.

4. Turn Word Verification to OFF so that you don't have to type in the confusing verification letters. Put it back on if you find yourself getting spam comments.

5. 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.

SAVE the settings.

Now go to the LANGUAGE AND FORMATTING and change the time zone to AUCKLAND.

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 overview page. Go to your Template.

Go CUSTOMISE and have a play around. It gives you a little preview. When you are happy click APPLY TO YOUR BLOG.

You can also adjust the BACKGROUND,  WIDTHS, LAYOUT and under ADVANCED you can make your blog really ugly by playing around with the colours.

When you're happy apply it. You can always come back and change it.

Adding a Static Page

You can add a static page to your blog with things like the week's homework or things that you want easy access to.

You can also make it a like to a website or extra links for learners.

It will stay in one place always be easily accessible.

To add a page go to your Settings and then layout- add a gadget.

Look for the page gadget and add it by clicking on the add sign.

Decide what you want of the page and where it goes.

Now go back to your overview page and select Pages to make a new page.

Here is how it might look.

Posting to Your Blog with Email

Once you have set up your blog it is nice and easy to make a post just by sending an email. This feature wold be great if you have students overseas who want to share their travels on the blog- all the would need to be able to do is to send an email.

Also useful if you want people to be able to make posts but you don't want to the give them the password or let them change the sidebar or other setting.

To enable blogging via email go to SETTINGS, then look for MOBILE AND EMAIL.

Enter a secret word that you can remember. As an example the email address would be

allanahsblog.thinking.blogger.com

Click on the 'Publish Email Immediately' if you want to or you can make it go to draft but if it did that you might not notice it was there. 

If you send it straight to publish make sure you get an email letting you know it's there so you can check it.

To make your post simply send an email to the blog.

And very cleverly instead of just emailing text and photos you can email a short video as an attachment and that works as well.

Here is a video from Barbara Reid showing you how to do it.