Blog Tutorial
This tutorial is designed to help you get set up with Blogger. Just follow step-by-step and you will have your own blog in no time! Step 1: Setting Up Your Blog The first thing you need to do is open Blogger's site. Open any web browser and go to http://www.blogger.com. Take a look at Blogger's site. It will look something like this:
See the big orange arrow that says "Create Your Blog Now"? Click that link. You will now be presented with a screen that prompts you to create an account.
Choose a user name for yourself. You can use a first initial and last name (ie Bill Smith would be bsmith) or any other name you have a good chance of remembering. This user name must be unique in the Blogger system so it may take you a few tries to find a name that is not taken. Next you need to think of a password and type it in the next two boxes. The fourth box is your display name - the name that will appear at the end of each of your posts. If you are leery to have the whole world know your first and last name, you may want to stick to only a first name here. Next you will enter your email address and then indicate that you accept their terms of service. When you have read these terms of service click on the orange Continue button. (If your user name is rejected (because someone already has that name) you will be directed back to this screen and will have to enter another name (and your password again) until you find a unique name.)
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Once you have successfully created your account you will find yourself at a screen like this:
This is where you will choose your blog's title and subdomain. In the first box enter the title for your blog. You can change this later so don't sweat it if you have trouble thinking of a great title right now. The next box is the subdomain where your site will appear (ie your blog's address will be www.THEWORDYOUCHOOSE.blogspot.com). Make sure you pick a word or term that is relevant to you or your site's content since you cannot change this later - you will have to live with your decision! You may not use spaces in this box. Though you may use dashes (-) and underscores (_), we recommend you avoid them if possible. When you have made your selections, click on the orange "Continue" arrow. If the name you choose is already taken, you will be returned to this screen and will have to continue to choose until you find a unique name. You now need to choose how your site will look.
There are 12 templates to choose from and these can be easily changed later on. Clicking on the “preview template” link will open a sample site using that design. Go ahead and choose a template by selecting the one you like. When you have made your selection, click the orange "Continue" arrow.
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There will be a short intermission while Blogger creates your blog. Just wait for a few seconds and you will see the screen that tells you your blog has now been created.
There you go! You now have your very own blog. Welcome to the revolution! Step 2. Posting Of course a blog is not much use without some content, so click on the orange “Start Posting” arrow and you can learn how to make your first post. In front of you should now be a screen that looks something like this:
You can probably figure this out on your own, but here is what you need to do. The “compose” mode is a wysiwyg editor that works just like Word: Font, color, size, bulleted lists, Text justification, HTML links, Hypertext Links. In the Title box type the title for your first post. In the Post box type the content. You can use the B and I buttons to make words bold or italic. When you are ready, hit the orange "Publish Post" button.
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Once you hit "Publish Post" Blogger will take a few seconds to do its work. Wait for this screen:
So there you have it - you are now a bona fide blogger. You have your own blog and have made your first post. Click on the “VIEW BLOG” tab at the top of the screen, or the blue View blog link to see what your blog looks like. Step 3: Description Now we need to add a description of the blog. Go back to your Dashboard (the nerve center for your blog) by going to www.blogger.com or clicking the orange Blogger logo at the top left-hand corner of the window. You should now see a link to your blog directly from that screen, as well as the opportunity to create new posts, edit existing posts, etc.
Click on the blue Settings icon. There you can change the title of your blog as well as add the description. (The other options are fine with their default answers.) Click on the orange “Save settings” button. The same screen will pop up again with the message “Settings were successfully saved”. Go to View blog and you will see the description that you added. Step 4 Creating a Link First, go back to Dashboard. Here you have buttons to create a new post, or manage/edit the ones you have already established. You can create a new post or go back to your first one. To create a link, type the text and select it (or the existing text in your first post) you want to be linked. Then click on the link icon in the menu bar - the picture of the world with the chain on it. A small window opens up to let you type in the URL (or address) of the site you want to link to.
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You can type a web address here or, for an email link, type mailto:name@domain.com (no spaces), which is the command for email. For example, I type mailto:overstre@ufl.edu and that link, when clicked, automatically starts an email message to me.
Step 5 Adding images While there are a few different ways to post pictures to your blog, perhaps the easiest is through Blogger Images — the image icon in the post editor's toolbar.
When you click this icon, you see a window that allows you to select an image or multiple images from your computer. Click the "Browse" button to locate the ones you want.
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If you click on the link for choosing a layout, you can customize the way your images will appear in your post. Left, center and right options determine how the text flows around the pictures. Size option lets you scale pictures to different sizes within the posting area
A note about adding images from the web: Don’t use an image location that is hosted at someone else's expense without their permission. This is referred to as "stealing bandwidth" because every time your blog loads, the image is loaded from their server, and this person likely incurs an expense. Before you put an image in your blog, realize that some images are protected as intellectual property through copyright. This means that the creator has sole legal rights to their works and may not want you copying and displaying them. If you are unsure whether or not an image is copyrighted, it's best not to risk it.
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