RMAP Blog: Description and Instructions for Posting
Early 2007, the RMAP Blog moved from developmental to operational phase. Staff and students are now making regular postings relating to their research, discourse on current events and news items from the RMAP program. A high level of familiarity exists with the technology among many of the RMAP bloggers and these instructions are primarily designed to facilitate understanding for those who are still needing assistance and those new to the RMAP blogging group.
Where to find the blog and how to access the user pages
The RMAP blog can be found at http://rspas.anu.edu.au/blogs/rmap Making it your home page enables viewing whilst online. Both Internet Explorer 7 and Mozilla Firefox allow for multiple tabbed home pages. To set your homepage, open the blog in your browser and click on Tools/(Internet) Options and select ‘Use current (page)’. In addition, you can bookmark or add to favourites the blog url for fast access. Anyone visiting the blog site is able to view the postings and make comments to the blog. As member of the RMAP fraternity, you are able to write posts to the Blog. Please note that posts must relate to resource management. To obtain a username and password to make posts to the blog, send a request to: Mary Walta:
and you will be forwarded an email with the following subject line: [RSPAS Blogs Admin] Your username and password. On receipt of this email click ‘Login’ located under the ‘Meta’ heading at the bottom of the right hand column of the RMAP Blog (Figure 1). If you tick the ‘remember me’ option on the log in screen it will automatically log you in when you open the blog site in future. (Once you are logged on the ‘Login’ icon changes to ‘Site Admin’ and clicking it will give you access to the Dashboard to write posts.). If you forget your password, go to the login site and follow the screen instructions and a new password will be sent to you by email. Figure 1. Login area for accessing back pages of Blog to make posts.
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Introducing the Dashboard and setting personal profiles
After login you will be taken to the Dashboard (Figure 2). To edit your user profile to display your name how you would like, click on the ‘Update your profile or change your password’ link on the Dashboard (Figure 2A). Figure 2. Dashboard pages behind the public face of the Blog.
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It is important to check the box under ‘Personal Options’ that allows you to use the visual editor when writing posts (Figure 3). Enter your first name and last name in the user profile and then click ‘update your profile’ (full name correctly capitalised recommended). Then use the ‘display name publicly as’ drop down menu to select the First name Last name format. Figure 3. Page used to personalise your profile.
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Writing a post
It is advisable to have the text and images for posting prepared before you are in WordPress. To write a post, either click on the ‘Write’ icon next to the Dasboard icon on the top of the page or click on the ‘write a post’ link (Figure 2B). Give your post a title then type your posting in the input screen (Figure 4). You can use the icons (similar to those found in Word) above the input screen to edit your material. Figure 4. Page used to write a post.
Categories Input screen
Image or file upload area
If you are using information formatted in Microsoft Word, email or web software it is important to strip the formatting as it can adversely affect all posts on the blog. To remove text formatting, click on the ‘Show/Hide advanced toolbar’ to reveal formatting toolbar (Figure 5.1). After coping selected text to the clipboard (ctrl+c) use the ‘Paste as Plain Text’ tool to paste text (rather than ctrl+v) (Figure 5.2) Figure 5. Tools to remove text formatting from post. 1
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Assign your post to the relevant categories in the form field on the right of the post area (see Figure 4). It is a good idea to link your post to several categories. For instance if the post refers to a project you are involved in then it could be linked to a geographic region, resource and RMAP news. Please note that you should not check the ‘2. Resources’ or ‘3. Countries’ boxes, only the relevant resources and countries. RMAP News or Other News boxes should be checked. Categories: RMAP News refers to news relating to any staff member and activities emanating from the program including publications, meetings, awards and adventures. Other News (default category) refers to resource management news not directly connected with RMAP. Postings to this category should not be mere announcements but include some comment about the post.
Linking blog post text to websites
The RMAP Blog supports a Snap Preview plugin that shows a preview of the web address that is linked to the text as the cursor goes over the text. It is recommended to link to the words that describe the linked page not the word ‘here’. To hyperlink text in your post, highlight the words that will connect to the URL linking a web page or pdf and click on the chain edit tool (Figure 6). Figure 6. Chain tool icon used to insert links in a post.
An insert/edit link screen will appear (Figure 7). Insert the URL that you want a link to, by cut and paste method. To ensure people are not directed away from the blog, it is recommended that the target link is made in a new window using the second option in the drop down menu, ‘Open link in a new window’. The title entered in the line below will be what is picked up by the cursor as is goes over the link in the posting.
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Figure 7. Link window for adding link location, target and title.
Adding images and pdfs to the post
Images should be resized using a photo editing program, such as: Microsoft Photo Editor (found on the Start menu under All Programs – Microsoft Office Tools); InfranView (free, simple-to-use software available at http://www.irfanview.com/) or any other photo editing software such as comes with a digital camera. Resize the image so that the maximum dimension (width or height) is 400 pixels – so that it is roughly the width of the blog post – or less as you find appropriate (Figure 8). Do not resize an image in the blog post as it will result in multiple images being saved. It is recommended that image names do not have spaces between words (eg, img_3Jun). Figure 8. Image resizing to fit the post page.
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Scrolling below the input box you will see an upload area (Figure 4) that enables you to insert images and pdfs in your posting from your computer (Figure 9). It is recommended that you have a dedicated folder on your desktop for keeping your uploads. Figure 9. Upload area for images on your computer.
Once you have uploaded your image, you can choose to display your image full size or the image title (that links to the image on a new page when clicked in the blog post). There are a further 3 link options (attach to file, page or none, see Figure 10). Attaching to file will open the image in a new internet browser page. Attaching to page will open it in a blog page and ‘none’ will enable it to be viewed in the post on the blog only. When the choices have been made click the ‘Send to editor’ icon and the image will be embedded in your post. Figure 10. Display options for uploaded images
To link an uploaded pdf to text in the blog post, find the url of the uploaded pdf and click on the ‘Browse All’ icon in the Upload area. Click on the pdf or image and a screen similar to Figure 11 will appear.
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Figure 11. Accessing location of uploaded documents and images.
Select ‘Edit’ next to the pdf name (Figure 11) and its url will be displayed (Figure 12) and that url can be cut and pasted into the Insert link dialogue box (Figure 7) using Ctrl A, Ctrl C and Ctrl V. Figure 12. Location details of uploaded documents and images.
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Finishing touches and publishing the post
If the post text is several screen lengths, it is a good idea to split the post using the ‘More’ tag (Figure 13). Readers will then have the choice to read the full post rather than be forced to scoll through long posts they are not interested in. Figure 13. Location of the ‘More’ tag for splitting posts.
To ensure the posting looks how you wish it to be displayed click on the ‘Save and Continue Editing’ icon under the post input screen. To preview how your post will look, click on the ‘Preview’ icon above the post input screen to see your post in a new window. When satisfied, click ‘publish’ on the Dashboard. Click ‘View Site’ at the very top of the dashboard page to see the post on the Blog. If you wish to edit it further click on ‘edit’, in the line under the title, and you will be taken back to the Dashboard. If you want to publish your post in the future, you can save it and work on it later. The link to your draft posting will come up at the top of the ‘write a post’ page on the Dashboard. Future visits will require you to use the ‘Site Admin’ icon under Meta on the blog home page to get to the Dashboard.
Tips for interesting posts and general blog etiquette
Ensure all links in posts are active Break up long posts with the split post facility Avoid linking to ‘here’ or using ‘click here’ Make the titles short and sharp Annotate posts with interesting links and images
Making comments on Blog posts
Staff and students are authors of the RMAP Blog and if ‘Remember password’ was selected you are automatically logged on when the Blog is opened. If you wish to link your comments title directly to another blog or website you will need to Logout (icon under ‘Meta’ heading under categories) first. To make a comment on a blog post, click on the ‘add a comment’ hyperlink under the title of the post.
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To hyperlink the title of the comment (enter title in the ‘name’ box) and connect title to a web page by entering the website location in the ‘url’ box (Figure 14). It is also possible to hyperlink text in the comment using html language. Using the example in Figure 13, ‘Marine Stewardship Council’ was hyperlinked by entering - Marine Stewardship Council. The generic html is link descriptor Figure 14. Post comment options.
Subscribing to feeds
You are able to organise your internet provider to automatically check for new postings to the blog by subscribing to feeds indicated by the RSS under the Meta heading in the right hand column of the blog. The recent postings to the blog will appear as a category in your favourites centre on your internet provider toolbar. More information on feed readers and aggregator software is available under the category RSS on the RMAP Blog.
If you have any queries or need help contact Mary xtn 59925 mary.walta@anu.edu.au
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