blogger

toc

**Setting up a Blogger account**
For every day users Blogger offers a great option for free but functional blogs. Recent changes to the Blogger tools and dashboard functions have made it even more usable. What is sometimes a bit confusing is the difference between the Blogger back-end (where you do all the hard work) - and the blogspot URL (which is the public face of your blog). On this page we'll lead you through the basics of getting registered and editing your personal profile. Generally, even if you do not have a blog, you must be registered to comment on other people's Blogger blog posts.

**Creating a Google account**
Blogger is owned by Google and you require a Google account to use the blog service. If you do not already have a Google account create one here by entering your current email address and choosing a password. Once you've finished registering, you'll receive a verification email. Click the link in that email to complete the verification process.

• Your Google Account username should be an email address from which you currently send and receive mail • Your password should be at least eight characters long and can't be a commonly used word. Select a unique combination of letters and numbers. • In the Word Verification section, you'll need to type the wavy characters exactly as they appear in the picture.
 * NOTE:**

**Gmail email account?**
Creating a Google Account does NOT give you a Gmail account. However, you can sign up for a Gmail account by visiting the Gmail homepage and clicking the Sign up for Gmail link under the sign-in box.

**Your Profile**
Use your Google account that you have established to sign in to **Blogger**

Before getting started on a blog take a minute to provide some details about yourself. Click on the EDIT PROFILE button after logging in.

The amount of information you provide is entirely up to you but it's good to add an image, any other online sites you use and to determine what information you want to share with others.

Establishing a new blog
Log in to Blogger and click on the link to create a new blog. //**NOTE** - You can have more than one blogger blog with one account// Give your blog a name (this will show at the top of your blog and can be changed later), and decide on a URL.

Settings and permissions
Now it's important to design your blog's look and feel, and to work systematically through your blog's SETTINGS to make sure you set it up to work for you. You'll see three tabs at the top of the page - POSTINGS, SETTINGS & TEMPLATE If you click on the SETTINGS tab you'll see 8 sub-sections. Click on each one to adjust various aspects of your blog.

The BASIC, FORMATTING and COMMENTS sections are particularly important. Here you can edit your blog title, add a description that shows under the title, select your timezone and most importantly perhaps determine who can comment. We encourage you to keep this as open as possible without exposing yourself to tedious levels of spam. My personal suggestion (RJ) is that you offer comment to registered users (ie. people with a Google account) and if you're concerned add your email address to moderate new comments, for extra protection (you may find you don't need this but spam CAN be a problem).

In the PERMISSIONS section you can enable multiple authors by sending invites one by one.

The look and feel
By clicking on the TEMPLATE tab you can select a design template for your blog. These can be changed at any time. You can further customise each template by clicking on the Fonts and colours sub-section.

Posting and editing
If you are in the Blogger site (backend), click on the POSTINGS tab to create and edit blog posts. If you are at your blog URL (frontend), click on the NEW POST link in the top right corner of your screen and this will take you to the admin area above. Blogger provides a toolbar to assist with basic formatting. Images can be uploaded from your computer or linked from a URL (eg. FlickR account). To create a hyperlink to a site, highlight the name of the site in your text and click on the LINK icon to provide the URL. Click PUBLISH POST when complete or SAVE to come back later and do further work.

Labelling your posts
If you wish, you can add 'labels' or categories to your posts. This enables you/readers to organise posts according to theme/purpose. If you wish to do this add labels to the bottom of your post separated by a comma. They will show up automatically in your right hand navigation bar.

Editing posts
Those with ADMIN rights (ONLY) can easily edit (manage) published posts by clicking on the EDIT POSTS sub-section under the POSTING tab. You will be presented with a list of posts. Click on the EDIT link next to the post you wish to change. Make your editions and click PUBLISH POST. To change other authors rights to be able to edit click on the word GUEST next to their name in the PERMISSIONS section.