Updating Blogger Blogs

UPDATING BLOGGER BLOGS
STEP‐BY‐STEP INSTRUCTIONS

PREPARED BY:
David J Kingaby T/A KingServ
Address:
23 St Kilda’s Road
Brentwood, Essex
CM15 9EX
Tel: 01277 219915
Mob: 07712 877310
Email: dave@KingServ.org
Web: http://www.KingServ.org
06 April 2009 Copyright © David J Kingaby 2009, all rights reserved Page 1 of 15
Updating Blogger blogs.docx

CONTENTS
Contents ................................................................................................................................. 2
Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 3
Blogger Blogs ......................................................................................................................... 3
Assumptions .......................................................................................................................... 3
Blogger Tasks & Actions .......................................................................................................... 4
Receiving the Blogger email ................................................................................................... 4
For those without an Account 5
For those with an account 6
Logon and Main Options ........................................................................................................ 7
Creating a New Post ............................................................................................................... 8
Quick Start 9
More Complex Entries 10
Edit Posts ............................................................................................................................. 12
Group actions 13
Individual Actions 13
Email Options ....................................................................................................................... 14
Options available 15


INTRODUCTION
BLOGGER BLOGS
Blogger is a ‘blogging’ service provided by Google and is one of many freely available services that provide individuals and
organisations an opportunity to maintain a journal or newsfeed online. Having been acquired by Google they are now fully
integrated in terms of logon although otherwise remain distinct from other Google services.
I recommend Blogger over other freely available services for one reason only – over the past few years Google have managed to
continue innovating (or acquiring innovation) and generating revenue streams that allow them to provide their wide range of
services freely under a single logon. Although it remains entirely possible that this may change in the future it seems
improbable at this time.
ASSUMPTIONS
The rest of this document assumes that:
The Blogger interface remains substantially unchanged from its current version (March 2009) ;
A Blog has already been established (probably by KingServ)
You have received an invitation email from the Blogger system; and that
You have some familiarity with using the Internet through a browser and accessing and finding files on your computer.

BLOGGER TASKS & ACTIONS
The following sections will show you how to:
Respond to the Blogger email;
Log on and understand main options available;
Change main settings;
Post a blog or news item
RECEIVING THE BLOGGER EMAIL
The email will be sent to the email address agreed with the administrator and the content will look something like:
The Blogger user XXXX has invited you to contribute to the blog: XXXXXXXXX
To contribute to this blog, visit:
http://www.blogger.com/i.g?inviteID=nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn&blogID=nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
You will need to sign in with a Google Account to confirm the invitation and start posting to this
blog. If you do not have a Google Account yet, we will show you how to get one in minutes.
To learn more about Blogger and starting your own free blog visit http://www.blogger.com.
Either clicking on the link, or copying it and pasting into your preferred browser, will bring up the following screen:

Figure 1 ‐ Options when invited to contribute
… from which you will see you have two routes available to you:

FOR THOSE WITHOUT AN ACCOUNT
In this instance you are invited to click on ‘Create your account now’ which will take you to the following screen:

Figure 2 ‐ Creating an account
The form should be completed as follows:
Email address – this ought to be a address that you will readily recall and that is active;
Password – this ought to be strong enough that it is not obvious to others, bear in mind that if others are able to log on
using your ID it is not only your reputation as an author at stake but possibly the credibility of the Blog. Ideally the
password will be a mixture of alphabetic and numeric characters;
Display Name – this is the name that you want your Blogs to be associated with and will appear on all postings you
make;
Word Verification – this captcha code needs to be accurately interpreted before you can proceed – do read carefully
they are not always obvious; and finally
Acceptance of Terms.
Once all are completed then clicking Continue will take you to the next stage ‘for those with an account’ although you will also
need to verify your email address. To verify your email address, simply check your email and you will find an email that looks
something like:

Welcome to Google Accounts. To activate your account and verify your email address, please click
the following link:
http://www.google.com/accounts/VE?service=blogger&c=ZXZXZXnnnZXZXZXXnnn=en_GB
Note: Please keep your verification link in case you need to recover access to your account (for
example, if you forget your username or password).
If you've received this email in error, it's likely that another user entered your email address while
trying to create an account for a different email address. If you don't click the verification link, the
account won't be activated.
If you decide to use this account or delete it, you'll first need to reset the account password by
entering your email address at

https://www.google.com/accounts/ForgotPasswd?fpOnly=1&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blo
gger.com%2Floginz%3Fd%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.blogger.com%252Fi.g%253FblogID%n
nnZXZXZXZXZXZX%1234inviteID%123123XX12313%26a%3DADD_SERVICE_FLAG&followup=https%
3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Floginz%3Fd%3D%252Fhome%26a%3DSERVICE_ONLY&hl=en_GB
&service=blogger&dEM=blogger_test%40kingserv.org.
If clicking on the link above does not work, copy and paste the URL in a new browser window
instead..
Follow the instructions as stated above (basically either click on the link, or copy and paste it into your browser) and the account
will be established.
FOR THOSE WITH AN ACCOUNT
You will be presented with the following screen (prefilled with your account name if you are already logged in or have just
created your account:

Figure 3 ‐ Logging on for first time
You may sometimes also be asked to complete a further word verification (captcha) at this point but will then be navigated to
the following screen:

Figure 4 ‐ Main Dashboard View
This screen will include all the Blogs that you have access to under your chosen logon ID. Many of the areas on here are not
essential to maintenance of the blog and are optional to you as a user, guidelines are, therefore, out of scope of this document
although adding a personal profile, photo etc… are intuitive if you care to do so.
LOGON AND MAIN OPTIONS
To log in you simply type http://www.blogger.com in your browser address bar and you will be presented with this screen:

Figure 5 ‐ Main login screen

Login by typing your Username (email address previously set up) and password in the top right of the screen and then click ‘Sign
In’. You will then be shown the main dashboard as seen in Figure 4 from which the following options are available:
Create a Blog – this is outside the scope of this document but once you have found how easy it is to update you may
well feel compelled to set one up yourself;
View Blog – this will open up the latest updated view of the blog for you to look at;
New post – this will take you straight to the Blog entry screen to compose a new item;
Edit Posts – provides a list of all entries which you are able to edit or delete; and
Settings – which provides a limited subset of options available to the main blog administrator:
Email – you can set up to allow entries to be posted directly by email to the blog and then provide this email
address to other trusted parties. This ought to be used sparingly since poor formatting and editing disciple by
email users can lead the blog into disrepute;
Permissions – you can remove your name from the list of approved blog contributors.
Only those highlighted in Bold above are discussed in more detail below as being relevant to managing blog entries.
CREATING A NEW POST
Taking the Create a New Post option fm the menus above you will be presented with the following screen:

Figure 6 ‐ Main blog entry screen
As a general rule most of the functions available in this screen ought not to be used since they are governed by a default
template, but each are discussed below the ‘Quick‐Start’ guide:

QUICK START
A blog entry can be simple text, with or without major formatting or pictures. In such a case the most important consideration is
to ensure that you do not import styling from an external application that may conflict with the format of the Bog – if you do
paste from a programme like Word or Outlook then please follow option 2 below otherwise Option 1 will have you posting in
seconds:
OPTION 1
Type a short but useful title in the Title block – make it something that catches the eye of your intended audience;
Type your article or report in the main box using simple formatting options only (do not change the font setting or colour
without giving serious thought to how the entire blog will look); feel free to use the bold, italic, number list and bullet list
options.
Click on Publish Post – that’s it.
OPTION 2
As in Option 1, first of all give the article a useful title.
Click on Edit HTML to switch from the standard Compose window (you do not need to understand HTML to do this) and then
paste your text in above any other text that is already there (as part of the template) followed by a carriage return (or two). This
has the effect of stripping out any pre‐existing formatting as you can see here where I have pasted in the above two paragraphs:

Figure 7 ‐ Formatted text pasted in HTML view removes formats
You can now switch to Compose View and apply local formatting, adding line spaces etc… using the same options in Option 1
above and then Publish Post.

MORE COMPLEX ENTRIES
To create a more complex entry will start in much the same way as Option 1 or 2 above for the Quick Start but can make use of
many more options; these are all described here by reference to the relevant icon or option in the Compose View:
ICON OR OPTION DESCRIPTION
The following Icons work by selecting a section of text with your cursor first and then clicking the icon to produce a range of
effects:
This will give you the option to change the font from the default for the Blog to another font (without

accessing HTML only Arial, Courier, Georgia, Lucida Grande, Times, Trebuchet, Verdana and Webdings are
standard). As a general rule, however, this should not be changed other than in order to highlight a
heading or other such purpose. It is worth noting that neither the compose or preview views display the
blog in the default font so you may want to publish a draft version and then edit it to fine tine on font
settings.
This allows you to make the font smaller or larger than the default and guidelines are the same as for the
font itself – change it only rarely! Again without accessing HTML code directly, the standard options are all
relative to the default (normal) size and are Smallest, Small, Normal, Large & Largest.
These are useful aids to making a small section of text stand out in either bold, italic, or both. Normally
these ought not be used for large tracts of text since it would make the posting appear inconsistent with
others and risk the Blog appearing inconsistent.
This allows the colour of the highlighted text to be changed from the default to one of
the standard ones shown on the right.
As with other styling changes, care must be taken not to undermine the overall design of
the blog and any colours should be as consistent as possible – for example, select a
colour similar to the main blog Titles for any sub‐headings you may want to use.
This allows you to add a hyperlink to the text linking to another web address – this might be to another
Blog entry or an entirely different website altogether.
These will ony work on whole paragrpahs and allow you to change the alignment from left to centre, right
or justified. Once again, each Blog template will already have a defaul so in using this option you are
moving away from the normal look and feel.
Selecting a number of paragraphs and clicking these will produce a numbered or bulleted list.

This is another function that works only on whole paragraphs which it turns into a ‘Blockquote’ – basically
an indented paragraph.
This initiates a specific spell check although most modern browsers will already have some form of spell‐
checking running whilst you type.
This wil remove any formatting you have mistakenly added (or imported) to the text (although please note
that as of late March 2009 date this function does not work with some browsers so it should not be relied
upon).

These next options do not require pre‐selection of text and work rather differently.
This Icon is used to add pictures to your blog entry – something that is to be encouraged since a
suitable picture always makes the blog more appealing to viewers. By default these pictures will
always appear at the top of your entry and this can only be changed by either adding the pictures
first and then creating the text around them or by subsequently editing the entry in HTML view
(not advised for the faint hearted). Clicking the icon will bring up a screen as shown to the right
here.
From here you can
upload the picture file
and choose its relative
size and location as
follows:
Click ‘Choose File’ and a
file explorer window will
open showing your local
file system; navigate
through this to find the
image you want and click its filename, if you want to add more than one image then click ‘Add
another image’ and another ‘Choose File’ button will appear. As an alternative you can add
images from the internet if you know their internet address (URL) although take care that the
image you want to use is free or you have good reason to believe there would be no objection to
you using it.
Having selected the images you want to use you can specify whether you want them to go top
right, top left or top centre using the layout options and whether you want a small, medium or
large image – as a guideline medium is normally appropriate and large can sometimes exceed the
width of a blog entry.
Next tick to accept the terms of service if prompted to do so (this is not always asked) and click
‘Upload Image’ – a confirmation screen will then appear stating that your image has been added
and displaying a thumbnail, click ‘Done’ and you will be returned to the editing window where
you will now see the image in situ.
This works in a similar way to the Picture Icon above
to add a Video although the dialogue box is slightly
different as you can see. Once again you are
prompted to ‘Choose file’ which will open a file
explorer window on your computer from which you
can add your file. Please note the file type and size
constraints and ensure that your video has a title
that will tell potential viewers what they will be
seeing if they click to play. This will normally take
quite a while longer (several minutes) to load and
process than a simple picture (normally seconds)
although depending on your browser capabilities you will be able to track this progress on the
status bar at the bottom of your browser (or better still – go make a cup of tea or coffee, you will
have time!) Once the video is in place in the compose window (even if not finished processing)
you can position it using the alignment buttons and add text above or below in the normal
manner.

This is a little misleading since although it does show a preview of your blog entry it is not
rendered using the same fonts as your blog style would normally show. It is, however, useful for
judging how the text (and any pictures or vidoes) are laid out relative to one another.
Clicking this will open up an extension menu allowing you to specify whether or not you want to

allow readers to post comments about your entry and what date/time you want the entry to
appear to have been made in the past orwhen you want the post to be published in the future.
Adding keywords here will help visitors find blog entries that are relevant to them and will also be
used by search engines in their indexing. If you are a regular blog contributor on the subject of,
let’s say, ‘Origami club meetings’ then you might consider adding Origami as a label to every post
you make.
Blogger does routinely autosave in its latest version but if you have just made a substantial edit
you ought to consider clicking this button ‘just in case’. This will save the blog entry to your ‘list
of posts’ (see ‘Edit Posts’ below) where it will be marked as draft until such time as you either
puyblish or delete it.
Press this and you have launched your blog to the world wide web.

EDIT POSTS
When selecting this option from the main ‘Posting’ menu you will be presented with a screen like this:

Figure 8 ‐ Edit Posts screenshot
You will see all posts to the blog listed in this view although unless you have been granted ‘admin’ privileges you will be unable
to edit others’ entries in any way – indeed, you will even be unable to view others’ draft entries. This view can be used for a
number of purposes as follows:

GROUP ACTIONS
A number of posts can be selected simultaneously by either clicking:
A number of ‘check boxes’ on the left;
‘Select All’, or
One of the labels on the left.
This will then allow you to perform the same action to all the selected posts simultaneously.
If you want to limit the number of visible posts before doing this you can first of all narrow the view by changing the view from
‘All’ posts to one of the following:
Drafts (i.e. those you have yet to commit to be published),
Scheduled (i.e. those to be published at a future date/time),
Imported (not normally used) or
Published (those already online).
Having selected a number of posts you can now do the following with them:
Publish them;
Delete them; or
Label them (click on ‘Label Actions’ to get a drop‐down list of existing labels already used in the Blog or the option to
create a ‘New Label’)
INDIVIDUAL ACTIONS
All of the group actions above can be applied to a single post if only the one check‐box is ticked. You may also:
Open the post up to Edit (see notes above for this);
View the post;
View comments (with an option to delete them); or
Delete the post.
… by clicking the relevant links:


EMAIL OPTIONS
Unless you have been given Admin privileges clicking on ‘Settings’ from the main Dashboard window of the Blog will only give
you one option and that is to establish an email address that can be used to make posts to the blog without going through the
Editing process above.

Figure 9 ‐ Creating secret email address
There is a security issue to consider in setting this option up since although having the email address will not allow anybody
access to the dashboard it will allow them to post material onto the Blog in your name. Before proceeding, therefore, care
should be taken in establishing a ‘secretWords’ element for the email address that is secure and known only to you or those
you trust to post in your name.
Having typed a secret word combination (using no spaces and preferably a mixture of alphanumeric characters) clicking ‘Save
Settings’ will immediately enable the email address. You can now simply use your standard email client to compose a Blog post
and send it to the email address you have set up ( which is davekingaby.secretWords@blogger.com in the above example).
BUT…
… if this seems too easy to be true then you are at least partly correct. In using this facility great care must be taken to:
Ensure that the Subject line of the email is suitable to be used as the blog post subject and is not, for example,
something like “Fwd: Results of yesterdays meeting”;
Keep formatting relatively simple – for example the following standard formats appear to translate okay:
Font colours;
Different fonts (your default font will turn into the default for the blog, different fonts will be represented as
accurately as the viewers’ browsers permit but do remember not to use different fonts without good reason);
Indented text;
Bullet or number lists;
Tables; and
Hyperlinks
Delete all standard signature blocks;
Turn off any Anti‐Virus stamps on outgoing mail;

Avoid adding images in‐line since although a placeholder will show where the picture was it will not display the picture
– pictures can be added as attachments instead and will appear at the top of the post.
Of course, once you have sent the email you can always log onto Blogger and edit the post online.
OPTIONS AVAILABLE
There are 3 available options for this service:
Publish email immediately – you should only have it set to this if you can absolutely trust that all the above conditions
for good quality postings are going to be satisfied;
Save emails as draft posts – this setting should be used if:
you are unable to turn off security signature blocks,
you have issued the email address to others I order for them to create draft entries that you will then ‘polish off’
online; or
there is any other reason you can think of – bear in mind that this is the safe approach to using this facility;
Disabled – you would certainly use this if somebody has hacked your email address and is posting spam or other
unwanted items onto your blog.

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