Quickstart - Activating Blog Account and Writing Entry

Activate Blog

Blog Activation is a two step process.

1. Apply for Personal Web Space (https://www.work.psu.edu/webspace)

If you do not currently have Personal Web space, fill out the form at https://www.work.psu.edu/webspace.
Note: Please allow three business days for your Web space to become active.

2. Activate Blogs Account

Once you have activated your Personal Web Space, go to https://blogs.psu.edu and use the Login to New Blog System log-in link. You will be taken to a Dashboard screen.

Create Blog and write entry.

1. Once you have successfully activated your account, go to the Create menu and select Blogs. Complete the forms to create your blog. Click the Publish link in the green box when prompted. See Create a Blog for more details.
2. Configure your Comment Settings so users can easily post comments.
3. You should now see a Write Entry tab. Click this tab and complete the form to write your first entry.

Current Blog Features

The Blogs at Penn State include the following functionality:

BASIC FEATURES

• Multiple blogs per user
• Published in your personal web space (you can blog about whatever topic you want)
• Customize fonts and colors with the Styles selector
• Supports tags, categories and monthly archives
• Upload image files and podcast files as well as other media files.
• Comments and Trackbacks from anyone.
• Filter comments and trackbacks for spam.
• Generates (RSS) news feeds and podcast feeds
• Customize Sidebar
• Import text from other blogs

* Ideal for announcements, journaling, portfolios, note taking, and discussion.

NOT ENABLED YET

• Private blogs - all blogs are visible to the public. The Blogs at Penn State team is working on a solution to tie Blogs to Protected Web Space
• Departmental blogs - The Blogs at Penn State team is researching solutions.

Blog Pilot Documentation and Support

• Help documentation is available at http://blogger.psu.edu/gethelp/.
• Use the Blogger Forum or contact blogs@psu.edu for additional assistance.

This is a Pilot

This is a reminder that we are still in pilot status for Spring 2008 for this system. Although we will work to ensure full service, there may be glitches in the system and support feedback may not be as rapid as with other production services such as Webmail or ANGEL.

Activate Your Personal Home Space

You must activate your Penn State Personal Web space in order to use the Penn State blog service.

To activate your personal Web space, go to http://www.personal.psu.edu, then click the "Apply for Web space on www.personal.psu.edu” link.

Note: You must allow three business days for the space to be activated.

Continue to Create Blogs.

Blog Writing Tips

Once you have activated your Blogs at Penn State Account, you may be wondering what to write. Below are some tips to get you started. After you have decided what to write, you can see how to Create a Blog and Write an Entry for full how-tos.

Decide Your Theme

There are lots of good blogging models out there including personal diaries, social commentaries, news updates, research notes, notes on different hobbies, project announcements and corporate update blogs. However, it's generally recommended that you pick a theme and stick with it. Below are some samples of typical blogs.

Course Examples

• Sociology of Race/Class/Gender (U of Minn) - course announcements, news and student tips
• Student Blog for ENG 1012 (U of Minn) - A student reflects on various topics from the course
• University of Minnesota Blogs - an eclectic collection of blogs from the University of Minnesota

Other Examples

• Kevin Morooney Liberty Road - Comments on information technology at Penn State
• Cole Camplese - Comments on instructional technology
• Russian Chronicles 2005 - Travel log of a trip across Russia.
• Jeff Siarto's Trip to Japan - Another travel blog which includes Flickr photos.
• Language Log - Linguists comment on languge usage and linguistic issues in modern life
• Science Blogs - Multiple blogs covering different topics in science
• Your Daily Art - Commentary on a single artwork each day
• Botony Photo of the Day - A botanical museum shows and describes a new plant everyday.
• Peter Murphy's Panoramic VR Weblog - List of Quicktime VR's made by the author
• Dave Barry's Blog - A "typical" personal blog with links to amusing stories

Once you pick a theme for your blog, you may find it is easier to start writing. One of the nice features of the Blogs at Penn State is that you can begin more than one blog, so you can decide if you want to separate different aspects of your life or keep them together.

One Blog or More?

The Movable Type system at Penn State allows you to create multiple blogs for multiple topics. Which is best?

If you want your blog to be a journal or diary, maybe one blog is best. Some of the "hottest" blogs are based on people writing about their lives in interesting ways. But there may be times when you may want more targeted blogs. For example:

• You may want one blog to discuss your research, course work or work projects, but another for your friends and family talking about your basketball team, wedding day or knitting projects.
• If you're interested in hits, then a specific topic blog may also be a good idea. Some research suggests that many users like to follow blogs on specific topics and want to find other "experts" or "enthusiasts" in their interests.

Fortunately, the Blogs at Penn State gives the option for either.

General Writing Tips

1. Use standard English spelling or punctuation. These conventions make text easier to read and scan.
2. On the of the other hand, you want may your blog style to be a little "looser" than a formal academic or work writing genre...even if your blog is course or work-related. People are hopefully reading your blog to see what YOU think.
3. Include links to other sites to verify facts or back up your opinion. If you believe Joe Paterno is the greatest football coach ever...link to some sports articles to back you up.
4. Length is tricky. Short entries are good, especially for quick news items or links, but many successful bloggers write entries about the size of a front-page Daily Collegian article. If you writing as an "expert", you do want to provide enough detail to show your knowledge.
5. Use subsections for longer entries.
6. Remember that blogs are public. You are free to write whatever you want, but remember that a future employer (or a parent) could be reading your entries.
7. Now go ahead and write. It may take you a while to find your "voice," but it will usually come in time. If it's a personal blog, you may find yourself deleting entries, but that is part of the learning process.
8. The Unpublished Status setting is a great tool for drafts. Some blog entries may take a bit of time to compose, but if your entry's Status is set to Unpublished, you can saveyour text often without posting it to the public.

Tips for Course-Related or Work-Related Blogs

You may choose (or be asked to) write a blog for a course or some aspect of your work at Penn State. Here are some tips that may help you get started.

1. If you are asked to do a blog, ask what kinds of information the person is looking for. An instructor may even provide style guidelines.
2. Maintain a professional tone. It's OK to express an opinion, but you may wish to be careful of how you frame negative comments. These are public blogs, so you never know who may be reading...
3. Longer posts may be OK. In many blogs about research, course work, or work-related issues, the reader may be looking for a more detailed analysis than if he or she were reading a personal blog.
4. Use tags or categories. This will help readers find previous articles in the topics they are interested in. The more professional a blog's theme is, the more important it is to archive content by topics.

Links

• Top 7 Tips for an Effective Business Blog
• Top 10 Blog Writing Tips
• Blogging Tips Condensed
• Angela Booth's Tips to Help You Write More

Create A New Blog

You must have activated your Penn State Personal Web space in order to use the Penn State blog service. To activate your personal Web space, go to http://www.personal.psu.edu/, then click the Apply for Web space on www.personal.psu.edu link. Note that there is a three-business day turnaround for this process.

This page describes how to create a blog. Once that is done, you can write and publish your first post.

To create a new blog

You can view the video or read the how-to text:

1. Go to to http://blogs.psu.edu and click Login to New Blog System. The first time you log in, you will see the System Overview page.
2. In the Create menu on the top, select Blog.
   Note: If you do not see the Blogs option in the Create menu, go to the top white location tab and select System Overview.
   

3. Enter a Blog Name in the Settings window (e.g. “A Test Blog”). This will be name on the top of the blog page.
4. Select a Template Set such as a Classic Blog or a Professional Website depending on how you want to use your space.
5. You can change the directory name in the Site URL as needed.
   Note: You can only change the portion of the name after “…blogs/” and you can only use letters, numbers, dashes and underscores.
6. Click Create Blog at the bottom to finalize the process.
   
7. Click the Write Entry button to write and publish your first post.

Comments Settings and Moderating Comments

By default, new blogs are set to allow comments, but only from Penn State users who have already created a blog.

If this is not desirable, you may prefer to activate Anonymous Comments. See instructions below. Go to the Comments Options table to compare WebAccess vs. Anonymous comments.

You can read the instructions below or watch the video screencast (Flash)

Republish Blog

If your blog was created before January 29, 2008 – you will have to perform the following procecure to reset your blog settings.

1. Log in and enter your blog.
2. Click the Design menu on the top and select Templates.
   
3. In the Templates window, check the option for JavaScript.
   
4. In the More actions menu at the top, select Refresh Template(s) then click the Go button. You will receive a confirmation message.
5. To change from WebAccess to Anonymous,
   1. Click Preferences in top toolbar, then select Registration.
   2. Check Anonymous then Require E-mail.
   3. Uncheck options for WebAccess, Vox, LiveJournal.
      Note: Leave Accept Registration checked.
   4. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
6. Click the Publish (circle arrow at top) button to post the changes.
7. Click View Site (page button at top) to confirm that Comments are active. You should see a Comments (0) link below the entry title after the author name and entry name.

Changing Settings

Allow Non-Penn State Comments

These settings will allow anyone to comment, but will require the author to approve each comment before it is posted. See the Approve or Delete Comments section for information on approving comments.

1. Log in and enter your blog, click Preferences in top toolbar, then select General.
   
2. A set of blog settings will be opened. Click the Registration link in the left hand menu to access the settings for enabling and disabling Web Access.
3. If you want to allow non-Penn State comments, check the option for Anonymous Comments, then Require E-mail Address for Anonymous Comments uncheck the options for WebAccess, LiveJournal and Vox.
   Note: Leave the option for Allow Registration checked.
   
4. Click Save Changes before exiting the page.
5. Click the Publish link to post the changes.
6. See the Approve or Delete Comments section for information on approving comments.

Note: The options for OpenID, Live Journal and Vox comments are non functional in the Penn State Movable Type environment.

Disable Comments

If you want to completely disable comments:

1. Click Preferences in top toolbar, then select Blog Settings.
2. Click the Comment link in the left hand settings menu to open those settings
3. Uncheck Accept Comments. Click Save Changes before exiting the page.
   
4. To have moderated comments (comments are not published until approved by you), check the following settings. With these settings, you will receive an e-mail for all comments posted to the Web for you to approve.
   • Make sure Accent Comments is checked.
   • Set the option for “Immediately approve comments” from to Trusted Commenters Only or No One.
   • Set E-mail Notification to On.
     
5. To disable comments completely, turn Accept Comments off.
6. Click Save Changes before exiting the page.
7. Click the Publish link to post the changes

Change Back to Penn State Authenticated Comments

Note: This option requires Penn State users to create a blog before they can post a comment.

1. Log in and enter your blog, click Preferences in top toolbar, then select Blog Settings.
2. Click the Registration link in the left hand menu.
3. Check the options for Allow Registration and WebAccess. Other options may be disabled.
4. Click Save Changes before exiting the page.
5. Click the Publish link to post the changes

Approve or Delete Anonymous Comments

If the approve options are set to No One or Trusted commenters, then you must approve comment submissions before they are posted.

1. For each new comment, you will receive an e-mail message including the username and the content of the comment along with three links.
2. Click on second “Edit link” to go to that comment.
   Note: If the link does not work, log in and enter your blog then click the Manage in the upper tool bar and select Comments. Then you can choose from the list given.
   
   Comment Status window. The blog eiditor is changing the status from Unapproved (yellow) to Approved.
3. You have the following options available in the Comments window:
• To publish a comment change the Status to Approved then click Save Changes at the bottom.
• To unpublish comment change the Status to Unapproved then click Save Changes at the bottom.
• To delete a comment, clixk the Delete button at the bottom of the page.
• To set a comment as junk, change the Status to Reported as Spam.
• To ban a commenter, go to the More Actions menu at the lower right and select Ban commenter

Reply to a Comment

1. Click the Manage in the upper tool bar and select Comments. You will see a list of submitted comments.
2. Click the Reply link beneath the appropriate comment.
   Note: You can reply to a comment in your published blog by clicking the Comments link beneath an entry.
3. Enter your text in the Your reply field, then click the Submit button. The reply will be published as another comment.

WebAccess vs. Anonynmous Comments

By default, new blogs are set to allow comments only from Penn State users (users need to login with their Access Account). You will also receive an e-mail message for each comment submitted which you must approve (see instructions in the Approve or Delete comments section below.

Two other options – Anonymous comments and Disabled Comments – are available. Here is a chart comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each. Note that in many cases, Anonymous Comments or may a better option.

Subscribe to the Blog Newsfeed

Find the Blog Newsfeed

You have the option of subscribing to a blog's newsfeed (or "RSS feed") by doing the following.

1. Navigate to your published blog (e.g. http://www.personal.psu.edu/xyz123/blogs/).
2. Click the link for Subscribe to this blog's feed in the sidebar. Right click and select the option for copying the link URL.
3. Open a news reader application such as Feed Reader (Windows), NetNewsWire Lite (Mac), Bloglines (Web), Google Reader (Web), Thunderbird (Mac/Windows) or Firefox 2.0.
4. Create a new subscription and paste the blog's feed URL. The most recent headlines for the blog will be displayed.

Aggregate and Monitor Course Blog Feeds

If you are instructor or staff member monitoring multiple blogs, then you can use the folder feature in a newsreader to monitor multiple feeds in one location.

Just create a folder for each course or topic you monitor then move your subscriptions to the appropriate forlder. Each folder will list stories for all feeds in the folder and distinguish read and unread stories. Below are instructions for how to set up a newsfeed folder for a course.

What is an RSS Blog feed?

A news feed is a text file which lists the headlines for new blog headlines. The Newsfeed can be viewed in new browsers such as Internet Explorer 7, Safari 2 or Firefox 2.

News feed applications such as Blogines.com (Web), Google Reader (Web), Thunderbird (Win/Mac), Feed Reader (Win) or NetNewsWire Lite (Mac) allow you to subscribe to favorite feeds and organize them into folders by topic.

Read the Using RSS Newsfeeds to Get the Latest Headlines page for more detailed information on RSS and RSS newsreaders.

Write and Publish Blog Entries

First, make sure you have

1. Activated your Personal Web space
2. Created a blog

To create an entry

1. Log in to http://blogs.psu.edu and enter your blog.
2. Click the Write Entry tab at the top. You should see an entry for the blog you just created.
   
3. Fill in a title for your entry and enter text in the textbox below. You can use the formatting buttons as needed. See the Entry Formatting Appendix for details.
4. Add Tags (a list of terms separated by commas) or Categories as needed.
5. Click Save to complete your entry.
6. To view the entry as your public will see it, click the View Site button in the top links. Your blog will open in a new tab or window.
7. To send an e-mail notification, click Share on right of Entry screen
   Note: If this option is not visible, click the Save button.

Key to Formatting Tools

See the Entry Formatting Tools table for an explanation of the different WYSIWYG formatting tools.

Edit and Delete Older Blog Entries

To edit and delete older entries, click the top Manage menu and select Entries. See the Edit and Delete Entries documentation for more details.

Notes on Additional Options

1. Extended tab - Allows you to split a long entry into two sections. Put the second part of a long entry in the Extended screen. Blog viewers will see the first part of an entry in the blog home page followed by a "Continue Reading" link.
2. Format Menu - Allows you to switch between Rich Text (WYSIWYG) and None (HTML Tag) view. Other options refer to alternate markup schemes.
3. Status Menu - Controls whether the public sees your entry
   1. Published (Default) - the public can see your entry
   2. Unpublished - the entry is hidden from the public. Use this to write and save drafts of longer entries.
   3. Scheduled option lets you post entries at specific times in the future.
4. Feedback
   1. Unchecking Accept Comments will disable comments for that entry.
   2. Unchecking Accept TrackBacks will disable trackbacks for that entry.
5. The Publish Date options allow to adjust the publication date of your entry.
6. The Basename field allows you to adjust the URL of your blog entry
   Note: It is NOT recommended that you change your Basename unless you have a specific reason to do so.
7. Display Options - allows you to customize the entry form of your blog.

Entry Formatting Tools

The following is a chart of the available WYSWYG formatting tools. To access these tools, log in to http://blogs.psu.edu, enter your blog and click the Write Entry tab.

Note: If you do not see a Write Entry tab, click the white location tab (the "Blog Dashboard" tab) in the upper left and select the name of your blog.

Tool or Setting	Icon	Description
Descrease Font Size Increase Font Size		Click Decrease Text Size to make text smaller. Click Increase Text Size to make text larger.
Bold Italics Underline Strikethrough		Use the font formatting tools to add bold, italic, underline or strikethrough formatting respectively to selected text
Link		The Link tool allows you to create hyperlinks within your document. Highlight text which will become a link, click the Link tool, then enter the URL in the pop-up window.
Email Link		Use this tool to create links to e-mail addresses. Highlight text which will become a link, click the Email Link tool, then enter the e-mail address in the pop-up window.
Begin Blockquote End Blockquote		Use Begin Blockquote to indent a paragraph Use the End Blockquote to remove an indent.
Bulletd List		Click the Bulleted List option to create a bulleted list. Click the button again to stop the list. Click Tab to indent a list item in one level Click Shift-Tab outdent a list item
Numbered List		Click the Numbered List option to create a bulleted list. Click the button again to stop the list. Click Tab to indent a list item in one level Click Shift-Tab outdent a list item
Left Align Center Align Right Align		Use the Paragraph Alignment tools to select left aligned, center or right aligned text respectively
Insert Image		The Insert Image tool allows you to insert images into your document.
Insert File		The Insert File tool allows you to upload files (in, including audio and video files into your blog.
WYSIWYG Mode HTML Mode		To view the HTML code, click the <A> HTML mode button. To return to formatted text, click the blue underlined A WYSIWYG Mode button.

Find Blog URL and View Blog Posts

First, make sure you have

1. Activated yor Personal Web space
2. Created a blog
3. Written and published an entry

What is the Blog URL?

The blog URL you share with your friends and colleagues is different from the one used to create your blog (http://blogs.psu.edu).

The URL of your published blog is structured as follows:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/<your Userid>/blogs/<URL Name>

For instance, if user xyz123 had a blog with the URL name “worknotes”, the URL would be

http://www.personal.psu.edu/xyz123/blogs/worknotes

The following instructions tell how to find your published blog URL from within http://blogs.psu.edu.

To find your blog URL

1. Log on to http://blogs.psu.edu and enter your blog.
2. Click the View Site (circle arrow) button in the top links.
   
3. The public view of your site will open in a new tab or window.

If you have just written an entry

After you have written and saved an entry you will see a link for View Published Entry above the entry title towards the right.

Note: If you do not see this link, make sure you have clicked the Save button and that the Status menu is set to Published.

Create Static Web Pages with Movable Type

This version of Movable Type has added tools which allow you to create static Web pages which are connected to your blog.

Create a Page

1. Login to the Blogs system and enter a blog
2. Click Create in the top links then select Page. A form similar to that for a blog entry will appear.
   
3. Fill in a title for your entry and enter text in the textbox below. You can use the formatting buttons as needed. See the “HTML Toobar Appendix” for details.
4. In the “Metadata” section, add Tags (a list of terms separated by commas) as needed.
5. Click the Save button at the bottom to save a draft. A filename will be given based on the title of your page,
   Note: You can change the name of the page in the Filename field at the bottom. All filenames should end with .html or .htm and should avoid all punctuation except for _ (underscore) or –(dash).
6. If you are ready for the page to be viewable by the public, then in the “Publishing” section, set Status to Published then click Save at the bottom.
   Note: Pages which are set to Unpublished are not viewable to the public.
7. To create a directory folder, click the Change folder link then the plus sign to create a directory (the process is similar to that for creating new Categories).
8. If you want viewers to be able to add comments or TrackBacks, check the options to Accept comments and to accept TrackBacks.
9. To view a published entry, click View Published Page link in the upper right to see how your entry has been published. You will see the contents of your page plus the blog header and some parts of the sidebar.
   Note: If you do not see this link, make sure the Status is set to Published.

Hide Pages from Pages Menu

To hide a page from the Pages menu, enter the page for editing, and set the Status to Unpublished.

You will be able to edit and preview pages, but no one will be able to view them. Change the status to Published when you are ready for the public to view the pages.

Edit and Delete Pages

1. Login and enter your blog.
2. Click the Manage in the upper set of links, then click Pages.
3. Click the link for the page you wish to edit.
4. Edit as needed then click Save.
5. To delete an page, place a check next to the entry and click the Delete button.

Controlling Sequence for a Group of Pages

Pages (or pages in the same folder) are ordered alphabetically by the title first given. That is, even if you change the title later, the page order does not reshuffle.

To get the correct order in the first place, you may want to try adding a number before each page title or being creative with titles.

If you need to reshuffle the order, you will need to recreate a second version with an appropriate alphabetized title. You can:

• Set the status of the 1st page to Unpublished - this hides the page, but does not delete it.
• Create new page with sequence-friendly title.
• Copy and paste content from old page.

Using RSS Newsfeeds to Get the Latest Headlines