Use the Blog Editor's Built-In Help

In the edit window, notice the big question mark at upper right. Clicking on the ? opens a small window that explains whatever is in the page you are looking at.

Create an Excerpt

In the Edit window, click on the Excerpt button. This will open the Excerpt box. Type a very brief intro to your listing into the excerpt box. Say just enough to let the reader know what your entry is about. Use keywords, separated by commas. Put the rest of the information into the content box. Please don't use images or links in excerpts. Dates should be in brief numerical format.

Site users will see the short excerpts instead of the entire text of each listing. This makes it easier to quickly scan the list of events. After each excerpt are the words Continue reading. When people click on those words, the rest of your entry will appear.

Create Your Content

The Content box is the main part. You can get your information into it in three ways:
  • Type it in.
  • Copy and paste.
  • Drag and drop.
You can copy or drag an entire page, with links, pictures and all. The content can come from your group's website, or from an email. This works best if you have the text formating set to XHTML. If the text formating is set to Wiki, links and images won't copy, and there will be text or code in their place.

Using the Toolbar

There is a toolbar at the top of the Excerpt box and the Content box. Hover your cursor over one of the icons in the toolbar. A yellow info label will appear, telling you what that tool does.

Select some text in your entry by dragging the mouse across it to highlight it. Click on one of the text tools in left 2/3 of the toolbar. That formats the selected text. The B formats text as boldface, the I formats text as italic, etc.

To remove text formating, select some text and click on the 3rd icon from the right, the whisk-broom. If that doesn't work, click on source at the bottom of the content box to edit the source code.

Create Headers

Headers are the boldface headlines you see before new subjects. Headers can't be within paragraphs, they have to be between them. You can create space for a header by hitting the Enter key at the end of a paragraph.

To create a header, type the text you want. Select the text by dragging the mouse across it to highlight it. Click on the drop-down at the left of the toolbar that says - block format -. Click on Header 3. Don't use Header 1, that's used for the blog's title. Don't use Header 2, that's already been used for the title of your entry.

Create a Link

Here's how to create a clickable link to a website. First go to the site you want to link to. Copy the URL from the address bar at top of your browser window. The URL looks like this: http://bayvajra.info/

In the Content box, type in the name of the site as you want it to read. Example: BayVajra.info. Select the name by dragging your mouse across to highlight it.

In the toolbar at top of the Content box, hover your mouse over the 5th tool from right. You'll see a yellow label that says Link. Click on the Link tool. A dialog window pops up. Paste the URL into the Link URL field. Click on insert link.

Assign a Category

Click on the Category drop-down at upper right of the Edit window. Select one of the months listed. People who are looking for events in that month will see your event. Don't assign the Help category to your entry, that's just for me.

Entry Status

On the right of the edit window, next item down from the Category drop-down is the Entry status drop-down. To create a draft of an entry and save it to work on later: pending. Or publish it. Or unpublish a previous entry, so you can edit it and use it again later. Or delete it once it's outdated.

If you haven't set your user preferences, the default entry status is set to pending. It's better to set your user preferences first. Then you won't have to remember to change the entry status every time you create an entry. In your user preferences, change the default entry status to published.

Text Formating

The next drop-down is labeled Text formating. If you haven't set your user preferences, text formating is still set to wiki. Set your user preferences. Set the Preferred format to XHTML. Check the box that says Enable WYSIWYG mode.

WYSIWYG means What You See Is What You Get. That means you won't see any code. If you make some text bold, it will appear in the edit box as bold text, not as normal text with code around it. WYSIWYG mode only works if you are using XHTML formating.

Select XHTML text formating, then enable WYSIWYG mode.

Leave the Published on Field Blank

The blog software will automatically fill it in when you click save at the bottom of the window to publish your entry.

Don't Use These Settings

Don't check the little boxes at the right of the edit window that say Accept comments and Accept trackbacks. I have both of these turned off for the entire site.

Comments and trackbacks have become conduits for spam. Even legitimate comments and trackbacks take up lots of room. Let's keep this a lean, fast, simple events list.

Leave the Selected entry box unchecked as well. I don't have selected entries enabled. The list of them would take up room in the left column on the homepage, and it's already crowded.

Basename

Leave it blank, the software creates it for you.

Attachments

Don't attach files to your entry. Use the Media Manager instead. Attached files create an extra line of text on the homepage to announce their presence. There's enough words on the homepage already.

Use Tags

Tags are keywords. Tags help people quickly find the things that interest them. A list of tags appears on the left side of the homepage. The tags associated with your entry are listed below the title. By clicking on a tag, people see a list of all entries associated with that tag.

Keep tags as brief as possible. Usually a tag has only one word, occasionally two words. Capitalize the first letter of each keyword. You can add multiple tags to your entry.

Please don't create many tags that are slightly different. Examples: Nyingma, nyingma, Nyingmapa, and nyingmapa. The software treats them as completely different tags. This defeats the purpose of tags. It's better if different writers use the same tags whenever possible. In this example, use Nyingma, the tag that is already in use on the site. Then when a site user clicks on that tag, the software can show them a list of all the entries tagged with Nyingma.

To add a tag:
Find the word Tags at the bottom right of the Edit window. Click on Add a tag to this entry. You'll see a blank field, and below it a line that says Choose from list. Click on Choose from list. Click on a tag from the list that appears. Once it's added to the tag field, you can click on another. Click on ok to save the tags.

If the tag you want to use isn't on the list, enter it into the tag field. Type in a keyword that describes your event. To add more than one tag, type a comma and a space, then another tag. Click on ok to save the tags.

Or select a keyword in your listing by highlighting it. Click on the last icon in the toolbar, the tag icon. You can add tags while using the Excerpt box or the Content box. Either way, the tags will be added to your entry.

To delete a tag from your entry, click on the [x] after it. Notice the drop-down that appears at the top of the window, and asks if you really want to delete this tag. Click on OK.

Save Your Entry

Remember to click save at the bottom of the edit window before you exit.

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