wayne on July 21, 2008 

In this lesson we will take a look at the interface for writing our posts, as provided by Blogger.com.  I'll start by taking a look at the Blogger.com Create New Post screen and examining the options that are available.

Note to new visitors!  If you would like to know more about this series or view all available lessons, just follow the appropriate link.

The Dashboard

You can begin to write a new post by clicking on the 'New Post' link found on the dashboard immediately after you log in to the Blogger.com web site.

From the dashboard, you are also able to manage your existing posts, change your settings, and modify your layout.  There is also a link to view your blog.

You'll notice a link labeled 'Create a blog' that will allow you to create a second blog if you like.

In this lesson, we'll be writing our first post, so let's click the 'New Post' link to navigate to the entry screen.

Writing posts are the cornerstone of your blog, so it makes sense that the more you know about the interface provided to you, the better your posts will look, and you'll find better ways of expressing the message you want to convey.

Overview of the Post Entry screen

We'll start by taking a look at the post entry screen and identifying and describing each of the sections that make up the interface.

There are 12 identifiable areas on this screen, and they are:

1. The Main Tab Bar - These set of tabs allow you to navigate between the 'Create Post' screen, and other areas we have not covered yet.  I will not cover these tabs yet, as they will deserve their own post for describing them
   
2. The Posting Menu - You start off on the 'Create' tab where you create your new posts, but you can also edit your exiting posts as well as moderate your comments.
   
3. Title - The post title, perhaps the most important part of any blog post.  It is arguably the first thing visitors will read about your post and should give enough information about what the reader will find within the post.  A good title for each post is as important as a good movie title.  It should create intrigue, provide information about what the post is about, and ultimately attempt to get the visitor to click it to read more.
   
   Most titles will turn into hyperlinks so that visitor who want to read more of you post simply need to click the title.
   
4. Edit HTML and Compose Tabs - These two tabs allow you to switch between viewing what your post will look like, and editing the HTML directly.  If you don't know HTML, might I suggest staying on the 'Compose' tab for now.  By all means explore the 'Edit HTML' tab, but remember that any change you make on the 'Edit HTML' tab could have a negative effect on your composition.  And by negative I mean "pissing me off because the 'Compose' screen is now all screwed up" kind of negative.  If you ever need to start over, you can also switch to the 'Edit HTML' view, delete everything, and then switch back to the 'Compose' view.  You'll be starting off brand new again!
   
5. Editing Toolbar - The toolbar is your primary way of styling your post.  The controls allow you to modify the texts shape, size and color.  There are also controls for making hyperlinks and inserting pictures.  Here's each control available to you and an explanation of what they are.
   
   

   Image	Description
   	Fonts - The font dialog will change the text you have selected (or highlighted) in body to the font you select here. Here are each font in the list displaying how they look: Arial Courier Georgia Lucida Grande Times Trebuchet Verdana Webdings (WebDings)
   	Font Size - The font size control will change the text you have selected in the body area a smaller or larger size.  It does this by increasing or decreasing the size of the text in percentages.  Normal is considered 100% of the font size. Smallest = 78% Small = 85% Normal = 100% Large = 130% Largest = 180%
   	Bold and Italics - Will darken or italicize the currently selected text in the body window.
   	Text Color - Pressing the text color button, reveals a selection of color to choose from.  Simply highlight the text you want to change, click the text color button () to show the list.  Select a color and your selected text will now be that color. Click somewhere else in the body to remove the selection you made to reveal what the new color will look like.
   	Create Hyperlink - You can make a hyperlink by selecting the text you want to make into a link, and then clicking this button. When you do, you will see this: Enter the URL you wish to send the visitor when they click this new hyperlink. NOTE!  Turns out this will actually mangle your hyperlinks if editing existing links is required.  Use this carefully, make sure you have the right text selected, and you get the right URL the first time! I've taken a look at how well this creates the required HTML and will report that it's piss poor.  Use it carefully, and you'll do fine.  However, if you need to make corrections, it doesn't work too well, and you could end up creating a mess of links with each correction.  Yes, it's pretty bad.
   	Alignment - These buttons will align the selected text in the direction indicated on the button face.  Here they are described in order that they appear in the image to the left. This text right here is currently aligned left. This is centered This is to the right And this is justified text.  It is neither left or right, but instead the spacing between words is modified to allow the text to shape into a square.
   	Formatting - Sometimes you need to insert bullets and ordered lists, and other times you need to quote someone. Simply highlight the text and click the desired button.  The changes you make will be visible immediately.  If you don't like what you see, simply click the same button again while you text is still selected, and it will revert back to where it was before.
   	Spell Check - The number one thing you should do before every post, spell check.  I'm quite happy to find that the spell checker in Blogger.com is actually quite nice. The spell checker will identify all words it feels are spelled incorrectly with a a yellow highlight. As you can see in the image here, the word 'jumped' is wrong, by simply clicking the word, and placing your cursor there, a list will be given to you to select the correct spelling from.  When you are done making corrections, simply click the 'Done spellchecking' link to remove the yellow highlights.
   	Insert Picture and Insert Video - These two buttons have additional configuration and will be addressed in a subsequent post.
   	Remove Formatting - Sometimes you just screw things up, it happens to all of us.  Thankfully enough, we have the remove formatting button.  It will strip the editing from your selected text. If that isn't good enough for you and you need to remove ALL formatting from your post and start over, do this: Select all text in the body by dropping your cursor in the body and selecting Ctrl-A on your keyboard.  This selects the entire post. Click the remove formatting button. That is the only way to completely remove ALL formatting from a post.  Simply selecting without using the Ctrl-A method, will still leave formatting HTML that could negatively affect the formatting of your post later on.

   
   
6. Preview/Hide Preview - This will toggle the display so that you can view what the post should look like to your visitors.
   
7. Post Body - This is where all the action happens.  This is where you write and compose your post for all the world to marvel at.
   
8. Post Options - This link will display and hide an area that allows you to specify if you want to allow visitors to comment on your post or not.  It also allows you to specify when the post should appear on your blog.  By inputting a date in the future, your visitors will not see the post until that date and time has been reached.
   This is excellent to use when you are going on vacation, or will not be around to blog and keep your visitors with new posts. 
   
9. Labels - Labels are arbitrary text that you apply to the post.  How you use them is completely up to you.  They are usually words that you associate with the content of your post.  So if you happen to be writing about roses, you might include the word 'flowers' as a label.  When you write another post on gardenias, you might also give the post a label called 'flowers'.
   
   When you do this, a list of any prior labels used for posts will display making is easier to ensure that the labels are consistently spelled correctly.  If you don't manage to spell the same keywords you might use on various posts, the label list your visitors will see will reflect that.  So make sure you consistently use the same words
   
10. Publish Post - Will immediately publish your post.  If you have modified the post date to some future date, your visitors will not see it until that time arrives.
    
11. Save Now - Saves your work as a 'draft' and will not be visible to your visitors.  It's highly recommended that you save, and save often! 
    
    NOTE! If you edit an existing, published post that is viewable by your visitors, and then click the 'Save Now' button, you're post will be turned into a draft, and will no longer be visible to your visitors.
    
12. Return to list of posts - Takes you to your list of posts on the Edit Posts screen.

I find it quite important to once again say that you should make a habit of previewing your handiwork prior to publishing, as well as saving often! 

Have you found any secrets to editing your posts using this administration screen?  What has been your experience?

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