Day 2 Assignment – Start

Today your assignment is to:

1. write and post a blog entry
2. leave a comment on another blog
3. add other blogs to your blogroll
4. moderate the comments on your blog

Have at it!

Write and post (publish) a blog entry

From the WordPress Dashboard, you can write a blog entry (also called a post). You can delete entries at any time.

To write a blog entry:

• Click Write in the Administration Panel.

• Enter a title for your entry in the Title field. (You can change this later, even after you’ve published it.)

• In the Post window, enter some text. (Note that the window can be resized. To do so, hover your cursor over the lower right corner. When the cursor becomes a black, two-sided arrow, click and drag.)

• Click Save and Continue Editing at the bottom of the window.

• Click the Preview link at the top right of the Post window. Your preview appears in a new window. Take a look at the preview of what your post will look like when you publish it. Use the back button on your browser to go back to to the Post window.

• Click Save. The Post window closes and a draft of your entry is saved. The title appears the top of the page to the right of the label Your Drafts. You can edit this at any time.

• Reopen your draft by clicking the title.

• Write some more. When you’re ready, click Save and then click Publish.

• Click View site at the top of the screen. Your test entry appears on your blog.

Note: If you have created categories for your blog entries, they are listed at the right of the Dashboard page. Choose which categories you want to label your entry with before you save (if you forget, you can go back and do it later (see below: To edit blog entries…).

To return to the Dashboard page at any time, click My Dashboard at the top of your blog. Note: This link only appears when you are logged in.

To delete blog entries, click Manage in the Admin Panel. The Posts page opens and all your posts are listed. Click the Delete link to the right of the post you want to delete.

To edit blog entries, click Manage in the Admin Panel and click the Edit link to the right of the post you want to change.

To format your blog entry (add bold or italic text, hyperlinks, block quotes, etc.), see Format your blog entries.

About copyrighted material: If you are going to use other people’s material in your blog posts (images, music, videos, writing) be sure that you give credit. Provide the name and source. Link to it. If it’s art, contact the artists and ask for permission. You can send them a draft of the blog entry to show them the context in which their art will appear to be on the up and up. It’s easier than you might think these days, and they usually don’t mind the free advertising.

Leave a comment on another blog

The comment feature of blogs allows members of blog communities to hold conversations.

To leave a comment on a blog entry:

• Click the Comment(s) link under the entry. (Some bloggers change this to different things, like “Say It” or any imaginable clever substitute. You can usually find the comment link at the end of an entry, although sometimes it is at the beginning. Bloggers generally want to get comments, so you’re likely to find it somewhere.)

• Fill in the information requested in the comment form.

• Click Submit (or whatever the button is; they might differ with different themes).

Add other blogs to your blogroll

The blogroll displays blogs you visit often or want to share with your readers. Your WordPress blog already has two WordPress sites listed in the blogroll.

To add a blog to your blogroll:

• Click Blogroll in the Admin Panel. The Blogroll Management page opens. (You can delete the WordPress sites via this page by clicking the Delete link to the right of each.)

• Click Add Link in the sub-panel.

• Enter the name of the blog you want to add and its URL address in the appropriate fields. Description is optional. Ignore the rest of the page.

• Click Add Link. The blog Name will appear in your sidebar under Blogroll.

Manage comments

In this class, I’m asking you to comment on other blogs. In order for comments to show up on your blog, you have to approve them. This process is called “moderating comments.”

By default, WordPress sends you an e-mail when you have a new comment to moderate. (You can change this by clicking Options in the Admin Panel and Discussion in the sub-panel.)

You will also get what’s known as “comment spam.” This is junk mail that is usually caught by Akismet, a program that WordPress runs for this purpose. You still have to manually delete comment spam.

To moderate comments and comment spam:

• Click Comments in the Admin Panel. If there are any comments to moderate, the number will appear in parentheses next to Awaiting Moderation in the sub-panel. Any comment spam that Akismet has caught will appear next to Akismet Spam.
• Click Awaiting Moderation in the sub-panel. Go through each comment and approve, delete, mark as spam, etc.
• Click the Bulk Moderate Comments button. Those comments you have approved will appear on your blog below the entry with which they are associated.
• Click Akismet Spam in the sub-panel. Review the spam (if you want to) and delete.