Wednesday: Week Two (Blogging)

A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

A photoblog (or photolog, or phlog) is a form of photo sharing and publishing in the format of a blog. It differs from a blog through the predominant use of and focus on photographs rather than text.

Description from Wikipedia

This evening you successfully set up a blog or to be more specific, because it will be predominantly used to publish photographs it also be known as a photoblog. The photoblog will give us a great opportunity to converse beyond the Wednesday night class; share, experiences, technical information and inspire each other. However it will also provide you a platform to share your images with family and friends and over time it will offer you a record of progress and an archive of solutions to photographic problems you encounter.

Blogger is the name of the company that offer you the blog service and as they are now part of Google it means you can access your blog in two ways: You can either log into Google and go to your account settings and select your blog, or, you can input your blog address into the address bar of your browser, for example, for this blog I type thercatphotoblog.blogspot.com
Remember the name you are using will always be followed by .blogspot.com, if you forget what your blog web address is log into Google and access your blog that way.

The secret to finding your way around your blog is not to get too overwhelmed by the interface it offers, take it slow; begin by concentrating on adding some content. To do this, open a new tab in your browser and type your blog address, then sign in. This will take you to the main edit page called the dashboard. From here you will find the entries you have/will make and have the opportunity to edit/delete them. Select New Post to add a new entry, you will then be presented with a screen similar to a word document that allows you to type into a window and add other content. Perhaps the most important icon from the selection of editing tools you have is the one that looks like a picture, this allows you to add a photograph. Selecting it will offer up a new window allowing you to browse your computer for the photograph you want to publish. If you have been working in a small quality mode on your camera then it shouldn't take long to upload otherwise it may take a few minutes.
Select the size the image will appear and the position on the screen where it will appear and you are done.

Saving your post will allow you to continue editing it later without it being published. Selecting Publish Now will post your entry to your blog for all to see.

Finally, your blog page can appear as any preformatted page you choose by selecting Layout and then Template Design but most have a similar layout; your entries appear as a column with a record of the posts you have made on the right. Above this record are icons that represent the people that are following you. Selecting their image will allow you to visit their page...

...I hope this helps, in later blogs I will add more information that will help you customise your blog further.