Wikizeum

We’ve now created our blog and we’ve added some text. But a page full of text can become overwhelming to the reader without some image or video content to break up the flow of characters and images can make it more appealing and fun to read. Images and video are also important because they can help illustrate what you’re trying to convey.

First, select a post you wish to edit, or create a new one.

Before we add our image, we need to find an image to publish first. Often, you can find relevant images using an image search for a keyterm on a search engine. But be careful that you’re not downloading an image that is copyrighted. You can often get permission from the original publisher, especially if you provide a credit and a link back to the original page.

For safety’s sake, I’m going to search for an image on Flickr Commons, a large repository of images available for use with only a few restrictions. These images have a Creative Commons license applied to them, which I won’t explain in depth here, but CC-licensed works have less-restrictive use permissions than copyrighted works, and are especially useful for non-profit institutions.

I searched for “printing press” and found this image from the Smithsonian of Joseph Pennell with a printing press:

I saved the image to my computer (on a PC, right click on it and “Save Image As…”) and I’m now ready to upload it to my blog.

Within the body of the text, move the cursor to where you want the image to be. Remember those little icons that look like a landscape picture and a film strip? Select the one on the left, the one that looks like a landscape picture.

When the Add Image button is selected, a new window will open, asking you to upload an image. Navigate to the location of where you saved your image and select it. Decide where on the page you want the image to be displayed - along the left side, in the center, or along the right. Also decide how big you want your image to be displayed. “Small” is often quite tiny, and “medium” is fairly easy to see without it overwhelming the page. Rarely select “large,” because displaying large-size images can really disrupt the page. I prefer centered and “medium,” but it’s up to you.

Your image is automatically inserted into the post. Let’s take a look:

So what about video? If you have video you have produced, and is currently on your computer, select the Add Video icon (to the right of the Add Image icon) and upload it. It functions much the same way as adding images. However, if you want to embed a video from a site like YouTube or Vimeo, it can get a little tricky.

Remember that Edit HTML tab along the top of the editing page we ignored before? We’re going to use it now to embed the video into the body of our post.

First, find a video you like on YouTube. To the right of the player screen, there’s a code within a field called “Embed.” Click on it once to highlight the entire code and copy it (right-click and “Copy” or select Ctrl-C). Now go back to your post and select the Edit HTML tab.

You’ll see that your post looks different now. Lots of characters and no images. They’re still there! You’re just seeing the code the Web uses to display the text as you’ve written it.

Now scroll down to where you want your video to go. Paste the code into body of the text (highlighted in blue, here).

Now, when we switch back to the Compose tab, you won’t see the video. In Blogger, you won’t see anything until you select the Preview link to view it. In Wordpress, there’s a funny yellow box that shows up instead. That’s fine, so long as the embed code is in the right place on the HTML tab.

So what does our new post look like now?

Looking good!

Now that you’ve created your blog, you need to provide content for people to read. Adding text is very easy, and most blogging softwares use a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get) for writing, similar to most word processing programs. Adding images and media can get a bit tricky, so we’ll go over that in the next post. For now, let’s just focus on adding text.

For the sake of consistency, we’re going to continue using Blogger, though the process is also quite simple in Wordpress or other blogging softwares.

Step 1: Login

After logging into your Blogger account, you will be transported to the Dashboard. You’ll see your new blog listed just to the right of your profile:

Click the big blue button that reads, “New Post.”

Step 2: Write!

Writing a post is really easy. You just type. You can change the font, its size and color, the alignment of the text, and create bullets or numbered lists, or use a spellcheck, just like you would in a word processor.

There are a few differences, though. Here are some icons you won’t normally find in a word processor:

• Hyperlinks

This icon, which looks like a chain link superimposed over a globe represents the hyperlink function. In order to create a hyperlink to another webpage within your text, you highlight the text you want to use to represent the link, click this button, and a box will open, requesting the address you wish to link to.

It’s handy to have links within the text to outside webpages. Not only does this help support your content by providing outside verification, alternative points of view, or giving your readers sources of additional information, it is also useful for promoting your blog. We’ll discuss blog promotion in another post, but linking to other sites helps web search engines like Google or Yahoo find your blog and make it available in search results.

• Blockquotes

Blockquotes are used for separating out a selection of text from the rest of the body of the post. They are primarily used as a method of quoting a source or a discussion. Blockquotes mean the same thing as quotation marks do in a book, but because of the visual nature of blog posts, blockquotes can be extremely useful for highlighting important passages.

Like hyperlinking, simply highlight the text you wish to blockquote and press the quotation icon.

• Add images and video

Images and media embedded into blog posts can transform a dry, dull text into an engaging, illustrative one. Images should be used regularly within postings, to help support the message of the writing. Embedded video, such as YouTube or Vimeo content, can also be extremely useful, but be aware that not all browsers can display such content. Unless your blog is about video, it may be wise to use embedded video more sparingly.

We’ll explore adding images and video in another post.

• Remove formatting

The little icon which looks like an eraser is used for removing formatting. Don’t like that blockquote or the area with bold and italics? Just select the text you wish to revert to plain text and select the eraser.

You can also use standard keyboard commands to toggle formatting on and off.

Keyboard commands

• control + b = Bold
• control + i = Italic
• control + l = Blockquote (when in HTML-mode only)
• control + z = Undo
• control + y = Redo
• control + shift + a = Link
• control + shift + p = Preview
• control + d = Save as Draft
• control + p = Publish Post
• control + s = Autosave and keep editing
• control + g = Indic transliteration

Post options

Along the bottom of the editing screen, there are a couple more things of note. First, on the left, is a link with a little arrow that reads, “Post options.” Clicking on that link expands a window that gives you some additional tools for your post. You can disallow comments on the post, or change the time and date of the post. Because blog pages display the most recent post first, it can be helpful to organize your posts by adjusting the date and time settings.

There is also a field called “Labels for this post.” Labels are brief keywords that describe the content of the post. They are also known as “tags” elsewhere. Labels are helpful for assisting readers to find specific posts according to their own interests, or to find related content within your blog. You add labels by writing a word, or a very short phrase, and separating them with commas. For example, a post about basketball might have the labels basketball, ball, orange, players, sports, NBA, “American sports”, etc.

• HTML tab

There’s another option along the top of the editing screen, called the HTML tab. This is used when writing your text in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language - the code many websites use to display their content). For the purposes of this tutorial, we’re not going to worry about this tab. At least not for now.

Step 3: Save or post!

Once you’ve written some text, you may wish to wait a bit and edit or add more content later. Save the post as a draft if you’re not ready to publish it live on the blog. You can always edit it later, after posting. To do this, select the Save Now button. You can navigate away from the page and return to it later.

If your post is ready to go, select the Preview button, give it a quick read for grammar and spelling, and then select the Publish button at the bottom.

Congratulations! You’ve posted your first blog post on your own blog!

Now that you’ve decided to create a blog, how do you start one?  We’ll discuss how to select a blogging platform later, so I won’t go into it further here, but two of the most popular for cultural institutions is Wordpress, a very customizable software that can be modified and fine-tuned to address very specific needs; and  Blogger, an easy-to-use blogging platform that integrates with Google’s suite of products. There are many more other options to choose from, but in 2009, these are the most used. This site utilizes an installed version of Wordpress with customized templates and a number of plugins (don’t worry about the terminology for now. We’ll get into that later).

Because of its simplicity of setup, for the purposes of this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to set up a blog on Blogger. (click on the images to see full sizes)

Step 1: Create an account

The first thing you’ll need to do is set up an account with Google. You can use whichever email address you would like, or you may create a Gmail account. If you already have an account with Google, skip this step.

Step 2: Create your blog

After your account is created, you’re now free to create your blog. In the upper-right corner of the screen, sign in using your Google Account.

You will be redirected to the Dashboard,the area where you manage your account, your blog posts, and all of the customization and modification of your blog. Whenever you want to create a new post, you’ll do it through the Dashboard. It’s not a bad idea to bookmark this page for quick access.

Wordpress also uses a Dashboard, and though it looks quite different, it functions the same way.

Click on the big blue button that says, “Create Your Blog Now”

Step 3: Customize it

Before your blog is live on the Blogger website, there’re some basic customization options you’ll need to decide upon. What will my blog’s title be? What will it look like? What’s the layout? The look and feel of the blog can seem almost as important as the content, but there are some very effective blogs using the out-of-the-box formats without any special customization at all. If the content is compelling, the look and feel is not always that important. Regardless, the blog layout should not be visually distracting with too many busy graphics or too many additional elements that detract from the posts. The visual layout of your blog should support the message or dialogue you’re using it to convey.

The first thing you’ll want to do is name your blog. Often, you’ll want something short and descriptive. The blog’s title is the catchword that is used to refer to the blog. You’ll have the option later on to describe the blog in a more verbose and descriptive manner. The sample blog illustrated below is too wordy for most institutional blogs, but it is fine for our purposes here.

The blog address is the web page URL or address of your blog. If possible, choose something close to your blog’s title. You won’t always have this option, since someone else may already be using that address. Keep trying different options until you find one that works.

Don’t worry about the two options down at the bottom for now.

Click the orange arrow to continue.

The next screen displays many different pre-defined layouts, called templates, for your blog. You will always have the option to create new templates or modify existing ones with your own graphics. For now, select one that suits your needs. To see a better view of the template and how it looks, click on the “preview template” links under each image.

And that’s all there is to it! You’re ready to start customizing your blog or adding posts to it!

Here is what our new blog looks like now:

It looks this way right now because we don’t have any posts and we haven’t changed any settings yet. Once we start writing and adjusting the boxes on the side, it will look much nicer. The area on the right side of our blog is called the sidebar and the individual boxes are gadgets (known as widgets in Wordpress). Gadgets are discrete boxes of information that are designed to help support the content of your blog, either by providing navigation or offering external links to interesting or relevant content. We can add to, remove, or change these gadgets by going back to our Dashboard (click on the “Customize” link in the dark blue band across the top of the page, upper right). You can click and drag the gadgets to move them around, or click on the “Add a Gadget” link to discover other types of gadgets available for use.

I’m going to add a poll and a calendar and remove the Followers and About Me gadget. Once those are put in place, the layout will display those elements:

Once you’ve made some basic adjustments to your blog, it’s time to start writing. We’ll cover content and how to write a blog post in the next tutorial.

If you’d like to see videos about how to set up and use Blogger, they have set up a YouTube channel to explain how to get started. They’re available for viewing here: BloggerHelp Channel. The video below demonstrates the above, as well as the basics for posting text and an image:

Interested in learning how to set up a blog? Not sure how to maintain it or advertise it or how to make it an effective tool for promoting your institution’s mission? In this series, we’ll show you the basic steps for getting your blog up and running quickly.

The questions and topics we’ll be addressing are:

• Why a blog?
• Determining the message
• Selecting a platform
• Customization (a.k.a. Making it Pretty)
• Adding content
• Moderation and administration
• Guidelines and professionalism
• Promoting your blog
• Microblogging
• Miscellaneous tips and tricks

This series of posts is designed as a static resource for the Technology 101 Blogging workshop at the American Association of Museums Annual Meeting, 2009 in Philadelphia. We’ll be adding to this series as new topics arise or change, so please check back!