Edublogs – Getting Started

Published on: Author: cxyz

edublog

Setting up your blog – How to begin building your class Edublog. 


Beginning

Log in:
User name = the stem of your blog URL e.g. doloursa, where the URL is: doloursa.edublogs.org
Go to Site Admin.
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Select a Theme
The blog comes with a default theme. In the Dashboard click Appearance > Themes. Select a theme and click Live Preview to see it in full.
When you see theme you like check that it has at least one sidebar and that it will allow Widgets. [See Appearance in the Dashboard to check for widget capability. Under Appearance it will list Widgets]

Customise the look of your blog
In the Appearance click Customise.

  • Enter a title for your site and a tagline.
  • Select colour for text and background.
  • Save and publish.

The header and the Front page will be done later.

Blog Background
You can set an image or a plain colour background. A colour is advised to begin with. An image needs to be ’tiled’. This is a photoshop exercise in its own right.

This can be set in Customise or go to Appearance > Background 
Select a colour.


Set up Pages and Populate

Create a Welcome Page
From the menu select Pages > Add New.
Enter Welcome in the title field. 
Enter some text in the editor so that you can recognise this page. e.g. This is the Welcome Page.
Click Publish.

Turn off Comments

Go to Settings > Discussion inside your dashboard.
Uncheck Allow people to post comments on new articles  under Default article settings.
Uncheck 

To do this for individual pages only:

Go to Pages > All Pages. Mouse over page title.
Click Quick Edit.
Untick Allow Comments box.

Make the Welcome Page the Static Home Page – Done for people inheriting a blog.
Go to Appearance > Customise > Static front page. From the drop down menu select Welcome.
Save and publish. Go back to Dashboard > Pages and delete Sample Page.
Continue to make further pages via Pages > New page.
Add content to each page when you are ready.

Required Pages / Information

  • Welcome / Introduction / Contact
  • Term Letter
  • Timetable
  • Homework
  • Images for 2015.

Ready Made Blog Headers

There are many ready-made banners available on the web. If selecting one of these you will need to edit the size in Photoshop to fit the requirement of your theme.
The size of the header required is found in Appearance > Header. Make the header the required size. rather than cropping it in  Edublogs. Header sizes differ across themes.
Links to Ready-made Headers

Suggested serach terms for finding headers

  • Blog headers for kids
  • Web banners for kids
  • Search specific topics & add web banner or blog header/banner

Create a Blog Header

Some templates do not require a header.
A header can to be sized in Photoshop to the correct dimensions for the theme. Size is found in Appearance > Header.

Photoshop:

  • File > New > Blank file. Set the dimensions in pixels.
  • Use images, tools & layers to create a header.
  • Add text required on the header in Photoshop.
  • Save as a psd file to a folder for future editing.
  • To save a web copy for the Edublog: File > Save to Web. Select Preset JPEG high. Save to your Edublogs Resources folder.
  • Edublogs Menu: Select Appearance > Header > Choose file. Select file on computer and upload.

Upload Images

Good source here of  copyright free images.

Preparing Images
Like the header, all images uploaded to the blog need to be prepared in terms of file size. Use Photoshop for this. See how

Create or copy the image in Photoshop.
When complete: File > Save to Web. Select Preset JPEG high. Save to your Edublogs Resources folder.

If you have created or enhanced the image yourself, also save it as a psd file to your Edublogs Resources folder for future editing.


Insert Images

Upload image

In Edublogs, select Library > Add New. Drag the image from your computer to the Drop files here box or Select files and upload. Dragging will allow multiple uploads.

Add image to a blog page

  • In the page editor click the Add Media button.
  • Select Media Library as the source of the image.
  • Select the image. From the right sidebar select the alignment of the image.
  • Click the image to find the Edit button or to delete.
  • Always delete an image from the Library when no longer needed. Deleting from the page does not delete it from the Library. Delete it from Media > Library

Adding Links

When adding a link of any sort, always copy/paste the URL from the actual website.

Links within a page (from text or an image) – adding and removing
Add an internal link to a blog page.

Links in a sidebar are added via a Links Widget.
Add links to a sidebar.