Posting an Entry to Your Blog
Surely the most important part of having a blog is posting to it! To add an entry to your blog, click 'Add Entry' next to the blog page you wish to add an entry to.
The blog entry page is organized into the following areas:
- Entry Information
- Entry Images
- Entry Text
(FYI: A blog entry is the same as a blog post or posting)
Entry Information:
Title: Here you can give your entry a title. Usually the title relates to the content of the entry in some way.
Alt Tag: When someone rolls-over your image in your entry, they will see this text appear. It is standard web practice to give images an alt attribute.
Date: You can adjust the date of your entry to anything you wish. This is merely for appearances though. If you edit the date to be July 1st 2000, it will show that date on your blog entry.
This will NOT effect the ordering of the posting. It will still be considered your most recent entry and therefore be the first entry visitors will see when coming to your blog. It will NOT reorder your postings in the order of the dates you select.
Galleries: This is a required field which means you must select at least one gallery when posting an entry. You can select as many galleries as you wish when posting an entry. Selecting galleries means that the entry you are creating will be listed within those galleries. For instance, if you post a black and white photo of people in Paris, you may want to select the following galleries for the entry: All, Black and White, People, Places.
Entry Images:
Media Format: With Expressions you can post Flash files (.swf files) as blog entries. The default setting is "Image" though and this is the most common.
Entry Image: This will be your main entry image. Click on "Browse" and locate the image you wish to post on your computer. Once you have selected the image, click "Ok".
It is advisable to resize your image before uploading it to post. Images that are extremely large in size are also large in file size. This means that if you upload an extremely large image it will take a lot of your allocated 100Mbs of space. It is best to keep images no wider than 800pixels due to some resolutions of 800x600. If you do not have a program on your computer that you can use to resize your images, you can use the Expressions Image Tools to resize.
If you do not wish to post an image with your entry - so you just want to have a text based entry - simply leave this area blank.
Entry Thumbnail: Although Expressions will automatically create thumbnails for you, some people do prefer to create their own unique thumbnails. If you have created your own thumbnail, you can add it in here. Click on "Browse" and locate the thumbnail image on your computer. Click "Ok".
Justify Image: This option will determine where your image is placed in relation to the entry text. For example: If you wish to have your image placed on the left and your entry text placed to the right of the image, you will select "Left" for the Justify position.
By default, "Center" is selected which will mean your image will be centered in the content area and place above your blog entry text.
Auto-Create Thumbnail: By default this option is selected. This allows you to post your Entry Image and let Expressions create the thumbnail for you. The size of the thumbnail is determined in the Blog Configuration.
Show EXIF Data: EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format. Most digital cameras now use the EXIF Format to record the details and settings of the photographs you take, for example: the time the photo was taken, the f-stop, the ISO, the camera used etc. Check this option if you wish to show the EXIF Date of your image with your entry. The EXIF Data will be shown in your entry text body area in basic templates. If you are using an advanced template, you will need to add the EXIF tags to your template.
The fields that will be shown if an image has EXIF data are: Camera, Date, Shutter Speed, ISO, Flash, F-stop, Aperture, Focal Length, Exposure Compensation, Exposure Time, Exposure Program, Metering Mode, Horizontal Resolution, Vertical Resolution, Image Editing Software
EXIF Data will only show if you have used a camera that adopts the EXIF format. EXIF Data can not be found if you have used the "Save for Web" option in your image editing program. To learn more about EXIF data, see the EXIF.org page.
Show Purchase Form: Check this option if you want to add a Purchase Print form to the entry to allow people to send you PayPal payments for your prints.
The Purchase Print form is only a way for people to send you money and notify you of the print they want. You are responsible for contacting the buyer and printing and shipping the images.
Use Expressions Image Tools: Check this option if you wish to use the Expressions Image Tools to edit your image before posting it to your blog.
Entry Text:
Convert newlines to break tags: This option is selected by default. It means that you can type paragraphs like you would in your email or Word. Unselect this option if you are adding in your own HTML to the Entry Body area.
Body: This is where you will type your blog entry. If you prefer to just have an image with no text, then leave this blank. There is no limit to the amount of text you type here. You can also add any HTML that you wish in this area.
More: The "More" area allows you to extend your entry. This is used mostly when you have a lot of textual content to add to your post. You can have a brief introduction to the text in the Body area, and then use the More option for the additional content.
Basic templates will insert a "More..." link at the bottom of the Body text that will link to the full extended entry. If you are using an Advanced Template you will need to ensure that the More tag is in your Entry HTML of your template.
Now that you have filled in the areas and selected your image to post, click "Add".