Setting-Up your Google Account

& Blogging for Trek 01

Signing up for a Google Account.

This is necessary to use Blogger.

1. Navigate to the Create an Account page (Firefox is the preferred browser . . . DO NOT USE SAFARI):

https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount

2. Use your UWM email address and fill-in the other required info and agree to the terms:

3. Write down your Google account info or send it to yourself an email with the info if you are organized about keeping your email records:

My Google Account User Name: (your_uwm_user_name@UWM.edu)

My Google Account Password : ez2rememberyetcomplex

4. Progress to Blogger.com:

http://www.blogger.com/start

5. Click on the link to create a new Blogger Account:

6. Fill in the requested info and press continue. The display name you use will be the name that follows every post you make—on yours and other’s blogs for this account (email address).

7. The next page is your “Dashboard” but it looks more like an AD until you create your blog. “Click on Create a Blog.”

8. In the window that opens, enter a Title for your blog, E.G. “Rob Danielson Trek01” And the very important “Blog address (URL) info. Be sure to get your URL from the one supplied to you in the column labeled, Trek01 URL for Blogger Cell Entry that is to the right of your name. (Note. You can change your Blog title later on).

About Your Blog URL

An URL is a web address and as a unique string, every character in it critical. You must use this format:

FirstLast0711601

9. Do not click on “Advanced Blog Setup” unless you already have experience with this option.

10. Click “Continue” and in the next page that opens, select a template. You can change templates or customize them later on. One “feature” to consider might be whether you want your posts to the right of the fixed side column or to the left. I see that two of the current ones have image bars on top. With a little editing one can subsitute one’s own image in that location without too much trouble.

12. Click on “Start Posting.”

Making Your First Post

1. If you have not done so already, create “image” and “media“ directories (folders) in your Pantherfile account as shown in this on-line html tutorial.

2. Download this “zipped” folder of map thumbnails and sound files. Double click on the .zip doc to uncompress it into a folder named, “MapPlayButtons_SoundClips.”

3. Upload two of the sample button ”.gifs” to your “images” directory inside of your Pantherfile’s public directory (or upload your map “.jpg images) . Upload two of the sample .mp3 files to the “media” directory of your Pantherfile’s public directory (or upload your own .mp3’s).

4. The easiest way to organize your report is to treat each .mp3 and associated image as a separate “post” to your blog. Posts in blogs are displayed in reverse chronological order, so you’ll need to do some planning concerning which sound/map image you want at the top of the blog and the order of the others below. Basically, you add (or “post”) the sound file you want at the top, last and the sound you want to be at the bottom, first.

5. Click on the orange icon to navigate to your Dashboard window

6. In the Dashboard window, click on the “Posting” tab.

7. In the Title cell, enter the description of the location for the last mp3 sound file in your blog. (Remember, you are posting the sound files in reverse order). The description for every post should be factual and accurate because post titles show both in your index and they are noted by all search engines.

9. In the two pull-down windows at the top left, select your “Font” (your choice) & “Size” (Normal or small).

10. Click in the large empty cell or “body” of the post to place your cursor there. Click on the “Add Picture” icon.

11. In the window that opens, Click on “Left” under choose layout. Under Image size, select " Small.” Leave “Use this layout every time?” checked.

12. Go to your PantherFile Account to get the FULL URL address for the .jpg or .gif image (button) you wish to use for this sound. (Click on the manage button next to the file name.

Select (with click-hold-scrape) all of the blue text after “Full URL.” Copy this selected text with COMMAND + C for Mac or CTRL + C for PC.

13. Back to the Blogger pop-up window. In the URL cell under “Or add an image from the web,” paste in the Full URL you just copied with COMMAND + V for Mac or CTRL + V for PC. The end of the URL should appear in the cell:

14. Click, “Upload Image” and “Done.” The image should appear in the Post body.

15. Next, we’ll make this button “trigger” the correct mp3 sound file. Go to your PantherFile Account to copy the FULL URL address for the .mp3 sound file. (Click on the manage button next to the file name, etc, as above). Don’t forget to copy it (with Command + C for Mac or CTRL +C for PC). This pu

16. Back to the Blogger DashBoard. Click on the picture you just inserted to select it. Click on the “LINK” icon

17. In the pull down window that appears, paste in the FULL URL for your mp3 file you just put into your :buffer” with COMMAND +V for mac and CTRL + V for PC. (Note the highlighted text in the window. Just leave this highlighted text alone and paste in your Full URL by pressing the “Paste” short-cut keys. )

Click OK.

18. Lets preview and see if what we have done this far works. Click on the Preview button. Your Picture and Title should appear:

Note, Make sure your “status bar” is turned on in FireFox: Under View, select “Status Bar.”

In preview mode, position your cursor over the picture. The URL for the mp3 file should show up in the Status Bar in the lower left corner of the FireFox window like, “https:// … your file name.mp3”

If it doesn’t, you haven’t added a link yet. Repeat above add link step. You must highlight the picture first before clicking on the Link icon.

19. Click on the “Hide Preview” button.

20. Next were going to add date and time info to the post. Click in the body of the post to the right of the picture. Type in the date and time (the time can be approximated)

Click the “Preview” button to see how it looks. Click “Hide Preview.”

21. Hit the Return Key until the line break fall under the picture and start adding the descriptive information you want.

Viewed in Preview, it looks like this:

I got lucky with my line breaks this time. Often you’ll have to play around with the number of RETURN key strokes needed to get the description to start at the right spot in your layout. What you see as you type is NOT always what you’ll see in Preview.

Important Editorial Tips:

· Do not write anything that can be otherwise seen or heard in the soundfile or inferred from the context of your site. For example you don’t need to write anything like, “This is a sound file I recorded,..” or repeat the location is in the body of the post.

· The topic of each post is the sound file you are presenting, so make sure everything you write is related to the sound.

· Only deliver high-quality, new information as compactly yet as descriptively as you can.

· Write as if anyone in the world will read it. Don’t mention the class or your teachers at all.

· Make no excuses. Visitors are only interested in what you can present, not reading excuses of any type.

22. After it looks and reads good, you are ready to publish the post. Click on “Publish Post.” After it’s published, click on the small blue link that says, “”In a new window” (to the right of “View Blog.”). The blog will open in a new window showing they way it will look, on-line to any visitor from anywhere in the world.

23. Test to see if the sound file plays by clicking on the play button you inserted. A new window should open with the Quicktime play icon.

If you get an error prompt instead of the sound, follow the directions to fix the problem. In most cases, you did not paste in the FULL URL or you failed to create a link or you pasted the info into the wrong cell.

24. To make changes, go back to the window that opened after you published the post and click on the EDIT POSTS link:

25. Click on the blue EDIT box next to the post to return to the posting compose window you worked in before.

26. Make the changes you want and pubish the post again. You must publish your posts to save them.

27. In this case, I added the phrase, “click picture to play sound” so visitors would know there’s a sound to play.

28. You can also add a link to a word (or phrase) in your post like “Play” which will connect this word to your .mp3 sound file just as we did with the picture. The process is the same: highlight the word, click on the LINK icon and paste in the full URL to the mp3 file. In the post, the word will have a blue line under it indicating it’s a link:

29. Follow the same procedure to add your other four sound files and map images. The last post you make will be the one at the top of your blog.

If you have an overview map of the trek you took, you can add it at the top as another Post. If you upload a more detailed map into your pantherfile image folder and link to it in Blogger, when you click on the picture in Blogger, the browser will navigate to the large image.

30. There are a few more additions to make. In the Dashboard, click on the “Settings” tab. You can change the title to what seems appropriate and add a description.

Scroll down in this settings window and click SAVE SETTINGS!

31. Select the “Comments” sub menu Under “Settings”

Scroll down and enter your UWM email address in the cell after, ”Comment Notification Address:

Click on the “Save Settings” button at the bottom.

Click on REPUBLISH to see the changes.

Here’s the blog Rob D. for his first trek in 6/06

32. Here an annotated on-line video tutorial you can view about how to add links to images in your blog for playing mp3 sound files. Michael Verdi’s original video made links to QuickTime movies.

Rob Danielson 8/06