Creating a Blog
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A weblog or "blog" is a set of short texts ("posts") by an author or authors, usually arranged chronologically (which is what makes it a "log"). Most blogs permit readers to react to posts and to each other by adding "comments". WSU's "MySite" service (powered by Microsoft SharePoint) enables every WSU user to have a personal blog. If you have a MySite, you can:
- create a blog within your MySite
- organize your blog into "categories" that help readers find posts they are interested in
- control who can read and who can comment on your blog.
- add your blog to the sites that are searched by Google, Yahoo, and other web search engines
Create a Blog in Your MySite
Technically, your MySite blog is a "subsite" of your MySite. You can use the site creation capabilities of SharePoint to create your blog.
Note: Start in your MySite. You can get there by going to mysite.wsu.edu [1]
To create a Blog (Creating a Sub-Site), go to the "My Home" tab on your MySite.
Step 1 - go to MyHome on far left
Step 2 - choose site actions on far right
Step 3 - choose "create"
Step 4 - choose "Sites and Workspaces" under “Web Pages” (on the right-hand side of the page).
Step 5 - Configure your blog
A.) First provide a title for your blog (such as "Charlie Brown's Blog").
B.) Next, fill in the WebSite name which will be a part of the web url needed to locate your blog; it is usually easier to make this as short as possible as your web address can get very long.
C.) Next, select a template by highlighting "Blog" under the "Collaboration" tab. After completing this section and go ahead and click "Create" either at the top or bottom of the page. Note: it is ok to leave the "Permissions" and "Navigation" sections in their default state.
D.) Click the "Create" button at the bottom of the page:
Image:CreateBlogCreateButton.gif
Viola!, your Blog has now been created.
Organizing Your Blog
The steps to organize your blog are going to be centered on how to work with categories.
It is possible to structure your blog by defining categories. This will allow you to find past posts easier as your blog grows. When your blog is created there are already 3 default catagories created which can be edited, or you can delete those and chose to create your own from scratch.
To do this simply click on the link Add Category in the left column.
If you would rather edit the pre-existing categories by changing the names you can click the "Categories" heading in the left column. Once you have clicked that you can then hover your cursor over the category name that you want to change and click the arrow to open a drop-down box.
Click edit and you will be able to customize that specific category.
Controlling Access to Your Blog
Your MySite blog has "permissions" settings with which you can control who can post to your blog, who can comment on your blog, and even who can read your blog. By default, only you can add posts to your blog. Also by default, any logged-in user to MySite can read your blog, but cannot add comments. You can change these settings for your blog without affecting the permission settings for the rest of your MySite; for example, you may wish to make your blog public, readable by anyone (called "anonymous access"). See the tutorial.
Adding Your Blog to Web Search Engines
If your blog is public, you may wish to have web search engines like Google and Yahoo include your posts in the results when searchers use relevant terms. The surest way to accomplish this is to add the URL of your blog to the search engine directly. Visit the home page of your blog, select the URL in the "address" or "location" bar of the browser, then "Copy". Then go to the search engine's "submit" page and "paste" the URL.