Introduction

Click here to start the tutorial.

6. Changing the format/layout of your blog

If you'd like to change how your blog looks, you must go into the format and layout settings.

To do this, click on the "Customize" button in the top-right corner of the page when viewing your blog.

OR

Click on "Layout" next to your blog listing when on the main dashboard.



There will be a row toward the top of the screen with more specific sections to choose from. This row contains:

• Page Elements


• Fonts and Colours


• Edit HTML


• Pick New Template

While trying to change some of the settings in "Page Elements" and "Fonts and Colours", I was unable to do so (due to the settings on my Internet Explorer). You may, or may not be able to use these features.

"Edit HTML" should probably be avoided unless you are very confident you can edit HTML code.

However, the "Pick New Template" option is a useful one if the other options are unavailable to you. This lets you change the template of your blog, and there are many templates to choose from. Don't worry about losing any posts you've made either, when you change templates, everything will be the same except how your blog looks, and if you don't like the change, you can always change back.

5. Customizing settings of your blog

Complex settings of your blog can be accessed from the dashboard by clicking the "Settings" link next to your blog listing.

Toward the top of the page you will be able to see a row of options; Basic, Publishing, Formatting, Comments... etc. Click on any of these to see the more detailed settings of these areas.
There are a lot of options for you to choose from, so here are some of the most useful ones:

Basic: The basic section allows you to edit the title and description of your blog, as well as change the ways your blog can be found on the internet (eg. Search engines and listings).

Formatting: In the formatting section, useful settings include:

• Time zone: In my experience this is usually set to a wrong timezone and I had to set it to the proper time (GMT+10:00) so that the post times on my blog were the actual times I made the posts.
• Show at most: This determines how many posts you want to be shown on your main blog page when people visit it.

Permissions: The permissions section is particularly useful for collaborative blogs. Here you can list other users who are able to edit and post to your blog. You can also change who can read your blog.

There are many settings to change, so your blog is exactly the way you want it.
To learn how to change the appearance of your blog, see the next post.

4. Hyperlinks and uploading images and videos.

On the toolbar, there are also some more interesing tools.

The hyperlink button creates a clickable link on the highlighted text to any address you'd like. If no text is highlighted, the link will appear like this: http://www.google.com/ .

Once the hyperlink button is clicked, this message box will appear:

It is then simply a matter of typing in, or pasting, the URL of the location you wish users to be sent to upon clicking the link.

Use the add image button to upload pictures to your blog. When clicked, a new window will open with the upload options.

Click "Browse..." to find and select the image you wish to upload. After you have done this, select the layout and size of the image.

The layout of the image can be changed later by clicking and dragging the image while editing the post.

Click the orange UPLOAD IMAGE button when you are done, and you will be able to see (and move) your image in the post you are creating.

The add video button allows you to upload your videos to your blog. After you click it, the following box will appear:

Browse for the video you'd like to upload, then give it a title and click UPLOAD VIDEO.

Like images, your video can be dragged to a different position once you have uploaded it.

Those were the more complicated buttons on the toolbar.

For complex settings of your blog, see the next post.

3. Changing text appearance

When you are creating a post for your blog, a bar like this can be seen near the top

This is the toolbar, and it contains all the tools you need to make your posts more interesting!

• The font menu allows you to select the font of the text you have highlighted.

example: sample text sample text

• The font size button lets you change the size of the text highlighted.

example: sample text sample text

• The bold and italic buttons make highlighted text bold or italic (obviously).

example: sample text sample text

• The text colour button changes the colour of highlted text.

example: sample text sample text

• The alignment buttons change how text is aligned in the post.

example:
sample text

sample text

sample text

• The numbered list and bulleted list buttons are used to create lists.

example:

• sample text
• sample text
• sample text

1. sample text
2. sample text
3. sample text

Those are the simple tools on the toolbar.
For some more advanced tools, see the next post.

2. Creating a blog post

After you have created your blog, and whenever you sign in to blogger from now on, you will be taken to your blog's dashboard. From there, click on the button and you will be taken to the post creation page that looks like this:

This is the page that I am using to create this post right now!

In the "Title" field up the top of the page, enter the title of the of the post you're creating. In the larger box below, you can type whatever you want to write in this post.

Make sure you use the blue SAVE NOW button to save the post if you cannot finish it (it should autosave regularly anyway).

Once you are finished with creating your post, click the PUBLISH POST button.

You have created a post on your blog!

See the next tutorial to learn about editing the appearance of your text.

1. Basic Setup of a blog

Head to http://www.blogger.com/ and click the big orange CREATE A BLOG button!

OR

Just click here!

The following page will appear:

Fill in the form.
I used my school email (luke.hedin@wangwestps.vic.edu.au) and the display name I picked was "lukehedin112".

After the form has been filled in, a new page will appear asking you to name your blog and your blog's address. Remember that your blog's address will be used to get directly to your blog.
The title of my blog is "Tutorial Blog on Blogger" and the address is "tutorialblogonblogger.blogspot.com".

Finally, you will be asked to choose a template for your blog. (You can change this later if you don't like how it looks!).

Your blog has now been created!
See the next post for information on how to post on your blog.