Blog

A Blog acts as a personal journal on your web page which hosts your own published articles in an easy-to-use RTF editor. Articles can be commented on by visitors to the web page.

Add a Blog to the Smart Objects Library

1. At the bottom of the My Smart Objects Library pane, click New...

2. In the Create Smart Object dialog, click Blog.

3. Click OK.

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Create a Blog

1. In the Style pane on the right:

2. Optional: Add 'profile' information and select Blog settings.

• Description, Blogger Name, Blogger Description, and Photograph URL: Use these boxes to provide additional ‘profile’ information about the Blog and its author.

• Visual Style: To change the layout and presentation of your Blog, select a preset visual style from the drop-down menu.

• Alternative style sheet (CSS) URL: To change the layout and presentation of your Blog using a custom style sheet, type the URL of the style sheet *.css file into this box.

• Layout: To hide the header and/or sidebar of the Blog, select the relevant check box(es).

• Permalink: Select to add a hyperlink beneath each Blog article, allowing Blog users to ‘bookmark’ an article and return to it later.

• Article home link: Select to add a link to the bottom of an article, allowing the user to navigate from an archived article back to the main Blog.

• Comments disabled: Select to disable user commenting on your Blog articles.

• Blog RSS: Select to include an RSS feed for the Blog, allowing Blog readers to keep up-to-date with the most recent Blog articles.

• Comments RSS: Select to include an RSS feed for each Blog article. This is a particularly useful for Blogs containing very popular and ‘active’ articles, where Blog users want to be informed of new comments that have been added to an article.

• Archives: Select to provide Blog readers with access to monthly archives of Blog articles.

• Profile Info: Select/clear this option to display/hide the Blogger profile information.

• Send Trackbacks: Select to scan new Blog articles for links to other Blogs, then automatically notify the Blog that it has been referenced (using standard ‘trackback’ and ‘pingback’ protocols).

• The Social Bookmarks section lets you provide Blog users with the ability to submit articles to popular social bookmarking sites.

3. Click Create.
   
   Your Blog is listed in the Smart Objects Library.

To edit your Blog

1. Select it in the Smart Objects Library pane, and click Edit.

2. Make your changes and click Save.

To delete your Blog

• Select it in the Smart Objects Library pane, and click Delete.

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Manage your Blog

Managing your Blog involves creating tags; creating, editing, and ordering articles; deciding who can access articles and how they can access them; and setting the look and feel of the user interface.

To add a new article:

1. Click New.

2. Type a title for your new article.

3. Type the article content into the main window. To format the text, use the toolbar controls.
   
   

4. Set the following options as required:

5. Tags: (Optional, but recommended) Categorize your article, and allow site visitors to search for similar articles of interest, by typing tag keywords into this box. For a list of suggested tags, click the suggest link.

6. Article Poster: Select your user name from the drop-down list. This will display beneath the article. If you have linked your Blog to an access control group, the group members will display in this list.  (For details on setting up access control, see the associated Help topic.)

• Allow Trackbacks: Select this check box if you want to allow other web users to reference and link their own articles to yours. (References are listed as comments under your article.)

• Comments: Use this to control who is allowed to comment on the article. (Comments display beneath the article.)

5. To add the new article and return to the Manage {Blog name} dialog, click Save.
   
   You’ll see your new article listed.

To edit an article:

• Select an article in the list and click Edit, make your changes, and then click Save.

To delete an article:

• Select an article in the list and click Delete.  

To delete article comments:

1. Select an article in the list and click Comments.  

2. To delete a comment, select it and click Delete.
   
   - or -
   
   To clear all comments, click Clear.

Manage permissions

• To allow other users to publish an article, select an access control group from the Editors Group drop-down list in the Manage {Blog name} dialog. This lets you select a previously created multi-author user group where logged-in authors can each create articles.
  
  Note: A blog editor can log in to the blog, if you’ve created a User List Smart object (set to Access Control mode; see User Lists) and insert it (as a login box) to your site previously.

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Add your Blog to a web page

1. Open the site page on which you want to insert your Blog object.
   
   (This page must be included in your main site navigation.)

2. Log into Serif Web Resources, select your Blog in the Smart Objects Library.

3. Click Insert.

4.  To insert the Blog at default size, position the cursor where you want the object to appear on the page, then click the mouse.
   
   - or -
   
   Click and drag on your page to set the size of the Blog object.

5. Preview your site in a web browser.
   
   To navigate through Blog articles and tags, click the links in the default Blog navigation tree.
    

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