Creating Blog Posts are easy with the convenient Editor Interface. Text and images can easily generated, inserted, or copied into your post body and appearance styles can quickly be modified. No knowledge of HTML is needed to create an attractive blog post. An HTML Mode is available for those who are comfortable scripting in this language.

Just about everything you would want to do to lay out and effect the appearance of your post can be accomplished with the Editor in Design Mode using the Editor Toolbar.

Editor Toolbar:

Here is an expounded list of each of the Toolbar Features.

  Clean Microsoft Word HTML:  Pasting in text from a Microsoft Word document will convert the styles to HTML code. Auto generated code can often generate a lot of extraneous code. Clicking this button will strip away much of this extra formatting.

Before:

<H1 style="MARGIN: 24pt 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Cambria color=#365f91 size=5>ATTENTION:</FONT></H1> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><FONT face=Calibri>This is <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%">HTML</SPAN></B> text <SPAN style="COLOR: red">generated</SPAN> by <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">MS Word.</I></B></FONT></P>

After:

ATTENTION: <BR>This is <B>HTML</B> text generated by <B><EM>MS Word.</EM></B>

  Check Spelling: As it sounds – this checks the text in your document and alerts you of misspelled words.

Cut, Copy, Paste: Use this for editing content of your post.

Note: You may receive an alert that this online feature wants to access your computer’s clipboard. For it to function properly, you need to accept this condition by clicking Allow access.

Undo, Redo: This control allows you to step backwards or forwards through changes you have made in the blog post editor.

Create Link: Creating hyperlinks in your posts are a snap with this handy editor. Select the text you would like to be a hyperlink and click the Create Link icon. You will need to enter the URL field. Title and Target are optional. Title will display a tooltip message when the link is hovered over. Target will allow you to change the window the link opens to.

Remove Link: As it sounds, this control will remove the HTML code that makes your text a link. Select the link text or place the text insertion tool within the link text and click this button. The Remove Link icon is not available until a valid link is selected.

Insert Image: Use this method if you are referencing an image on the internet using a URL. Enter the URL in the Image Source field.  Alternate Text will display if the image link becomes broken. Alignment will allow you to control how text will flow around the image. Border Thickness applies a stroke around the image. Spacing is the amount of padding between your image and the surrounding text. Dimensions allow you to change the size your image will display in your post.

Note: You can edit these settings by selecting the image and clicking the Insert Image icon.

 Insert Image from Gallery: Inserting an image by Using the Gallery allows you to upload images to the MyCopper Server. This is especially useful for image like logos that you will like to use often. Look for more on this in a later post.

Begin by Browsing and Uploading an image from your computer’s hard drive.

Insert Rule: This ads a line break graphic element to your post.

Symbols: This drop-down list provides a convenient reference to symbols or special characters not easily accessible from your keyboard.

Font Style Presets, Font, Size: To edit the appearance of your text use the style presets. Change the font or adjust the size of highlighted text by selecting one of choices in these drop-down menus.

Foreground Color, Background Color: Use these controls to change the color of your text.

  Bold, Italic, Underline, Superscript, Subscript, StrikeThrough: These controls are fairly self-evident and in keeping with most text editing controls.

Left Justify, Center Justify, Right Justify, Justify Full: Quickly adjust the justification of your selected text. This post is left justified.

Ordered List, Unordered List, Indent, Outdent: Add some formatting styles that will enhance the readability of your post.

• Add an ordered list that begins each item with an incremental number.
• Try an unordered list or bullet list that helps to define brief points of interest.
• Indents are useful for quotes or reference text – this renders as a blockquote.
• Outdents bring the indented text back to the margin – removing the blockquote tag.

Design Mode, HTML Mode : Most of your post editing will be done in Design mode. This smart interface builds the HTML that defines the styles of your post elements such as headlines, text, and images. Use the HTML mode when you want to customize or override the code generated from the editor in Design mode.

Warning: Having a working knowledge of HTML is important. Changing the HTML can break the way your post displays or can cause your post to not render correctly. HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language is the scripting language that tells the client browser how to display the page content. More on HTML tags and standards can be found at the World Wide Web Consortium. Here is a nice primer to get you started – Getting Started With HTML.

You must be a logged-in user and have set up your blog to make a post. If you have not done this yet, please read Getting Started - Setting Up Your Blog.

1) Navigate to your blog by clicking “My Blog” in the Header Navigation Menu.

2) Click on “Add Post” in the Admin menu.

3) Enter a Post Title in the text box provided.

4) Enter a URL-Friendly Name. Usually this is your title with the spaces removed. You can assign your blog a shortened name if your title is lengthy. For your convenience, you can have the URL-Friendly name automatically generated by clicking the Extract from Title button.

5) Select the Categories this blog post falls under. Assigning categories helps the viewer quickly navigate to the post content that interests them. If your Category list is empty or does not contain the appropriate Categories, you can add new Categories to the list by entering a Category in the text box and clicking the Add Category button.

Note: Selecting multiple Categories is possible by using Control+Click (PC) or Command+Click (Mac). Selected Categories will be highlighted.

Note: You can always come back and modify this list at a later time.

6) Enter a list of Tags separating each word with a comma. Tags can be keywords that are found in your post that help define the relevant content. Adding Tags will help your Tag Cloud be more effective.

7) Check the Published button when this post is ready to be made public. If this post is a draft, leave this unchecked.

8) Use the Editor Control to build your blog content. By default, the Editor is in Design mode which is a WYSISYG interface. For more specific control or customization you can edit in HTML mode.

Warning: Some experience working with HTML is needed for working in HTML mode. Breaking this code by using invalid HTML can cause your post to not render correctly.

Note: Further information on using the Editor Control can be found here [link coming soon].

9) Click the Save Post button to submit your post. You will be taken to the Home page of your blog. If the Published Checkbox was checked, you will see your newly created post in your blog.

Note: If you do not see your newly created post, chances are it remains unpublished. Navigate to the list of Unpublished Posts under the Admin menu. Select your new blog then check the Published Checkbox and click "Save Post" again.

Ping Services, also known as Update Services, are a way for you to let other people know when you have updated your blog. Each time you submit a blog post, MyCopper will submit a notification to any of the Ping Services listed in this interface. This can help your search engine ranking by having multiple sites referencing your blog. People browsing a Ping Service site like Technorati or Sphere will be able to find your most recent blog posts.

To add a Ping Service, simply enter the service URL in the text box and click “Add Service”. Once added, a ping service can be updated or deleted.

Note: Each Ping Service will need to be added individually.

There are many Ping Services available. Here is a list of some of the most common or widely used XML-RPC Ping Services:

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

Navigation:

This contains basic link information for your blog to help viewers return to your blog’s Home page or to link to your blog using an RSS reader. This is also where your Avatar is shown.

Admin:

Add Post – Use this link when you want to add a blog post.
Unpublished Posts – This displays a count of unpublished posts. This occurs as you write posts and save them without having the "publish" checkbox checked.
Categories – this is a link to a page that displays the Categories you have set up for your blogs. Here you are able to add, update, and delete categories.
Blog Settings – This link takes you to an administrative settings page for your blog where you are able to edit settings such as Blog Name, URL-Friendly name, Description, Theme, Contact Email, how to handle Comments, and Pingbacks.
Ping Services – This link takes you to an Administrative Services page where you can add, update, and delete Ping services that should receive notifications when you add new posts to your blog.
Unapproved Comments – If your blog allows for comments and you have moderation set, you will see a count here as you receive comments on your posts. Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can review comments that are cued for moderation where it can approved or deleted.

Blog Search:

This search box allows you to do a word search for the blog you are currently viewing.

Tag Cloud:

As you apply tags to your blog posts, the tag cloud will be populated with all of the tag words your blog uses. Tags that occur more frequently will stand out more by being a larger size. Clicking on a tag word will display posts that are tagged with this tag.

Categories:

When you create a blog post, you assign it to one or several Categories. These categories appear as a list in this view with a count of the number of blog posts in that category. Clicking one of these Categories will open all of the posts within that Category. Usually a blog belongs to a few number Categories but have multiple Tags.

Archives:

This is a listing of your posting activity by date. The number of posts published by month will be displayed here. This gives viewers of your blog a useful way to see what blogs are recent or to go back in history to view earlier blogs.

Note: Your Blog Avatar is the same one used for the MyCopper Forums.

Warning: Changing the Avatar will change both the Blog Avatar and the Forum Avatar .

To add or change your avatar, you will need to be logged in.

1) Select Forum from the Site Navigation Menu.

2) Select the My Profile link from the Forum Submenu.

If you do not see the My Profile link in the Forum Submenu or you see the message “Welcome Guest”, you are not logged into the portal.  Log in and repeat step 2.

Note: The forum submenu is at the top of the forum content window and displays your log-in status along with several forum links.

3) Under Personal Profile, select Modify Avatar.

4) There are several options when selecting an avatar:

Option 1) Select your Avatar from our Collection

Select [ Click Here to Select an Avatar ]

Choose an image gallery folder of a category that interests you. Click on an avatar image to select it or click the “Up” folder to select another image gallery. Once an Avatar is selected, you will return to the Modify Avatar control panel. You should see your newly selected Avatar displayed under Current Avatar.

Option 2) Enter URL of Avatar on Remote Server to Use

Simply enter a URL for an image hosted elsewhere on the internet. Be sure to include the full address, ex. http://bestphotooftheday.net/qdig-files/converted-images/med_funny-cat.jpg.

Warning: Keep in mind that the full-sized image is loaded each time the page loads and is displayed at a maximum size of 100 x 100 pixels . Large images may greatly slow down the load time of your page. You may find it a better practice to save the file to your hard drive then upload the image using Option 3. This will ensure that the image will be resized for optimum performance.

Warning: If the image is moved or deleted, the link will be broken and a red “x” will appear where your avatar should be.

Note: MyCopper.net does not condone the use of copyrighted content and is not responsible for images and links chosen by it’s MyCopper portal users.

Option 3) Upload Avatar from Your Computer

Click on Browse and navigate to the location of the image in your directory that you would like to use as your avatar.

Select the file and click open. 

Click on Update and the file will be loaded to the MyCopper server.

Note: Images larger than 100 x 100 pixels will be resized by the forum engine. You will receive a notification popup if the uploaded image has been resized to fit.

5) That’s it! Return to My Blog and you will now see your avatar shown within the Navigation Menu Panel.

## please leave a comment if you find this post helpful or have a suggestion ##