What's a blog?
Blogs, or weblogs, are all over the media nowadays, but what are they exactly? Basically, a blog is a web site that is easy to update with entries usually arranged in chronological order. Blogs are a great way to express your opinions and views and to share news and information with the world.
If you're interested in a much more indepth definition of "blog", we recommend the Wikipedia article on blogs.
How does a blog on GenevaLunch work?
Once you have been approved as a community reporter on GenevaLunch, you will get your very own blog. All you have to do then is to log in. Once logged in, you will see a link on the left sidebar to your blog. You can start writing in your blog immediately!
How to write a new blog entry
On the blog entry page, you will see a "title" field. Fill in an appropriate title for the entry there.
Next, you will see a "location" pulldown menu. If your entry is about a particular area, select one from here; otherwise you can leave this at "none".
Next you can select one or more "topics" for the entry. To select more than one, hold down the CTRL key (CMD key for Mac) while clicking the categories.
Finally there is the "body" field, which is where you put the text of your entry.
Hint: write (and spellcheck) your blog entry in a text editor first!
We don't recommend writing in MS Word and cut-pasting from there, but you can do this if you're in a big hurry.
We've found that it's much more comfortable to write a blog entry in a text editing program first and to proofread and spellcheck it there before copy-pasting the entire text into the "body text" field. On Windows, Notepad and Wordpad are both text editors that come free with the system. We also like the free (and made in Switzerland!) Notetab Lite. On Mac OS X, the built-in TextEdit program works fine; if you want to splurge a bit (only €39), we love Textmate.
Body text input formats
You can enter the "body", or main entry text on GL in two ways. The easiest, which works for simple text-only entries, is "filtered HTML". Just separate your paragraphs with two carriage returns, which leaves a blank line between each paragraph. The system will automatically convert them into paragraphs. You can also use the allowed HTML tags listed if you are comfortable with this. Please read the help page for details.
A second format supported on GL is an easy-to-learn syntax called "markdown". This is what we use ourselves to write for GL. It only takes a couple of hours to master, and is great for writing any kind of web content. See the official Markdown documentation for more.
How to create a manual break in your post
Each posted entry is in two sections: the teaser, and the rest of the entry. The teaser is what is seen on the front page and on any page that lists more than one article.
By default, all GL blog posts and articles have a break point after 600 words, and everything before the break point becomes the teaser. However, that occasionally creates an awkward break. To avoid this problem, you can add the following code on its own line at any point where you think the break point will go:
<!––break––>
How to add an image to your entry with flickr™
If you have a flickr™ account, the easiest way to add an image to your blog entry is to simply use the "blog this" feature. You will need to set up your GL blog first by going to the flickr blog setup page.
- Step 1: Click Add a Blog. You will be asked what kind of blog you have. Select Select "MetaWeblogAPIenabled." from the pulldown menu as shown here, and click the Next button.
That's it! If you are familiar with CSS and HTML, you can tweak the CSS a bit; otherwise, just leave the default settings.
How to add an image by directly uploading to GL
If you don't have a flickr™ account, or you'd just rather upload an image directly to the GL site, here's how:
- Click the small photo icon located at the lower left corner of the "Body" field.
- An "image upload" popup window will appear. Click on "add image" in the upper left corner:
- Follow the instructions on the next screen to upload the image. Please note that the maximum size for uploaded images is 640x640 pixels.
- Once you have uploaded an image, you can select it from the list of "your images". (You can also choose any image that is on the GL site by listing "all images"). Click on an image from the list, then choose either the "thumbnail" view or "other" and specify a width of up to 500 pixels. Edit the caption as you want.
Then, click the "Insert Image" button, and the image will be inserted into the Body textbox.
Preview, then Submit
Once you've written or pasted in your text, click the Preview button to proofread it one more time, then click Submit. Note: it is not saved until you submit it, so do not use the backspace key and do not move to other pages until you have submitted it. Please note that blogs are published when you submit them, and you should keep corrections after publishing to a minimum, to avoid causing problems for people who subscribe to the site.
How to edit an already published blog entry
You clicked "submit", and upon reading your entry again you notice a typo. What do you do? Click on the entry title to get to the entry page, and you will see an "edit" tab. Click on this and correct what needs correcting in the body text. Then click "submit." You can also delete entries from the "edit" screen.
How to see a list of your past entries
From your user page (which you can reach by clicking on your name on the left sidebar under "Wclcome Back"), click on the "track" tab to see the list of your past entries. Your user page can be accessed by clicking on your name on the left sidebar.