Library Matters Blog Instructions
- Accessing the blog
- Registering an account
- Commenting on a post
- Writing a post
- Uploading and Inserting Images and Other Files
- Using the RSS feed
Accessing the Library Matters Blog
Where? http://www.lib.umd.edu/blogs/library_matters/
Who? Access is restricted to Libraries staff. You will need to use your Directory ID and password to read the blog.
The Library Matters Blog uses a security certificate issued by the University. Depending on your browser, here is how to proceed:
Internet Explorer 7
- A page warning "There is a problem with this website's security certificate" may appear. Click the Continue to this website (not recommended) link next to the red shield with the "X" to continue.
- Enter your Directory ID and password at the prompt.
Firefox 2.0.x and Netscape 8.1.x
- A popup titled "Web Site Certified by an Unknown Authority" may appear. Choose the Accept this certificate permanently option and click OK.
- Enter your Directory ID and password at the prompt.
Registering an Account
While you may have already used your Directory ID and password to access the blog, this will only allow you to read and comment. In order to write and submit posts, you will need to register a separate user account with the blog. To register, follow these steps:
- Click the Register link in the right hand navigation bar.
- Enter a username and email address. We recommend using your Directory ID as the username so it is easier to remember. Click the Register button.
- Your password will be emailed to you. Click the login link in the email and enter your username and password on that page.
- Upon logging in for the first time, you will need to fill in your user profile. Click the Profile tab on the yellow menu bar. On the profile page change your password and enter more information about yourself, such as first name and last name. When you have finished, click Update Profile. After your profile is updated, change the format for Display name publicly as to Firstname Lastname. When you have finished, click Update Profile.
Note: Any reference to "logging in" with respect to the Library Matters Blog refers to the account registered with the blog, not your Directory ID.
Commenting on a Post
- From the main page, click the Comment link under the post on which you want to comment. On an individual post page, scroll down to the end of the post if necessary.
- Enter your name and email (if you are not logged into the blog) and your comment in the Leave a Comment section. Click Submit Comment.
Writing a Post
You must have a registered account with the blog and be logged in to write a post. For more information see Registering an Account.
- To get to the posting screen, you can do one of the following:
- From the main page of the blog, click the Write a Post link.
- From the main page of the Dashboard, click the Write a Post link.
- From anywhere in the Dashboard, click the Write tab in the yellow bar.
- On the posting screen, fill in the title and text for your post. By default you will use a Word-style editor. You can either type directly into the blog's editor or copy and paste from a previously-drafted document.
- Choose an appropriate category (or categories) for your post from the Categories list on the right hand side (if the list is not visible, click the plus sign to expand). If "Uncategorized" is checked, uncheck it. If an appropriate category does not exist, contact the Library Matters Editorial Board with a suggestion for a new one.
- If you need to upload images or documents, see Uploading and Inserting Images and Other Files.
- If you are posting a long piece (more than 2-3 paragraphs), break up the article using the Split post function. After the first paragraph of your piece, click the Split post button in the editor's toolbar (looks like a split page, between the "Insert image" and "Undo" buttons). This will insert on the main page a break point and a link to the rest of the article; in the editor you will see a line labeled "More..." in place of the break.
- When you have finished editing your post, click Save and Submit for Approval. The Library Matters Editorial Board will be automatically notified by email and will review and publish your submission as soon as possible.
Uploading and Inserting Images and Other Files
Uploading Images and Files to the Server
- Beneath the text-editor window you should see a section with Upload as its heading.
Note: If the file/image you wish to attach to the blog entry has already been uploaded in a previous posting, click the Browse All tab next to Upload and skip to the Inserting Images or Inserting Files instructions below. - Click the Browse button and find the file on your local computer.
Note: It is recommended that you make your filename "server friendly" by making sure the filename has no spaces, apostrophes, slashes or other non-alphanumeric characters ($,%,&, etc.) and renaming the file before uploading if it does. - Select the file on your computer and click Open. The dialog box will close and the filename will now be filled in next to File.
- Next to Title type a short, plain-English descriptive title for the file.
- Next to Description type a slightly longer, more descriptive note about what the file is.
- Click the Upload button.
- The Browse tab should now be visible and highlighted next to the Upload tab. You may click back to Upload and upload further files if you wish. Once you are done uploading files, click back to Browse.
- Now you can insert the image or file into the post. For inserting images, see the Inserting Images instructions below. For other types of files, see Inserting Files.
Inserting Images
Click once on the image. A small popup menu appears. Here are the explanations of the various options:
- The linking option is a toggle switch that allows you to select various options before actually adding the image to the post. Click Not Linked and it will change to Linked to Image. Click Linked to Image and it will change to Linked to Page.
- Not Linked means the image will simply appear in the post without any kind of hyperlink attached to it (if a visitor clicks on it, it will not take them to another page.)
- Linked to Image will put a hyperlink on the image so if a visitor clicks on it, they will be taken to a blank browser page containing just the original-sized image. If you entered text in the "Title" field, this text will be used to describe the link (the text that appears when you hover over a link in some browsers).
- Linked to Page will put a hyperlink on the image and if a visitor clicks on it, they will be taken to a nicely laid out blog page which features the image. If you entered text in the Title field, this text will be used to describe the link (the text that appears when you hover over a link in some browsers). If you entered text in the Description field, this text will then appear in the body of the post, just like normal post content. Also consider that if you use Linked to Page it will not only create a new little blog page for the image (using the Description field text, as mentioned above), it will also allow visitors to comment on it separately from the post. So you can solicit comments on an image this way.
- Send to Editor takes those options you selected and then inserts the image into the editor window wherever the cursor was.
- Delete will remove the file from the server entirely. Please be careful when using this option under Browse All as other posts may be using this image.
- Close Options closes the popup menu. Unlike most popup menus it will not go away by itself, so click this when you're done inserting the image.
Note: Please do not post any large images to the blog. Image widths greater than 520 pixels may cause some formatting problems when inserted into a post and will need to be resized beforehand. One way to do this is by using Microsoft Office Picture Manager, which is available on all workstations in the Libraries.
- Open image file in Microsoft Office Picture Manager.
- On the top menu bar, select Picture > Resize
- On the right hand side, enter a custom resize setting or choose a predfined resize setting with a width less than 520 pixels.
- Click OK.
- On the top menu bar, select File > Save As..., choose a location and filename, and click Save.
- Follow the directions above for uploading and inserting the image to the blog.
If you are having problems resizing your image, contact the Library Matters Editorial Board for assistance.
Inserting Files
Click once on the filename. A small popup menu appears. The program attempts to deduce what kind of file it is; for example if you upload a .DOC file (Microsoft Word file) it will read that and say "File Type: application/msword" at the top, which is in this case a successful guess at what the file is.
Some menu items are toggle switches that allow you to select various options before actually adding the image to your post. For example, click Linked to File and it will turn to Linked to Page. Click Linked to Page and it will toggle back to Linked to File. Here are the explanations of the various options:
- Linking:
- Linked to File means that when a visitor clicks on the link that you insert when you hit Send to Editor, they will be taken directly to the file in question (and most likely prompted to download it, depending on the user's browser and system settings).
- Linked to Page means that when a visitor clicks on the link, they will be taken to a blog page featuring the filename and its title and description--basically adding an extra layer between the blog posting and the actual download of the file. Also consider that if you use Linked to Page it will not only create a new little blog page for the file download, it will also allow visitors to comment on it separately from the post. So you can solicit comments on a file in this way.
- Naming:
- Using Title will use, for the text it inserts in the blog entry, the title you typed next to Title when uploading the file.
- Using Filename will use the actual filename. So if you uploaded a file named "thisdocument.pdf" and gave it a title of "New Product Brochure" when uploading, then it will insert "New Product Brochure" into the blog entry if you pick Using Title; it will insert "thisdocument.pdf" if you pick Using Filename. No matter which you use (and Using Title is strongly recommended for readability) it will still link to the actual filename when clicked.
- Send to Editor takes those options you selected and then inserts the hyperlinked text into the editor window wherever the cursor was. Thus, unlike with images, it simply creates a clickable hyperlink to the file.
- Delete will remove the file from the server entirely. Please be careful when using this option under Browse All as other posts may be using this image.
- Close Options closes the popup menu. Unlike most popup menus it will not go away by itself, so click this when you're done inserting the image.
Using the RSS Feed
By subscribing to the Library Matters RSS feed, you will be notified of new posts without having to constantly check the blog. Subscribing to the RSS feed is easy and can be done using software already installed on your computer. ITD supports the RSS readers in the Thunderbird email client as well as the Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2.0, and Netscape 8.1 web browsers.
Thunderbird Email Client
Before you can subscribe to any RSS feeds, you first need to create an RSS account. To do so:
- Go to the File menu and select New -> Account.
- In the dialog box that pops up, select RSS News & Blogs and click Next.
- Enter an account name, click Next, and finally click Finish. This new account will now appear in the folders pane in the main Thunderbird window.
To subscribe:
- Right-click on the account name created for RSS feeds and left-click Manage Subscriptions.
- Once you've brought up the RSS Subscriptions dialog, all you need to do to subscribe to an RSS feed is click Add, enter the URL for the feed (http://www.lib.umd.edu/blogs/rss.php?blog=library_matters) into the box, and click OK. After the feed is verified, it will then appear in the RSS Subscriptions dialog and in the folders pane under the account.
Now new post headlines will appear much like new email in the account created. However, when you click the email headline, you will see a security certificate warning and be asked for your Directory ID and password before you can read the post. Please see Accessing the Library Matters Blog for more information on how to proceed.
For more information about using RSS in Thunderbird, read the RSS entry in the Thunderbird knowledge base: http://kb.mozillazine.org/RSS_basics_-_Thunderbird
Firefox 2.0.x
- Click the orange RSS button at the bottom of the right hand navigation bar.
- Click the Subscribe Now button on the next page.
- An Add Live Bookmark dialog box will appear with "Library Matters" filled in next to Name and "Bookmarks Toolbar" next to Create in. Use these default values or change the name and folder. Click OK to add this feed.
Now new post headlines will appear in the section of your bookmarks where you added the feed.
For more information on using RSS in Firefox, read the RSS entry in the Firefox knowledge base: http://kb.mozillazine.org/RSS_feeds_(Firefox)
Internet Explorer 7
- Click the orange RSS button at the bottom of the right hand navigation bar.
- Click the Subscribe to this feed link at the top of the next page.
- A dialog box will appear with "Library Matters" filled in next to Name and the "Feeds" folder next to Create in. Use these default values or change the name and folder. Click Subscribe to add this feed.
You can now access new posts by clicking the "Library Matters" link in your Feeds toolbar. To display the Feeds toolbar, click Tools on the upper right, then Toolbars, then Feeds. Your Feeds toolbar will appear on the left.
For more information on using RSS in Internet Explorer, read the RSS entry on the Microsoft website: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/rss/default.mspx
Netscape 8.1.x
- Click the orange RSS button at the bottom of the right hand navigation bar.
- Click the Add Feed Bookmark button on the next page.
- A dialog box will appear with "Library Matters" filled in next to Name and the "Feeds" folder next to Create in. Use these default values or change the name and folder. Click OK to add this feed.
Now new post headlines will appear in the section of your bookmarks where you added the feed.
For more information on using RSS in Netscape, read the RSS entry in the Netscape knowledge base: http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/help/customize_help.jsp#add_rss_feed
