The "Blog" tab

Blogs->Post->Write & Edit & Tags

Blog ->Post ->Write

The full-featured mo'time post editor works on Windows computers with Internet Explorer (version 5.5 or higher), Firefox and Mozilla browsers. It does not work with Safari on the Macintosh, Opera or Internet Explorer for the Mac. Macintosh and Linux users are encouraged to use Firefox 1.0 or higher.

You get to the post editor from the Home Page by clicking on the name of your blog (or the "plus" icon on the same line). Notice that you now have a tabbed menu across the top of the page which allows you to navigate through all of our features. You will find yourself in the Blog tab, in the Post submenu, in the Write sub-submenu. From now on will refer to such locations using this kind of path-like notation: Blog ->Post ->Write.

It may take a minute for the editor to "load", depending on the speed of your Internet connection, the speed of your computer and network traffic. Once it loads you will be greeted with an interface very much like a typical word processor, such as Microsoft Word, for example.

Compose your post, select the text that you would like to format and choose the effect you want by clicking on the appropriate icon. If you want to view or edit the HTML code of your post, click on the "Source" button. When you're done, click it again to return to the display view.

Notice that there are icons for adding links directly into your post and for posting photos.

As for the links, decide on the phrase that you want to appear as linked text and select it. Click the link icon and a pop-up form appears with fields for the URL and link attributes. If you do not know HTML, you can simply paste in the link into the URL field ("www.link.com"), click OK and you will see that you selected text is now highlighted and underlined. If you are a more expert user, you may use the other fields to modify the links attributes.

As for images, you must have the picture file that you want to post hosted on a web server somewhere in order to have it appear on your blog. Click the icon and fill in the URL of the picture. Once again, more experienced users can add attributes to the fields in the pop-up, or modify the HTML of the post directly in the Source view. Click OK and, if you did it correctly, you should see a preview of the picture in the edit window.

If you have post titles activated in your blog settings (covered later in this manual), then you will also see a field at the top of the editor to enter a title which will appear above your post in bold.

Notice the field labeled "Tags" to the right of the main editing area? Tags, explained more fully below, are keywords that you can assign to each individual post. You can assign multiple tags to a post, like travel and Italy, for instance. Just separate the words with a comma in the field.

The concept of tags, and their usefulness, is explained further, below.

Once you are happy with your post, click the "Post and publish" button!

When the page refreshes you will see an editable preview version of your blog. You can get to this view anytime that you want to:

Blog ->Post ->Edit

In this view you can update posts, or delete them, by clicking on the buttons that you see on your blog. You can also delete comments by opening the commment section and clicking the delete button associated with the comment.

You can navigate your blog's archives and update or delete any post.

Blog ->Post ->Tags

Don't get confused with by term "Tags" which also refers to individual HTML commands. In this context the term refers to the assignment of a keyword or words to each individual post. The keywords then appear automatically in your archive links on your blog so that your readers can just click on "travel" and see ONLY your travel-tagged posts. It's a convenient way to automatically organize your blog and makes navigating through your posts easier for your readers.

You can see the tags in use on mo'time at a glance on the latest posts page, in the left column.

Read all about tags here, from the original launch announcement, and the comments from other members. It is a powerful tool and can help increase your readership, too! Read the post and start using tags today.

Blogs->Template

Current:
This is where you can customize your blog's template. Note that editing your template requires that you already have some knowledge of HTML, including style sheets (CSS). Learning these basics is beyond the scope of this manual, but we have collected some links for you, if you'd like to learn how to tinker with your template:


Beginner's HTML
HTML Basics
HTML Validator
CSS Level 1
CSS template tool
CSS template tool2
CSS Validator


If you are conversant with these standards, just enter your code into the textarea window and click "Save changes". Remember, however, that apart from the basic html and CSS code, you must understand the mo'time-specific Blogger tags to take full command of the customization of your blog! Those are found in the Tags section, described below.

We also have group blog dedicated to template issues. If you have questions, suggestion or want to participate as a helper, please visit the template blog and have a look around.

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Blogs->Template->New:
If you would like to simply change templates by choosing a new one from the mo'time gallery, click the New button in this section.


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Blogs->Template->Tags:
The key section of a blog template is made of up special "Blogger" tags, each of which takes data from your database and imports directly into your blog. These tags are "case-sensitive", meaning you must never hange a capital "B" into a small "b", for example. Doing so will render the tag invalid; it won't work anymore!


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The following tags may be place anywhere in your template:

<$BlogTitle$>
Places the title of your blog

<$BlogDescription$>
Places your blog description

<$BlogLinkOut$>
Places your links list

<$BlogCounter$>
Places your blogs page view counter

<$BlogArchive$>
Places your archive menu

<$BlogCategories$>
Places your archive menu sorted by category

<$BlogSubscribeButton$>
Places the old-style mo'time subscribe button

NEW<$BlogPhotoAlbum$>
Places a photo album on your blog (not yet activated!); it must be placed immediately before the tag: <Blogger> Note: you must also place specific styles in the CSS section of your blog to support this tag. See examples below.

NEW <$BlogRecentPhotos$>
Places the last 3 photos from your album in your blog's menu (not yet activated!)
Note: you must also place specific styles in the CSS section of your blog to support this tag. See examples below.

<$BlogPager$>
Places page-numbering navigation links (this is mandatory for blogs that use categories and photo albums).
Note: you must also place specific styles in the CSS section of your blog to support this tag. See examples below.

NEW <$BlogFeeds$>
Places a RSS/Atom news feed on your blog
Note: you must also place specific styles in the CSS section of your blog to support this tag. See examples below.<



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The following tags MUST be place in between: <Blogger> ... </Blogger>:

NEW <$BlogNavigation$>
Places a post navigation bar (previous - home - next) when viewing single posts or comments
Note: you must also place specific styles in the CSS section of your blog to support this tag. See examples below.

<BlogDateHeaderDate><$BlogDateHeaderDate$></BlogDateHeaderDate>
Must not be changed! Places the date on your post

<$BlogItemTitle$>
Places post titles

<$BlogItemBody$>
Places the post itself
Note: you must also place specific styles in the CSS section of your blog to support this tag. See examples below.

<$BlogItemAuthorNickname$>
Places your username (usually in the signature of the post)

<$BlogItemAuthorURL$>
Places the URL of your main blog

<$BlogItemCategories$>
Places the name of the category of your post (usually in the signature of the post)

<$BlogItemDateTime$>
Places the date and time of your post (usually in the signature of the post)

NEW <$BlogItemPermalink$>
Places the "permalink" at the bottom of your post, technically generated as: http://myblog.motime.com/post/1234

NEW <$BlogItemCommentList$>
Places the comments below your post on the same page (replaces the old-style commednt pop-up window) as your post, including a text area for writing the comments
Note: you must also place specific styles in the CSS section of your blog to support this tag. See examples below.

NEW <$BlogItemCommentLink$>
Generates a direct link to the comment


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NEW These are examples of the kinds of styles that you need to add to the CSS section of your blog, found in between <Style> ... </Style>; you can modify these styles as you wish:

/* ******************************** */
/* Classes for the tag: <*$BlogItemBody$> */

#read-more {
font: normal .76em Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
padding:0px 10px;
text-align: right;
}

/* ******************************** */
/* Classes for the tag: <*$BlogItemCommentList$> */

.comment {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
border-bottom: 1px solid #003399;
padding: .5em;
margin-top: 1em;
background:transparent;
width: 395px;
}

.comment-body {
text-align: left;
padding: .2em .0em .9em .0em ;
font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal;
color:#000000;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size:.75em;
}

.comment-tips {
background:transparent ;
text-align: left;
padding-left: .5em;
font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal;
color:#555555;
font-size:.68em;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

.comment-form-title {
background:#003399;
color: white;
font: .8em "Courier New", Courier, mono;
letter-spacing: 0.09em;
font-weight:bold;
padding: .2em .5em .2em .5em;
}

.comment-form-user {
background:transparent ;
text-align: left;
font-size:.65em;
font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal;
color:#555555;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
line-height: 1.3em;
padding-left: .5em;
}

.comment-top {
background:transparent ;
text-align: right;
padding-bottom:.7em;
font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal;
font-size:.65em;
color: #003399;
font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

.comment-bottom {
background:transparent ;
text-align: left;
padding-top:.7em;
font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal;
font-size:.65em;
color: #003399;
font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

}

/* ******************************** */
/* Classes for the tag: <*$BlogNavigation$> */

.navigation {
background: #FFFACD;
border: 1px solid #666666;
color: #000000;
font: 9pt/11pt Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;
margin-bottom: 6px;
margin-top: 4px;
padding-bottom: 1px;
padding-left: 4px;
padding-right: 2px;
text-align: center;
}

.prev {
float: left;
text-align: left;
width: 45%;
}

.next {
float: right;
text-align: right;
width: 45%;
}

.home {
text-align: center;
}

/* ******************************** */
/* Classes for the tag: <*$BlogPager$> */

.blog-pager div {
padding: 1px;
font-weight: normal;
display: inline;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: #000000;
font-size: 0.83em;
}

.blog-pager a {
text-decoration: underline;
display: inline;
margin: 3px;
}
<
/* ******************************** */
/* Classes for the tag: <*$BlogPhotoAlbum$> */
#album {
background: transparent;
color: #000000;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 9px;
text-decoration: underline;
text-align: left;
}

#album img {
padding: 4px;
background: #DDDDDD;
border: 1px solid #BBBBBB;
}

#album td {
text-align: left;
vertical-align: top;
}

#album table {
text-align: left;
vertical-align: top;
}

#album .title {
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 9px;
padding-top: 4px;
padding-bottom: 10px;
}

/* ******************************** */
/* Classes for the tag: <*$BlogRecentPhotos$> */
#recent-photos {
background: transparent;
text-align: center;
padding: 10px 0px 15px 0px;
}

#recent-photos img {
background: #DDDDDD;
padding: 4px;
border: 1px solid #BBBBBB;
}

/* same font and size as section titles */

#recent-photos .album-link {
font: bold .8em "Book Antiqua", Palatino, Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;
color: #003399;
background: transparent;
text-align: center;
margin:0px 10px;
text-decoration: underline;
}

#recent-photos .title {
color: #FF6633;
font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 10px;
font-weight: bold;
width: auto;
padding: 5px;
text-align: center;
}

#album-link {
vertical-align:top;
}
#album-link a:link {
vertical-align:top;
}

/* ******************************** */
/* Classes for the tag: <$BlogFeeds$> */
#blog-feeds {
line-height:0.2;
padding-left: 15px;
}


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Most of these tags can be found in our prepared templates, but you can modify them to suit your needs.
If you have modified your template in any way, we strongly recommend that you copy the code from the edit window, and paste it into a text document on your computer. Save the file so that if you ever make further changes or accidentally corrupt your code, you can always just paste your good copy into the textarea to start over again!
We hope that this brief introduction to our blogging platform will enable you to play with your template so that you can make it look just the way you'd like it to, using your preferred fonts, colors and layouts. If you have other questions or would simply like to give us your feedback, please visit our template blog. Our staff carefully monitors all comments, criticisms and, well, even compliments! Happy Blogging...

Blogs->Links

Links:
We have designed a really easy way for you to manage your links on your  mo´time weblog, using a simple form.



Link text: Choose the name of link as you wish it to appear on your blog in your link menu. This is the text that people will read and click on.

URL: Directly underneath you will see the URL field. Type in the web address of the site or blog that you want to link to. Enter the text very carefully! Any mistake, no matter how small, will cause the link not to function properly.

Link title: The third field is the link title field. This is the text that you see when you place your mouse pointer over the link; it is usually a further description of the link.
When you have double-checked that you have entered the text, url and title correctly, just click on the Add button. That's all there is to it. Your links will appear immediately on your blog in alphabetical order.
Modifying links: You can modify your links whenever you want to. Once you create a link, a table will appear near the top of the Links. Choosing edit allows you change any part of your link. Clicking the hide checkbox will preserve the link in your database, but will remove it from the link menu. Delete does just what you'd expect...it eliminates the selected link.

When you have finished working with your links, click on the Save changes.

Blogs->Connections

The Connection section of your control panel is where you can invite friends, co-workers or relatives to share privileges on a group blog.

Members, Awaiting and Invite:
The members page contains a list of the members of your blog. Inviting members means turning your blog into a group blog, allowing users to post and administer the blog. Invite members to your blog by clicking on the Invite button and use the simple form to invite friends to participate in your blog, via username (mo'timers only) or email (for non-mo'timers), and include a welcome message if you'd like.

When you click "Invite a user", the page will refresh and it will take you to the Awaiting page. There you will see the invitee listed in the pending invitations table. Set the level of permission that you desire and then click "Save Changes". If you want to allow the member to change some of the blog's settings and have the power to invite others, in addition to posting, then choose "can admin" from the awaiting table. When the invitee accepts your invitation, they will disappear from this table and appear in your Members list.

Blogs->Settings

Blogs->Settings->Basic:

This page is identical to the one that you encountered when you first created your blog. On this page you can change the title of your blog, its address (URL) and description.


1) Title -- Enter the name of your blog into the first field. This will be the name displayed as the title of your page.

2) URL -- This will be the Internet address of your blog: http://yourURL.motime.com. This is the address that you will give to your friends so that they can come to visit your blog. Take an extra minute to decide upon a URL that you would like to keep for some time. Changing the URL will mean that the link to your that your readers have in their bookmarks will no longer be viable.

3) Description -- This description will appear in the layout of your blog page, so try to compose a clear and brief subtitle for your blog.

4) Show blog on 'newly updated' menu on the home page -- This setting allows you choose whether you want your blog to appear in the newly updated menu on the home page AND on the latest posts pages.

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Blogs->Settings->Format:



Number of posts on your home page: This is just what it sounds like. When the number of posts exceed the number that you choose (up until a max of 30) they go to the archives of that month, always available to you and your readers by simply clicking on the month in question. Your archive links are automatically placed on your blog. No further action on your part is needed.

Enable blog pager: Choose 'yes' if you would like to have one of those cool '1-2-3 next-page last-page' style links on the bottom of every page of your blog whenever you have more posts than can be seen on a single page.

Order of posts: Traditionally, the most recent posts are shown at the top of the page and then placed in descending order. That way your regular readers see your latest posts without having to scroll. But you can reverse the order if you want to.

Enable post titles: The default is set to No, but this is a cool feature to try out. It allows you to place a headline or title for each of your posts. It can help to clue your readers into the subject of each post or simply be another occasion for your creative writing skills to shine.

Time: Since mo'timers blog from all around the globe, we have created this panel for you to adjust the time zone of your blog. Click on the arrow of the pull-down menu and click on your local time. All posts and comments will reflect your choice. There are also formatting options for your time stamps which are self-explanatory.


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Blogs->Settings->Access:
This panel controls who can see and comment on your blog.


Blog viewing: choose between "Everyone" (for a public blog) and "Members only" (for a private blog open to invited Motime members only). There is a space for a custom message that univited members will see if they try to access a private blog. This message is shown if the blog is PRIVATE and the user is anonymous or not a member of the blog.

Commenting access: you can choose among the following self-explanatory options: No one (comments disabled), Anyone (unrestricted), Motimers only or Invited Mo'time members only. If you intend to block certain Mo'time members from commenting, you must choose 'Motimers only' and then from the Community->Contacts panel you can specify who to block.

There is a space for a custom message which is shown to users who are NOT authorized to comment on this blog.

When you have completed your selections, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page to enable your preferences.

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Blogs->Settings->Syndication:


Turn on syndication: Publish site feed: Choose "yes" to turn on service.

Descriptions: Choose 'Short' to syndicate a short abstract of your post. Your subscribers will then have to come to your blog to read the full text. Choose 'Full' to place the entire post within the news feed which is then readable in the news readers of your subscribers.

Language: Choose the language from the pull-down menu.

Feed URL: This shows you the URL to your feed which can be inserted into a new reader directly or emailed to friends that wish to subscribe to your blog. ALternatively (and more commonly) your subscribers will use the button on your blog's home page to subscribe.

The links "preview" will display the actual XML content of your feed.

Confused? Here is a further explanation: What Are Webfeeds (RSS), and Why Should You Care?

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Blogs->Settings->Info:

This panel is informational only. There are no preferences to set on this page. It is your blog settings profile, a snapshot of your blog. It will make more sense to you after having gone through the entire control panel first.


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Blogs->Settings->Delete:

Click on this button if you want to delete the current blog. Deleting the blog will permanently remove all posts and comments from our database and cannot be undone. So think carefully before doing it! Don't worry, we give you a warning and second chance to think about it, but after you do the deed, there's no turning back.

Blogs->Icon panel (right side)

Look to the right side of the light blue strip, the color of the Blogs tab itself. There you will see a series of icons and a drop down menu. Here is an explanation of these controls:

: Click this icon to see your blog in a new window.

:  This icon shows the public status of the blog. This open lock means the blog is public, whilst the the closed lock indicates a blog visible only to members. Clicking on this icon opens the Blogs->Connections->Access panel, which allows you to modify this setting.

:  If you see this icon, it means that the current blog is your main blog on mo'time. Clicking on it brings you to Account->User->Profile where you may change this setting if you so desire. If you do not see it, it simply means that this blog has not been yet chosen as your main blog. If this is your only blog, it should be your main blog. So, if you don't see the icon, go to Account-> User-> Profile and select it as your main blog right now!

The pull down menu: The last element to the right is the pull down menu. If you have more than one blog, this is the way to move from one blog to another without leaving the tabbed Control Center environment.

Next: The Message tab...