Category — how to use the blog

I’m not sure whether you have the same editing abilities as me but… I believe you can edit your comments even after you click ‘submit’. First you’ll need to log into the blog. In the Dashboard I think you will see links for ‘Write’, ‘Design’, ‘Comments’, ‘Syndication’. Click ‘Comments’. Your comments should appear in a list. Click on your comment’s title to open the comment into window where you can edit and save the comment.

If this doesn’t work for you, let me know.

Due to limited space, we need to get images to below 100K (at least) before posting them to the Eport.

If you are using a digital camera, make sure your settings are optimized for web viewing – check your manual if you’re not sure how to do this.

You can also use the free photo-editing software, Gimp, in your applications.

Here is how I scaled down one of the photos – changing it from 516K to 40K with little loss of detail:

1. Open Gimp application

2. Click File>Open> and find file on your computer

3. A new window will open –  click File>Image>ScaleImage>make Width smaller (in this case, 600pixels) and Height will auto-adjust after you click Scale

This may be enough to reduce the size. If not, you can also adjust the “quality”:

4. Save As>Save

5. Another panel will open – select “show preview in image” to see file size

6. Adjust “quality” with slidebar to balance size with quality (you can see effect on photo in window behind)

7. Try to get the file size to below 100K. If below 100K looks bad, it’s okay to go over, but the smaller the file size the better

Recommended guidelines = under 100K; 600 x 400 pixels;  72dpi

Don’t forget to keep a folder of all originals so that when you are playing around with new versions of files you always have an original to go back to!

Play around with Gimp, google search “jpg optimization”, etc, and email me with further questions: lhorridge@gmail.com. I will be happy to meet with you individually or in groups to work on image optimization.

If you can’t create a post to the class eportfolio, send me an email. Give me your non-Baruch email address. (That email address is probably also the address associated with your own Macaulay eportfolio). I can get you up & running. -Zoe

Creating a post for the blog is pretty straightforward.

1. click the ‘Log In’ link that you see in the left-hand column in the ‘Meta’ area
2. enter your username and password
3. when you’re logged in you’ll be taken automatically to the blog’s “dashboard”, where you’ll see a button to ‘Write a New Post” – click that button

 



(dashboard screen shot)

 

4. give your post a title in the ‘title’ area

 



(write post screen shot)

 

5. enter the content of your post in the ‘post area’ – use the basic formatting buttons if you want to format your text – if you know HTML, you can use it if you click the ‘HTML’ button – if you want to add a photo or other media, click the gray star next to ‘Add media’
6. click ‘Preview this Post’ to see what your post will look like, then make changes if necessary
7. when you’re happy with your post click ‘Publish’ to put it on the blog – or, if you’re not ready to publish yet, click ‘Save’ and your post will be saved as a draft but not published. 

If you can’t log in, you need to contact Lynn ASAP.

Check out your classmate, Alyssa’s, header photo – the colors are great!  If you can’t see it, log out and back in again, and then refresh a few times. Until we get a few more photos (at least 4 but we can accomodate more), I’ll keep the others as placeholders. If you have a photo you’d like to see up there, send it along! //Lynn