Mt. Lebanon School District 7 Horsman Drive Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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1 Getting to a MTLSD Blog Access Access a MTLSD Blog by navigating to the Blog landing page The landing page will require the name of the blog you would like to access. For security purposes, no listing of blog s exists. If you do not know the name of the blog, contact the owner. Login Inside of the district o On a district computer logged in as yourself, you will be authenticated to the blog automatically. Outside of the district o Authentication to a MTLSD Blog requires a Dashboard or mymtlsd username and password. o If you do not have a Dashboard ID, contact your building secretary. o A mymtlsd username can be established by clicking the Register Now link

2 Add a Post What is a post? A post is a single, top-level entry in your blog. Comments are made to posts. To add a post, you must be the owner of the blog you are currently viewing. If you are not the owner of the blog, you must have admin posting privileges set. Step 1: Click the Add a Post button. Step 2: Step 3: Step 4: Add a Post Title The Post Title should be short and general. Add an optional Post Image Adding an image to your post can make it more visually pleasing to the reader. Click the Select Image button and upload an image from your computer or type in the URL of an image located on another website. For more information, view the Select Image section of this tutorial. Enter Post body text Body of the post will contain information specifically important to the reader. Capable of Simple Text or HTML formatting Simple Text can be inputted in to the post body. This is typing normally without any special elements to the post body. No line breaks, links, or text formatting will appear. This is an acceptable input method but is not visually pleasing for the visitor. A post with no HTML will look like this HTML Text can be inputted in to the post body for a more visually pleasing experience for the user. This will also allow elements to be added to the post body such as links, images, line breaks, tables, and text formatting. Think of a post as more of a mini-webpage that can be created. Adding HTML can increase visitor comments to the post. A post with HTML might look like this

3 Add a Comment Commenting on particular posts will promote discussion on topics. As a visitor, commenting can increase collaboration among peers or around the world. To comment, begin by clicking the comment link underneath the particular post you would like to comment on. The comment link may be displayed as Leave a Comment or it may be displayed as the number of comments already made to that post. or Place the text you would like to comment with in the Post a Comment text box. This text box accepts HTML. For more information about inserting HTML in to a Comment, view the next section of this tutorial. Comments are limited to 1000 characters. Hit the Submit Comment button to finish. Delete a Comment You may remove a comment by clicking the Delete My Post link underneath a comment you have made. Deleting a comment will remove the comment body text but will not remove the username or time stamps. The owner of the blog will still have the ability to view any deleted comments. Flag a Comment Comments may also be flagged by any visitor if they contain content that may be offensive to a visitor. Click the flag icon in any comment to flag it as Off Topic, Vulgar, or Discretion. The flagged comment will be reported to the owner of the blog. The content will no longer be visible to visitors but the username and time stamps will remain.

4 Adding HTML to a Post or Comment What is HTML? HTML stands for Hyper-Text Markup Language and is used as a standard among internet browsers to interpret what should be displayed on the screen when visiting a website. For more information about HTML and some tips for utilizing it, visit the HTMLGoodies website. A quick way to add HTML to your Post or Comment is by viewing the HTML Quick Tips area. In a post, this is access by clicking the HTML Capable Info button underneath the post body. In a comment, the HTML Quick Tips are viewable underneath the comment input area. Insert HTML via HTML Quick Tips: Two sections of HTML Quick Tips exist a code section and a result section. View the result section on the right side and copy the code from the left side. Paste the code in to the body of your post or comment to get the desired result. Line break Move on to the next line of a post. Note: A comment does NOT require line breaks to move to the next line. Code = Link Make a section of text a link to another website or a document on the web. Code = <a href= >Text to be linked</a> Bold, Underline, Italics Format sections of text with bold, underline, or italics. Bold Code = Text to bold Underline Code = Text to underline Italics Code = Text to italicize Image Inserting an image can be useful when multiple image may need to be inserted in to a post or comment. Remember that the image should NOT be a large image. This could prohibit visitors from reading the post or comment correctly. Code = <img src= </img>

5 Select Image Selecting an image can be done when an owner posts or changes blog properties. Step 1: Click the Select Image button Step 2: Click the Browse button to select an image from the computer Step 3: Select the image from the computer and hit the Open button from the dialog box. Step 4: Click the Upload button to save the file to the blog. Step 5: Select the image to insert by clicking on it in the FileName table. The image will appear in the preview area. The width and height of the image can be adjusted before insertion. Note: Blog Title images should not have a height greater than 100 pixels. Step 6: Click the Insert Image button to complete the process.

6 Edit Blog Info As the owner of a blog, you can edit the properties of the blog and the information displayed to visitors. You can also change the way the blog interacts with visitors and how they can comment. To access blog info, click the Edit Blog Info button on the homepage of the blog you own. Title The title of the blog and what visitors will see at the top of the blog homepage unless an image is selected. Multiple Posters: Admin Posters Click the Admin Posters button to assign posting rights to other users with a Dashboard or mymtlsd user ID. Type the name of the user in to the text box and hit the Save & Close button. Each username is checked for validity. If the username does not exist, an error will be received. Admin Posters also have the ability to Approve or Reject posts if the blog is moderated. They do not have the ability to change blog properties. Display Posted By: will turn on or off the text that displays who a post was posted by. This is not the same for comments. Comments: Allow Comments will turn on or off the ability for visitors to comment on posts. Allow Files to be attached to Comments will turn on or off the ability for visitors to insert files in to a comment. Files from other websites can still be linked. Must Approve Comments Before They Are Displayed will turn on or off blog moderation. If this option is checked, the blog owner and any admin posters will have the ability to approve or reject comments. Comments from visitors are not displayed on the blog until they are approved or rejected. When a blog owner or admin poster logs in to the blog, they will see a button next to the Add a Post button that allows them easy access to any comments that need approved or rejected. Image will allow an image to be selected as the blog title rather than just text. Description A description for the blog can be placed here that will be displayed to visitors on the homepage of the blog. Blog descriptions are limited to 1000 characters but do accept HTML for text formatting.

7 Blog Stats Statistics of blog usage are viewable by blog owners by clicking the Blog Stats button on the homepage of the blog. Blog Hits display how many visitors have navigated to the blog in the last 6 months. How many Posts and Comments were made each month and for 6 months is also displayed. Comments can be viewed specifically by Month and Post as well as by Commentor. The Who s Watching Me? tab will show what users have enabled Notifications as well as what users have the blog added to their MTLSDHome page as a widget. Adding or Editing Related Links Blog owners have the ability to add links to the homepage of their blog by clicking the Edit / Add Links button. The URL should be placed in to the Link section of the table (void of the portion of the address, which is added for you). The text displayed to visitors should be placed in the corresponding row in the Link Text column of the table as shown in the example below. Blog Notifications Anyone can be notified when a post or comment is made to a MTLSD blog. Turn this option on and you will receive the update via . Notifications are sent during regular school hours and combined in to one on the hour when updates have been made. If three comments have been added, that will be contained within a single to you. Signing up for notifications on multiple MTLSD blogs will combine any updates in to a single as well. If you are not receiving notifications and you have them turned on, check the info button next to the Notifications button to check the address on file.

8 RSS Feeds Add the blog to an RSS Application by clicking any of the RSS buttons on the blog homepage. For example, Mt. Lebanon Faculty and Staff can add the blog to their MTLSDHome page by following this procedure. Step 1: Click the button to add it as a widget Step 2: You will be asked to choose which tab you would like to add the blog to. Select the tab you prefer by clicking on it. Step 3: The blog will show up on your tab as a widget. The most recently added posts will display. You may click on a post title to open the blog to that post. Search a Blog Each blog can be searched for keywords. The search term will filter through both posts and comments. Once the search is complete, the results will be shown with the keyword(s) highlighted. Search for a keyword in the Keyword Search text box Click the post title to open the post or click a username to open the comment.