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112
01/2009
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
 
HANDS ON 
WORKSHOP
SMS us!
 
 Story code: HBW to 57007
Blog withWordPress
 
REGISTER AND CREATE POST
T
he web has given everybody amedium to pen their 'Dear Diary,..'moments online in the orm oblogs. Blogging is an easy way to expressyoursel and share your world withothers and connect with them throughthe message in your blog. Blogging isnot restricted to any topic and you canblog about anything, be it your obsessionwith music, politics, technology or evenyour pet! It’s a medium where you canreely express yoursel with the power oyour own words without bothering to bepolitically correct.WordPress is one o the most popularand powerul blogging engines on theweb today. It is packed with amazingeatures, themes, plug-ins and manypowerul tools to create a state o theart blog. It is really simple to use andyou don’t need any previous blogging orsite maintenance experience to createyour own blog. WordPress also allowsyou to create your own custom themesand plug-ins with its easy to use API andclear documentation. To start creatingyour own blog, ollow these steps andshare your world with everyone!
Step 1:Register
To join the blogging bandwagon, first logon to
www.wordpress.com
and register.Ater that, enter a blog domain nameand a title or the blog and enter all thedetails or the registration process. Makesure you enter the correct email address,as the link to activate your WordPressaccount will be sent here. Now activateyour account rom the link, log in andyou will then be taken to your blog pagewith the welcome post on it. You canchoose to keep or delete this post.
Step 2:Create a post
To start creating the post or yourblog, you will have to log on to the‘Dashboard’. On the welcome post, clickthe log in link in the Meta category,or you can log in rom the WordPresshomepage and click the blog name.Alternatively, just add /wp-admin ateryour blog link in the browser and itwill take you to the Dashboard. TheDashboard has a simple interace, witheach activity categorized well romcreating the post, selecting the theme,adding a poll and so on.WordPress has a QuickPress toolthat lets you write and post a blog veryquickly. You just have to add the title,type the post in the relevant field andhit 'Publish'. You can also add pictures,music and videos to your post here.Alternatively, you can click ‘Add New’in the post category and a word editorwith more elaborate eatures opensup. It has options to edit the ont type,size, color and the alignment o thetext with options to add or removelinks too. When you type a title in thetitle text box, WordPress automaticallygenerates a Permalink or that particularpost. You can also add videos, picturesand music to your blog rom here. Inthe ‘Excerpts’ text box, type out a briedescription about your post or a quickread, this however is optional. While youtype your post it is also auto-saved inthe drats, so you don’t have to worryabout re-typing everything in case yourcomputer restarts or i there is a powerailure, you can retrieve whatever youtyped rom the Drat.Ater your post is ready, you can alsocreate tags and categories or the post.
STEP 1:
Enter the correct details and register
STEP 2:
Create a post by typing in the text box
WordPress is one of the most powerful blogging enginesavailable today, which is loaded with awesome features tohelp you create a blog with ease. CHIP shows you how tocreate the blog of your dreams with WordPress!
BY MONALI GAIKWAD
 
113
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
01/2009
For example, i your post talks aboutyour avorite album, create a music tag,the artist/album name and so on. Forcategories, you can create a categoryas music and the subcategories as thegenre o the music. To add the tag orcategory, simply type in the text box andclick ‘Add’. When you add a tag to yourblog, it is added to the global WordPressdatabase. So every time some one typesthis tag in the search box, your blog willalso be listed in the search results. Notethat, with WordPress you can create anumber o categories and subcategoriesor your posts. In the Publish section,change the visibility settings to choosewho can view your blog. WordPress givesyou the option to let everybody viewyour blog, or only a select ew to viewit with the password setting. Ater youhave finished typing and added all thenecessary tags and privacy settings, click‘Preview’ to see a sample o how thepost will look ater publishing. I you arehappy with what you see, click ‘Publish’and your blog is ready or the world!
Step 3:Changing the Appearance
I you are not happy with the deaulttheme and want to make sure yourblog looks smashing and is loaded withcool stuf, then WordPress ulfils thiswish too! It has a number o themesto choose rom, ranging rom diferenttypes o layouts and colors schemes. Tochange the theme, in the ‘Appearances’section, click ‘Themes’ and select thetheme you like. When you click on thetheme, you get a preview o the themeon the page. I you like the look othe theme, click ‘Activate’ or close thewindow and choose another one. Youcan also tweak the theme to your likingby using the CSS Stylesheet Editor.Some themes also allow you to changethe header image and page layoutaccording to your choiceWordPress allows you to add widgetson the sidebar o your page too. Byusing widgets, you can add someadditional eatures to your page, suchas Flickr, to share your photo albumson the blog or maintain Archives o allthe posts you have made so ar. To adda widget to the page, just click ‘Add’rom the list o ‘Available Widgets’.You can select multiple widgets atone go, and then click ‘Save Changes’in the Selected Widgets section. Aterselecting the widget, click ‘Edit’ andmake the necessary changes to thewidget, such as adding the link to yourFlickr album and selecting the number ophotographs displayed on the pages.
Step 4:Updating the profile
Once you create your blog, it is veryimportant to connect with readersthrough an impressive profile and a'Gravatar' i you like. To update yourprofile, expand the ‘Users’ section andclick ‘Your Profile’ and enter the detailssuch as First Name, E-mail ID andAbout Yoursel. I you want to remainanonymous or use a pen name, then youcan enter this in the name field.The administration and communitysettings can also be changed in order
EDIT POSTS AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR PROFILE AND BLOG
STEP 3:
Select the theme and add widgets to your blog
STEP 4:
Create an interesting profile with your avatar
STEP 5:
Edit your posts and add or delete information
STEP 6:
Import a blog from another engine
 
114
01/2009
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
 
HANDS ON 
WORKSHOP
to e ciently maintain a blog. To do this,click on ‘Authors & Users’ and select the‘Username’ and click the ‘Change role’drop down. Here you can change therole to Administrator, Author, Editor andContributor. To add a new member tothe blog administration, enter the emailID in the text box and select the role youwant to assign to the user and click ‘AddUser’. It is that simple!
Step 5:Editing posts
Ater creating posts, you may want tochange a ew things or add some moretext or images to the post. To do this,you don’t have to start over and createa new post altogether. All you need todo is click ‘Edit’ in the post section anda list o all the posts you have made isdisplayed. Ater that, simply point themouse cursor to the post to be editedand you will see links such as Edit, QuickEdit, Delete and View appear under it.Click ‘Edit’ and you will then be takento the word editor where you can makeall the required changes to the post andthen click ‘Update Post’.
Step 6:Import/Export
WordPress also gives you the option toimport your blog rom other bloggingengines such as Blogger, Blogroll,LiveJournal and so on. In the ‘Tools’ sectionclick ‘Import’ and select the bloggingengine rom where you want to importyour blog. Ater this, click ‘Authorize’ andyou will be taken to the log in page o theselected blogging engine. Sign in to youraccount and then click ‘Grant Access’.This will display the blogs in your account;just click ‘Import’ on the blog you wantto import. Ater this all the posts madeon that blog will be imported to yourWordPress account; click ‘Save Changes’to finish the process. You will then be takento the Edit posts page where you can editor delete posts. Other details such as thedate and time o posting and the usercomments are also imported.Similarly, you can also export yourWordPress blog to another WordPressblog that you may have. To export, click‘Export’ and then click ‘Download ExportFile’. Your blog will then be convertedto a downloadable XML file which willhave to be saved on your computer.Ater the file is downloaded, go to theother WordPress blog and import thisXML file on it. To import the XML file,click ‘Import’ and select WordPress romthe list. Ater that, ‘Browse’ the XML filerom your computer and click ‘Uploadand Import’. Thus the posts rom oneWordPress blog can be added on toanother WordPress blog too. WordPressalso has other Tools such as ‘Gears’ tospeed up your WordPress account. Thisblog consolidation eature is rarely seenin other blogging tools.
Step 7:Changing settings
By changing the settings, you can urthercustomize your blog more to your liking.You can change the blog image, taglineo the blog, comment moderation andso on. In the ‘General Settings’, you canchange the Blog Title, Tagline, Timezoneand date/time ormat or your blog.Simply type in the relevant text boxand select the appropriate option romthe drop down menu to do this. In the‘Writing’ settings, set the size o thepost box, ‘Formatting’ and the deaultpost and link category. The ‘Reading’setting allows you to set options orthe readers such as adding your post toDigg, Del.icio.us or Reddit etc. Here youcan also set the number o posts visibleon the page and other related options.To add Digg, Del.icio.us etc just click thecheckbox and type the number in the‘Blog pages show at most’ text box.To change the comment settings,click ‘Discussion Settings’ and click thecheck boxes to enable diferent optionssuch as Deault article settings, Beorea comment appears etc. You can alsodefine and choose to discard a commentin the ‘Comment Blacklist’ option. Typeout the words, URL, E-mail or IP addressand the comments containing the samewill be discarded automatically. You canalso choose to show the avatar o theperson posting the comment. Just selectthe appropriate radio button and chooseto show avatars and also choose thedeault avatar.These are all the options you need touse. You can try a combination o colors,and other settings to change the looko your blog. Ater creating it you canalso view statistics such as the numbero hits in the ‘Dashboard’. Just expandthe ‘Dashboard’ and click ‘Blog Stats’to view the weekly, monthly and yearlystats. To reach out to more readers justpost the link o your blog on your socialnetworking site and let everybody get aglimpse o your world!
MONALI.GAIKWAD@CHIP.IN
 
FINAL SETTINGS FOR YOUR BLOG
STEP 7:
Modify the settings to customize the blog
STEP 8:
This is how it looks when its done
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