Blog

The Blog is a list of posts that are ordered by date instead of by a parent / child hierarchy.

Pages and Posts are edited pretty much the same way. The difference is the way they are listed -- the order in which they are displayed.

Pages have parents and children. They are arranged by topic with the most general information on the Main Navigation and the more detailed information accessible from the more general pages. Think of the arrangement of pages on your site as a system of Outlines or Tables of content.

A Blog may also have a basic topic thread, but blog posts are date sensitive. They are arranged under a single navigation link and they are listed in reverse chronological order so that the most recently added or edited post is always on top. Think of a Blog as a collection of News articles or announcements with the latest information always on the top of the list.

Keeping the terms straight

• A Blog is a set of Posts
• Posts are individual "articles" that are part of a Blog

Create a Blog

The very first time you create a Blog, you can do it by clicking the Blog icon, then click the blue [Create Blog] button. 

If you choose to create additional blogs, the following instructions will take you through that process. Note: The following instructions work for the first Blog as well.

• Click the Pages icon from the black Admin bar
• Click the blue [Add Page] button, top, right.
• Choose the Blog type of page
• Choose a layout
• Give your blog a page title
• Choose the parent for your blog. Keep in mind that blogs cannot have children like regular pages can
• Optional: modify the URL if desired, keeping in mind that all URLs must be unique.
• Click the blue [Create] button.

You now have a page where you may write an introduction to your new blog - or not.

Suggest Publishing the Blog page at this point to make sure it becomes part of your website. Until you publish the blog, it will maintain an 'unpublished' status (on the pages list) and will not display on your website.

Click the big plus sign to create your first Post. Note: if you published your blog as suggested, you'll have to click the 'edit' link on the left side of the Blue Control Bar at the top.

Add a Post

A newly created Blog will present you with a big plus sign under the introduction (if you have one). Click the plus sign to add your first Post.

Additional posts can be added by clicking the 'Add Post' link in the Blue Control Bar at the top, just to the right of the 'Edit' link.

Alternately, you may click the Blog icon on the black Admin bar then the blue [Add Post] button on the top right.

Both options work equally well, use the one that makes the most sense to you.

Note: if you have chosen to have more than one blog, adding a post will include a field where you can choose in which blog this particular post will be listed. Posts can NOT be moved from one blog to another. If you get a post in the wrong blog, you will have to delete it and re-add it.

Edit a Post

• Open the Post
• Click the 'Edit' link toward the left side of the Blue Control Bar at the top.
• Make whatever changes you wish to make.
• Publish

Basic and Advanced Tabs

When editing a page there are two tabs of information that can affect the display of your blog. As most of these options are the same as page tab options, we will address only the ones that are unique to the blog.

To see the full page instructions for tabs in edit mode, please visit the Tabs page.

Basic Tab on the Blog page

Blog Layout - there are three options for the way the posts layout on the blog page.

1. The Full Version. This includes a thumbnail of the image - if any - that you've uploaded to the Featured Image space. The author if you've entered one. The date. And the entire post content.
2. The Digest Version - also includes the thumbnail of the Featured Image, whatever description you've put in the Description box, the author and date.
3. The Title Version - includes the post title, the author and the date.

Posts per page - A list of posts can, over time, get pretty long. This field lets you choose how many post titles will be displayed on your blog page before additional pages of posts are added. This happens automatically.

• If you are using the Full Version display, you may only want a few Posts per page. 
• If you are using the Title Version the 20 Posts per page option may make the most sense.

Advanced Tab on the Blog page

The one thing that is unique about the Advanced Tab on the Blog Page is the layout choice. Instead of choosing just the layout for the Blog Page, you may also choose the default layout for the Post pages. Note: you may always change the default layout on the specific Post page is desired.

Basic Tab on a Post page

This is where you would add the author, description and featured image for the specific post.

Advanced Tab on a Post page

Here you may change the layout for this single Post

You may also change the order of the Post by changing the date. Remember Posts are listed in reverse chronological order. If you would like the Posts listed on the Blog page in a different order, you may accomplish that by changing the Published Date on the Post.

Always Publish after editing to save your changes.

RSS

Tip: If you want to get the RSS url for your blog, just append: ?_format=feed

and you will get the RSS version of the blog.

Subscribe

More Information

Sample Blog

Related Information

Dashboard

Pages

Blog

Events (Calendar)

Forms

Galleries

Media

Store

Themes

Users

Settings

Group Pages

Navigating This Website

Black Admin Bar on Left

Blue Control Bar at Top

Basic Editing