How to Create A Blog with Blogger.Com

1. If you don't have a person gmail account (must not be your education gmail, such as University of Minnesota gmail account), go ahead and create new gmail account now. It's important that you don't use your official education account as it doesn't have all the features that personal gmail accounts do.
   IMPORTANT: When you use your personal gmail account and your personal blog, you should use a different browser than the one that you use for your official education/university gmail, otherwise this causes problems. e.g. I use Firefox for my University of MN gmail, and Chrome for my personal gmail and personal blog.
2. Once you have created a personal gmail account, link to the https://blogger.com/start website
3. Click on the orange arrow that says "create your blog now."
4. On the "Create a Google Account" screen enter in the information required, namely:
   1. Enter your personal gmail email address, which should be the one that you want to use to be paired with your blog that you are going to create [must not be your official education one. You'll have to retype your email address in the second box.
   2. Enter password (it's a good idea to write this down somewhere safe -- or email it to yourself and then save the email so you can refer to it later if you forget it). You have to retype the password in the second box.
   3. Enter a display name
   4. Choose a user name. If you prefer people not to know who you actually are, then choose a fictitious name. e.g. 2tech4me
   5. Accept the terms (it is safe to do and won't generate junk mail).
   6. Word verification: type the letters that appear as a graphic above the verification box. This is there to ensure that the blog is being created by a person and not automatically being generated by a computer.
   7. Click on the "Continue" arrow
5. On the "Name your blog" screen:
   1. Enter title: This is the title that will appear at the top of your blog page and will also be the default name that will appear in users' browsers when they bookmark/add to favorites you blog, so choose something that will give readers a clear idea of what your blog is about
   2. Blog address: pick something that you'll remember easily and that is easy to type.
   3. Click on the "Continue" arrow
6. On the "Choose a template" screen:
   1. Scroll through the selections and click on the little radio button next to the name of the template that you choose. e.g. I chose the snapshot template. Note: you can change the template later if you decide you don't like the one you have selected, so don't spend too much time at this point worrying what will look best!
   2. Click on the "Continue" arrow
7. On the "Your blog has just been created!" screen:
   1. Click on the "Start Blogging" arrow
8. A window will appear that looks much like a word processing window. Start typing, and use the formatting bar at the top to help you format your entry. e.g. You can change font size, type of font, color, justification, create links and so on. Experiment with these to see what they do.
   1. When finished, click on "Publish Post"
9. Once you have posted an entry, a screen will appear telling you "Your blog post published successfully!"
   1. To see the results, click on the link to "View Blog."
10. To get back to your blog so that you can add a new entry or edit the existing blog, click on the little orange "B" next to the search field at the top left of your browser window. If you are already logged in, this will take you to your blog Dashboard. If you aren't logged in, then you will first need to log in (using the user name and password that you set up when you created your blog -- that's why it's important to write down what these are when you first create your blog).
11. From the dashboard you can:
    • create a new post (a new blog entry): click on the "NEW POST" button
    • change your blog settings (don't worry about this now, but do explore later)
    • edit your existing posts: to do this, click on "Edit Posts" --> this takes you to a screen that gives you the option of creating a new post or editing your entries. To edit entry, click on the "Edit" link next to the entry. This opens the blog in editing mode, and you can go ahead and edit
    • to post blog once you are done editing, click on the orange "Publish Post" button (which takes you to "Your blog post published successfully!" window, and from there, click to "View Blog"). 

Posting a photo or other image on your blog

1. When you are in the compose window to create a blog, you will see a little picture/icon that looks like a mountain on the tool bar (right next to the spell check icon). Click on that
2. This opens a box that gives you a choice to add an image from your computer or an image from the web. The easiest is from your computer. So click on the button that says "browse."
3. Navigate to where you have a picture saved on your computer and select it.
4. Back in the upload image window, select the layout (if you want the picture to be left, center, or right, or none). I like the option of having the text wrap around the picture as it reduces scrolling -- but this is a personal choice -- no "right" way!. Also select if you want the image to be small, medium or large. My advice: go small or medium, but avoid large as it makes the blog take too long to load.
5. Click the "Upload Image" button. It will take a little while for it to load, but that should do it! (you may need to refresh the page for you to see that the image has been uploaded).

Signing in once you have your blog set up

When you want to blog again on another day, just go to blogger.com --> at the top of the page that opens, you will see "Sign in to use Blogger with your Google Account."

• Fill in your username and password (that you created in step 3 above).
• Click "Sign In"

Posting comments on other people's blogs

To post a comment on a blog:

1. Once you are on a person's blog, click on the "Post a Comment" link that usually appears below their blog entry.
2. This will open a comment in the box. It's useful to click on the link next to this that says, "show original post" as it enables you to see what the person wrote in their blog as you are composing your comment on this.
3. Click in the comment box and type your comments.
4. Enter your blogger.com user name and password below the comment box, and then click on the blue "login and publish" button (Reason: In order to post a comment on a blogger.com blog, you need to have your own blogger account). If you are already logged in, then all you need to do is click on the "Publish Your Comment" button.