This tutorial covers the basics of blogging on CrazedSanity.com.  It is not a complete reference to every possible action available by any means, nor is it intended to be: the idea is to cover the basics and areas where users might have issues or questions.

The images have been modified to (hopefully) only point out those areas that are of importance, and obscuring the unimportant stuff.  If you think they suck, let me know why and your thoughts on how to fix them.

Accessing Your Blog

 

 

	After you've logged-in, click the "Members Area" link in the upper-right corner of the page.
Now click on "Edit My Blog(s)".

 

Your blog probably won't be as massive as this list (that's my list of blogs).  In fact, you won't have any to begin with, but you can change that after reading this tutorial!  Anyway, at this point, it is important to understand what everything means.

 

See those icons?  You know, that spyglass () and pencil ()?  Click the spyglass to view your entry (this is the link everyone else will use, known as the "permalink"), or click the pencil to edit the entry.  The green plus symbol () is what's really important: cick that to create a new blog.

 

 

 

 

Editing (and Creating) Blogs

Now you should know the basics of getting to your blog and what all the links mean.  Now it's time to actually do something.

New Entry

 

	Okay, its time to create your first entry (or maybe not, and you're here to get a refresher course).  Click the green plus symbol () beside your blog.  A new screen will come up, allowing you to create your very first entry (the blurred-out stuff isn't important).
	Once you create the entry, it will bring you to its permalink.  Just click the "Edit Entry" link at the bottom of the post to continue editing it.  Note that if you've saved it as a draft, there will still be a box for saving as a draft; as soon as you uncheck that box and save it, you will not have an option to save it as a draft anymore.

 

 

Adding Images

 

To jazz up your entries, you can always add an image.  See that little button that isn't smudged away?  That's the image button. There's some interesting things involved with adding images, so let's get started.
When that little image button is clicked, an "Image Properties" window [1] opens up.  If it is on another server, or even already on this server, you can link to it with the full URL.
Now, if you want to upload a file, there are some "gotchas".  First off, don't bother clicking on that "Upload" tab in the main page: as it is broken (and gives a false sense of security); instead, click the "Browse Server" button on that main tab. You will be presented with a window similar to the one here.  Did you notice there's subfolders there?  Well, you can make one too, just to separate your images from everyone else's.  If you do create a folder, be sure to click into that folder.
Click the "Browse..." button.   A standard "select a file" type window will appear.  Find that file and click "Ok"[2].
As you can see, the URL will show up, along with a preview. If you change the width, the height will automatically change so your picture doesn't get distorted.
It is a good idea to put some sort of descriptive text into that "Alternative Text" block, too.  That is the text that appears if you hold your cursor over an image.
In order for that text to appear for some browsers (like Firefox), you'll have to click the "Advanced" tab and paste that text into the "Advisory Title" box.

 

 

^[1] It isn't really another window , actually it is just an overlay.  The key difference being, essentially, that you can't ALT+TAB between it and the main window, 'cuz they're not actually separate windows.  So its not really a huge difference to most people, but this little detail might trip you up otherwise.

^[2] I didn't give a screenshot here on purpose, as it will depend upon what operating system you are using... and yes, there actually is another operating system out there that is not Windows: it is called Linux: check out Kubuntu, as I've been told by others that it is pretty user-friendly.