Help Me!

From time to time people will move away from the islands or otherwise cease to become eligible for a blog on Island Blogging. Rather than simply lose touch with these folks completely we would like to offer the opportunity to ’stay in touch’ as far as possible.

If you do move away please inform the Site Admin who will help as much as possible with one of the following options

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Set Up Your Own Blog

We would recommend that you set up your own blog at www.wordpress.com which can be done free of charge. If you have managed so far on Island Blogging then you should have no problems and much of the Help on IB will still be relevant. Your blog on Island Blogging will then remain as it is and will link to your new blog as follows

• The blog will be changed to a standard theme (necessary for technical reasons) and the front page will contain a message stating ‘{bloguser} is no longer with Island Blogging but you can follow their new blog at {newblogaddress}’
• Your blog will still be visible on the Island by Island page under a new heading ‘Ex Island Bloggers’
• You will still be able to log in but you will not be able to post new material and control of the blog will be limited
• Visitors will still have access to all your previous posts and will still be able to leave comments (unless you ask for this to be switched off)
• You will still be able to moderate comments and can leave your own comments (which you can do whether you are logged in or not)
• Your username will be linked to your new blog so that if you leave comments on other blogs while you are signed in anyone can simply click on your username and be taken to your new blog.
• If you comment without being logged in you can still link to your new blog by typing the address into the Website field on the comment box
• Since you will still be able to log in you can if you wish import all of your previous content into your new blog
• You can ask other Island Bloggers to include your new blog in their blogroll

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Just Leave Your Blog As Is

If you don’t want to set up a blog elsewhere then the following will apply (and will be done as standard if no instructions are given to the contrary)

• The theme will be changed as above but the front page will state ‘{bloguser} is no longer with Island Blogging and unfortunately we are not aware of a new blog’
• All of the provisions above will apply except, of course, those linking to a new blog (since you won’t have one). If you set up one at a later date the blog can be changed to reflect this as above.

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Simply Delete (or Archive) Your Blog

If you don’t want to leave your old posts on Island Blogging you can simply delete the blog either by asking for it to be done or doing it yourself.

• You can ask for the blog to be deleted but be aware that once this has been done there is no way to recover the data
• You can delete the bog yourself by going to your Dashboard and selecting Settings > Delete Blog. Be aware that once a blog is deleted in any way there is no possibility of recovering any past content
• You may ask for your blog to be Archived. This means that it will no longer be visible to any visitors (or yourself) but the content will remain on site should you wish to access it later.
• You may optionally ask for your blog content to be sent to you as a file that can be imported later into another blog (the data will be supplied in good faith but no warranty will be given as to its usability) but this cannot be done after the blog is deleted.

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Under the Terms of Service your blog could simply be deleted when you cease to be eligible but these options have been granted to allow old friends to remain in touch and continue to be a part of the IB Community. Please accept them in the spirit in which they are offered.

I am not very impressed with the way Wordpress handles photos in it’s default state but it can be made to be very effective which you can see if you go to My Photoblog. Something similar (though far less effective) can be done with your blog on IB by using the built-in gallery function which will give you something like this

To get your photos like this you use the normal photo upload (see tutorial Adding Photos To Your Blog) but you don’t use the Insert into Post button. Once you upload your first photo simply browse for and upload as many others as you wish. As each is uploaded you will see the Gallery tab at the top of the upload screen counting up how many photos you have in your gallery. Once you have the desired number of photos uploaded click on the Gallery tab at the top and chose Insert gallery into Post. You won’t see the photos in your Write Post box, just the word gallery surrounded by square brackets but the photos will be there.

The photos above were just uploaded and inserted with no captions. If you want to include captions to your images then it’s a little bit more involved. As each image is uploaded you need to type in the caption for that image (it’s best also to change the Title which is likely to be a meaningless filename) and then click on Save Changes at the bottom. This will take you to the Gallery view and you then need to click on the Choose Files tab at the top to upload the next image. Once you have the desired number of images then you go to the Gallery tab and proceed as above.

Note that the gallery appears in rows of three photos so it is a good idea to upload in multiples of three if you can. Exactly how the gallery will appear in your blog depends on the theme you are using. You might find that the photos appear squashed together with no gaps which looks unsightly but you can change the size of the thumbnails in your settings. To do this you need to go to Settings at top right of your Dashboard and then choose Miscellaneous. You will see Thumbnail size set to a default of 150 x 150 which works fine with most themes but if yours has no gaps then try reducing this to 140 x 140 or 125 x 125. Don’t forget to hit Save Changes.

You will also notice here a checkbox saying ‘Crop thumbnail to exact dimensions (normally thumbnails are proportional)’ which is on by default. What this does is crop your photos so they all appear the same size and act as ‘teasers’ to the full photo (when someone clicks on the thumbnail they get the full photo - they also see the Title of the photo which is why I suggest you change it above). If you prefer you can deselect this option and your gallery will then appear with thumbnails of the full image (which can still be clicked to enlarge). This can look effective if all your photos are landscape format or all portrait format but can look messy if they are mixed. Unfortunately I can’t illustrate this as you can’t have two separate galleries in one post.

There is more to be said on photos but this should give you a start in getting multiple photos in your blog.

FC recently left a comment on The Landlady’s blog which contained a long, nasty, ugly link. You can see what I mean if you go to http://thelandlady.islandblogging.co.uk/2009/03/30/the-tea-cosy-from-the-dragon-ladys-pattern/#comments and scroll down to the bottom.

Wouldn’t that look a lot nicer if it said ‘You can see what I mean if you go here and scroll down to the bottom’?

The way to do this is to insert some HTML into your comment around the word(s) that you want to contain the link. The format is

If you can’t remember the syntax a little trick I often use is to write the comment in the Write Post box of my blog in Visual mode and use the link button to paste in the link (if you are not sure how to do that check out the tutorial Adding Links). You then go to HTML mode, select and copy the text and paste it into your chosen comment box. You will probably be left with a stray draft post on your blog but that can be deleted in a ‘tidy up’ session later.

Of course only those with blogs can use the latter trick but visitors can easily use the correct HTML as above if they wish to leave links.

To activate this widget go to Manage at top left of your Dashboard and then to Plugins and then click Activate alongside Show Top Commentators.

Now go to Design and then Widgets to add this one (it’s called Top Commentators) to your chosen sidebar in the position you wish it to appear. If you are not sure how to place widgets where you want check out the tutorial Organise Your Sidebars.

When the widget appears in the blue box on the right click on Edit to select your settings. Call it whatever you want and in the next box select the period you want the widget to start counting over again. Unless you are a very prolific blogger you will probably want to select Yearly or All. Experiment with the number of commenters, 5 is a good start but you might want more or you might just want to show the top three. We’ll skip the filter boxes for now and go on to Define your None Text. Note the the widget only starts counting comments once it is activated so for the first few days it will show nothing or, more accurately, whatever you type in here. The next box allows viewers to click on commenters names to go to their own site (if they have set up the link). After that you can choose whether or not to show the number of comments left by each person. The final option just keeps the text neat if someone has a long user name and is quite safe to set to around 20.

Let’s come back now to the filters. You don’t really want to include your own comments so you can use these filters to exclude yourself. In the first box you should type Administrator followed by a comma and your username which will make sure your comments are not counted. If there are other commenters that you don’t want to show for any reason you can also add their username here. A more accurate way is to enter your user ID in the next filter box but to do that you will need to contact me and I’ll email your user ID. Only use this option if you find the first filter does not work. The URL filter is more complicated but can safely be ignored if you use either of the first two.

When you have finished click on Change to close the box and then on Save Changes before checking your new sidebar.

To activate this widget go to Manage at top left of your Dashboard and then to Plugins and then click Activate alongside Wordpress Popular Posts.

Next go to Settings at the top right of your Dashboard and select Wordpress Popular Posts where you will find the options for the widget. Ignore the first item since you can’t use code snippets and ignore the Show Author option since you will (almost certainly) be the only author on your blog. The others are really self-explanatory so just play around with them as you wish. If you require further explanation just ask a question here.

Now go to Design and then Widgets to add this one (it’s called Popular Posts) to your chosen sidebar in the position you wish it to appear. If you are not sure how to place widgets where you want check out the tutorial Organise Your Sidebars. Don’t forget to click Save Changes when you are finished.

You are now set to go but please note that the widget is not ‘retrospective’ i.e. it will only start picking up data from the time that it is activated so you will have to wait a few days before any data begins to appear in your sidebar.

All of the appropriate tutorials on Help Me! (as well as some pages) now have a ‘Print this post’ button at the bottom of the tutorial. This enables the tutorial to be printed ‘cleanly’, i.e. without the sidebars and comments and other unnecessary stuff.

Due to the number of comments on the ‘Ask a question’ section of Help Me! I’ve now split the comments into pages and displayed them in reverse order. Now if you ask a question your answer should appear as the first comment (until the next question is asked).

The reverse order might take a bit of getting used to but it saves having to scroll right to the bottom of the page.

One of the ways a blog becomes a success is to attract readers who leave comments. When someone leaves a comment on your blog wouldn’t you like to know a little bit more about them? When you leave a comment on someone else’s blog wouldn’t you like them to come and read your blog?

There’s a simple way to achieve this as Wordpress has a built in link system that will add a link to your username whenever you use it to leave comments (although some themes have this function disabled). To set this up go Users at the top right of your Dashboard and then select Your Profile. Scroll down and you will find a field called Website. Just type in here your blog address in the form of http://yoursusername.islandblogging.co.uk. Scroll down to the bottom and hit Update Profile. Now whenever you leave a comment anyone can click on your username in that comment and be taken to your blog.

You don’t have to use the Website field to link to your blog. If you have a website of your own that you want people to visit then, by all means, use that instead.

Visitors can also make use of this feature. When you leave a comment and type in your name and email address there is also a field called Website. If you type a link to your own website or your own blog then that link will be added to your name in the comment you leave.

Thanks to X333XXX for suggesting this topic even though, at the time of writing, he doesn’t use his link for the main purpose suggested!

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On your sidebar you may have a list of default links with the heading Blogroll, If you haven’t then you can add it by going to Design then Widgets and clicking on Add alongside the word Links in one of the boxes on the left. Don’t forget to hit Save Changes.

Originally Blogroll was designed to link to other blogs but you can link to whatever you wish - sites you like, your own sites, your business etc. To add a new link you need to go to Manage then Links and click on add new. Before we add any links let’s first take a look at the Categories. If you have clicked add new then you will see a bar on the Add Link page headed Categories. Click on that and you will see just one category called Blogroll. That is probably not what you want your links to be called so let’s change that and maybe add some more categories.

Go back to Manage then click on Link Categories. You will now see the category Blogroll, Click on that and type a new title, say Blogs I Like, and hit Edit Category. Now add some more categories if you wish, perhaps Recommended Websites or Orkney Businesses. The description box is optional but if you fill it in the text will appear whenever someone hovers over the link. Click Add Category and then add more categories if you wish.

Now we have some categories it’s time to add some links. Click Links at the top and before you click on Add New you might want to delete the default Wordpress links. Just check the boxes and hit delete. You can delete any of your links in the future like this. Now click add new and you are back to the Add Link page. To add a new link type in the Name which can be anything you want to describe the link. Next type in the Web address which must include the http:// at the beginning - it is better to copy and paste this from the address bar in your browser. Again the description is optional.

The Categories bar should still be open and you will now see the new categories you have added. Select the appropriate category for your new link. Now click on the Target bar just below and you will see three options. I always like to open a link in a new window so that the viewer can still see my blog page for other links and if you want to do this click on _blank. If you leave it as it is the new link will replace your blog page in the viewer’s browser. That’s it! Scroll up the page and hit Save and check out your new links on your blog. Note that if you have a category that has no links it will not show up until you add some.

You can carry on and add as many links and as many categories as you wish.

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Well, only 2 really and as far as you are concerned maybe only 15 seconds (if you are lucky!).

I’ve a had an email from a video journalist from AFP Television who wants to make a two minute film on Island Blogging (more as a concept rather than specifically this site) and who wants to interview two or three bloggers. Now I don’t think this is actually going to come to anything as the guy wants to interview people within ‘easy reach’ of Fort William (he’s doing a video about Eigg). Unless he’s got a Lear Jet I think that excludes everybody! Even excludes me unless he catches me on the way back down south!

Anyway if the guy ever wants to take a trip across the waves let me know if you would be interested in being interviewed (for a very short time) on camera. Don’t go dreaming about becoming Kate Winslet or Danny Boyle - if it’s ever made I doubt that it’ll get a worldwide release!