Writing in a journal is all well and good, but when you're ready to share your musings with the world (and you think the world is ready to receive them!), a blog is the way to go. As the latest phenomenon to grow out of the Web, the blog (or Web log) is a diary with a difference: Rather than speaking to yourself, you're speaking to the worldand, best of all, the world can talk back! Here to get you started is a low-priced guide to the leading free blog software: Google's Blogger. Using large color illustrations and a minimum of verbiage, this compact, tightly focused guide from best-selling author Elizabeth Castro takes you through each step of the blogging processfrom acquainting you with the interface to setting up your blog, creating your profile, posting email, adding pictures and audio, and using BlogThis to post your blog from anywhere on the Web.
The Visual QuickProject Guide that you hold in your hands o.ers a unique way to learn about new technologies. Instead of drowning you in theoretical possibilities and lengthy explanations, this Visual QuickProject Guide uses big, color illustrations coupled with clear, concise step-by-step instructions to show you how to complete one specific project in a matter of hours.
Our project in this book is to create a Web log, or blog, using Google's online Blogger software. A blog is a clever combination of database and Web site that lets you focus on writing while a computer program, in this case Blogger, dates and archives your entries and then automatically generates a Web site that not onlycontains what you've written that day, but also contains links to all your previous entries. The blog you'll create in this book is a simple, online journal, complete with photographs and links. Because the project covers all the basic techniques, you'll be able to use what you learn to create all sorts of other blogsperhaps to begin an online newspaper, showcase a frequently updated photography portfolio, or work on a team project using a blog both as a communication tool and also for archiving the team's progress.
Why use Blogger to create your blog? Blogger is one of the most popular online blogging tools, works with any modern browser, and is free, well designed, and easy to use. The Web pages it generates follow current standards for both XHTML and CSS. And it o.ers beautiful, professionally-designed templates for formatting your blog. In addition, Blogger o.ers free blog hosting in exchange for a minimal bit of advertising. It's a great choice.
