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Designing Compatible BlogsAs the web is considered to be a fluid medium, it is important for the blog to be viewable under all circumstances - with any browser or on any computer. Also it should look and function as close to the same way as possible. That is why it is advised to design for maximum compatibility. Inevitably, choices will need to be made between compatibility and design. For example: whether to use or not to use flash animation as splash page on your blog. For it to run in all circumstances it is advised to test it extensively with many different browsers and computers. The work should be tested on both Macs and PCs. Achieving a successful design requires inspiration, careful planning, and hard work. Besides this, of course, a few softwares are required. Here is a list of software that can be used for the various phases of the designing project: Details Of Other Blogging Tools and
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It can also help in IP Blocking.
If someone is continually harassing the user, then he or she can block their IP address. This will restrict them to from commenting. HTML in comments: it allows usage of , , and tags in comments.
Also, links are created automatically when URLS are typed in a comment.
Time Zone can be selected by the user to have the time and date that is displayed adjusted accordingly.
Installation of the software: Installation can be easy using Linux/Unix or Windows/DOS. The archive run the file called "install" before the installer ask some questions to get an idea about where on server reblogger will reside.
The URL of the website is entered where reblogger is installed. Start with http://. In most cases CGI scripts can only be run from the CGI-bin directory.
So, here the user needs to specify the path to the CGI-bin. If there is no CGI-bin, then change this to something other than the default (try /reblogger/). Otherwise you probably won't need to change this.
This allows the user to specify where important things, for example: password, are to be stored. The software uses sendmail to send any of the emails it needs to send.
Once this information is entered the installer will try to figure out what the web address of the reblogger directory is. The installer will then show the information entered.
If everything is right enter "y". The installer will now ftp reblogger to user’s website.
The reblogger is ready to use. Now that reblogger is installed, a user account should be created. Once the account is created the user is taken to the comment manager, where he can customize the settings.
Reblogger can be used by just one person for one blog, or one person for a few blogs, or by many people for many blogs. Users can allow as many people as they want.
w.bloggar - http://wbloggar.com/
w.bloggar is an application that targets to be an interface between the user and his blog(s).
It is considered to be a Post and Template editor, with several features and resources that the browser based blog editors can not offer.
w.bloggar a software that runs over Windows GUI and allows the user to edit his posts without being connected to the Internet, saving locally one or more texts to be posted in the future.
It can be minimized to the Tray bar as an icon and every time the user wants to publish a new text, he just need a click and has the editor ready to work, finished the text, another click and the post will be published.
Another great advantage of w.bloggar is that it is compatible with most of weblog systems available, allowing an advanced user to have one only interface to several accounts hosted on several different sites, under different publishing systems.
To communicate with the weblog w.bloggar needs that the blog system has implemented an API, the acronym to Application Programming Interface. Currently w.bloggar is compatible with Blogger API, metaWeblog API, MovableType API and b2 API all based on XML-RPC definition.
To set up w.bloggar to post to your BlogWorks XML blogs, instructions given below should be followed: download w.bloggar from http://wbloggar.com and install the application and open the w.bloggar application.
A login window will appear allowing the user to create a New Account. BlogWorks username is to be entered here along with the password. Click OK.
It will then direst towards the account connection window, where the address of the host where BlogWorks is installed into Host field.
If the webserver runs on a port other than 80, the port setting should also be changed. Click OK to confirm the entered information.
Its functions include: post and publish on Blogger, b2, MovableType, Nucleus, BigBlogTool, BlogWorks XML, Blogalia and Drupal blogs, edit posts and templates, save posts locally for further publishing, import text files, add links and images, format text font and alignment.
It can also multiple accounts and blogs, post preview, colorized html code, html tags menu, find/replace option, post to many blogs, ping to weblogs.com, title and category fields, spell checking, file and image upload, custom tags menu , toolbar icons skin, supports windows xp, easy account configuration
blogBuddy - http://blogbuddy.sourceforge.net/
blogBuddy is a small Windows 95/NT/ME/2000/XP program written in Delphi that manages Blogger.com and other weblogs which implement the Blogger API. Features include spell checking and post editing.
The current features of the application includes: posting of new entries, saving of blogid, username and password in an .INI file, proxy settings, get list of available blogs, system tray icon for quick posting, coming features sourceforge keeps an updated list on coming features in the requested features tracker.
The current version is 0.5. The changes that has been incorporated in version 0.5 are given below:
Following new features were added: installer via nullsoft (superpimp|scriptable) install system, windows XP look where available, improved error messages when remote site returns error, spelling, minimal password encryption, editing of recent posts, keyboard shortcuts for posting and publishing, posting buttons put back where they were.
Following features were fixed: password prompt is always displayed, size and location is saved (again), two bugs after selecting font fixed: duplicate entries in blog combobox and crash when saving, crashing when updating blogs and then canceling options dialog fixed.
Deciding A Name For The Blog
Save the situation where the whole weblog ready except indecision on the blog name. Bloggers may consider browsing through hundreds of weblogs for ideas. The most common names range from:
The lame - "Pete’s Weblog," "JamieJ’s Weblog," "Darren S’s Blog" to
The inane - "Fumes n’ Flames," "My Random Thoughts," "SomePlaceElse", to
The sublime but already taken - "Wordridden," "Colossal Waste of Bandwidth", “The Unseen World”
Naming a blog after an individual’s name, may be blogger’s name, reflects that the weblog might focus on none but himself. It is recommended that personal names should be kept out of the blog title.
Name, undoubtedly, may bring hundreds, if not thousands, of web denizens to a weblog. A weblog should have name that strikes the right note.
To read the next instalment of this complete guide to blogging, click here