Creating and Editing Content in Expression Engine

How to Create and Edit Your Blog Entries:

To create a new entry use the steps below. Feel free to print this out for easier reading.

• Log into http://www.route-one.org/Blog/drum/index.php
• Choose PUBLISH in the admin menu.
• Enter a title in the Title field.
• If you have a short entry, type a few paragraphs into the Introduction field. Skipping a line creates a paragraph.
  
  If you have a long entry, type a few paragraphs into the Introduction as a "teaser" and the rest into the Main Body.
  
  Your reader will automatically see a link that says "Read More" to see the text in the Main Body.
• You may use the buttons to format your text or the File Upload to add an image. Instructions on these are below.
• Choose a category in the Categories menu. If you are not sure, it's set automatically to General.
• Click Preview to view your entry and proofread it. If you are happy with it, click submit and it will be added to the site.
• If you wish to edit your entry after it has been published choose EDIT in the admin menu.
• Click on the entry you wish to edit and it will take you to that entry. .
• Click on Edit This Entry.
• Edit away using the same basic procedures you used for creating an entry.

---

How to use the Formatting Buttons

To use the formatting buttons, first select the text you wish to format. Then click the appropriate button. You should then see some "HTML Tags" surrounding the text. These will be read by a visitor's web browser as the appropriate formatting that you chose. To remove the formatting, just delete both tags. Below is a list of the tags and what they do:

• Bold- Makes text bold.
• Italic- Makes text Italic or oblique.
• Underline- Adds an underline below the text.
• Blockquote- Indents the selected text and adds a space above and below. Useful for longer quotations and citations..
• Font Color: To change font color, delete the word black from the tag and substitute the color name you want to try. You have a choice of aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, and yellow.
• Right- Moves a block of text to the right with one space above and one space below.
• Center- Centers a block of text with one space above and one space below.
• Left- Moves a block of text to the left with one space above and one space below.
• Divider- Creates a horizontal divider between blocks of text. You can adjust align it "Left", "Right" or "Center. You can adjust the size by substituting a different number "1" makes it thinner, "3" makes it thicker. If you want to change the width, substitute another percentage for 75%.
• E-mail: Creates a link to an e-mail address-- this address will be encrypted to confuse spammers.
• Link: Creates a link from the selected text.
• Image: Displays an image if you know its URL.

How to upload an image to your blog entry

• Place your cursor where you wish the image to appear..
• Choose File Upload..
• Browse your hard drive for the image you want and hit upload.
• You will presented with choices of how you want your image placed. If unsure, just leave it as it is.
• You will then be asked if you wish to resize your image. If you like your image the size it already is, choose Close Window.
• Look at your blog entry. You should now see some code that looks like this:
  
  "{filedir_1}photo1.jpg" alt= "image name" border="0" class="float-left" width="127" height="168"
  
  Your image is automatically set to appear to the left of your text. If you prefer it on the right it, just substitute "float-right".
  
  If you wish to add a border, substitute another number( 1 or 2 is usually OK) in border= "0".
  
  It's polite to give your image a meaningful name. This is especially helpful for visually impaired people. Where it says alt="image name", substitute a short meaningful name inside the quotation marks.