Blogger makes starting your blog an easy three-step process. First, you create an account with Blogger and set some basic preferences for your blog (like its name). Next, you choose a template for your blog’s initial design. Finally, you get to the good part: posting your first blog entry.
Start at blogger.Com
It doesn’t matter if you use a Mac, PC, or Unix/Linux computer. Shown here is the Blogger site on a Mac. On the opposite page you can see Blogger on a PC running Windows.
Blogger has a new post editor which is (at press time) not yet the default option. It is so great, though, that I’m willing to make you fuss with obscure settings in order to take advantage of it.
A Google account gives you access to all of Google’s services (Blogger, Gmail, Google Groups, etc.), but you have to sign up for each service individually.
You can sign up for a Google account with a non-Google email address. In that case, the password that you choose for your Google account does not have to match the one you use to retrieve your email.
If you don’t already have an email account, you can create one with Gmail (http://www.gmail.com). Because Gmail is also part of Google, this will automatically create a Google account which you can then also use to sign in to Blogger (though you’ll have to accept Blogger’s Terms of Service the first time you create a blog).
If you already have a Google account and have already signed up for Blogger, you can log in, create a new blog from your Dashboard and then follow the rest of the instructions in this chapter to create your new blog.
While you can have a blog with the same title as someone else’s, the Blog address (URL) you choose must be unique. If you happen to type one that’s already in use, you’ll get an error and a chance to try another.
You can later delete a blog by choosing Settings | Basic and clicking the Delete blog link at the top of the page.
If you don’t like any of the given templates, don’t fret. You’ll learn how to choose a different template (from a wider selection) or modify the template according to your own style in Chapter 5.
You can have as many blogs as you like. They will all be listed in the Dashboard and be treated independently by Blogger. They are all identified with the Blogger user name that you created on page 3.
There are several categories of settings and various options under each one. When I write Settings | Basic, that means you have to start from the Settings tab and then click the Basic subtab underneath. It turns out though that the Settings | Basic page automatically comes up when you click Settings in the Dashboard.
If you can’t find the Updated editor option at the bottom of the Settings | Basic page, it’s probably because Blogger has made it the default and you don’t have to worry about activating it. Yay!
If you blog on a public computer, be sure to sign out each time you are done writing your blog. Otherwise, the next person who uses the computer will be able to write entries to your blog or change its settings.
Click the Remember me box in the Sign In area if you want your browser to save a cookie with your user name and password. When you type the first few letters of your user name, the browser will fill in the rest of the name, and the password as well. Needless to say, this is only a good idea on a private computer.
If you forget your password, click the question mark next to the word Password in the Sign in area. Blogger will help you retrieve your password and/or user name.
