Welcome to Your Blog, GNIDers!

During our class gathering last week there seemed to be enthusiasm for creating some Web space where classmates could share plans, information, recipes, pictures, etc. So, Esther, Laurie, and Hank sat down to think of how to do it so it would be easy, fairly safe, private, etc. The result is this blog as well as a Picasa Web Album site for pictures and videos. Both sites use the same Google account and, therefore, the same username and password. These are:

Username: gnid63@gmail.com

Password: wsgnid63

Blog: http://wsgnid63.blogspot.com

Blog sign-in is email address plus password (i.e., gnid63@gmail.com; wsgnid63) though you can also use your own Google account to post blogs once you accept the invitation from GNID63 to do so.

In order to post a blog entry, you must either be signed into this account using this username and password noted above, or be an authorized/invited blogger in which case you will need your own Google or Gmail account. We will send each of you an invitation to the email address that Sue has on record for you, and that will tell you how to access the blog and post an entry.

If you do not want to have a Google/Gmail account you can still post an entry by going to the blog site and signing is as gnid63@gmail.com, wsgnid63.  Once signed in, you should see a link for creating a "New Post."  In this case, please type your name at the bottom of your post, otherwise it will simply say that it was posted by gnid63.

Also, when you post a blog it would be helpful to assign a few key words that categorizes the subject matter of your entry.  These can be handy for finding what you're looking for later on (see below).

To make a comment on a blog that has already been posted (or just to read the blog), you just need to go to the blog address using your Web browser (see above), find the blog entry you want to comment on, and click the comments link at the bottom of the entry.  

When you write your blog, you'll notice a line at the bottom of the editing window for labels. Although you can use any label you want, we thought it would be good to limit the number of labels to some general categories. The labels are used to filter the blog entries by subjects you are interested in. To suggest a few: Recipes, India, Woodstock, Class Events (reunions & invitations), Family News, Entertainment (good movies, books, etc.), Personal Adventures and Plans (trips, for example), Opinions & Issues (political or otherwise), Health & Healing. Each blog entry can have multiple labels separated by a comma.  As labels are added, a list of all the labels used is generated for the main page of the blog.  If you click on a label you'll see all the posts for which that label was used.

When you've finished drafting your entry you'll need to click on the "Publish Post" button before it shows up on the blog itself.

There is also a search bar at the top of the blog window so you can search within the blog just as you would use a Google search bar to search the Web.

This is probably enough to get started on for now.  Laurie, Esther, and I will post additional entries later about the GNID63 Picasa Web Album site and other such.  Questions?  Comments?  Send an email to me at hanklacy@gmail.com.