Create and edit blog posts
Creating a new blog post
If you have permission to create a blog post in at least one category, you will have access to both
Add post
buttons:
And here:
Click
Add post
to open the Add post
screen:
note
Blog permissions are based on the categories associated with a blog post. If the blogs listed on the home page are filtered by a single category and the user does not have the right to create blog posts in this category, the
Add post
button will not be displayed.The creation of each blog post involves three required steps, plus additional options that can be configured:
- Give the blog post a title
- Enter content in the main section
- Select at least one category. Only the categories for which the blog author has edit permissions will be visible
Select
Save
to save the new blog post.In addition to those required steps, you have other options available:
- Tags- You can add one or more tags to your post, which are displayed in the tag cloud
- Attachments- Via theAttachments tab:
You can add attachments by browsing files on your computer or you can drag and drop files. Select
Save
to save the documents to the post.note
These can either be files that have already been added to the Files module of the site (or from another site), by using the
Recent
or Search
tabs, or files the user chooses to upload from their computer, via the Upload
tab.Tasks
can also be added to a file from the Files module:
- Status- You can save your post as a Draft instead of publishing the post immediately
- Notifications- You can determine whether other site users will receive anemail notificationabout the new post or any changes to it. The options available for notifications are:
The
Settings
tab:
- Header image- You can choose a header image for your blog post, which will be displayed both in the list of blogs and in the actual blog screen
- Author- Here you can change the author of the blog post, although you can only have one author
- Publish date- You can use this to pick an exact date and time that your post will be published:
- Allow comments- If the site administrator has configured the Blog module to allow comments, this setting will be displayed. It is left to the blog author to determine whether comments will be allowed for this post. This setting can be changed later by the author or an administrator.
note
Most activity in the Blog module, including creating, modifying and commenting on blogs, is included in the Activity module for the site and the Activity section of the dashboard.
Autosaving
As a precaution, blog posts are autosaved every minute while being drafted. If you attempt to cancel your post, you will receive the following message:
Where you can
Save
your post as a draft, or Discard
it completely. If you accidentally navigate away from the post without saving, lose your internet connection or session, or your computer crashes, the last auto-saved version of the post will be available to the user on the Drafts page.Approval workflow
If the site administrator has enabled the approval workflow for the Blog module, when a non-administrative user attempts to save or edit the blog post in any way, the
approval
of a site or content administrator must be obtained.Blog categories and permissions
Blog categories serve two related purposes. First, categories make it easier to identify and navigate to blog posts related to the same subject. Categories can also limit a user's or group's access to certain blog posts by associating access rights with a category. For example, third parties may be prohibited from viewing any blog posts associated with the Internal category.
A site administrator can configure the categories for the Blog module and categories can be added, renamed and deleted. In addition, for each category, a site administrator will determine which groups can access the category and what type of access rights to the category those groups will have: only
View
rights, or both Edit and View
rights. A user in a group that has only View
rights to a given category will be able to view and comment on blog posts in that category. A user in a group with Edit
rights to a category will have all View
rights and also will be able to create blog posts in that category.note
A user cannot edit a blog post created by another user, even if that blog post is in a category to which the user has
Edit
rights. Only the original author or an administrator can edit a blog post.If a blog post is assigned to more than one category, a user needs to only have access rights to one of those categories to view the post.
Editing and deleting blog posts
Only the original blog post author or a site or content administrator can edit (or delete) a blog post.
note
The reason that only authors can edit or delete their blog posts is due to the nature of blog posts. Unlike wikis, which are collaborative, blog posts are based on a more traditional publishing model of a single author and many readers
Edit Blog Post
To
Edit
a blog post, click More actions
> Edit
:
A page that is virtually identical to the Create blog post form opens. From here, you can:
- Change the title
- Edit the content area
- Add or remove attachments
- Add or remove tags
- Change the blog categories, which may impact which users can view the post
- Change the policy concerning comments. If the policy changes from allowing to not allowing comments, any existing comments are hidden and not deleted.
Once changes have been made, select
Save
.note
Unlike wiki pages, prior versions of blog posts are not maintained. There is no way to compare two versions or restore a prior version.
When editing a post, the author can determine to save it as a
Draft
instead of publishing it immediately, and can also change notification settings for post updates. If the approval workflow
has been enabled, any changes must be approved by an administrator.Delete Blog Post
The author of a post, or an Administrator, can choose to delete a post entirely by clicking
More actions
> Delete
:
Confirm that you want to delete the blog post:
Select
Delete
to permanently delete the blog post.