Zoundry Blog Writer™ User Guide for BlogHarbor Users
Thank you for downloading the Zoundry Blog Writer. This guide will walk you through setting up and using the many new features of the Blog Writer. This is a work in progress and we will continue to update it. If you have additional questions, please visit our Support page.
1. Setting up your Blog Writer
Set up your blog account(s)
Configure your Zoundry ID
Configure your media repository
2. Using your Blog Writer - The Editor
Composing and formatting text
How to undo changes
Choosing a blog
Choosing categories
Choosing tag words and tag spaces
Entering a trackback URL
Choosing post date and time
Saving an entry
Opening a saved entry
HTML formatting
Removing HTML formatting
3. Using your Blog Writer - Image Management
Inserting an image
Moving an image
Modifying an image
4. Using your Blog Writer - Links
Creating links
Creating a product (affiliate) link
Linking to tag spaces, reference services, and search engines
Linking to a previously published post
Editing a link
Removing a link
5. Using your Blog Writer - Audio and Podcasting
Inserting audio files for podcasting
6. Using your Blog Writer - Preview
7. Using your Blog Writer - Posting
Posting
Posting to multiple blogs
8. Using your Blog Writer - Sidebar
What are the sidebars
The Blog Entries sidebar
9. Using your Blog Writer - Download Recent Posts
10. Using your Blog Writer with the Zoundry Toolbars (New!)
1. Setting up your Blog Writer
Set up your blog account(s)
Go to the Getting Started sidebar (access via View -> Sidebar -> Getting Started) and click on Blog Accounts, or go to the Tools menu and select Blog Account Settings. Click on the New Account button in the middle of the dialog box.
This starts the New Blog Account wizard.
The first field, Account Name, is just an arbitrary label (like "BlogHarbor") that you enter so you can
identify this account later. Next, select the "Movable Type" API (not the Six Apart Movable Type) for
the account type and enter your BlogHarbor username and password.
For the XML-RPC URL enter either:
1. https://www.blogware.com/xmlrpc.cgi (Uses SSL - this is recommended), or
2. http://api.blogharbor.com/xmlrpc.cgi (This is non-SSL.)
Press the Next button and the Blog Writer will retrieve the information for your Free Trial Blog (it may take a moment.)
On the final screen, we recommend that you choose FTP for the file upload method (see screenshot below.) We will walk you
through FTP setup for BlogHarbor in the Media Repository section below.
If you have any problems, send an email to support@zoundry.com.
Configure your Zoundry ID
(You can skip this section if you do not have a Zoundry ID.)
If you have an account with the Zoundry service (upon invitation only for the beta), enter your
username (your email address.) If you do not have an account, you can request one on our
signup page. (Remember to mention that you are a BlogHarbor user.)
You can also go to our
Charity List to select a charity to receive your
commissions - enter the charity's Zoundry ID here for your Blog Writer. Another option is to enter a
Guest ID from a friend or organization to receive your commissions.
Lastly, you can leave the Zoundry ID field blank and any commissions you earn will go into the
Zoundry donation jar to help us with our expenses.
Configure your media repository
The Blog Writer's media repository uploads any local images you insert in your blog to a remote directory at BlogHarbor
that will host your images online. If you do not configure your media repository, any
local images that you insert in your blog may appear OK to you but will appear broken to anyone
else.
First we recommend creating a separate directory in BlogHarbor for the Blog Writer to use. For example, you can create a directory
named mediarepo and configure the Blog Writer to upload your images and other media files to this directory. Here's how you do this:
1. Log in to your BlogHarbor account and go to the File Manager.
2. Create a directory named "mediarepo" (without the quotes) under your Home (root) directory.
Then go to the Blog Writer to configure your media repository. Go to the Getting Started sidebar (access via View -> Sidebar -> Getting Started)
or to the Tools menu and click on Media Repository. Use the following settings:
Host: [your username].blogharbor.com
Port: Leave this blank or use the default port 21
Username: [your username]@[your username].blogharbor.com
Password: your BlogHarbor password
URL: http://[URL to your blog]/mediarepo
Path: /mediarepo
Note the /mediarepo is the directory you had created earlier. To help illustrate with a username of zoundry and a blog of
zoundry.blogharbor.com, the settings would be:
Host: zoundry.blogharbor.com
Port: 21
Username: zoundry@zoundry.blogharbor.com
Password: BlogHarbor password
URL: http://zoundry.blogharbor.com/mediarepo
Path: /mediarepo
FAQ: How can I check if my media repository FTP settings are correct?
Back up2. Using your Blog Writer - The Editor
Click here to view a larger screenshot of the editor (with annotations).
Many of the composing, linking and tagging related functions can be found in the right click context menu.
A sample of the available content-menu options is shown below:
Composing and formatting text
Type within the Blog Writer's editor as if you were using a word processor. You can apply style formatting by highlighting text and selecting style buttons from the editor's toolbar or choosing from the Format menu.
Pressing Enter key starts a new paragraph (html <p></p> elements). Normally, most
browsers including the editor visually separates consecutive paragraphs with a larger line spacing (unless
overridden by CSS styles). If you wish to simply start a new line with in the same paragaph, then press
Shift+Enter.
Pressing Shift+Enter inserts a line break (<br/>) within the same paragraph.
This is equivalent to pressing Enter key on other text editors such as Notepad.
We recommend that you do not use line breaks (Shift+Enter or <br/>) purely for layout reasons.
Your Blog's template style should be used define the presentation of your markup.
How to undo changes
You can undo changes by going to Edit -> Undo from the menu or Ctrl + Z..
Choosing a blog
You can select a blog for publishing from the pull-down menu from the editor toolbar (above the title) or you can select the blog from the Publish dialog when you are ready to publish the entry to your blog.
Choosing categories (not supported in Blogger)
You can select the categories for the post by clicking on the button to the right of the blog selection menu in the editor toolbar. (Categories are currently not supported in Blogger.)
Choosing tag words and tag spaces
You can add tags for the post to a number of tag spaces. First select the tag space from the pull-down menu below the title in the editor toolbar. (Technorati is the default option.) Next, enter your tag words with a space separating each tag. Or you can click on the button to the right of the tag field to select from tags that you have used previously (this displays all of the tag words you have previously used, including tags from the recently downloaded post entries).
Entering a trackback URL
If you are writing your post in response to a post on another blog, you can enter the referenced post's trackback URL into the Trackback field in the editor's toolbar or enter it later during the publishing process. When you publish your post, the other blog's publisher will be notified of your post and can choose to display a link and summary of your post under the referenced post.
Choosing post date and time (not supported by BlogHarbor)
You can set the date and time of your post. The current date and time is the default but you can choose to have your post appear on your blog anytime in the past or future. (You currently cannot change the post date or time at BlogHarbor.)
Saving an entry
You can save an entry before publishing to your blog by going to File -> Save in the menu or clicking on the Save button. All unpublished entries are listed in the Blog Entries sidebar under "Unpublished (local machine)".
Opening a saved entry
You can open a saved entry (either unpublished or published) by going to File -> Open in the menu or browsing for entries in the Blog Entries sidebar.
HTML formatting
The Blog Writer can help you apply two kinds of HTML formatting without your needing to edit HTML source directly.
The first is Block Quotes. Block quotes are a formatting option that indents a selected passage of text on both sides to give it more
visibility within a post. Many bloggers like to use block quotes for longer quotes, for example, an entire paragraph.
To apply a block quote, select the entire text for the block quote, then right click and choose Apply Block Quote Formatting.
The second is Code formatting, which allows you to format software code in your post. To apply code formatting, select the entire
text, then right click and choose Apply Code Formatting.
Removing HTML formatting
To remove block quote or code formatting (on the current element under the cursor), click on any part of the formatted text, right click and select Remove Formatting.
Back up3. Using your Blog Writer - Image Management
Inserting an image
To insert images from your PC, you can either drag and drop an image from your desktop, or click on the Insert Picture File
button (Ctrl+M) on the toolbar or from the right-click menu. When you publish your post, your Blog Writer's media repository will
automatically thumbnail (place a small version of the image in your post and link to the full image) and upload both the thumbnails
and full images to your remote image host. (Note: You must configure your media repository first or use your
blog service's file upload feature if available.)
You can also insert images from the Web, called image tags, using one of three methods:
1. Select the image and drag and drop it from your browser. If the image is hyperlinked, cut and paste it instead*.
2. Right-click on the image in your browser, select copy and paste it into the Blog Writer.
3. Select Insert Image Tag from the right-click menu (or Ctrl+Shift+M) and entering the URL of the image tag.
(Note: before inserting images from the Web, make sure you obtain permission from the copyright holder first.)
You can find the URL of an image tag by right-clicking on an image in the browser and selecting Properties. Find the location of
the image and enter it into the URL field within the Insert Image Tag dialog box. The Alt Text field is optional text that the browser
will display before it loads the image.
* If you are using Mozilla Firefox, you can simply drag and drop any image tag regardless of whether it is hyperlinked or not.
Moving an image
There are two ways you can move an image within your post:
1. You can drag (and drop) the image within your post. That is, click on the image and move it to the location you want in the post.
2. You can cut and then paste it to the location you want. (Place your cursor where you want to insert the image before pasting.)
Modifying an image
You can edit images by right-clicking on the image and selecting Picture Properties.
This will bring up a dialog box showing supported image properties, including alt text, alignment, and the html width and height
attributes. Alternatively, you can change an image size in the editor by clicking on the image, selecting one of the image handles
around the image, and stretching it as needed.
If you change the image size using Picture Properties, then a new thumbnail will automatically be generated. If you change the image
size by stretching, then you should manually re-thumbnail by selecting Re-Thumbnail Picture from the right-click menu.
You can also change the margin and border style from the Picture Properties menu.
To add space around the image:
1. Right click on the image and choose Picture Properties.
2. Select the Style tab.
3. Enter 2 for the left, top and bottom margins. Enter 5 for right margin. (Assuming left alignment.)
4. Optional: enter 1 for the border width.
4. Using your Blog Writer - Links
Creating links
If you want to create a hyperlink under a word or phrase in your blog, first highlight the text, then press the Insert Link button (Ctrl+L)
or right click and select Insert Link. Enter the URL and choose whether you want the link to open in a new browser window.
Alternatively, here are some other ways to create links:
1. Drag and drop a URL from your browser to the Blog Writer's editor.
2. Copy a URL from your browser to your clipboard. From the editor, choose Create Link (Ctrl+L). The link should be already
prepopulated from the clipboard.
3. Copy the URL from your browser and pasted directly into the editor.
4. In the case of local files, drag and drop the local files (e.g., mp3 files) from Windows into the editor.
FAQ: What does it mean to open a link in a new window?
Creating a product (affiliate) link
We give you three easy ways to create Zoundry product links to a wide range of products. Click
here to see our current list
of supported merchants and which link creation methods we offer for each one. (Note: You must be connected to the Internet in
order to create product links using the Blog Writer.)
First, use our Zoundry Product Chooser to search and create links easily for a wide range of products:
1. Highlight the text where you want to place the link (be careful not to highlight any extra spaces.)
2. Right click on the highlighted text and select Link to Product (or press Ctrl+Shift+L).
3. Review the merchants and categories of search results in the Zoundry Product Chooser. Click on the plus sign to expand a
merchant and/or category to see its items (click on the minus sign to collapse an expanded merchant or category.)
4. Click on any item to review its information and see a thumbnail image if available.
5. When you find the correct item, select any checkbox options and click OK.
Or, use our Link Converter to create individual product links manually for some of our merchants, before we add them
to our Zoundry Product Chooser:
1. Go to the merchant's site and find the product.
2. Copy and paste (or drag and drop in Mozilla Firefox) the product page URL into the Blog Writer.
3. Right click on the link and select Convert (Merchant) link into a Product Link.
4. After the Blog Writer successfully formats the link, enter the text for the link where it says Enter Product Text and click OK.
Lastly, you can create affiliate links for general product types or entire categories at selected merchants. For example,
if you wanted create an affiliate link to an entire product category, such as digital cameras, at Amazon, you would do the following:
1. Highlight the term "digital cameras" and right click.
2. Select Link to merchant store front -> Amazon.
When your readers click on the link, they will go to a page at Amazon showing all matching products. If a reader clicks and
purchases any product on that list, then you would earn a commission on the sale.
FAQ: What's the difference between a Zoundry product link and a regular link?
Linking to tag spaces, reference services, and search engines
If you want to create a link to a tag space, such as Technorati,
then select the text you want to link and then right click and choose Link To ... -> Technorati. The link created will be a tagged
link. Similarly, you can create links to other places such as Wikipedia (reference) and Yahoo (search).
To add a link to a tag space which is not supported currently through the Blog Writer:
1. Select the text you want to link.
2. Right click, choose Link to ... -> Custom tag space.
3. Enter your tag space URL, e.g., http://del.icio.us/tag.
4. The tag words are the text you had selected, and this is shown in the "Link Tag" section. Multi-word tags should be separated
by a space, i.e., you do not need to use the "+" or "%20".
Linking to a previously published post
To insert a link to one of your published posts, you can either:
1. From the document sidebar, right click on the post and choose "Create a link to this post".
2) From the document sidebar, right click on the post and choose Entry Properties. From the Entry Properties dialogs you can create
a link to either the post, an image within the post, or links within that post.
This inserts a link to the selected post at the current cursor position. If you had selected some text in the editor,
then the selected text will be hyperlinked to this post.
Editing a link
Click on the link in the editor, right click and select Edit Link Location. Edit the URL
and choose whether you want the link to open in a new browser window. Note: you cannot edit a Zoundry product link.
If you want to edit the link text, you can make changes in the editor.
Removing a link
Click on the link in the editor, right click and select Remove Formatting. You can then delete the link text if you want.
Back up5. Using your Blog Writer - Audio and Podcasting
Inserting audio files for podcasting
You can drag and drop an audio file (e.g., mp3) from Windows into the editor or manually create a link (Ctrl+L) and click on the File
button to browse to your audio file. When you publish the post to your blog, a reader will be able to click on the link to download
and play the file. Note: You will need to configure your media repository or select the file upload option at your blog server first.
The Blog Writer automatically formats your mp3 links with the podcast enclosure. To set up your podcast, you must create an
RSS 2.0 feed for your blog. Click here to learn more about podcasting.
6. Using your Blog Writer - Preview
Using template preview
The Blog Writer allows you to preview your posts using your blog's template. Click here to learn more.
7. Using your Blog Writer - Posting
Posting
See screen shots for Tags,
Weblog Ping, and
Trackback tabs.
When you have finished writing and formatting your entry and you are satified with the preview, you can publish it to your blog server
by going to Post -> Publish Entry from the menu or clicking on the Publish button on the editor toolbar. Under Post Settings on the
General tab, select the blog for posting. (You can also select the blog for posting from the pull-down menu below the editor toolbar.)
Select the categories for the post (if supported by your blog) if you did not previously set them from the editor, and also set or
verify the post date and time.
Optionally, you can go to the other tabs to enter or verify the following information:
1. Tags - enter or verify tags that you entered from the editor toolbar.
2. Weblog Ping - check any services that you want to notify with your new post.
3. Trackback - enter or verify a trackback URL.
You can also choose to post the entry as a draft (currently not supported in TypePad or Movable Type) or leave
the box blank to post online. If you were editing a previously saved/published entry, you can choose to update the entry or publish it
as a new post.
Lastly, you can choose to upload thumbnails only if you do not want the large (original size) image uploaded and hyperlinked
to from the thumbnail.
When you are ready to publish, click on the Post button.
The messages and warning section shown at the bottom may also show error messages. For example, if you did not select a blog, If you see a error message, click on the error message to switch to the correct tab.
Posting to multiple blogs
If you want to publish the same entry to multiple blogs, you should uncheck the Close after posting box at the bottom of the Publish
dialog. After you publish the entry to the first blog, select the second blog in the Post Settings and set the categories. Repeat
as needed.
Note: Publishing the same entry to multiple blogs does not create multiple instances of the entry in the Blog Entries sidebar; the
same underlying document is used for all posts. If you want to create multiple copies of the entry, then you have to select the
entry in the Blog Entries sidebar, then select File -> Create Copy from the menu, and save the document as a new entry.
8. Using your Blog Writer - Sidebar
What are the sidebars
The Sidebar is a window that you can choose to display on the left side of the Blog Writer. You can select from three
different Sidebars by going to View -> Sidebar name:
1. Getting Started - a shortcut to the Settings options that shows what you have and haven't configured.
2. Check for Updates - a convenient way to check if any newer versions of the Blog Writer are available for download and see what's new from Zoundry.
3. Blog Entries - a list of your saved drafts and posts for easy browsing and editing.
To close the Sidebar, click on the X at the top right of the sidebar window. To switch quickly between sidebars, you can click on the
down arrow next to the close button and select from the pull-down menu.
The Blog Entries sidebar
The Blog Entries sidebar is organized by your blog accounts first, then blogs under each account, and then the posts for each blog. Click on the + or - signs to expand or collapse the nodes for each of your blog accounts to see your blogs and posts. Unpublished (local machine) documents are saved drafts that have not been posted to a blog server.
When you select a post by clicking on its title
in the sidebar, toolbar buttons will activate, allowing you to perform the following functions:
1. Open/edit the post.
2. View the post online.
3. Create a link to the post.
4. View the post properties.
5. Delete the post from the Blog Writer and/or your blog server. Note: if the same post was published to multiple blogs, then you
will have the option to delete from any or all blogs.
The Blog Entries sidebar can organize your posts by blog, tag, or link. You can change the view by using the pull-down menu below
the close sidebar button.
The entry properties option shows you the properties about the document.
It shows a summary of blogs the entry has been posted, the links, image etc. found in the post.
You can also insert a link found in this dialog directly into the current edit document by choosing insert link.
Open-as-Copy option opens a copy of the published document.
Note that when you post a single entry (document) to multiple blogs, you are actually posting the
same (physical) copy. That is, all blogs use the same underlying document.
If you need a new copy of it, then choose Open as copy option.
9. Using your Blog Writer - Download Recent Posts
Download recent posts
You can download a limited number (due to limitation with the CMS you use) of previously published posts from your blog server to the Blog Writer. This allows you to create a backup of your posts and enables you to edit them while you are offline. Go to Post -> Download Recent Posts from the menu. Select the correct blog (click on + or - to expand or collapse the nodes) and choose the number of posts to download (starting from the most recent.)
The download process also imports all of the tag words (e.g. Technorati) found within each post's content.
Note:
After the download process has completed, you can view the downloaded documents from the side: From the sidebar entries
tree view, select (expand) the account followed the Blog you had selected.
10. Using your Blog Writer with the Zoundry Toolbars (New!)
Blog This
With our Zoundry browser toolbar plugin, you will be able to create a blog post quickly from any web page within Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. When you are at a web page of interest, highlight the text from the page and press the BlogThis button in the Zoundry toolbar. This will launch the Blog Writer and paste the selected text, including any links) within the editor.
If you are at a product page at one of our supported merchants, you can press BlogThis (without needing to highlight any text) and the Blog Writer will automatically copy any available product text (plus image optional) and create a Zoundry product link to the page with your Zoundry ID.
The Blog Writer will also attempt to auto discover trackback URL information. If more than one trackback is found, then a list of available trackbacks are shown. The selected trackback will be associated with your post.
To learn more about the Zoundry Toolbar, click here, or go directly to the Zoundry Toolbar download section.
