"Blog" is short for "web log". A blog is like an online journal. It usually consists of short and frequent entries. Everyone's blogs are different, and the content can be whatever you want. You can use it to write commentary on news and current events, link to other websites, or even as a personal diary. You can post poetry, essays, recipes, short stories, lyrics to your new song--whatever you want to share with the world.

Yes. Before pasting in straight HTML, you must click on the "source" button located in the editor toolbar.

Yes, click the table button on the text editor toolbar. A window will appear requesting information about the table (dimensions, rows, columns, etc.). Fill out the appropriate information and click "ok."

From your dashboard, click POSTS, then click EDIT next to the post you want to edit.

You can create a blog by clicking on "new post" from your dashboard or when looking at your own profile.

In the text area box, highlight the text that you want to turn into a link and click the "Create Link" button in the toolbar. A popup box will appear. Type in the URL (web address) and click "Submit."

To embed the video, click on the "source" button located in the editor toolbar, paste in the video code and then click the "source" button again.

In the top box of your dashboard click on the link called "Comments and Discussions." The page that appears gives you the option of viewing and deleting comments in three separate areas:

1. Comments you have made
2. Comments on your posts
3. Discussions in groups you manage

Click on any of these options to view comments.

You can post an image into a blog post two different ways.

1. First of all, you can use the insert photo icon on the text editor toolbar. Paste the absolute URL (for example, http://www.examplesite.com) into the "Image URL" field and click "submit," or upload the file directly using the "Upload" tab.

2. You can also copy and paste photos from other websites directly into the text box. If you use this latter method, make sure you have permission to reproduce the photo on UMCommunities using this method of linking to another website.

Our text editor does not allow for spellchecking; however, we recommend the Google Toolbar. This handy device allows users to spellcheck any form in almost any application (in addition to blocking annoying pop-ups, plus several other very useful features.)

You can download and install the Google Toolbar at:
http://toolbar.google.com/T4/index_pack_xp.html

When viewing a friend's profile, click on "Subscribe to [friend's name]." If you are the administrator of a village, put a checkmark next to the profile for which you wish the subscription to apply. When you subscribe to a friend or group, you are pulling in their most recent blog entries for display on the specified public page.

Historically, online bulletin boards and discussion forums basically work from the premise of a continual thread of conversations. Different topics and/or questions emerge, and users are then able to offer their contributions to the thread.

Social networks, on the other hand, allow individual users to build a unique social environment around themselves. Through various methods, social networks allow users to meet other users with similar interests and develop those relationships into communities. They also allow users to create online communities with existing friends or associates. For example, a local environmental group could create an online community to discuss plans and activities, share information, etc., when they can't meet face to face. Or a user could create an online community and invite old college friends to join in order to stay connected when they no longer live close to each other. In addition, social networks allow users to determine whom they interact with. The most basic explanation is that social networks simply allow users to customize their online experience to their particular needs. Discussion boards do not.

Text editors such as Microsoft Word often embed software-related code into their text. As a result, when that text is pasted into a different text editor, that code is often misinterpreted, resulting in jumbled text. To avoid this, our text editor comes with two pasting options. One is specifically designed to conform to Microsoft Word. Another option for Windows users is to paste the text into "Notepad" (found in "accessories"). Notepad will clean out the extra code and convert the text to plain text, which can then be pasted into the text editor.

Tagging is essentially creating keywords to help others search for content. For example, if you post something about your pet dog, appropriate tag words might be "dogs" or "pets."

The title and content of your blog will always appear on your public home page. Depending on the length of the post, the entire entry may not appear on the front page of your profile. The first few sentences will appear along with a link to view more.

Only the blog owner will see a private blog post. No other UMCommunities users will see it.

UMCommunities is a social networking system. That means information sent to your dashboard is directly influenced by the connections or "friends" you have established. To see all the latest posts from a specific user or group, you will need to befriend that user and/or join the group. Likewise, the best method for other users to view your content is to befriend them and/or invite them to join a group you have created. By doing this, we allow users of UMCommunities to customize the network to their specific preference.