1. Using the D73 Members Blogs (Bloggers) Ian Murray District Webmaster, November 30, 2008

2. 2 Background In May, 2008, at the District Convention, we announced that we were going to build a new facility that introduced Blogging facilities to Toastmasters. Today, we have a number of blogs that the leaders in our District can use to communicate to a wide audience. This User’s Guide describes how they can post entries on the blogs, to keep the District informed.

3. 3 Blogs and other Things  Wikipedia (the online encyclopaedia) defines the term. –A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.Web site  On our website, Blog entries will be kept and visible to the general public for a year, or as long as space allows.  Our Members website allows comments against blog entries. For broad discussion on a topic, the Forums should be used.  The wiki should be used to collect information of lasting information, as our knowledgebase.

4. 4 The D73 Members Blogs

5. 5 You need to log in to Post. User: dg (or dg-divisionname, or dg-state, ordg secretary, lgm, lget, etc. Password: (Contact Webmaster)

6. 6 Select the appropriate Blog. The “dg” would use the District Governor’s Blog.

7. 7 View history and select Post The “pencil” icon allows you to “post” a Blog Entry

8. 8 Add your Content 1. Select a meaningful Title 2. Type your Blog entry’s text (20-100 lines is best). 3. Then Scroll Down.

9. 9 Can I “Jazz up” content? The tool bar allows such functions as… Heading styles, font changes, centreing,Bolding, hyperlinks, inserting images, Tables, lists, colouring. Most times, just select the content or location and apply the change.

10. 10 Help with Indexing, and Save 1. Add some meaningful keywords 1.Preview to check how it looks, and 2.Save the final version.

11. 11 Q & A  Who will have access to these facilities? –It is anticipated that blogs will be limited to Division Governors and above, in the District – or others identified as regular blogging contributors.  Can I change or delete entries? –Only the author and webmaster have such access.  Can I practice somewhere? –Use the “Preview” option to check your content. Navigate away from the edit page, to discard your efforts.  Is this a replacement for Newsletters? –It’s a reasonable replacement. The variety of formatting and methods of delivery are quite different though.

12. 12 What user names are used?  District Governor – dg  LG Education & Training – lget  LG Marketting – lgm  Public Relations Officer – pro  Secretary - secretary  Division Governors (VIC) – dg-vic  Division Governors (WA) – dg-wa  Division Governors (SA) – dg-sa  Division Governors (Tas) – dg-tas  Blogs can also be created by Division – please discuss with the webmaster.

13. Using the D73 Members Blogs (Bloggers) Ian Murray District Webmaster, November 30, 2008 maintainer@d73.toastmasters.org.au Ian_murray_tm@hotmail.com