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Official HSB Tech Blog
June 4, 2007
Friends latest entries page
With the server change, we now have the Friends page back. This lists the entries of your 'Friends', with the most recent first. You can use this page to easily see the latest posts that those on your friends list have made. This was a feature we had before, but it didn't work correctly, so it was removed. It is now back and working as it should!
To see your Friends page(s), you need to add /friends to the end of your blog address, like this:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/blogaddress/friends
For easiest access, you will probably want to add a link to this page to your Links section on your blog. Then you can just click the link whenever you want to read your friends page. To do this, go into your blog settings, then to Links. Put whatever you want the title to be in the first blank box, then the address in the 2nd blank box and save. This link will then show up on your sidebar with your other links in the Links section.
We know many of our users missed this feature, so we are happy to bring it back for you! You may also continue to use RSS feed readers (Bloglines, Google Reader, etc.) to keep up to date on your favorite blogs, but some find this Friends page to be easier to manage. Now you have the option.
Jodi
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April 2, 2007
Newbie's Guide to Flickr
Are you running out of room in your blog photos area? Like the cool Flickr add-ons you've seen on other blogs?
I ran across a nice tutorial that explains how to use Flickr from start to finish. If you'd like to learn how to use this free online photo sharing service, this is a great place to start:
Webware Flickr Tutorial
I'm often asked about how to get more photo storage space (we don't offer more than the 1 MB here at HomeschoolBlogger) or how to use other sites' services. Unfortunately, I can't really help with that because we don't offer support for other sites. Hopefully this tutorial will help those who are wanting to know about such things. :-) Flickr seems to work pretty well with Homeschoolblogger most of the time, so I can definitely recommend it for your photo sharing needs.
Jodi
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January 3, 2007
Improved Search Function
One of the new features I came across the other day is the user search feature. This is different from the search box on the front page of the site. When you are logged in, you can do a more comprehensive search of the users on our site based on their username, age, gender, interests, and other variables.
I took some screenshots to illustrate this. I apologize that they are a bit small, I'll make bigger ones the next time I do this. Hopefully you can see enough detail to find everything on your own.
When you first login you are on the user manager page. In the group of links at the top is one called "Search". See the shot below where the blue arrow is pointing.
Click on that link and it will take you to the search page. It looks like this:
As you can see, this gives you several fields to search on: Username, Name, Email Address, Gender, Location, Age Range, Website, IM Screenname or Interest. You can fill in partial information, like your town, a first or last name, or part of a username. If you want to narrow things down more, you can fill in more than one field (i.e., bloggers named Linda in Atlanta who enjoy skiing). This can come in pretty handy for finding other bloggers with similarities to you or if you can't quite remember the full name of that blog you were interested in reading again but forgot to bookmark.
From the results screen (reached after clicking on the 'Continue' button) you will get all of the matching blogs with links for each one to their profile page, to add them to your friends list and to send them a private message. Pretty cool, huh?
Make sure you also update all of your own Profile information (that link is also at the top of the user manager pages) so other users can find you when they search. The more complete everyone's profiles are, the better the search will work for all.
Go ahead and try it out. You never know what interesting blogs and bloggers you might find!
Jodi
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December 14, 2006
Cool Stuff: Have you discovered private messages yet?
One of the new features with the blog upgrade is the ability to send private messages. This is something that other blog sites have had for a long time, and now we have it, too!
In order to send another HSB'er a private message, go to your account's Control Panel, the first page when you log in. In the menu list at the top, you will see a link for "Messages". Click on this link. You will see here if you have received any messages (and you should be informed of new messages via e-mail, also). Read any messages you've received or send a message to another HSB member with the appropriate links there.
When you go in to compose a message, you will probably notice a drop-down list on the recipient line. These are all of your Friends! Isn't that convenient? You can send a message to one of your friends or you can type a username into the blank box. Remember, this has to be the username, which may or may not be the same as their blog address. This is where the individual profile pages comes in handy - you can see right there what the username is and the blog name are.
Go ahead and give it a try with your friends! I think you will really enjoy this feature. It's a great way to send messages that you don't want to leave as a comment and you don't have to leave your browser in order to send an email through a different program. There is a limit to the number of messages that you can store, so make sure you delete any that you don't need after they are read.
Jodi |
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