NHF Blogging
Software Manual
September 2016
Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................... 1 System Logon/off .............................................................................................................................................................. 1 Blog Factory Menu / Functions ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Write Post ..................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Add Media ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 Status ........................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Discussion .................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Tags ........................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Revisions ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Metadata ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Manage Posts ................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Dashboard ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Overview ....................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Quick Update ................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Recent Posts .................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Recent Comments, Bookmarks and Followers ............................................................................................................. 2 Blog Options .................................................................................................................................................................. 3 Media Manager ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 All Blogs ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 All Posts ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Appendix ........................................................................................................................................................................... 4 WYSIWYG Editor ........................................................................................................................................................... 4 Bold  ....................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Italics  ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Strikethrough  ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 Ordered Lists  ........................................................................................................................................................ 4 Unordered Lists  .................................................................................................................................................... 4 Blockquote  ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 Justify     .................................................................................................................................................... 4 Underline  .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Insert Special Ω ......................................................................................................................................................... 4 Insert Link  ............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Break link  .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 Read More — ............................................................................................................................................................ 4 NHF Blogging Software Manual ‐ September 2016 Introduction
The New Horizons Website has a third‐party module (Blog Factory by The PHP Factory) installed to allow simple blogs to be added through the front‐end of the website without having knowledge of the Joomla framework that is used to support functionality of the website. Not all functionality of the Blog Factory software has been enabled (commenting, pingbacks etc.) due to the nature of the website. System Logon/off
Before being able to access the functions of the Blog Factory software, you must first log on to the website. To login, click the Triple Bar (or Hamburger) icon  on the top left of the website. The sidebar will open with a login form. The “Secret Key” field is for Administrators use only and isn’t required to login as a blog user. To log out of the system, access the sidebar again and the Login Form will have been replaced with a Log Out button. Blog Factory Menu / Functions
To access the available Blog Factory functions, navigate to any of the blog pages on the website, the “Blog Editors Menu” will appear on the right hand side of the screen. Regardless of which blog you have navigated to, the menu functions will only affect your blog/posts. Write Post
Write Post enable you to create a new post for publishing. Initially add the title and in the main body, add the text content of your post. The main body region has a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor which allows you to add emphasis and formatting to your content (See appendix). You should “Save Draft” your post regularly, this allows you to go back to a previous revision if you need to. Add Media
The Blog Factory software allows you to add images to your posts. Before you can add media to your posts you must first upload it to the server. Click the Add Media button to open the media dialog box. As with any storage, you should try to organise your content into folders. To upload media: 





Create a folder as needed Click on the folder you want to upload to Click Upload Click Select Files Navigate to the content and click Open (hint: You may select more than one file from a folder at a time) Once the files have uploaded, click close NHF Blogging Software Manual ‐ September 2016 ‐ Page: 1 You can now select a media item to include in your post. Click on a media item and options will appear on the right: 



Alt Text: You should give the media a name/description, this is for VI users who may use a braille reader where the media will be substituted with your text. Size: It is possible to add a constrained version of the media into the post as follows: o Thumbnail: A small 100px x 100px max. o Medium: A 400px x 400px max. o Large: A 800px x 800px max. o Original: No constraint (not recommended for large photos etc.) Alignment: The image may be aligned Left or Right where the text will try flow around the image, or None. Link: You can make the image link to the original version of the media, to another webpage or None (just insert the media) Status
The status region allows you to change who can see the posts and schedule when the post is visible. You can also set the post as “Draft” and un‐publish the post. Normally these options will not be altered. Discussion
Changing these have no effect as these options have been disabled Tags
You can create keywords with the tags field to associate posts together, for example “Exam Results” or “Celebration Day”. These tags will be present to the end user as links which, when clicked, will search for other posts containing the same tag. You can create multiple tags for a post by separating them with a comma. Revisions
Previous versions of the post will be available here to re‐load if required. Metadata
This will create search engine friendly descriptions of the post: 

Description: A short paragraph to replace the page text for the search engine to display Content: A list of words or terms for the search engines to add to the page (comma separated) Manage Posts
From this function you can edit, publish/un‐publish and delete posts. Draft posts are highlighted pale yellow. You can also batch process multiple posts by checking the box next to each post and then clicking the batch actions button. Dashboard
Overview
The dashboard gives a quick overview of how many posts you have written, how many are draft and published. Other statistics are not relevant in this implementation of Blog Factory. Quick Update
The quick update allows you to write a simple, short text only blog. You can publish it immediately or save it as a draft for later editing. Recent Posts
Your last five posts will appear here. You can click the title of a post to edit it. Recent Comments, Bookmarks and Followers
This functionality has been disabled in this implementation of Blog Factory. NHF Blogging Software Manual ‐ September 2016 ‐ Page: 2 Blog Options
You may from here alter the title and description of your blog. You may also upload a photo which will appear in the all blogs list. You may also override the thumbnail sizes for images included from the Media Manager. It is recommended that these options are not altered. Media Manager
You can access the Media Manager to upload and organise your media files. All Blogs
The All Blogs function will present a list of all blogs managed by the Blog Factory software. All Posts
The All Posts function returns all published posts managed by the Blog Factory software in reverse chronological order. NHF Blogging Software Manual ‐ September 2016 ‐ Page: 3 Appendix
WYSIWYG Editor
The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor allows you to edit the HTML content without having to get involved with or have in depth knowledge of the HTML language. It provides a reasonable representation of what the final content will look like when it is published. The editor has functions similar to word processing software such as MS Word and the functions provided are as follows: Bold 
Changes text to and from bold (html tag: <strong>text</strong>) Italics 
Changes text to and from italic (html tag: <em>text</em>) Strikethrough 
Adds or removes the strikethrough format to text (css style: text‐decoration: line‐through) Ordered Lists 
Format text into an ordered list, may be formatted as Numbered, Lower Alphabetic, Lower Greek, Lower Roman, Upper Alphabetic or Upper Roman (html tag: <ol><li>Item text</li></ol>) Unordered Lists 
Format text into an unordered list, may be formatted as Bullets, Circles, Discs, Squares (html tag: <ul><li>Item text</li></ul>) Blockquote 
The blockquote function will indent the paragraph and (with the NHF template) add a grey bar to the left of the paragraph (html tag: <blockquote>text</blockquote>) Justify    
Justify text left, centre, right and full (css style: text‐align: left|right|center|justify) Underline 
Adds or removes the underline format to text (css style: text‐decoration: underline) Insert Special Ω
Will insert non‐standard characters into the post Insert Link 
Wil add a hypertext link around some text (html tag: <a href=”some link”>Some text</a>) Break link 
Will remove a hyperlink from around some text Read More —
Will add a special horizontal rule at the point specified. The Joomla framework and Blog Factory understands this to only show text in preview mode up to that point and then add a “read more” link to the full document. NHF Blogging Software Manual ‐ September 2016 ‐ Page: 4 Document Revision History
NHF Blogging Software Manual
Version September 2016 Next Review Date September 2017 Reviewer JH Notes Initial Version