UMass Boston Blogs

5/9/12

Print Friendly & PDF Plugin

Interested in giving readers access to PDF and print friendly versions of your blog posts and pages? The Print Friendly & PDF plugin offers an extremely easy way to add a button to each blog post and page that readers can click for easy printing and emailing, as well as PDF versions of your blog content.

Activating this plugin is as simple as:
1. From your blog dashboard, click “Installed Plugins” under the Plugins heading on the left sidebar
2. Scroll down the list of installed plugins until you see “Print Friendly & PDF”, then click the “Activate” link beneath it.
3. Back on your left sidebar, a new subcategory called “Print Friendly & PDF” will have appeared in the “Settings” category; click on it.
4. This will bring you to a page where you can choose the type of button you’d like to add to your posts and pages, as well as other style options.
5. When you have the plugin configured the way you’d like, click the blue “Save Options” button at the bottom of the screen.

Good luck during finals, and happy blogging!
The Blog Admin Team
blog.admin@umb.edu
 
4/4/12

Adjusting Your Privacy Settings

If you ever want to control who has access to your blog and blog posts, you can adjust your blog’s privacy settings from the dashboard. Simply:

1. Log in to your blog and access the dashboard
2. Scroll down to and click on “Settings” at the bottom of the left sidebar. Click “Privacy” in the list of available options.

From the “Privacy” page you will find a five levels of privacy settings; by default your blog will be set to the first — making it visible to anyone on the internet, and allowing it to appear in search engine results. The next highest privacy level blocks search engines from finding your blog, but still allows anyone to read it. The level below this allows only logged in members of the BlogNetwork to view your blog and posts, while the level after this allows only BlogNetwork members who are subscribed to your blog to view it. Finally, the highest privacy level allows only yourself (or others you assign to your blog as administrators) and network administrators access to your blog.

Adjusting these settings will allow you to keep access to your blog and your blog posts as open or secure as you like.

Happy Blogging!
The Blog Admin Team
blog.admin@umb.edu
 
2/23/12

Adding a Forum to Your Blog

One of the great new features found on the BlogNetwork since our upgrade to WordPress 3.2.1 is the ability to incorporate a discussion forum within a page or post on your blog! This lets members of your blog to engage in active discussion and create conversation threads within the page or post designated as a forum; allowing greater user interactivity but keeping it contained to avoid interfering with the format and style of your blog. Clear, step by step directions complete with pictures can be found here in the Edublogs User Guide

As always feel free to contact us with any questions, comments or issues — and happy blogging!

The Blog Admin Team
blog.admin@umb.edu
11/21/11

Our BlogNetwork has been upgraded to WordPress 3.2.1

You’ll find an improved html editor, (with the ability to more easily embed web widgets like youtube video clips), a new dashboard, new plug-ins, and many more blog themes to choose from! Some older themes have been discontinued and were replaced similar new ones.

Don’t hesitate to send an email to blog.admin@umb.edu if you have any questions or need assistance with your blog.

Happy blogging!

The Blog Admin Team
blog.admin@umb.edu

11/4/2011

UMass Boston Blog Network to be upgraded on 11/20/11

The UMass Boston BlogNetwork was successfully migrated to a faster server on Oct. 31st, but we noticed post migration that extra characters were inserted into blog posts. We’re working on a fix, but it may take another week to resolve it.

We’ll be upgrading to WordPress (W.P.) 3.2.1 on November 20th. After the upgrade you’ll find new themes and a new dashboard, custom menus, an improved HMTL editor (that allows you to embed code into your posts), and new plug-ins like Google Maps and Feedburner FeedSmith.

Some of you are using blog themes that will be discontinued. Check the table below to see if you’re using a theme that will soon be discontinued. If so, we urge you to change your blog theme before November 20th. Don’t worry, changing your blog theme is as easy! Complete step-by-step directions are posted here: Change your Theme . If you’d like help changing your theme, send an e-mail to blog.admin@umb.edu with a couple of dates and times that you’d like to meet.

Thank you in advance for your help with this!

The Blog Admin Team
blog.admin@umb.edu
 

11/1/2011

Blog images may take 72 hours to be copied over

The migration to a new faster blog server was successfully completed? on 10/31/, however, it could take until Thursday, November 3rd? for all the content (including images) to appear in your blog as these materials have to be copied throughout the internet. If you simply can’t wait until then, please feel free to re-upload your ?content and/or images.

If you experience any problems with your blog after 11/3 or have any questions about the migration, don’t hesitate to e-mail us at blog.admin@umb.edu

Thank you for your patience!

Sincerely,

The Blog Admin Team
blog.admin@umb.edu
 
10/31/2011

Blog Upgrade Underway!

Edublogs, our blog hosting service, is currently upgrading our Blog Network to a new server. After the migration your blogs will work exactly the same way they do now – except faster!

We expect the upgrade to be seamless, however it’s possible that you won’t be able to Log-in to the network,? publish new posts or pages to your blog, or view some of your existing blogs for a couple of hours on Monday 10/31. If this happens please try again later in the day. The UMass Boston Systems group will be monitoring the upgrade and will be ready to assist if necessary.

We’ll post an announcement here once the migration is complete and successfully wrapped up.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to e-mail us at blog.admin@umb.edu

Sincerely,

The Blog Admin Team
blog.admin@umb.edu