whittierschool

The Dashboard enables you to update your weblogs or photoblogs as well as your personal settings. It behaves like a command central! After you register and receive your username and password, or whenever you log in thereafter, you will be automatically referred to the Dashboard.
The Dashboard lists all weblogs you have direct write access to. For each weblog, you find a list of small icons with the most important functions: Write a new entry, edit existing entries, view your access statistics, read comments and follow discussions, and view your weblog. Each of those icons directs you to the corresponding page within your weblog administration.

Whenever you are logged in, you will find a small link bar above every weblog. Clicking "Dashboard" will bring you directly back to the Dashboard. Or, you can refer to the Dashboard by clicking "Administration" on the homepage.

You can find a more detailed explanation on the various categories and items in the help section.

Please also check out:
» How to create new entries?
» How to change/delete old entries?
» How to create a category?
» How to change/delete a category?
» How to change the name of my weblog/s?
» How to change the description of my weblogs?
» What to do with the menu item "Images & Files"?
» How to choose a layout?
» Changing colour/design of my layout
» Choosing different font sizes/types
» What are favorite blogs?
» How to change password and username?
» How to enter a new email address?

You can log into your whittierschool account by entering your username and password on our homepage http://whittierschool.21publish.com. After logging in, you will be directed to your personal administration page on whittierschool (for more information click here). You will then find a list of all your weblogs and photoblogs. Clicking the corresponding name will lead you to the administration pages for that particular weblog or photoblog. This is where you can create new entries or edit old ones, choose different layouts or change your settings.
If you want to preview your weblog or photoblog before it is published, click "View Weblog". Whenever you are logged in and looking at the public view of your weblog, you will see the link "Edit weblog". This link takes you directly back to your personal administration page.
There are two ways in which your weblog is presented to you whenever you are logged in. It doesn't make a difference whether you directly enter the URL or click into your weblog via one of the whittierschool link lists. You will either see the public view or the administration view. The view presented to you depends on the last view you chose. For example, if you are looking at the public view and then decide to surf the whittierschool community, you will still be looking at the public view when you return to your weblog. If you start surfing from the administration page, that page is still there when you return.
You can also access the administration site directly by entering the following URL (this is only possible when you're logged in) : http://whittierschool.21publish.com/weblogs/overview.htm

See also:
» What is the adminstration site there for?

Other users do not have access to your administration page unless you give them your password. It is only visible to you. Only you can change your weblog, photoblog or your personal settings. Your administration page will also appear whenever you create entries in third-party blogs that you have access to as author or moderator. However, the sections "Weblog" and "Community" are disabled in third-party blogs.

Right next to every entry on your adminstration page, you see a few icons and links. The padlock tells you whether an entry is "public", "private", or dedicated to a special group of friends or authors (in that case, the corresponding group name is displayed).
The line also informs you when the entry was published and how many comments were received. Private entries are also marked with a small padlock next to the title. This helps to identify them at a first glance.

Only you can read your private entries, as long as you are logged in. All other users (including yourself if you're logged out) can only read your public entries and will not know that you have created private entries.

See also:

» Can I change the status of an entry from public to private or vice-versa?
» Why can I read a private entry on my weblog?

RSS stands for "Rich Site Summary" (alternatively for "Really Simple Syndication"). This format enables the exchange of data between two different information systems. Therefore, the most recent entries of your blog are generated into a separate file - your RSS feed. Other systems (or feed reader programs) can check this file automatically and detect whenever you updated your entries. This will enable other users, regardless of their blogging software, to automatically present your updates on on their blog in the form of a news ticker. You can also use RSS feeds to present up-to-date information from other bloggers or news agencies on your own blog. Most available RSS feeds can easily be identified as they are marked with an XML image.
There are many different versions of RSS. whittierschool supports the version 0.91, 1.0 and 2.0 and uses version 2.0 to generate feeds from the weblogs within its community.

See also:

» XML.com: What is RSS?
» RSS 2.0 technical specification

RSS feeds are automatically activated when you create a new blog - the XML image will appear when you view your weblog. Your RSS feed can be found via the URL http://whittierschool.21publish.com/rss/WeblogURL.rss
If you wish to deactivate RSS feeds, select the particular weblog or photoblog in your weblog administration. Then select "Weblog"->"More options..."->"RSS-settings" and deactivate by selecting "Offer an RSS feed". Please note that you have to save any changes you make.

RSS feeds enable you to subscribe to other weblogs or websites (as long as they offer the service). In most cases, these sites are marked with an XML symbol just like this: . The symbol links to the RSS feed of the particular site. Copy this URL, select the weblog or photoblog in which you want the subscription to appear and insert the link into the window under "Community" -> "RSS-Subscriptions" -> "Add new". Save this entry and the subscribed information will appear on your weblog/photoblog as soon as updates have been made on the other website.
You can find an overview of your subscriptions under "Community".

The Access Statistics give you detailed information about the visits on your weblog of a given month. You can see how many unique visitors you've had, how many pages they have viewed, which browser they have used and many more interesting info.
Besides the actual pages, you also see "hits". If someone visits your page, that is counted as a page impression. But if you have images or other files that need to be loaded, each of those counts as an additional hit on your weblog.
You are also shown the 10 pages from which your weblog is visited most often. These are not links to your blog, but are the pages your visitors viewed prior to their visit of your blog. To check out which other blogs link to your blog, check out www.technorati.com.
Last but not least, there is a list of the search terms people use to find your site. These can be either individual words or phrases which people have entered into search engines like Google.
whittierschool Statistics is a free service to show you who reads your blog. These statistics are compiled from a great little open source program called AWStats.