In this section:
Flock's built in blogging tool lets you easily blog anything from anywhere. You can add photos from your online photo service, a graphic on your local machine, text from your buddy's latest post, rich formatting and more. Flock's built in Blog editor ties it all together quickly and easily leaving you more time to write.
- Configure Flock to work with your blog
- Posting to your blog
- Editing a blog post
- Adding photos to your blog post
- Adding web quotes to your blog post
Configure Flock to work with your blog
To post to a blog, you need to first configure your browser to work with an existing blog service by choosing Accounts and services from the Flock menu. If you don't have an account with a blog service, you will need to set one up. We recommend the following:
To configure your browser to work with an existing blog service
- Navigate to the blog service that you have an account with.
- Log in to your account. Note: If you were already logged in, please log out and then log back in.
- If you've logged in to a service that Flock supports, your login identity will be added to the list of available Accounts and Services.
Once configured, Flock remembers your username and password for one or more blog accounts. To confirm that your account information has been saved, open the accounts and services menu by clicking on the Display Accounts and Services button in the top bar. The button is represented by a picture of a key. If the account was added successfully, the account will appear in the My Accounts section of the Accounts and Services sidebar.
Your browser can also automatically publish blog posts to a notification service, such as Technorati. A notification service alerts people when you post a new blog.
Flock's blog editor works with Blogger, Blogsome, Livejournal, Typepad, Wordpress and Xanga. Flock also supports a variety of third-party, self-hosted blogging software. A complete list of the services that Flock works with is available on our website.
Posting to your blog
Flock includes a built in editor to make posting to your blog quick and easy. The blog editor allows you to quickly add formatting, tags or images from within your browser. You can also use the Media Bar to add photos to your blog posts, or the Web Clipboard to quote information that you found on other websites. The Blog Editor also features a built in spell checker that will check your spelling as you type. Words that are misspelled will be underlined in red.
The easiest way to create a new post is to use the built in blog editor. If you'd like, you can can edit the HTML of your post directly by clicking the Source tab at the bottom of the editor. To preview what your post will look like before uploading, select the Preview tab at the bottom of the editor.
You can launch the built-in blog editor by choosing New Blog Post from the File menu, or by clicking on the Blog Post button on the location bar.
To post a new blog entry
- Give your blog post a title.
- Write your blog post.
Formatting tools are above the writing area. If you want to see or edit the HTML source, click the Source tab. - Click Publish.
- Choose publishing options such as blog account and tags.
- Click Publish.
- When you publish a post, it appears on your blog's site. And don't worry, you can always make edits later.
Editing a blog post
You can edit a post you've saved as a draft, or one you've already published on your blog's site. To see a list of your blog posts and drafts, choose Recent Blog Posts from the File menu and select a post to edit. Your browser displays your recent post in the blog editor.
When you're done editing, click Save to save it as a draft or Post to publish the new version. If you save it as a draft, then you have two versions: the one you previously published, and the new version that's saved on your own computer (but isn't published on the Web).
Adding photos to your blog post
Flock makes it easy to add photo's to your blog posts or comments. Using the Media Bar you can add photos from your Flickr or Photobucket account, or you can add files located on your local machine. For more information, see Sharing Photos by Blog and Email.
Adding web quotes to your blog post
You can easily post interesting web content to your blog account with the Blog This feature.
- Highlight a passage on a web page that you would like to blog.
- Right-click and choose Blog This.
- The blog editor opens with the selected text already inserted. The quote will be formatted as a blockquote and will display a linked citation.
Alternately, you can access the Web Clipboard while editing a blog post by clicking the Web Clipboard button at the top of the blog editor.
