Using Blogs: Where the hell am I?

A reader who went away on a trip to the Galapagos Islands has returned with a question about how to 'catch up' on several past Plainfield Today posts.


MY WAYS ARE NOT YOUR WAYS, SAYS THE BLOG

Our usual experience with keeping track of things over time is to start on page one, then go to page two, etc. Think of all those notebooks you filled with lecture notes back in school. Or keeping the minutes for your church or club. Or a diary or journal.

Blogs are different. Think of your newspaper recycle stack. If you're like PT, you pile the old papers until it's time to tie them up for the recycle put-out. And that means each day's paper is tossed on the pile ON TOP OF yesterday's paper. That's exactly how blogs are organized.

And if I want to see a paper from several days ago, I have to dig down in the pile to find it. With blogs, you just scroll down the main page.

NOTEBOOK, MINUTES, DIARY FORMAT

First entry Second entry Third entry, etc.

BLOG FORMAT

Most recent entry Immediately prior entry Entry before that, etc.

Main page? How in the hell do I know when I'm on the main page? And what OTHER kind of page is there?

Think of the MAIN PAGE as a week's worth of newspapers stacked up. Both Plainfield Today and CLIPS show the last seven entries on their main page -- that's usually a week's worth; but if PT happens to post TWO ITEMS on any given day, they are each counted singly. You'll have seven entries, but it will be fewer than seven days. Older than that, you click on the ARCHIVE links in the sidebar, or use the SEARCH box at the top of the page if you wants stories about a certian topic.

Here are visual cues --

The MAIN PAGE address bar in Plainfield Today	The MAIN PAGE address bar in CLIPS

The OTHER kind of page? That would be a single post, story, or entry such as a picture story or link to a video, etc.

How do I know when I'm on a story/post page?

Here is a visual cue --

The address bar of a SINGLE POST in Plainfield Today

CLIPS works the same way, though PT never sends you to anything but the MAIN PAGE in CLIPS.


WHERE THE HELL AM I? AND HOW DO I GET TO THE OTHER PLACE?

So, you can always tell by looking in the ADDRESS BAR whether you are on the main page or a single story page.

To go from the main page to a SINGLE STORY, just click on the HEADLINE of the story --

This is useful if you want to print a single story or email just that one story to someone.

If you find yourself on a single story page and you want to get back to the MAIN PAGE, just click on the blog name --

Blog bliss is being able to get where you want when you want.

---

Previous posts on USING BLOGS are on the OLD Plainfield Today --

1. "Understanding Permalinks"
   
   
2. "Searching a blog, or all blogs"
   
   
3. "Posting a comment"
   
   
4. "Emailing posts to a friend"

Also note that there is a search box at the top of every page. Blogger's search engine is pretty good--since it's based on Google.


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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/