Leave us a comment. Here's how....
This page is about how to navigate and use this blog. After talking to a few choir members, it's clear that lots of people are enjoying the blog but are not sure how to leave comments. As the comments help to create some conversation and a sense of community, I thought it would be useful to have some "How to" notes on a separate page for everyone's reference.
There is quite a lot of information here, so you might like to print it or sortie back and forth to try things out one at a time.
Each article or post is made up of a number of elements.
At the top of each post is the date of the post and then in larger print, the heading which also serves as a link or shortcut to that post. This is useful when you are looking for or want to direct someone to that particular post in the blog. More about that further on.
Next is the body of the post which contains all the information and photographs on the subject. You can click on the photos to see them enlarged then click the Back button to return to the post. The text may also include links or shortcuts which are coloured light blue in our blog. If you click on one of these links, it will take you to another part of the blog, or another site that is relevant. For instance, in the post about Kavisha Mazella's award, there is a link to The Age newspaper and the article about her. If you don't want to lose your place in Two Bays, right click on the link, select 'Open in New Tab' and you will have two sites open simultaneously. You will notice that the words "Kavisha Mazella's award" are light blue. This is because I've made it into a shortcut or link that will take you to that post - just for practice. Cool!
The last element of the post is the footer which contains a number of important items.
Firstly, there are the names of your bloggers and time of posting. The names will always be the same in this blog, but sometimes it changes on blogs where there is a team of people doing the posting. Oh, and the time is sometimes a lie because I might be posting retrospectively, such as for the French Island event. It helps to keep things in rough chronological order.
Next, we have the all-important Comments button which you will see is live when you run your mouse over it. When you click here, a new little window opens so you can read the comments already there. It also invites you to leave your comment in the field within the window. Write whatever you would like to and then decide on your 'identity'. If you have a login account with Google such as a gmail address or an account for using Google Maps, click on the little round button and use that Name and Password info.
If you don't have a Google name, you can select the option Name/URL. Two fields will open and you can put your name in one and leave the URL field blank. Choose whether to put your full name or a name that tells us who you are, but is not recognisable to the whole world such as "RosC" or "Ros-Tues". If you want to check what you wrote, click on Preview. Another window will open with Preview written in the top left hand corner. If you want to change it, click Edit. If you're happy, close the window, and click on Publish Your Comment. Type the wavy security word into the field and press Enter. There will be a yellow message saying that your message was published and will take a minute to arrive. As an example, I've published a comment on the Kavisha post. Last of all, just close the comment window.
Also in the Footer, is an envelop which you can use to send me an email. I will answer in a couple of days. Then there are links to things like Twitter and Facebook which are not of interest to me, but might be for you. The only thing I ask is that you use all these with discretion so that I don't have to tighten up the controls on the blog too much to keep out mischief makers. I can do that but it makes everything more complex for us to use and enjoy the blog.
Finally, there are Labels. These are another kind of shortcut that will help you find the posts you want to see. A selection of labels appears at the end of each post and if you click on one, say 'Milennium Chorus', then every post with that Label attached will be sorted and shown in chronological order for you to scroll through.
You have two other ways of finding posts you want to jump to. Scroll down the side bar on the right of every blog page and you will find two columns. One is called Blog Archives, and all posts are listed there under the relevant year. You can click on the year and then on the post you want to see. The other column is called Labels and this gives another way of finding things. All the Labels are listed alphabetically with the number of posts relating to each one. The more posts, the bigger the font. You can click on these and get the same result as in the previous paragraph, that is, the relevant posts listed for your perusal.
Well that's it for now. If you have any questions, or editorial comments about things that don't make sense, just hit that email symbol and let me know. Do be encouraged to participate because it's what makes our vocal presence in our community come alive and reflect the interest and fun we have.
Yours as ever,
Ros.
