Adding content to a Glow Blog
The content of a Glow Blog can be as simple as just some text, or can be more complex than that by adding images, sound files, videos or documents to posts.
You must have Contributor rights or above to be able to create posts in a Glow Blog. Glow Group members with Reader, or Reader with Discussions permissions will be able to view the blog, but will not be able to add content to it.
An article in a blog is called a post, and there are two ways you can add a post to a Glow Blog – using the ‘Quick post’ in the Glow Blog web part, or using the blog Dashboard.
The ‘Quick post’ option enables you to add text. Using the Dashboard allows you to include more information to your post, such as adding tags, categorising it, adding images or attaching documents.
How to make a Quick Post
In the Glow Blog web part, you can make a quick post by typing in a Title for your post and then adding the main content of the post into the ‘Body’ box.
When your post is complete, clickPublish.
How to create a post in the blog Dashboard
How you access the Dashboard will depend on the permission level you have within the Glow Group where the Glow Blog is situated.
If you are the Administrator of a Glow Group, you will see a link to the Dashboard in the Glow Blog webpart.
If you have Web Designer or Contributor rights, you will not see this link. To access the dashboard you should click View, to see the content of the blog
Once you are viewing the Blog, click Post/Edit/Administer at the right hand side of the page to take you into the Dashboard. (Note, the first time you click View in the blog web part, you may be taken directly into the Dashboard and so won’t have to click on this).
The Dashboard looks like this:
Amongst other things, you can do the following from the Dashboard:
- View the blog (all the content already posted) by clicking Visit Site (1)
- View individual posts or add new posts by clicking Posts(2) in the left hand menu bar
Adding a new post
In the Dashboard, click on Posts in the left hand menu bar then click on Add New
In the box at the top, type the title of your post
In the large box underneath, type the content of your post.
Use the options on the menu bar to format the text – make it bigger or bold, change the colour, font, etc.
If you do not want to add any more content, you then have three options, all of which are accessed in the right hand menu:
1. You can Publish the post
2. If you want to look at the post before publishing it, you can Preview it.
3. You can save it for later editing by clicking Save Draft.
Categorising and Tagging a Blog Post
Adding tags and categories can make your posts easier to find.
To add tags to a post, make sure you are in the post (click on posts in the left hand menu then click on the name of the post you want to tag)
In the Post Tags box in the right hand menu, type in any words you want to tag the post with, separating them with commas, then click Add.
To add the post to a category, tick the appropriate category, in the Categories section in the right hand menu. You can tick more than one category for each post if you want to.
If there is not already a suitable category for your post, you can add a new one by clicking the Add New Category link, typing in the box underneath that link, then clicking Add.
All posts will automatically be ticked as uncategorised, so you may wish to untick this box if you are adding the post to another category.
If you are adding tags, categories or indeed any additional information or content to a post that has not yet been published, it may be wise to click Save Draft as you go along.
If you are adding content to a post you have already published, remember to click Update in the right hand menu to ensure your changes are made and are visible in the blog.
Adding Media
You can add a range of media to a blog post such as images, sound files or videos. Note that each media attachment has a 5Mb limit and the entire size limit for a blog is 100Mb, although it may be possible to have this increased.
Adding an image to a post
To add an image to a post, make sure you can see the post in the Dashboard.
In the Add Media section (above the box where the main body of the text is), click on the first icon
Note: You may only see the general ‘add media’ icon.
If so, clicking on this will still enable you to add
all types of media as described below.
In the new window which opens, click on Select Files and browse to find the image you wish to upload.
Once you’ve uploaded the images, you can add some information about it, such as giving it a title, deciding where on the page to place the image and which size of image should be displayed.
Once you’ve done this, click Insert into Post
The image will now be added to you post.
(Remember to click Save Draft as you go along or Update Post if editing an already published post.)
Attaching a file to a Post
You can attach a file, such as a Microsoft Word document, to a post.
In the Add Media section (above the box where the main body of the text is), click on the fourth icon, Add media.
In the new window that opens, Click Select Files and browse for the file you wish to attach to the post.
The original title of the document will be automatically inserted in the Title field. You can amend this if you wish by deleting the entry in the Title field and typing a new title. You may also add a description if you wish.
Click Insert into Post to add the document to the post.
The document will be displayed as a link in the post and can be opened by clicking on the link.
How to add a sound file to a post
In the Add Media section (above the box where
the main body of the text is), click on the third icon,
Add Audio
Browse for the audio file to be added to the post.
When the file has uploaded and you have given it a title, click Insert into Post.
The sound file will be displayed as a link and can be played by clicking on the link.
Adding a video to a post
Video files can be fairly large, even if they are quite short in duration. As each media attachment has a 5Mb limit, it is likely that a single video file will have a greater file size than it is possible to add to a blog post.
It is possibly bettertherefore to upload the video to a file sharing site, then link toit from your blog post.
Since the video is hosted elsewhere, its file size does not then contribute to the file size of the blog post and it is therefore possible to include a large video file in a post.
You may choose to upload your video to a site such as YouTube. However, as this is often blocked within schools, you may choose another video hosting site such as Glow’s web hosting service, or a free online site such asVimeo (
To link to a video from a site such as Vimeo, follow the instructions on the site to upload your video. To then embed the video into your blog post:
- Go to Vimeo (or equivalent), find your video and copy the URL, which will look something like
- Paste the URL in to your post
- Highlight the URL in the post and remove the link by clicking on the broken chain icon in the toolbar
Remember to then save your draft or update your post if it has already been published.
Note: It is not possible to embed Teacher Tube videos in this way.
When the blog post is viewed, the embedded video will appear like this:
You can play the video by clicking on the play button and pause it whilst it is playing, should you wish.
Author: Glow TeamPage 1 of 8Ref: GC608