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tovlo4801
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| Posted: Oct 01 2005 at 5:22pm | IP Logged
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I set up a private blog spot account for myself back in February. I haven't really used it much, but I've recently decided to journal what we do for school as my method of record keeping. I think I'm going to be much more likely to do it and enjoy doing it if I'm journaling into a visually attractive blog site with nice organization than if I just type into a Word document.
What I envisioned doing was setting up archive categories for all the required subjects for our state and then a seperate one for my own personal writings. Then each day I could put out a blog entry for whatever subjects we covered that day and then move them into the archive for that particular subject. When I want to see what we've accomplished for any particular subject I could just look in the archives in that area.
I don't think blogger allows me to archive this way though. As far as I can figure out all the archive does is archive posts by month posted. Is there a blog provider that allows you to set up archive categories the way I describe or does anyone have any other suggestions on how to do that? If I journal to a blog like this, will I be able to print out what I've blogged in a particular archive category at some later date or will I have to go into each blog entry to do that?
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Leonie
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 1:23am | IP Logged
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Have you checked out the Organic Learning site? Might help?
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Leonie in Sydney
Living Without School
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Karen E.
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 7:16am | IP Logged
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Richelle,
Take a look at this help page at Blogger. I just set up a blog myself, but I haven't tried using the post pages. However, it looks like you can catalog posts by categories of your choosing.
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 8:01am | IP Logged
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Thanks guys!
Leonie,
That site is very similar to what I had in mind. Just private.  What a goldmine. Thanks.
Karen,
I think you might be right. My head is spinning trying to wade through all the computer lingo at the help site, but I think I need to enable post pages in the archive tab. I was going to give it a shot, but blogger is down for service. I'll let you know if it works.
God Bless,
Richelle
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juliecinci
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 8:11am | IP Logged
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I looked at the post pages option and it looks way complicated to me (and I'm not convinced that it works as archiving categories). I'm going to have to look at that again. I haven't seen archives by category in any blogger blog I've been to.
I use Word Press for my business blog which does allow for archiving categories. For my personal blog, I continue to use blogger because it is free and I started there. They also have lots of nice templates and it's so easy to use.
For my business blog, I decided on Word Press because I had control over the blog itself. It is not as easy to use as Blogger if you don't know much about html or website building. Applying templates is also a tricker business since you have to first go to the Word Press site and hunt through the archives of their template contest archives.
The advantage to Word Press is that it is open source (that means computer whizzes are updating it all the time and no one gets paid) and free. The downside is that it tends to be geared toward people who enjoy using html themselves.
Here's my Word Press Blog:
Brave Writer Blog
There is another free blogging program that does have categories:
Blog City
I have a friend who uses this blogware and it's nice. Lots more features than blogger.
If you want a user friendly blogware that is also really attractive, Typepad is a great way to begin. The only issue with Typepad is that you pay for it. On the other hand, it is a breeze to use and it does offer you features that are popular (like archiving categories). Lissa uses this blogware for The Bonny Glen.
Hope that helps!
Julie
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Julie
Homeschooling five for fourteen years
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Karen E.
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 8:29am | IP Logged
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juliecinci wrote:
| I looked at the post pages option and it looks way complicated to me (and I'm not convinced that it works as archiving categories). I'm going to have to look at that again. I haven't seen archives by category in any blogger blog I've been to. |
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Thanks for all the info, Julie -- I haven't played around with the post pages at all, so wasn't sure if they could be manipulated into categories or not.
You're a wealth of information! 
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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juliecinci
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 8:46am | IP Logged
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Karen, it looks to me like post pages might work that way... after further reading. I just find it interesting that I haven't run into them on anyone's blog! It looks hard to use.
The thing about Word Press is that as you write the post, the categories you've set up are at the bottom and all you have to do is click a check mark into the box and the post is automatically archived in that category. I can even edit which category later to move it to another archived category or put the post in several at once. Very easy. No html at all for that. The program is designed to do it for you.
I should also have mentioned Xanga and Live Journal because these platforms are hugely popular as well. Xanga and Live Journal are the blogging platforms of choice for teens. But I know adults who use them too.
Julie
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Julie
Homeschooling five for fourteen years
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 2:54pm | IP Logged
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I'm trying to wade through all this blog stuff. 
My post pages in blogger were already enabled and I don't think it made a difference in trying to set up my categories. I tried blog city, but as far as I could figure out I can't set up categories. Maybe if I paid the $3.50/month, but I'm not sure I want to pay. I decided to set up a free trial Typepad account. It seems pretty good for a complete novice, but we'll see.
Word Press might be good, but the requirements page there says that the host needs to have PHP version 4.1 or greater and MySQL version 3.23.23 or greater. HUH!?! I am so lost...
Is there a dummies book for all this stuff?
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juliecinci
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tovlo4801 wrote:
Word Press might be good, but the requirements page there says that the host needs to have PHP version 4.1 or greater and MySQL version 3.23.23 or greater. HUH!?! I am so lost...
Is there a dummies book for all this stuff? |
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It means that you must have a website that can support Word press (meaning you already pay for your own website).
That's why these other platforms are better - you don't need to have a website as well. They host it for you.
Julie
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Karen E.
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 3:51pm | IP Logged
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tovlo4801 wrote:
I'm trying to wade through all this blog stuff.
My post pages in blogger were already enabled and I don't think it made a difference in trying to set up my categories.
Is there a dummies book for all this stuff? |
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Richelle,
I just finished playing around with the Blogger stuff, too, and I also already had post pages enabled. All it seems to do is enable you to click to each post on its own page. There doesn't seem to be any way to categorize posts.
I had the thought you could use identifiable subject lines, such as "Science ... nature walk today," or "Literature ... today we read," but even then there's no way to alphabetize archives. It seems they are only available by date.
The only thing I can think of is to toy with the dates -- you can date a post as far back as 1990 -- since the blog is only for your personal use, maybe you could code it. Posts from 1990 could be for literature, 1991 could be science stuff, etc.?? I haven't played with that idea but it should, theoretically, work. 
I'm just getting mine going -- really just wanted a place on the web where I could bring some of my writing together. It's here
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: Oct 02 2005 at 6:27pm | IP Logged
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Karen,
Thanks for the update on your blogger trials. I spent much of the afternoon setting up a typepad spot. I think it will work wonderfully and my dh said he thought it would be OK to pay the monthly fee. I can archive by category and keep lists of books we're reading or books we want to read on the side. It even pops up a picture of the book if it recognizes it! I'm able to keep it private and password protected so only people who know the password can come to the site. My dh can check in on our posts from work. I'm hoping this turns out as good as I imagine. 
Also, thanks for linking your blog. I love your writing. Ever since I read your article about having a small family on Catholic Exchange, I've felt like you put things I struggle with into better words than I ever could. I looked at your first couple of posts and felt that same thing again as I read them. Beautiful!
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juliecinci
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Hey Richelle, have you seen this one?
Homeschool Blogger
I have a friend using it and it looks like it's designed for homeschoolers anyway...
Didn't notice if it has archiving categories though.
Julie
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Karen E.
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| Posted: Oct 03 2005 at 7:07am | IP Logged
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tovlo4801 wrote:
Karen,
Thanks for the update on your blogger trials. I spent much of the afternoon setting up a typepad spot. I think it will work wonderfully and my dh said he thought it would be OK to pay the monthly fee. |
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I looked at it, too -- very tempting!
tovlo4801 wrote:
| Also, thanks for linking your blog. I love your writing. |
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Thanks, Richelle. You're very kind.
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God bless,
Karen E.
mom to three on earth, and several souls in God's care
Visit my blog, with its shockingly clever title, "Karen Edmisten."
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garflick
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| Posted: Oct 03 2005 at 11:29am | IP Logged
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another solution might be to open a private msn group to store info.
http://groups.msn.com/
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Mary G
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juliecinci wrote:
I should also have mentioned Xanga and Live Journal because these platforms are hugely popular as well. Xanga and Live Journal are the blogging platforms of choice for teens. But I know adults who use them too.
Julie |
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Julie -- do you know of any other teen-friendly blogs -- any experience with them. Both my teens want to set up a blog, but one wants "myspace" and the other wants xanga. I worry about the privacy and security on these sites -- are there any out there available by invite only? Is there protected ones? I hate to be paranoid but my kids 9even tho my 16yos would DIE if I say this) are pretty innocent and I'd like to keep it that way somewhat.....
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: blogging school records question
