Food/Green blog help

Step-by-step instructions for posting to the ANR Food Blog and ANR Green Blog:

Registered contributors

In order to post to the blog, you must be a "registered contributor." All ANR academics and staff with an interest in writing are invited to be contributors. To be added, just send an e-mail to jewarnert@ucanr.edu.

Writing the post

If you are a registered contributor, a section titled "Blog System" will appear in the center column of your ANR Portal.

Click "Food Blog" or "Green Blog"

Click "Create/edit post" on the lower right-hand side of the page, under "My stuff."

Click "Add a post."

The system first asks you to write a headline. The headline can be edited later, if you wish.

Click "Start post."

The top of the next pane says "Edit a post," but this is where you first write the post as well. If you have already written the post elsewhere, you can copy and paste it into the "post body" pane.

Many of the text formatting tools are the same as you would find in most word processing programs.

Sometimes text will have hidden formatting that disrupts the flow of your copy. You can click the little icon that looks like an eraser to remove formatting.

Add links to your story

Links in your story ensure that it won't be a "dead end" for someone who stumbled upon the information using a search engine. Plus, it tells readers about the source of the information and shows where to go for more details.

To add a link, copy the URL of the page you wish to link to into your clipboard. (Highlight the URL on the browser and click Ctrl-C on your computer keyboard.) Highlight the text you want to link in your post, then click the chain link icon on the far right side of the text box formatting tools.

Paste the URL in the field titled "Link URL." Click "insert."

To link an e-mail address, first copy the address in your clipboard, highlight the e-mail address in your copy, click on the chain link, then before pasting the e-mail address type "mailto:" (without the quotes.) Then paste in the address.

Adding photos and video

It's always a good idea to add a photo or video with your post. If you don't already have a photo to go with the story, you may be able to find one in the ANR Repository. Other sources of free photos are: USDA Flickr Page and Pixabay.com. (Do not download a photo from the Internet unless you have permission from the photo's owner. When you get permission, keep a record of it.)

To add a photo or video, use the "adding files" pane, just underneath the blog body.

Click "browse" and find the photo or video on your computer. Click "edit" to the right of the file name. Here you can change the file name to an appropriate caption for the photo. Click the small square next to "caption" for the caption to appear on your post. Don't click the square if you don't want the caption to show.

The images will automatically appear at the end of the story. But you also have other options. On the edit pane you can also modify the size of the photo and indicate whether you want it lined up on the left or right side of your text, with the text wrapping. (We suggest that you post your story with pictures 650 px and centered. This makes them mobile friendly.)

After editing the photo, place the cursor in the text where you would like the photo to appear and click "insert image," which is just to the right of the photo thumbnail.

Tags

Tags are used to organize information on the blog. Below the picture pane is a field for adding tags.

1. When typing in your tags, type slowly and the system will autofill. If you select an autofill tag, you know it's a category that already exists. Whenever you can, please use existing categories.
2. Tag the names of your ANR sources.
3. Don’t use a tag if you think it would very rarely or never again be mentioned in the blog.
4. Avoid very generic tags, like “agriculture” or “UC.”
5. Tag with the word, not the acronym. “Asian citrus psyllid,” rather than ACP.
6. Tag with words that everybody would understand. (There were a few I deleted that were Greek to me.)
7. Try to create categories. Instead of “school garden,” “school menu,” “school food,” “school nutrition,” “school project,” tag the post “school.”
8. Don't use too many tags. Four seems about right.

Submitting

After finishing your story, click "Save and Review." Reread the post, and click "re-edit this post" if you would like to make changes or corrections. When you are satisfied with the post, click "make this post live." The post will not immediately go live, however, since this is a moderated blog. After the post is reviewed by an editor and when the time for a new post has arrived, it will go live. If you have a hot story that should go live immediately, please e-mail jewarnert@ucanr.edu or text (559) 240-9850.

Social networking

The blog system makes it easy to share your information on social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. (You will need to first set up accounts on the social networking sites you wish to use.) Once the story is live on the blog, you will see a "share" icon on the upper right corner. Click the icon, select the social networking site of your choice and follow the simple directions to add your post (or anyone's post that interests you) to your social networking site.