To use all of the features of The Economic Populist

Blog Your Brains Out

To write a forum or blog post, go to create content menu, right hand column. Blogs will be on the front page and should be original writings. Forums are for discussion threads, short news posts.

On blog posts you can use full XHTML in your post, which is the default mode. A WYSIWYG (What you See is What you Get) editor is also available. Menu icons in the rich-text editor (WYSIWYG) allow users to format their writings without having to understand the underlying XHTML tags. To use the WYSIWYG editor, click on the rich text editor link below the body area where you compose your post. Hover your mouse over the buttons in the rich text editor to see what each icon in the toolbar does.

To attach a poll to your blog, click on the poll link below the body editing area.

A Democratic Community Blog

Users decide what will be on the front page. Here are the details on how the Content Promotion/Demotion System works.

Some XHTML tags

To quote another source:

<blockquote>This is the text you are quoting</blockquote>

Displays:

This is the text you are quoting

To create a link:

<a href="http://www.exampleURL.com">Text Describing the Example URL</a>

Displays:

Text Describing the Example URL

To highlight some words:

<strong>bold</strong>

Displays:

bold

Images

To put images in your blog, it is recommended to use image hosting sites such as Photobucket or Flickr. This makes your writing more portable to other blogs.

The XHTML code to insert an image is:

<img src="http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n4/RobertOak/23257693.jpg" 
alt="text describing image" />

To align the image right, create a space margin and resize:

<img src="http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n4/RobertOak/23257693.jpg" 
alt="text describing image" align="right" width="90" height="100" 
style="margin:5px;"  />

You can also use the rich text editor. Click on the image button to insert images into your writings.

Images can also be attached to the end of your blog post as well as spreadsheets, pdfs (files).

To embed videos, most video hosting sites,such as youtube, have the embedded code available. While in the plain-text editor, Copy and Paste into the body of your post the embed code provided.

Lists

The rich text editor has two buttons for lists. Here is the correct XHTML syntax to format lists:

<ul>
<li>A point</li>
<li>Another point</li>
<li>Pontificate a third time </li>
</ul>

Displays:

• A point
• Another point
• Pontificate a third time

<ol>
<li>Some like to innumerate </li>
<li>Some number their kids</li>
<li>Some others write numbers in underwear</li>
</ol>

Displays:

1. Some like to innumerate
2. Some number their kids
3. Some others write numbers in underwear

Tables

The rich text editor does have a tables button. Here are a few tables tags.

<table border="1">
<caption>Caption for Table</caption>
<tr>
<th>Heading 1</th> <th>Heading 2</th> <th>Heading 3</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> row 1, column 1</td> <td>row 1, column 2</td> <td>row 1, colunm 3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> row 2, column 1</td> <td>row 2, column 2</td> <td>row 2, colunm 3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> row 3, column 1</td> <td>row 3, column 2</td> <td>row 3, colunm 3</td>
</tr>
</table>

Displays:

Tables are the hard and one can easily miss a XHMTL tag. For more formatting of tables see this guide.

More XHTML Compose Tips. Here is information to write & format posts using Microsoft Live Writer.

Submitting Content

Once you have submitted content it is published. Please check to make sure the post is displayed the way you want. Blogs and forums can be edited for updates and mistakes. To save your post as an unpublished draft for later editing, check the private box before clicking the submit button.

Conversations

To see who has responded to your comments and forums, go to My account in the right hand column. Listed below will be your comment and forum history. My blog has your blog posts with comments.

Other Bloggers

To view the list of register users on the site, click here.

Your Blog

Each contributor has their own blog with their own news feed. To access the RSS news feed of an individual writer, click on the user's blog link at the bottom of a post. In your browser address bar, append at the end of the URL:

/feed

Click here for an example.

Reposting or Cross Posting

Many people like to post their writings on more than one site and that's fine by us. After all, the goal is to generate more awareness, involvement and discussion on U.S. trade, economic, labor policy. The problem is Google and other aggregators don't like copies. To fake out RSS aggregators, Google, etc. please change your post title and also change the first line or two of your post. Please help alert more people about EP when cross posting. Copy the below and paste in the top or bottom of your writing on the other sites:

<sup><em>Cross posted on <a href="http://www.economicpopulist.org">
The Economic Populist</a> - 
A Community Site for Economics Freaks and Geeks</em></sup>

That will look like this:

^{Cross posted on The Economic Populist - A Community Site for Economics Freaks and Geeks}

I Hate the Look of the Site

Well, you're in the minority, but take heart, you can change it to a nice blue, narrower look. Go to myaccount, click on the edit tab, select Amadou as your theme configuration, click the submit button. You can add a signature to put on your posts too.

Friendly Reminders

Please stay on topic, this is an economics blog, we love statistics here, be good to each other and make your posts pretty. Pretty posts use XHTML tags and just get all the attention.

For Advanced Users - Special Formatting for Default Theme

The default theme has advanced formatting tags assigned. You must write them as code, they are not available in the WYSIWYG editor. The tags are show with how it will display after.

<span class="alert">This is an Alert</span>

This is an Alert

<span class="note">This is a note</span>

This is a note

<span class="info">This is for information</span>

This is for information

<span class="errormsg">This is for no bull zone</span>

This is for no bull zone

For more Hints from blogger Heloise, check out the EP admin forum.