St. Andrew’s Home School

Welcome and How to Join!

Student Blogroll here.

Greeting! I am your new leader. Mwahahaha. Just kidding. I’m only trying to give others a break.

If you are a member of the blogroll you must display the blogroll on your blog/site. You will be removed from the blogroll if you do not post the blogroll on your site. This is only fair to the other blogroll members as linkage is important for us meeting together; visiting each other; sharing our thoughts, struggles, and ideas; and it helps with rankings too (for those who have ads).

There are forums on the TOG Blogroll if you desire more interaction.

If you use Tapestry of Grace and would like to join the blogroll for TOG users, then you’re in the right place. Here’s how to join:

1. Email me and tell me you’d like to join!
2. I need the http:// address of your blog AND your blog’s name (sometimes they are not the same). Don’t ask me to assume, because we all know what assuming does, right?
3. Tell me which style Blogroll you wish to have so I can send you the correct code. (See bottom of page for options: full list, blogroll scroll bar wide, blogroll scroll bar narrow, or WordPress.com free blogs which is a different code completely.)
4. I’ll send you code to place in your blog.
5. Follow the instructions here to install the code in your blog or website.
6. Enjoy meeting other blogging TOG-ers!

I usually get to my e-mails daily, but I may not always be available. I have six children and we home educate like you. If you have not gotten a response from me in 3 days e-mail me again, your e-mail may have been caught by the spam filter. Sorry, but I hate spam, even if it’s not you. I will try to remember to post when I will be away for vacation or otherwise so you will know not to expect a response right away. You are welcome to leave a comment here, but I will not respond to the request for adding you unless it is via an e-mail! This simplifies the number of places I need to keep up with.

How to Install the Code

Basic Instructions:

1. Copy the desired code
2. Decide where you’d like your blogroll to appear.
3. Paste the code into your page or sidebar template as desired.
4. Save the page or sidebar template.

* * * * * * * *
Now, need to know where to find your sidebar elements?

WordPress

Widget-enabled themes
These instructions will work on self-hosted WordPress blogs only (for WordPress.com, see just below here)

1. Copy the code.
2. Open you Dashboard and navigate to the Design tab.
3. Click on the Widgets tab.
4. Add a Text Widget (or if you have one already for this purpose choose that one)
5. Click edit on the Text Widget title bar.
6. Paste you code.
7. Save your changes.
8. Look at your new blogroll on your site.

Non-Widgetized themes
If you do not have widget-enabled theme and are self-hosted you probably know how to do this or have someone who does it for you, but that’s not always the case. So . . .
if you just can’t do this via widgets, e-mail me and I’ll walk you through the best option (FTP, cpanel, or WP admin)

WordPress.com free blogs

1. Copy the code
2. Navigate to Admin > Manage > Link Catagories > Add Category
3. Add TOG Blogroll as a new link category
4. Navigate to Admin > Manage > Links > Add New > Import Links (this link is on the right hand sidebar at the bottom).
5. Paste your code into the Specifiy OPML URL: box
6. Choose the newly created TOG Blogroll category to assign these links appropriately
7. Click the Import button
8. Whalah!
9. Now if you don’t already have your Links Widget in your sidebar, go put it there and save your changes.
10. Again - whalah! It will look as it does in my sidebar on this page (of course dependent upon your theme design).

As I use WordPress and am self-hosted, I can only share the hand-me-down instructions for the how-to for Blogger and Homeschool Blogger. If you have some great amount of trouble I might have time to poke around and help you out.

Blogger:

If you’ve started your blog recently, or converted to Blogger Beta (no longer Beta), then this is for you. Before you begin, copy the code provided via email (highlight the code and copy it. Keyboard shortcut: ctrl+c).

1. Click on “customize” on your navigation bar (at the top of the page); or go to “dashboard” and click on “layout.”
2. You will be in the layout section of your blog. You’ll see “add and arrange page elements” at the top of the page, and you’ll see a diagram of your blog with the header, body, sidebar elements (the narrow column), etc. If you aren’t seeing the things I mention here, then you probably have a “classic” template. That’s next.
3. Look at the narrow column—that’s where your sidebar elements are. Click “add a page element.”
4. In the menu that appears, find the option for “HTML/JavaScript.” Click “add to blog.”
5. Give it a title. Anything you like.
6. In the large area, paste the code you received in the welcome email. (Keyboard shortcut for pasting: ctrl+v)
7. No need to save – blogger does it for you!

For those who use blogger’s classic template:

1. Copy the code provided.
2. Click on customize or otherwise find your way to the “template” tab. (For example, of you click on “new post,” you will see other tabs, one of which is “template.”)
3. Click on “edit html” – I know it’s scary, but that’s what you need to do.
4. Scroll through your html until you see this: < !-- Begin #sidebar -- > What follows is your sidebar content.
5. Decide if you want your code before your links, after them, before your profile, etc.
6. Pick your spot and put the cursor in there, but make sure it’s not in the middle of a link or the coding for your profile, etc. Remember that in html, something in brackets (like the “li” meaning List Item) starts a command, and the same text repeated with a slash in front of it (like the /li, meaning “end list item”) is the end of that item. Put your code somewhere before where it says “End Sidebar.”
7. Paste your code where you want it (you copied the code, right?)
8. Be sure to preview before saving changes.
9. Save changes!

Homeschool Blogger:

1. Copy the code.
2. Go to your template and find your sidebar code. It looks remarkably similar to the code in blogger classic.
3. Paste the code provided into your desired location.
4. Be sure to click “preview” before you save changes.
5. Save changes!