Frequently Asked Questions - About Troubleshooting and web content

There are just three simple steps:

• If you don't already have a ProgressiveU account, create one here.

• On the account creation form, check the box indicating that you will participate in the Blogging for Scholarship competition.

• Start blogging!

Having problems? Email us at info[at]progressiveu.org for assistance!

Your browser is probably not accepting the cookies on the site, so the site doesn't 'remember' that you are logged it. This is a common problem, and we suggest you try the following before reporting the problem:

• If you use Firefox, you can enable cookies by going to Tools>>Options...>>Privacy, then making sure the box next to 'cookies' is checked.
• If you are using Internet Explorer, you can enable cookies for ProgressiveU by going to Tools>>Internet Options...>>Privacy, and clicking the 'sites' button. Then add 'www.progressiveu.org'.

That should enable your cookies for our site. If you have further problems, feel free to e-mail us at info[at]progressiveu.org, and we will do our best to help you solve your problem.

If you would like to change your username, please follow the steps below:

• Go to "My Account"

• Click the "Edit" tab

• Change your username in the "Username" field to the desired name.

• Submit the changes.

Please be advised that the new username will not take affect if that username has already been taken by another user.

• To ensure that the username has been changed, click on the "Edit" tab again.

• Check to ensure that your new username is listed in the "Username" field.

• If the new username is not listed in the "Username" field, that username is already taken and you must either keep your old username or choose a different one.

Remember to repeat the double check any time you choose a new username, and please note that users wishing to access your profile via typing in the address must use your original username.

Yes, you can delete your account.

You need an administrator to do for you:

• Email info[at]progressiveu.org with your ProgressiveU.org username. Please also include the email address with which the account was registered.

• An administrator will contact you via email to ensure that you wish the account to be deleted.

• Once the deletion has been confirmed, an administrator will delete the account and send along a final confirmation.

Please note:

You'll notice every time you decide to "post a new blog entry" that there is a field below the main text area that reads "Input format". The default is set to "Full HTML". This selection allows you to use several of the most common HTML tags within your blog for emphasis, hyperlinks, or even to separate quoted text from your own text. To use these tags in your blogs, make sure that you do not click on "enable rich-text" - as the rich-text editor will not recognize your tags because it has features that work to automatically add the tags just as in a word processor. To use them in your comments, just follow the simple directions for each one. Here is a list of some of the allowed HTML tags, what each one does, and how they can be used in your blogs.

• <a> and </a> This tag allows you to create a hyperlink in your blog without having that ugly URL address taking up space. To use this tag, follow this example:

  <a href="http://www.progressiveu.org">The text you want to link</a> Will turn out to look like this:

  The text you want to link.

  Notice, the code is opened with the <a> tag, and then closed with the </a> tag; this is important as if you forget either of the tags, your code will not work the way you want it to.

  You can also make your links open into a new window - keeping people from leaving your blog entirely when they go to read an article that you may be citing within your blog. To do this, add the line Target="_blank" into your tag like this:

  <a href=http://www.progressiveu.org target="_blank">The text you want to link into a new window</a>. will work like this:

  The text you want to link to a new window.

• <b> and </b> This tag will allow you to make some your blog bold to emphasize certain points. This is not recommended as a means to publish your entire blog in bold text, but sometimes certain areas or ideas should be emphasized to make a point. To use this tag, place the opening tag before the point in question, and the closing tag directly after the point in question, like this example:

  <b>Here is an example</b> will give you this result:

  Here is an example

• <i> and </i> This tag allows you to take some of your blog's text and italicize it for emphasis. As with the <b> and </b> tags for bold, it's not recommened to publish your entire blog in italics. But occasionally, italicizing a word or two can bring just the right amount of emphasis to a point you'd like to make. Simply place the opening and closing tags around the words or phrase you would like to emphasize like this:

  <i>Progressive U is a great website!</i> will look like this:

  Progressive U is a great website!

• <blockquote> and </blockquote> This tag will allow you to separate parts of your blog into a blocked of section: perfect for use when directly quoting an article or other source:

  <blockquote>ProgressiveU.org is a nonpartisan social welfare organization that encourages an open discussion of current events, progressive values, and public policy priorities.</blockquote> Will look like this:

  ProgressiveU.org is a nonpartisan social welfare organization that encourages an open discussion of current events, progressive values, and public policy priorities.

So, now you've got your account set up, you've started posting a few blogs, and you would like to reply to some of the comments on your blogs - or maybe leave a comment on someone else's blog - and you'd like to know how to get that cool little signature set up, right?

That's easy! Just follow these steps, and you'll have a signature to include famous quotes, a favorite quote, or even a link to your favorite blog title.

First, go to your account page by clicking on "My account" in the navigation menu on the right side of the screen.

At your account page, click on the tab towards the top of the screen labeled "Edit". This will bring up several options; but for this item we're only worried about that front page under the label "account settings".

Scroll down the page until you see the section entitled "Comment settings". There, you'll see a text area with the word "Signature" in bold just above the area where you can type in your signature.

Type in your message. You can use basic HTML to provide links, italicize, or bold your message.

Once you've typed in your signature the way you like it, scroll down and click the "Submit" button. You should see the page turn back to your profile view with a message above in red font reading "The changes have been saved."

Be mindful, though, before typing in a novel :) A signature is made for a brief message; as such, there is a limit on how many characters you can type into the text area. This includes the codes for links - the longer your code, the more space it takes. You may want to view one of your blogs to make sure your entire comment appears as you would like it to. If it looks skewed, or the entire message doesn't fit, go back through and edit your signature again.

Facebook

• On the Notes page, select the "Import a Blog" link on the right side of the page.
• Enter the URL of your blog into the text box, and check the box underneath that states that you agree to our Terms of Use.
• To complete the process, click on "Save Settings". Once you do this, your past posts will be in notes and any new posts you make will automatically display.

Google Reader

• On ProU, click the "My Blog" link in the sidebar
• Scroll to the bottom and right click on the <img src="http://www.progressiveu.org/misc/feed.png"> button
• Select "copy shortcut"
• In Google Reader, click the "Add subscription" link
• Paste the link into the search box

It is relatively easy to embed videos from video sharing services like YouTube; you just need to make sure you are using the correct editor when you paste in the code that references the video.

Usually it's best to write the text of your post first, and then insert the video where you want it to appear. Note that for blog posts you still need to write at least 100 words of text. For forum posts you can post the video and nothing else, if that's what you want. If you have more than a paragraph of text you may want to use the rich-text editor to enter your text (that's the editor with all the word processing icons at the top).

Once you have your text entered, following these steps:

• Save what you've done so far. Click Preview to temporarily save your text.
• Click "disable rich-text" below the editor window to go to HTML view.
• Copy the "embed" code from YouTube, or other video source, and paste it into the window either before or after your text.
• If there are HTML tags that say "pre" and "/pre" in the window, remove them before continuing (remove the angle brackets that precede and follow the tags too).
• Preview your post, and Submit when you are satisfied. You should now see the video window in your post.

Do not insert copyrighted video into your posts unless: a) you own the copyright, or b) use of the image would fall under fair use guidelines. If you do use a video segment under fair use, be sure to give proper credit to the copyright owner. We reserve the right to remove video that are deemed inappropriate or are clear violations of copyrights, fair use guidelines or the ProgressiveU Terms of Service.

Posting photos can be tricky at times, but it can be done if you keep a few things in mind during the process.
It is usually best to write the text of your post prior to inserting the photos where you want them. Once you have your text entered, follow these steps:

• Save what you've done so far. You might want to use this time to copy your text into a wordprocessor such as Microsoft Word, so that you can easily return should things go wrong. Click preview at the bottom of the post to temporarily save your post on the website (note that, except in rare instances, your blog will not be saved if you exit out of your browser with this.)

• If your photo is already available somewhere on the internet, skip to step 5. If not, click the 'file attachments' link near the submit button, and attach your photo to your post by uploading it from your computer.

• Near the bottom of the input form you will see a ProgressiveU.org URL listed for your attached photo. Highlight and copy this URL.

• Place your cursor in the Body edit box in the place where you want to insert the photo. Click on the Insert/Edit image icon (it looks like a tree) if using the rich-text editor (clicking the link that reads 'enable rich-text'). Skip the next five steps if you do not want to use the rich-text editor.

• Paste the URL for the photo into the Image URL field.

• Choose the alignment that you prefer. Left or Right usually work best (text will wrap around photos this way), but you can experiment with other alignments.

• Vertical Space and Horizontal Space are for padding around your photo. We've found that a value of 5 for both of these usually works well.

• Click Insert.

• You many need to resize your photo in the Body editor box. We recommend a maximum size of 450 x 450 pixels, to avoid throwing off the formating of the right sidebar.

• Here's the most important step, which many people fail to do at first: Under the editor window in the input methods section, select the Full HTML radio button.

• If you are not using the rich-text editor, write <img src="YOUR URL HERE">. You will also uee this method to post photos into your comments.

• Preview your post, and Submit when you are satisfied.

Once you feel comfortable with the image insert functions you can skip some of the extra 'save your work' steps above.
Do not insert copyrighted images into your posts unless a) you own the copyright, or b) use of the image would fall under fair use guidelines. If you do use a photo or image under fair use, be sure to give proper credit to the photographer or copyright owner. We reserve the right to remove images that are deemed inappropriate or are clear violations of copyright or fair use guidelines.

There are a couple known problems when using the Safari browser on Apple Mac computers:

• The link button in the rich-text editor (the form you use for creating posts) doesn't work.

• The bottom part of the two sidebars at the right side of the screen is sometimes cut off. This causes problems when you want to post, because the Navigation menu, which includes the "create content" and "my account" links, is on that part of the screen.

These are the known workarounds:

• Use Firefox instead. Firefox works well on both Mac and Windows computers, and does not have either of the problems reported above. You can download Firefox here.

• If you are in a computer lab and can't download Firefox, you can still access the "Create Content" and "My Account" sections by using the following links:

• http://www.progressiveu.org/node/add

• http://www.progressiveu.org/user/(your username)

As we become aware of other fixes for these problems we will update this page.

Linking to other posts is fairly simple if you follow the steps below.

• When you entering the body text for a new post, you will see a link icon that looks like a chain in the toolbar above the text entry area.
• Highlight the text in your post that you want to link from, then click on the link icon.
• A new window will pop up that allows you to enter the address that you want to link to.
• Enter the entire URL address if you are linking to a site outside of ProgressiveU.org (for example, http://www.campusactivism.org/displaygroup-1118.htm).
• Click OK, and your link is inserted.
• After you have submitted an image or blog post, you will see a URL in the address bar of your browser in a format like this: http://www.progressiveu.org/17302-why-i-blog. This is the address you should use if you are sending the link to friends by email, or if you want them to link to it from another site.
• You can also use this URL address if you are creating a link to your post or image from within ProgressiveU.org (say you're writing a new blog post and you want to refer people to something you posted earlier).