While writing the final sentences of my post on how to create a SharePoint blog last week, I realized that I needed to circle back and spend some time on the Admin Links that are automatically present at the creation of a new SharePoint blog. As mentioned in that earlier post, the Admin Links which appear are: Create a post, Manage posts, Manage comments, All content, Set blog permission, and Launch blog program to post:
The actions associated with these Admin Links are fairly self-evident for the most part, but the range of options associated with some of the links may be less so. Looking at each of them from top to bottom, we'll begin with Create a post:
As you can see, you'll need to provide a Title for your post, and the Body will be the content of the post itself. The WYSIWYG editor is a dream, and mimics many of most essential editing features from styled text to inserting images, hyperlinks and even tables. Category allows you to associate the content of your post with a preexisting category (Defaults are None, Category 1, Category 2, and Category 3). Finally, Published allows you to schedule the publication time of the post. Note: By default, the publication time is set to the date and time that you clicked the Create a Post link. You may also choose to Save As Draft if your post isn't yet ready for publication.
Manage posts is the second of the Admin Links, and clicking it will surface the Posts page:
On this page you will see all posts to the blog, with related information arranged in columns from left to right, beginning withTitle (the auto-generated "Welcome to your Blog!" message will appear by default as the first post); Created By will reveal the post's author; Published lists the publication date and time; Category will show which (if any) category the post is associated with; # Comments shows at a glance how many comments have been left on a given post; Edit is a direct link to edit the post; and Approval Status will show the status for each post. Hovering over the title's hyperlink will reveal the Edit dropdown, which includes options to View Item, Edit Item, Manage Permissions, Delete Item, Alert Me, and Approve/Reject.
Clicking the Comments link will bring up the Comments page, listing all comments that have been made on the blog:
On this page, the default columns from left to right are Title, which features all of the Edit options associated with Manage posts except Approve/Reject; Created By, which shows the name of the person who wrote the comment, though you'll note in the image above that one of the comments is listed as by System Account - this is because the Anonymous Comment Web Part was used to create that comment; Post Title shows the post with which the given comment is associated; and Edit is a direct link to edit the comment itself.
I was surprised to discover that clicking the All content link doesn't limit the results to all content pertaining specifically to the blog, but actually brings up the All Site Content page.
I got another surprise when I clicked the Set blog permissions link and discovered that doing so didn't bring up a page or form where I might directly set blog permissions, but instead spawned a popup with instructions on how one goes about setting blog permissions:
The final Admin Link is Launch blog program to post, which opens a Word doc with the following popup overlaid:
Note: The Blog URL field will be automatically populated with the URL of the blog in question. Setting up such an account will register your blog, and once your blog has been registered, you'll have the ability to post to your blog without being in your SharePoint environment, including the ability to publish your blog directly from Word.
And that's a wrap on the Admin Links associated with a SharePoint blog.
Posted
Jul 06 2009, 05:12 PM
by
John Anderson
John Anderson joined Bamboo Solutions as Manager of Content & Syndication in May 2008 after a 12-year career at AOL. New to SharePoint at the time of his hiring, John was tasked with creating a new blog for the just-launched Bamboo Nation community in which he would document his daily SharePoint learning process. Thus was born the end user-centric SharePoint Blank, for which John authored 200 posts within a year, and which he continues to write today. Today, John writes SharePoint Blank in addition to his responsibilities as Managing Editor at Bamboo and, while he learned much about SharePoint in his first two years, he gleefully celebrates the release of SharePoint 2010 and the reset button that the new platform represents for SharePoint Blank.