Introduction

Using the Warwick Blogs system you can easily publish your ideas, observations and feelings onto the world wide web. In some cases, however, you may want to write blog entries that are restricted to a small group of people at the University. We call these restricted entries.

If you are reading a blog, and it contains a restricted entry for which you do not have permissions, you will not be able to see that entry. It is also hidden from you everywhere else in the system. If you do have permission to see a restricted entry, you will see a small padlock icon displayed next to its title, for example:

As a blog owner, you are able to create blog groups that contain other members of the University. For example, you may have a group that contains just your personal tutor. For every entry that you create, you can choose to restrict the entry so that onlymembers of that group can view it and comment on it. In this way, you can write entries that only you and your personal tutor can read.

This guide takes you through the process of creating such a group, and then using it to write an entry restricted to you and your tutor.

IMPORTANT: you should not assume that your personal tutor will read your blog entries, even if you have written one that is restricted to them. To ensure that they do read an entry, tell them about it - send them the url.

Get Started

To get started on this guide, you first have to display your own personal blog in a web browser. If you are following this guide on screen (rather than having printed it off) you will have to open a second internet browser in which you can view your blog. You will then need to switch between the browsers as you read and follow the instructions.

Once you have got your blog displayed in a web browser, you will need to sign in.

How do I open a second browser window?

On the Internet Explorer browser, on the menu bar select File, then New, then New Window.

On the Mozilla browser, on the menu bar select File, then New Window.

On Microsoft Windows computers, you can swap between windows by using the tabs along the Start bar (usually along the bottom of the screen).

How do I access my blog?

If you have bookmarked your personal blog, you can go straight to it. Otherwise, you can either:

• write its url into your browsers address bar;
• or go to the Warwick Blogs homepage at http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk, sign in (see below), and a link to your blog will be displayed on the top right of the page.

How do I sign in?

Whenever you are looking at a page in the Warwick Blogs system, you will see a sign-in/sign-out link displayed in the top right of the page. If you are not signed in, click on sign-in, and type your University username and password into the box that appears.

Step 1: Find the Edit Your Groups page

As the owner of the blog, you have access to its admin page. Editing your groups is one of the options listed on the admin page.

1.1 To view the list of options, click on the link to the admin page. This is at the top-right-hand corner of your blog, just to the left of the sign-in/sign-out link, as shown in this screen-image:

[Note, yours may look different depending on your blog style.]

1.2 When you have clicked on the admin link, you will see the admin page. This page lists the admin options that are available. The Edit My Groups option is inlcuded in the second part of this list, under People, as show in this screen-image:

You should now click on the link to Edit My Groups. This will display the Edit My Groups page.

Step 2: Create the My Tutors group

You should now have the Edit My Groups page displayed. This should contain a table that lists a single group called Friends. This group will probably be empty (not implying that you have no friends).

2.1 Below the table, you should see the following option:

Into this box, type the name for the new group: My Tutors

2.2 And then click on the Create button. This will add your new My Tutors group to the table.

Step 3: Add your tutor to My Tutors

Your My Tutors group is still empty, you must now add your tutor to it.

The Warwick Blogs system recognises people by their University username or login-name (the first code that you type in when you login). In order to add your tutor to the group, you must type their username into the Add box for your My Tutors group, and then click on the Add button. However, you it is unlikely that you know your tutors username.

3.1 Warwick Blogs includes a system that allows you to discover the username of any member of the University. To do, this, first of all click on the Find Person button on the My Tutors list's heading:

3.2 You will see a form appear in a new window. Type the firstname and surname of your tutor into the box, and then click the search button.

If you have got the name correct, you should now see your tutor listed in the Results-Staff section of the form. Check that it states the correct department (there may be more than one person with the same name). You should also see that your tutors username is listed, as in this example:

3.3 If you now click on your tutors username, the form will close. You should find that the username has been added to the Add box of the My Tutors table, just like this:

Note that sometimes this fails, so you have to type the username into ther box yourself.

3.4 Next, you should click on the add button. This will add your tutor to the My Tutors group, and you will see them listed as follows:

You can repeat this process for any further tutors that you wish to add to the My Tutors group.

Step 4: Return to your blog homepage

4.1 To return to your blog homepage, click on the Back To Blog Manager button:

4.2 And then the Back To My Blog button:

Step 5: Create a tutor-only entry

Now that you have created the My Tutors blog group, you can at any time create a blog entry that is restricted to that group. Only you and your tutor[s] will be able to read it and comment on it. This next step explains how to create such an entry.

5.1 To create this entry, first of all select the Create Entry menu from the top-right-hand corner of the page (next to the Admin link). From this list, select Private Entry (Just Me), as shown in this image:

5.2 This should display the Create Entry page. Towards the top-right of this page, you should a set of two options, one listing 'Who can see this entry?' and the other listing 'Who can comment on this entry?'. At the moment these should both be set to Just Me, as in this image:

5.3 To make your new entry available to your tutor[s], you must modify both of these boxes so that they both are set to My Tutors, as in this image:

5.4 Once you have done this you may continue with writing and publishing your entry.