Click the orange pencil button on your dashboard to get started.
You'll see a screen that looks like this:
The narrow white box at the top of the screen is where you write your title. The wide white box in the bottom middle of the screen is where you write your actual post.
Here are your options in the post settings on the right side of the page:
Labels
Labels are a way to organize your posts by topic. For instance, this particular post has 5 labels: blog, blogger, communication, free, there's an app for that. Those are the topics I thought matched this post the most. Notice that in the picture above, there are lots of blue words. Those are the labels I've used in the past. If I want to use any of those labels in this blog post, I can either type them in the white box or click on them in the blue list below the white box. If there's a label I want to add that has never been added to my blog before, I have to type it in the white box. When you've added all the labels you want to add, click "done."
You can always go back and change your labels, although it can be tedious if you have a lot of blog posts. It's best to figure out what labels you'd like to use early in your blogging career.
Schedule
Click "schedule" to see some scheduling options. The default is set at "automatic," which means that articles will be posted as soon as you hit the orange "publish" button at the top right of the screen. Clicking the "set date and time" button lets you schedule to have your blog post published at a later date.
Permalink
By default, Blogger will use your post title in the permalink. That just means that that is the URL people will use to get to this blog post from now on once it's published. You can also enter a custom link if you need to.
I don't use the location option because I like my privacy, and Google is terrible about disregarding people's privacy. But you could post the location you were in while you wrote the post, if you wanted to.
Don't worry about the "options" tab for right now; you can use it later if you get the hang of blogging and HTML a little bit.
Now let's look at the bar between the title and the body text.
Disregard the compose/HTML buttons. All you need to know about that right now is that if you accidentally hit a button and everything on your typing screen looks very old-fashioned with lots of symbols and things that you don't remember typing, go back and click the "compose" button at the top.
Moving left to right:
The two arrows are undo and redo.
The "F" allows you to change between a few fonts.
The "T" changes the size of your blog post text.
I don't even know what the "normal" drop down box does; something with size, I think. It can't be that important, if I've been blogging without it for 4+ years. :)
B, I, U, are bold, italics, and underline options. The ABC with the line through it is a
The A with the black box under it allows you to change the color of the text, while the button next to it changes the background of the text.
Clicking "link" gives you this pop-up:
which allows you to link to another website or to an e-mail address.
The button next to that allows you to insert photos into your blog posts. Click on it to see a pop-up similar to this:
In the big box to the right, you'll see thumbnail versions of all the pictures you've uploaded to your blog already today. {You can see the pictures that have already been featured in this post!} You can upload from your computer or, another website, an online album, or snag a photo you've already uploaded to your blog. Click on the picture you want to add to the blog and click "add selected." It will insert itself into your blog post, and you can play with the size, links, and captions from there.
Then we have a button to add videos.
It works much the same way the picture insertion button works.
The broken page icon allows you to insert a jump break into your post. If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it. :) I never use it.
The lines with the arrow allow you to change the justification of your text so that it's all on the left, all on the right, in the middle, etc.
Then you have options to add bullets in the form of numbers or shapes.
Add an indented quotation with the giant quotation mark button.
Take out the formatting in your post by clicking the T with the red x, and spell check your post by clicking the ABC with the green check mark.
When you're finished writing, you can click the "preview" button in the top right to see what the post will look like when it's published. {Links don't work in previews, BTW.} Click "save" if you want to save your work but not publish it yet. Click "publish" if you're ready to show your post to the world. :)
There are several apps that will allow you to publish to your Blogger account via a mobile device, but I have to warn you: they can be a little wonky. This one is probably your best bet, and it's free. :)
