"Read More" and controlling posts per page

Hi Annie,

I stumbled upon your university and i'm learning a lot!

I don't have much knowledge in creating htm pages so i want to learn more...

I have some questions that i want to ask you:

First: How do you display only 1 blog post in the home page?

Second: How do i get to cut my post if it's too long? I mean you could display 100-200 characters then it will be cut, then there will be a displayed message below it that say's "read more" which is linked to the full post?

I wish you could help me.. Thanks in advance!


Blogger has really made this easy for us now. You must post in Blogger in Draft to access the "Read More" feature. They call it insert jump break. It allows a portion of your post to be shown on your blog's index page. It then inserts a "Read more" link to the full post page where your readers can keep reading.

Here is how to do it:

1. Open your post editor window and click on the Compose tab.
   
2. Write your post till you get to the point you would like a Read More break.
   
3. Then click on the 'torn page' icon on the right.
4. Finish writing your post.
   

You can also customize the "Read more" text to something more clever. Edit it by clicking Layout | Blog Posts Widget | Edit.



Now, to make your blog display only one post, go to your Dashboard | Settings | Formatting | Show. That is where you change the number to 1. Also make sure posts is selected in the box and not days.

A couple of simple little fixes!

Add Your Blogger Post to Twitter

If you have a blog and you tweet, this is for you. Automatically tweet your blog posts! Head over to twitterfeed. It is a three step process:

1. Create an account
2. Add your feeds
3. Track your feeds

Step 1: Create an account is simple enough. OpenID can sound scary, but fear not. Look here. If you have one of these accounts...or others, you have an OpenId already. This step is pretty easy. Let's move along.

Step 2: Add your feeds. This is actually a two step process.

1. First, make sure twitter is in the little drop down box. Then click on Connect your feed to your Twitter Account. You are then swooped away to Twitter where you are asked...Allow twitterfeed access? Click allow and you are then returned back to twitterfeed.
   
2. Now for the second part of step 2...Give your feed a name. I called mine BlogU. Then find your feed. Easy. Go to the Blogger Dashboard | Settings | Site Feed. Your feed URL is in the box by Post Feed Redirect URL. (Do you need help with getting a site feed? Read Setting up a RSS Feed.) After you get your RSS URL, paste it in and then test it by clicking on the little button. If all is well, you will get a message saying Feed parsed OK . Now click on the Create Feed button.

Step 3: After you clicked that last button, you will be taken to the page where you can track your feeds, edit them, delete them, or add another feed. I also clicked on switch to plain list view. It just made my options seems cleared to me.

TA DA!!!!! You are not blogging and twitting almost simultaneously. Welcome to the 20th century.