Quick Blog 1.2.1 release
Greetings and salutations.
We can do this business with lists, bullet points or maybe
even a brief explanation of the new features -- or I can rely on the excellent
job our writers have done documenting the blog’s “how to” and I’ll just discuss
the “Why.”
We’ve added a new sidebar item that allows you to highlight
the cream of the comment crop. Sooner or later someone is going to arrive on
your blog and leave a thought so cool that you’re going to want to ensure it’s
readily accessible to your future readership (Yes, that means we’re anticipating
you’ll renew your domain). You can activate
the showcase feature within the Design blog/Sidebar.
Improved excerpt / Auto Excerpt:
We’ve retained the “classic” excerpt and added two new
features. You can set how many words or sentences to include in your excerpts,
and fill it in with one click. For those that think that’s a click too many,
you also can choose to ‘auto excerpt’ every post.
Excerpting is akin to creating a summary of your post which
can be expanded by clicking on the MORE link. An alternate use for this feature is to use it
as a “spoiler” or NSFW (not safe for work) filter. There’s many a movie or TV
show ruined by people casually (I would hate to think it was maliciously)
informing you on their blogs that, “yeah, Willis’ character is really dead.” Likewise, if you are planning on posting
anything remotely controversial, use the excerpt as a NSFW warning.
Very nice. I just happened across this and am quite impressed with what you're offering here. Already, the information from your posts have been very helpful.
I noticed when I clicked on one of your links pointing to another blog, a new window did not open up and I left your blog. Is there a feature in the quickblog that would enable you to open a new window and are we able to do our own html coding in our posts?
I'll probably jump right in and start a new blog...I already have two using Wordpress, but something with support like this, features and flexibility would be nice. It gets a little unnerving for a rather nontechnical person like me to know it's all on me.
Again, thanks
Demian,
~DreamSinger
Greetings Demian,
Thanks for the kind words about the team's posts. With regards to choosing whether the links open on the same page, or open another one a method to achieve this follows.
Highlight the text you wish to create the URL with then click on "create link" enter the full url e.g Godaddy.com
change the target setting from "none" to "New Window. These links should now open a new window / tab depending on which browser you are using.
John
Quick Blog Team.
Thanks, John. I tried using the free quick blog this morning to get a feel for it, and liked it. However, I knew I would want to upgrade for the extra features.
I have two more questions. First, is there a way to create stationary links at the top of the blog, like a standard menu? And two, is there a way to make links to static pages as a part of the blog in the side bar for author's intro and stuff like that? I couldn't see how to do it in the free version, and the technical support person didn't think I could, but he didn't seem sure.
If not, do you think these features would be added any time in the near future?
Again, thanks for your response.
Demian,
~DreamSinger
For the time being both features you've mentioned are absent in the form that I believe you would wish to see them in. The ability to add in custom navigation/ links at present is available within the blogroll (accessible through manage blog / blogroll ) and you can also create a link on the images within the template.
A work around for this would be to create a blog entry for the author intro, then add the link for that entry into the blogroll. We're going to take a look at your suggestions to accommodate these behaviors in a direct manner.
Regards
John
Quick Blog Team
Thanks John for your response. I'll be keeping an eye out for future developments. Wishing you the best.
Demian,
~DreamSinger
I really like your software. I've found it to be very robust. I've got two requests, both a little advanced I'd guess. The first is the ability to add metatags. As I'm sure you know these are important for search engine placement, and so far as I can tell we are currently unable to create them.
The second is the ability to add custom code somewhere on the page, be it the sidebar, or the bottom. For example, in order to submit my site to the blog search Technorati I need to add this script permanently to my page somewhere: "". As near as I can tell there is no way to do this currently. I know that giving the average user power like this also creates the potential for creating problems you don't want to support (and shouldn't have to), but it seems like you would be able to add enough "use at your own risk" warnings before you allowed people like me to access such tools that it would absolve you of responsibility for any code gone awry.
Thanks again for such a wonderful tool.
Thank you for the compliment!
You are the second person to request metatags. It's already on the list, and we'll announce it when it's done.
As far as a block of custom HTML goes, I think it's a splendid idea. Added to the list!
Thanks for the suggestions, Bill
Hi Guys! Need help. I'm putting together a website that will give guests the opportunity to blog on the site. I dont know for sure how this is going to work, but the idea is for them get to post their thoughts, so that others can read them, and well, they can also post comments on other people's blogs. Is see this happening on just one long page, that shows blogs listed over a 7 day period after which, they get archived to make way for newer blogs/posts. Would quick blog be sufficient? I read that you can approve multiple authors to write on a blog but, if they do, will they be able to edit or delete other people's blogs? Would really appreciate the advise. Thanks!
Quick Blog can certainly have multiple authors if you pay the $2.99 per month (the ad-supported blog only has a single author). Each author you create can have as much or as little authority as you deem: you could, for example, allow writing of entries but not publishing or writing but can only edit his own entries and can't delete anyone's.
Hope that helps (and welcome aboard if it does!), Bill
Is it possible to include images in excerpts? I'd like to begin my posts with an image, then a little text . . . then have a jump to the rest of the photos and text. But my efforts to copy and paste an image into the excerpt box have been unsuccessful, as have my efforts to simply copy and past the html code into the excerpt box. Any advice would be appreciated.
Greetings,
It should be but I believe it's not functioning correctly at present. E.g if the image occurs before the excerpts character limit we should try and display it. We'll attend to that in a future release as it's quite a useful item to have. Thanks for letting us know and I'll post an update once this has been brought back to health.
Regards
John
QBC team