README For BloGTK Weblog Client
Version 2.0
"Broadsheet"

http://blogtk.jayreding.com/

CONTENTS:
---------
1. ABOUT BLOGTK
2. SUPPORTED WEBLOGS
3. REQUIRED LIBRARIES
4. INSTALLATION
5. UPGRADING FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS
6. USING BLOGTK
  6.1  CONFIGURING ACCOUNTS
    6.1.1  CONFIGURING WORDPRESS
    6.1.2  CONFIGURING MOVABLE TYPE/MELODY
    6.1.3  CONFIGURING WINDOWS LIVE SPACES	
  6.2  USING THE BLOG MANAGER
  6.3  USING THE POST EDITOR
7. RELEASE NOTES
8. PROGRAM CREDITS

1. ABOUT BLOGTK:

BloGTK is a weblog posting client written in Python for any platform that 
supports Python and the GTK widget set. BloGTK allows you to connect to your 
weblog with XML-RPC and create new posts.

2. SUPPORTED WEBLOGS:

 - MovableType versions 2.5 or later.
 - Blogger
 - WordPress 1.5 or later or WordPress.com
 - Windows Live Spaces
 - Expression Engine (but autoconfiguration does not work)
 - Any blog that uses the MetaWeblog API.

3. REQUIRED LIBRARIES:

BloGTK requires the following programs/libraries.

- Python 2.3 or higher (but BloGTK is not compatible with Python 3.0)
- PyGTK
- python-gnome2
- python-gnome2-extras
- python-gdata
- python-webkit
- python-feedparser

BloGTK will run under other environments (such as KDE) so long as all the 
necessary libraries are installed.

4. INSTALLATION:

BloGTK needs to be installed as the root user.

Unpack and  install the BloGTK tarball using these commands:

   'tar -xjvf <packagename>.tar.bz2'

Switch to the newly created directory and type 'make install' as root and the 
Makefile will copy the files to the correct location in your system. You do not 
need to configure or compile BloGTK as it is written in interpreted Python code.

5. UPGRADING FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS

BloGTK 2.0 uses an entirely new configuration system, and will not carry over
your prior settings. You will have to re-enter your settings. Your old
settings will remain should you downgrade to an earlier version of BloGTK, not
that you would want to...

6. USING BLOGTK:

BloGTK 2.0 has two main screens, the blog management screen, and the post
editor. The blog management screen lets you see all your posts, edit posts,
delete posts, and view your blog's home page. The editor allows you to edit,
open, and save individual posts.

6.1  CONFIGURING ACCOUNTS

BloGTK will open up on the Settings control panel first. First, type the name
you wish to use for your blog account and the address of your blog's home
page in the top two fields.

BloGTK will use RSD autodiscovery to discover your blog's settings if your blog 
system and template support it. Use the "Autodetect Settings" button to try
autodiscovery. With luck, you will get your endpoint, blog ID, and blogging
system fields filled automatically. If not, you will need to fill them in
manually based on your blogging system's instructions.

You will need to fill out the username and password for your blogs, these
will not be discovered automatically.

You can specify to retrieve up to 50 posts per blog. (For Blogger, you cannot
change the number of posts to retrieve, you will always pull the latest 25.)
This option is set by the "Get up to X Posts per Refresh" setting.

6.1.1  CONFIGURING WORDPRESS

WordPress requires you to enable XML-RPC before using an external editor like
BloGTK. To do this, log in to your blog with the admin account, and go to 
Settings, and then Writing. Check the box next to “XML-RPC” on the Writing 
options page, and save the settings.

6.1.2  CONFIGURING MOVABLE TYPE/MELODY

Movable Type and Melody use a different password than your normal blog login
password. To find this password, log into your blog control panel, then
click your user name in the top right-hand corner. Under "Preferences" you
will find an entry called "Web Services Password". Hit "Reveal" next to the
entry to see the password. This is the password you must use with BloGTK.

6.1.3  CONFIGURING WINDOWS LIVE SPACES

Set your password as per these instructions: 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb259698.aspx

That password will be the password used in BloGTK.

6.2  USING THE BLOG MANAGER

BloGTK's main screen is the blog manager. On the left of the screen will
be the list of your blogs. On the top right will be the list of your posts
and below that will be a post preview window. To get your posts, select
the blog you want, and hit the "Refresh" button on the toolbar. BloGTK
will then download your posts.

To edit a post, select a post in the right screen and hit the edit button.

To delete a post, select the post in the right screen and hit the delete
button. You will be asked to confirm your deletion. Once a post is deleted
in cannot be recovered.

To create a new post, select the blog you wish to create a new post for,
and hit the new post button.

The "Home" toolbar button will take you to the homepage of your blog.

6.3  USING THE EDITOR

BloGTK's post editor features built-in syntax highlighting and
spellcheck. The top toolbar allows you to create a new post, open a 
saved post file, save the post, perform cut/copy/paste operations,
undo and redo your last text entries, or post the entry to your blog.

BloGTK saves its posts to disk as XML that can be read in other
applications. The file extension for BloGTK saved post files is 
'.blogtk'.

The second toolbar contains buttons that insert common HTML tags into
your post. You can bold or italicize text, change the alignment of a
text block, add a paragraph or a blockquote, create a list, or add
a link.

On the left is the main entry screen. On the top is the post title
entry field. Below that are tabs corresponding to your main entry,
any extended entry (if your blogging system supports it), and a
preview of your post contents.

Below that is an entry for any tags you may wish to add to your post
(if your blogging system supporst them). Separate each tag by a
comma.

To the right is a selection box for categories, should your blogging
system support them. You may select multiple categories.

Below that are option to allow comments and trackbacks, should your
blogging system support those options. You may save a post as a
draft in your blogging system by selecting the checkbox on the 
bottom right of the editor window.

Under the Edit menu, you may change the date and time of a post,
if your blogging system supports it. You may select the date with
the calendar widget on the left, and the time with the spinbuttons
on the right. BloGTK uses the 24-hour time system by default. The
timestamp should be set to your local time by your blog software,
but some blogging packages will set the time to GMT.

7. RELEASE NOTES:

Bug reports can be filed through the BloGTK project on Launchpad, at
https://launchpad.net/blogtk

Donations for this software would be greatly appreciated. This software is 
totally free, but sending a few bucks to jay@jayreding.com via PayPal would 
bring you good karma, and it'll also mean you'll get extra Developer Suck-Up 
Club support. Plus, it will ensure that I have enough caffeine to develop new 
versions. You can now also donate to the BloGTK project through the BloGTK 
homepage on Sourceforge.

This program was developed under Ubuntu Linux and is released under the
Apache 2.0 license.

8. PROGRAM CREDITS:

Special thanks to James Henstridge for the excellent Python-GTK bindings and 
their equally excellent documentation.

Thanks to Ethan Zimmerman for his bug reports and the original BloGTK icon set.

Thanks to all BloGTK users for bug reports, feature requests, and their support 
of this application.