# Drivel Manual

## Introduction

&app; allows you to create and edit entries for online journals, commonly known as "web logs" or simply "blogs". Most popular journal servers are supported, including Advogato, Atom, Blogger, LiveJournal, and MovableType. An offline mode is also included for writing draft entries. &app; is able to create new entries, edit or delete existing entries, and list the fifteen most recent entries for all of its supported journal systems, save Advogato. The entire LiveJournal feature set, including friends, security groups, moods, etc., is also supported, as are MovableType categories. The integrated editor supports HTML syntax highlighting, in-line spell-checking, and keyboard shortcuts for common HTML tags.

## Getting Started

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

- Choose Internet Drivel Journal Editor .

Command line

- Type `drivel`, then press Return.

If you do not have an online journal, you'll need to set one up. New users may find the following links useful:

- Blogger.com - Blogger is one of the most popular sites for hosting online journals.

- LiveJournal.com - LiveJournal has one of the most active communities surrounding it of any online journal system.

## Usage

### Logging In

To log in to your journal, enter your username in the Username field and your password in the Password field. Set Journal type to the appropriate server type and verify that the Server address is correct--most users will not need to modify this field. If you wish, you can check the Remember password box to make &app; store your password between sessions. If the Automatically login box is checked, &app; will skip the Login Window when started and automatically log in to your journal account. Remember password must be checked in order for the Automatically login option to be available. Click Log In to complete the process.

### Working Offline

You may choose to skip the log in process and work offline. You will not be able to post new entries, but you will be able to save your work as drafts for later posting. To work offline, click the Work Offline button.

### Composing a New Entry

&app; provides an integrated editor for composing new journal entries. Once logged in, write your entry in the provided space. When you are satisfied with the entry, click Post. Depending on the type of journal, different controls may appear. Journals which support titles will have an optional Subject field. LiveJournal users will also see a Security menu; this allows you to select who can view your entry. By clicking on Show more options, the following entry-customization features will become available:

- LiveJournal only: Mood - You can select an available mood, or type in your own. By selecting a mood from the menu, LiveJournal will match your mood with a (generally) cute icon.

- Music - Enter the current music playing in the background or stuck in your head. &app; can auto-detect songs playing in XMMS, Beep Media Player, and Rythmbox by clicking on the drop-down arrow to the right of this entry.

- Turn off comments - Do not allow other users to leave comments on this journal entry.

- Don't auto-format text - Prevent &app; from turning line-breaks in your journal entry into HTML tags. If you use this options, you'll need to enter the line-break and paragraph HTML tags manually in your entry.

- Past date - This allows you to make your journal entry appear to have been posted in the past.

- Picture - Select the picture you would like associated with this journal entry.

- MovableType only: Category - Select the category to sort this entry under.

These controls are completely optional and are provided as ways to customize each journal entry. Feel free to set all, some, or none.

### Editing an Existing Entry

&app; allows you to edit previous journal entries.

#### Editing Your Last Entry

To edit your last journal entry, choose Edit Last Entry from the menu bar. &app; will automatically fetch your most recent entry. Once you have completed your modifications, click Update to update the entry in your journal.

#### Edit a Recent Entry

&app; builds a list of the fifteen most-recent entries when you log in. Choose Journal Recent Entries from the menu bar to see the complete list. Click on an item to load the complete entry. Once you have completed your modifications, click Update to update the entry in your journal.

#### Editing any Existing Entry (LiveJournal only)

To edit any previously-posted journal entry, choose Edit History from the menu bar. This will open a window with a calendar. Any bold dates in the calendar have journal entries associated with them. The controls on the calendar can be used to go back months or even years. Once you've selected the date the entry you'd like to modify was posted, a list of entries from that day will appear in the bottom of the window. Select the entry to modify and click Edit. Once you have completed your modifications, click Update to update the entry in your journal.

### Working in the Journal Entry Window

The editor built into &app; includes inline spell-checking and HTML syntax highlighting.

#### Spell Checking

To enable inline spell-checking, click View Highlight Spelling Errors in the menu bar. A wavy red line will appear underneath misspelled words. Right-clicking on the word will display a menu with a Spelling Suggestions submenu. Clicking on a displayed suggestion will insert it in place of the misspelled word.

Press the F7 key to quickly enable or disable the spell-checker.

#### HTML Syntax Highlighting

&app; can display HTML keywords in different colors than the rest of your entry. This is useful for quickly catching formatting errors before posting an entry to your journal. To turn on HTML syntax highlighting, click View Highlight HTML in the menu bar.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Why can't I title my Blogger entries?

The original Blogger system did not support titles for journal entries. While Blogger has since extended it's servers to accept titles, it is still not part of the Blogger 1.0 standard which is used by numerous other journal systems, nor is Blogger able to send titles to clients when editing older entries or building lists of previous entries. To avoid these inconsistencies, &app; does not support Blogger 1.0 titles.

Blogger.com users can opt to use the Atom API from &app;'s Login window. The Atom API supplants the older Blogger API and does include proper support for titling entries. The use of Atom will not alter your journal or break existing applications.

### What should I enter for my WordPress (or other Movable Type compatible) server?

Wordpress (in common with other blogging engines that can be installed on remote servers like serendipity) uses `Movable Type` communication protocols, so select `Movable Type` in the drivel drop-down list.

The exact URL depends on where your WordPress server is hosted, but it is usually something along the lines of http://www.yourwebsite.com/path/to/wordpress/xmlrpc.php. If your website was www.gnome.org and you installed wordpress to /public/wp, then your server line should read http://www.gnome.org/public/wp/xmlrpc.php.

## About &app;

&app; was written by Todd Kulesza (todd@dropline.net). To find more information about &app;, please visit the Drivel web page.

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, follow the directions in this document.

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public license as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this license can be found at this link, or in the file COPYING included with the source code of this program.