Getting started with TrotBlogger

Create my travel website

With TrotBlogger, you can create your own travel website for free in a few clicks only. Follow our advises.

Create a website

To create a website, you must first create a TrotBlogger account.

Then go to your profile and click on create a website. There you are ! Now you need to choose your website's name, which you can change later, and your website's subdomain which we'll reserve for you. This sub-domain will be for now the main link to your website (the url will be http://subdomainchosen.trotblogger.com/). Choose it well following properly all the indications. You can choose too the language for your website and its time zone. These data are important but can be changed from your administration panel. Then you can choose categories which define the best your website. It will allow other users to find your website easily. Your website is now ready to be created, click on 'Create my website'... and, it's done.

You will be redirected to your website's profile. From there, you can access your website's administration panel, access your website, update your website's categories and choose a TrotBlogger offer for your website.

Start creating content

There you are ! Your website has been created, now you can access it and Wow ! Surprise, there is already a post, menus, a travel and photos, ...

We encourage you from now on to visit your administration panel, explore menus, discover all the features.

You can update small things to become familiar with the interface and observe their effect on your website.

If you want now to start creating articles, to upload photos, to create maps of your travel, to use menus, to use categories, you are free to delete all existing content. To do so, go in your Travels and click on Delete in front of the existing travel, then go in Menus and do the same. Do the same thing in Categories, Widgets and Posts. Once this work is done, your website is empty and ready to receive the awesome adventures you are living.

Choose or change offer

First of all, choosing a TrotBlogger offer, is having your own sub-domain name ! Beside how joyful you will feel, your ranking will increase. Even if we're doing our best to get your website the best rank on search engines, they all prefer in their algorithms websites with their own domain name.

Moreover, choosing an offer will let you have more storage space for your photos, and in a travel, photos are really important.

Actually, TrotBlogger offers two pricing, the Premium account, the cheapest, which let you have your own domain name and a storage space more important. And the Platinum account, which give you access to an unlimited storage space !

In addition, and to those who already subscribed an offer, exists the offer Back home, which let you make a break for your website. This offer, really cheap, will let you keep your domain name for a really attractive price in exchange of what you won't be able to change anything to your website (you will still have an access to your administration panel, you will be able to view your statistics and all your parameters but updates will be locked).

At any moment, you can choose to buy or to change your offer by clicking the offer you need in your website's profile. When you choose an offer, you access the buying page for this offer. On this page, you will be able to subscribe the offer for one, two or three years. The amount you pay corresponds to at least a year of usage, and this for any subscription, change or renewing of an offer.

We remind you that, in conformity with our terms of service, if you don't want to renew your subscription, you need to warn us four weeks (28 days) before the expiration date of the service to let us know your choice. After that date, the minimum subscription of one year for the same service will be renewed and will be due.

All payments are made in the most secure way through our partner Stripe.

Choose your own domain name

To choose your own domain name, you first need to Subscribe an offer. Once this is done, go to your website profile until the list of Domains associated to your website. Below this list, you can find the following information : You didn't choose a domain name yet !.

To choose a domain name, click on Choose now.

You will land on a page which allows you to test the availability of the domain name you want. Enter the domain name that you want for your website with its extension that you can pick in the list fr, es, de, be, com, net, ovh, org, info, at, ch, eu, nl, co.uk, it. Click on Check availability. If your domain name is available, TrotBlogger offers you to reserve it. To do so, you will have to accept our terms of service by checking the dedicated checkbox. Then click on Reserve this domain name.

Be careful ! This action can not be undone, once your domain name has been chosen and reserved, you can not change it anymore (at least unless the expiration date of your offer). If you encounter any problem while reserving your domain name, or if you want to transfer an existing domain name that you own, or to terminate your domain name or change it, contact us.

Global management of your website

To manage global parameters of your website, go in your website's profile. This page shows you information, links, and a few parameters of your website.

At the top, you will find two links : My site which allows you to access your website and Administrate my website which allows you to access the administration panel of your website.

Below these buttons are very general statistics of your website (how many followers, how many posts, how many places and countries you visited, how many comments). Below these statistics, the button All statistics allows you to access the detailed statistics of your website.

General statistics from the profile of your website General statistics from the profile of your website

Below are the travel categories associated to your website. The travel categories allows TrotBlogger users to find blogs they are looking for. You can change these categories by selecting those matching the best your website. Then, click on Update categories to save these changes.

Travel categories for your website Travel categories for your website

Below is your actual uploading quota. You can see how many photos you uploaded and the space it takes on our servers. The progress bar shows you the percentage you already used depending on the allowed space use for your current offer.

If you didn't subscribe an offer yet, below are the different offers TrotBlogger offers. Click on one of these offers to subscribe it. If you subscribed one, buttons allows you to Renew your offer, the expiration date of your current offer can be found above this button. Buttons corresponding to the other offers you can subscribe allows you to change your current offer.

Below, you can find the list of the domains associated to your website, your main domain has the following badge : Prefered domain, you can change it in the General parameters

Below is the privacy parameter of your website. TrotBlogger offers three levels of privacy :

  • Public website : Everyone can access your blog and it will be crawled by search engines
  • Protected website : Only people who knows your website address can acess it, it won't be crawled by search engines (and won't appear in any result of any search engine)
  • Private website : Only administrators of the website can access it.

Choose this option to set up your design and parameters before launching it officially.

You can change the privacy of your website by clicking the Choose button associated with the privacy you want.

Parameters of your user's profile

In your Profile, you can manage data concerning you as a user. On this page, you will find all information TrotBlogger knows about you :

  • Login : It's the identifier you registered with, you can't change it
  • Displayed name : The name which appears when you send a comment or when you publish a post.
  • Mail address : The mail address you used to register. You can't change it.
  • Password : If you want to change your password, enter the new one here

You can choose to receive TrotBlogger's newsletter by checking the dedicated checkbox.

Click on Save updates to validate your changes

In your profile, in the Social network tab, you can change you social parameters. On this page, you can indicate :

  • your Facebook's profile url
  • your Google+'s profile url
  • your Twitter identifier

These data are linked to you as a physical person, not with your website. These indications are used while sharing on social networks to link the author of a blog post. For these information to be used, you have to write these posts from an account in which these data are indicated.

Follow TrotBlogger's travel blogs

When you are following a website created with TrotBlogger, this website appears in your profile, in the left panel under Follow travelers.

To follow a website, you have to subscribe it, almost every website has a subscribe link on their home page. When you send a comment to a website, this website also appears in this list.

Click on one of the websites you follow. From this page, you can :

  • Go to the website by clicking on View site
  • Subscribe / Unsubscribe by checking / unchecking the dedicated checkbox and the clicking the Save updates button.
  • View your comments : the list of comments you send to this website can be found on that very page, you can view if your comment has been approved or not and access the page on which you sent it.

Manage your bills

To manage your bills, click on Bills from your Profile.

On this page, you will find all the bills for your TrotBlogger's offers subscriptions and renewals.

Manage maps

Maps are the focus of your travels and TrotBlogger gives your maps a center place on your website. You can easily create maps of your travels. These maps won't be isolated but can be added and linked to any content your create.

Create Travels

Go to the map management page, from your administration panel, click on and choose Travels. Click on New travel.

In the popup which opens, fill the name of this new travel and a description which will appear on the page dedicated to this travel. You can update these data later by clicking on the Edit button.

Your travel has been created. In the travel list on this very page, are precised the starting point of your travel, the last visited place of this travel, and the list of all the countries you crossed during this travel. You can now add places you visited on this travel by clicking on the Manage places button and following the instructions about how to add places.

You can delete a travel by clicking the Delete button, be careful, all places you added on this travel and the references to this travel in your posts will be deleted too.

Add places to a travel

In order to add places to a travel, click on Manage places from the travels management page or directly from the main menu of your administration panel, click on and then pick Visited places.

This page is divided in three parts :

  • The existing travels list on the top right hand corner, you can change the actual travel you are updating by selecting the one you want to update in this list.
  • The map of your travel on the left. On this map, all the visited places are represented. You can move a place by clicking the marker representing this place and moving it. The new spot for this place will be saved. To create a new place, you can :
    • Click with the right button on the map on the very spot where you want to add a place and then click on Add a place
    • In the search box on the top left hand corner of the map, enter the name of the place to search. A drop down list appears with matching possibilities for the place you are looking for. Click on the one matching your search or select it with the arrows up and down on your keyboard and then click the or hit Enter to validate.
    • The button allows you to geolocalize your current position and add a place on this spot. If you are physically on the spot you want to add, click on this button directly.
  • The existing places list on the right. From this list, you can update the data relative to a place by clicking on it. Two buttons appear :
    • Update allows you to update data relative to a place. When you click it, a popup opens allowing you to update the following data :
      Updating a place
      • The name of the place, which appears in the places list
      • How did you access this place, the transport you used, select one of the icons in the list. You can update this list of transports in the map parameters
      • The country (automatically filled) corresponding to this place. This permit in the places list to display a country separator
      • A description, which appears in small characters below the place name in the places list
      • The date and hour you reach that place. This allows TrotBlogger to trace your travel in the right order. Fill your place's hour by taking the time zone into account. You can change your actual time zone in the general parameters. For example, this allows the localisation widget how much time ago you reached the last place. If the date and hour are in the future, the place will appear dashed on the map unless this moment is reached. Thanks to this feature, you can create places you planned to go but didn't reach yet and allow your readers to follow you even if you don't have any data to update your map.
    • Delete allows you to delete this place

Using maps

TrotBlogger allows you to use you travel maps and the places you visited almost everywhere on your website. You can enrich your posts and give you readers a precise idea of the places you went to really easily.

Localize your posts

When you update a post (From the menu and then Posts, click on Update on the post you want to update), fill the From... to... area in the right panel.

Localize a post Localize a post

Click on to pick the beginning place of your post and choose it in the opening popup. Do the same for the arrival place. When you pick a place, if the corresponding date is not filled yet, it will be filled with the date on which you reached the place.

This information generates in all your posts the following panel :

Localization panel in a post

When the reader clicks on that panel, the map appears (corresponding to all the places you went between the beginning place and the arrival one), allowing him to know exactly where the story he is reading stands place :

Localization panel in a post with its map

Geolocalize your photos

From your photos manager, you can geolocalize your photos, this means choosing a place you visited for being the place where the photo has been taken. To do that, follow the instructions about Geolocalize photos.

Once your photos are geolocalized, they appear on your maps as in the picture below.

Travel map with photos Travel map with photos

Only the photos matching the visible part of the map can be displayed. These photos are chosen randomly among all possible photos for this map.

Add a map in an article

You can easily add a map in one of your articles to illustrate it. To do that, use the insert medias tool. Using it, you can insert photos, videos and maps in your articles. The tool allows you to choose medias to insert, to display them together as you wish and to add them in your article.

To insert a map, go to the tab and select the begin place and ending place of the map to insert (obviously, these two places must be part of the same travel). You can choose to display or not geolocalized photos on the map and to display the places list corresponding to this map by using the corresponding checkboxes.

Click on to add this map to the medias to insert's list. In the Display medias tab, choose the position of the medias to insert and then click on Insert medias.

For more details on the medias insertion, consult insert medias tool.

Example of medias mixed in the same layout (photos, videos, maps) in a post Example of medias mixed in the same layout (photos, videos, maps) in a post

Show your readers where you are

For your readers to know where you are actually, you can add a widget to your website called Localization. This widget displays a small map with the last place you visited on the travel you want and a text displaying We arrived in London since 6 hours. If you anticipate and add places you will visit on your maps, the widget will also display We will be Bristol in 2 days.

Consult the Manage widgets help for more information.

Example of a localization widget Example of a localization widget

Adding a menu which links to a map

Each travel you created has a dedicated url. When you visit this url, your travel map is displayed in full screen with the list of visited places and geolocalized content (photos and posts matching the displayed area of your map). You can manage and update the url of your travel in Managing urls.

To create a link to a map, create a new menu from your administration panel, click on and then choose Menus. Choose New menu or Add a sub menu on an existing menu and then, in the opening popup, pick Link to a travel > display map for menu type. Choose the travel linked by this menu in the drop down list below and validate.

For more informations, consult using menus.

Maps parameters

To set your maps parameters, go to your administration panel, click on and choose Parameters.

This page contains all the parameters of your website. Go to the Maps tab.

This tab contains all the parameters related to the display and management of your maps.

General parameters

  • Display photos on your maps : this checkbox allows you to activate or deactivate the photos display on your maps. If you deactivate it, none of your maps will contain photos anymore, even if you specify it for example in a map you inserted in a post.
  • Display how many kilometers have been done : this checkbox allows to display a small badge next to each visited place on your maps containing the number of kilometers done since the beginning of the displayed map. (if the map is a small part of a larger travel, the kilometer 0 is the starting place of the map and not the starting place of the while travel.) On the global map, kilometers correspond to the whole travel.

Example of kilometers displayed in the places list Example of kilometers displayed in the places list

  • Kilometer coefficient : this parameter is a multiplier of the calculated number of kilometers done. While calculating the number of kilometers traveled (this parameter is detailed above), the calculation is made as the crow flies, which, for the terrestrial transports, if obviously wrong. The number of kilometers really traveled can be approximated by multiplying the calculated one by a multiplier of your choice. For a terrestrial travel (using a vehicle), creating one or two places a day, the multiplier 1.5 corresponds to the reality. To find the best coefficient, if you know the numbers of kilometers you really traveled, just divide this one by the one displayed by TrotBlogger with a coefficient of 1. The result will be the coefficient of your travel.
  • Google Maps API Key : this parameter allows you to fill your own Google Maps API key, you can obtain it easily from Google for free. This parameter is mandatory to display your maps with Google Maps. TrotBlogger allows you to use maps without this parameter for ten days. After that delay, maps won't be displayed anymore. For more details, consult Google Maps.

Managing transport modes

Transport modes parameters

The transport modes' list allows you to manage it as you want. To update a transport mode, click on it. To add one, click on the button at the end of the list. The following popup will open :

Transport mode update popup

From this popup, you can :

  • Pick a name for your transport mode or update the existing name of this transport.
  • Define the color associated with this transport mode. On your maps and in the visited places' lists, the color of the line between two places is the color of the transport mode used to access the place.
  • Pick an icon associated to this transport mode. The icons appear in your maps' legends.
  • Set if this transport mode is terrestrial or not. This information is used to calculate the number of kilometers traveled. The kilometer coefficient is only applied on terrestrial transport modes.

Below, a text indicates the number of places using this transport mode.

Click on Create or Update to save your changes for the current transport mode.

Click on Delete to delete a transport mode.

You can only delete transport modes that you created, not the defaults ones. You can only delete the transport modes which are not used on your maps.

Customizing your maps

Finally, the last five parameters allows you to change the design of how your travel is traced :

  • Markers' opacity : level of transparency of the points corresponding to the visited places on maps
  • Lines' opacity : level of transparency of the lines between two places
  • Markers' width : width of the points corresponding to the visited places
  • Lines' width : width of lines between two places
  • Marker border's width : width of the border of the points corresponding to the visited places

Creating content

TrotBlogger offers you many tools to put your content (text, photos, videos, maps) online. These tools have been made to highlight your travel the best. They are described in this section.

Create an article

From your administration panel, click on and then choose New article.

This page contains a writing area on the left, a publication area on the right and a further information area below the publication area.

Writing area

In the writing area, you can first find the title of the article. The url of the article is based on this title in which the special characters are replaced by - and the accentuated letters by their non accentuated counterparts. So, the article url will be made of the website url followed by a / and the cleaned title. You can manage and change the article url from the Url's management.

Below the title area,you can find the article writing area. In this area, you can write and format all the article content. To format text, use the classic text treatment buttons located at the top of the writing area.

  • allows you to pick a style for the selected text, so you can create quotes, and insert titles of different levels.
  • allow you to respectively put text in bold, italic or to underline it
  • allows you to remove the current format of the selected text
  • You can change the police of the selected text as well as its color and background color. (Note : it is not recommended to change the police as, generally, the police can be set globally in your design parameters)
  • and allow you to insert normal lists and ordered lists
  • The buttons below allows you to change the text alignment
  • allows you to change line height
  • allows you to insert a table
  • allows you to insert a link. Select the text of the link to create and in the popup which opens, indicate the url to which the link redirects.
  • allows you to insert medias. Consult Insert medias for more details.
  • allows you to insert an horizontal separation
  • allows you to fit the writing area to the whole screen
  • allows you to view the generated html code
  • and allow you to undo and redo your last changes.

Publication area

The publication area contains different information about the actual article.

The upper part of this area contains options allowing you to save and publish your article.

Publication of a new article Publication of a new article

In the drop down list on top of this area, you can choose if your article will be a page, a post or a note :

  • A page doesn't appear in your posts' stream. A menu link or a link from another article allow your reader to access a page.
  • A post appears in the posts' stream. Newly published posts appear on top of this stream.
  • A note doesn't appear anywhere

The buttons allows you to save the article :

  • Draft allows you to save the article without publishing it
  • Preview saves the article and opens it in a new tab a it will be once published.
  • Publish publish the article on your website. When you publish an article, if the checkbox 'Warn subscribers' below is checked, a mail will be sent to all your subscribers to notice them about this publication.

Updating a published article Updating a published article

If the article has already been published, if you make small updates to it, you can update the article using the Update button. In this case, new options appear under the Update button :

  • Unpublish allows you to unpublish an article, it won't appear anymore in the posts' stream
  • Delete allows you to delete this article
  • Update publication date allows you to enter a new publication date for this article. As the publication date is used to sort your posts in the posts' stream, it allows you to change the order of posts if it doesn't suits you.

If you update your article more consequently, save a draft, this allows you to save different revisions of the article. In this case, the publication area becomes :

Consequent update of an article Consequent update of an article

If you update the article by clicking on Publish, you can choose to warn your subscribers again. The button Delete the draft and come back to the published version allows you to delete the changes you made to the published version.

Further information area

Under the publication area, are the additional information of the article :

  • The localization : you can select a beginning place and a beginning date as well as an ending place and an ending date. This allows you to date precisely your article relatively to your travel and to generate a map which will be automatically inserted in your article. Click on the button to choose the beginning and ending place. The dates will be automatically set to the visiting dates corresponding to these places. You can update it. For more details about generated maps, consult Posts localization
  • Cover photo : Click on Choose cover photo a pick or upload the photo which will represent this article. The photo is used to give a preview of the article but will also be used to share your article on social networks.
  • Categories : Select the categories associated to this article. The article will appear in the posts' stream of each of these categories.

Manage articles

The articles are divided in three categories :

  • Pages which do not appear in the posts' stream. A menu link or a link from another article allows your reader to access a page. To manage pages, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Pages
  • Posts which appear in the posts' stream. Newly published posts appear at the top of the stream on your website. To manage posts, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Posts.
  • Note does not appear anywhere. This allows you to write text you reserve for later. To manage notes, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Notes.

The articles management's page, be it pages, posts or notes, contains a list of articles with possible actions.

Articles list Articles list

You can create a new article by clicking the New button, you will then land on the article creation.

For each article, you will find :

  • Its cover photo
  • Its title followed by Draft if the article has not yet been published or if unpublished changes exist
  • Its information (beginning date, ending date, beginning place, ending place, number of comments, categories' list)
  • An extract (the first words of the article)
  • Actions
    • Update allows you to access the article in update
    • View allows you to view the article
    • Delete allows you to delete the article. Be careful, this action can not be undone.
    • Sumups allows you to manage the sumups of an article.

Articles' sumups

You can create sumups of your articles in different languages. This allows your readers who doesn't speak your language to have an idea of the article's content. Sumups are inserted at the bottom of your articles. A link to the sumup, symbolized by the language's flag, is added on top of the article, with other related information. Sumups, when published, moreover than the text you write, contains a translation link which allows your readers to translate the whole article automatically in their language.

To add a sumup to an article, click on Sumups in the articles' list

Sumups' list for an article Sumups' list for an article

In the opening popup, you can view the sumups list. To add a sumup, select its language in the drop down list on top of the popup and then click on .

The new sumup is added to the list. Write the sumup text and click on to save it. Each sumup is saved independently.

Click on above a sumup to remove it.

Upload photos

From your administration panel, click on and then choose Photos manager. Photos you upload are organized in albums. In each album, you can upload photos.

If no album exists, create one by clicking on New album, in the opening popup, enter a name for this album and validate. A new line is created in the photos manager for this new album.

To upload photos, now click on Upload photos in front of the album in which you want to add photos.

In the opening popup, on the left is the albums list, so you can change the album in which you upload photos, and on the right is the list of the existing photos in the selected album.

Below the photos, is the uploading area. You can drag and drop photos in this area or click in the area to select photos to upload.

You can also access this very upload popup while you are writing an article by clicking the button, and like that uploading your photos and writing your article at the same time. Consult Insert medias for more details.

Uploading photos popup Uploading photos popup

Once your photos selected and added in the uploading area, the upload starts and your photos appear with a progress bar on it.

Photos in progress Photos in progress

Once the photos are uploaded, they appear in the photos of the current album area.

Photos in progress Photos in progress

While the photo is uploading like on the picture above, you can cancel its upload by clicking Cancel upload below the photo.

Uploaded photo Uploaded photo

Once the photo finished its upload, a appears on the photo to indicate it.

Be careful : wait for all uploads to be done before closing the popup !

Manage photo albums

From your administration panel, click on and then choose Photos manager. All your photo albums are listed here.

Example of an album in the photos manager Example of an album in the photos manager

Managing the album

On each album, you can take the following actions :

  • Update allows you to change the album name in the opening popup
  • Upload photos allows you to add photos to the album. Consult Upload photos for more details
  • Delete allows you to delete an existing album. All photos contained in this album will be deleted. If some of the photos are used in articles or elsewhere on your website, a confirmation popup asks you to validate the deletion and that the links to these photos will be lost.
  • : This button appears as the last photo of an album if this one contains a lot of photos. Click it to view all photos in the album.

Managing photos

When your mouse is over a photo, three buttons appear on the photo :

  • allows you to select the photo in order to take a grouped action for one or multiple photos like Geolocalize photos
  • allows you to delete the photo, if it is used in articles or other content, the links will be lost. A popup asks you to validate this action.
  • allows you to edit this photo. When you click it, the following popup opens :

Editing a photo Editing a photo

In this popup, you can enter a title for this photo. Each time the photo appears on your website, it will be accompanied by this title (on the photo, below the photo, appearing while the mouse is over the photo, depending on where the photo is and your design and parameters). You can also put a date for this photo. The date is automatically determined from the EXIF data of your photo. All recent cameras fill these information.

Below is the following information :

  • Localization of the photo : if the photo has been localized, the place where it was taken, and the flag of the corresponding country appear here. For more details, consult Geolocalize photos.
  • The list of articles in which this photo is used appear here. If the photo isn't used in articles on your wbesite, the list is empty.

The buttons at the bottom of the popup, allows you to quickly edit titles of your photos :

  • Cancel allows you to close the popup without saving current changes
  • Open next allows you to open the next photo in the album without saving current changes
  • Save allows you to close the popup and to save current changes
  • Save and next allows you to open the next photo in the album and to save current changes. If you press the Enter key, this option will be executed. So, to edit quickly titles, enter a title, press Enter, the next photo opens with its title focused, enter the title, press Enter, and so on...

Note : You can access this very popup directly from your website. When you read one of your articles and you are logged in your website, the same button appears on your photos when your mouse is over. It allows you to directly edit photos without going to your administration panel.

Geolocalize photos

Selecting photos

From your Photos manager, you can select multiple photos in order to take a grouped action on these photos.

In an album, click on the button which appear when your mouse is over a photo. The photo become selected and appears with a blue border :

Selected photo (third on the first line) Selected photo (third on the first line)

If you select a second photo, the first you selected won't be selected anymore.

To select multiple photos, you have to use the Ctrl and Shift keys :

  • Select a range of photos : Select the first photo from the range you want to select with the button. Now press the Shift key and hold it and then select the last photo from the range. All the intermediate photos are selected
  • Select multiple disjointed photos : Select the first photo you want to select with the button. Now press the Ctrl key and hold it and then select another photo. Both photos are now selected.

Multiple photos selection Multiple photos selection

Pick a place for your photos

Once your photos selected, in the list of actions for the current album, at the top of the album, appear the Choose a place for photos button. Click it, a popup opens allowing you to select a place. Pick the travel in the top right hand corner and then the place at which your photos have been taken. Then click on Choose place. Your photos are now geolocalized.

Pick a place for a photos selection Pick a place for a photos selection

To delete the place associated to your photos, select them and in the choosing place popup, click the No place button.

If you select already geolocalized photos, with different associated places in the same selection, the more used place in the selection will be selected while opening the popup.

Once your photos are geolocalized, they can appear directly on your maps.

Insert medias

When you create an article or when you update an article (From the menu and then Posts, click on Update on the article you want), in the writing area, you can insert medias by setting the cursor at the very place you want to insert medias and then click on in the formatting toolbar.

The popup which opens contains several tabs :

  • allows you to select the photos you want to insert and eventually to upload photos and or to create albums
  • allows you to select the videos you want to insert
  • allows you to select and create maps to insert
  • Display medias allows you to display all the medias you selected, in the most elegant way
  • Style allows you to format the whole bloc of medias you are creating

tab from medias insertion

This tab is the same as the Upload photos popup. In this tab, you can select photos to insert by simply clicking on it. A selected photo appears with a blue border.

To select multiple photos, you have to use the Ctrl and Shift keys :

  • Select a range of photos : Select the first photo from the range you want to select by clicking on it. Now press the Shift key and hold it and then select the last photo from the range. All the intermediate photos are selected
  • Select multiple disjointed photos : Select the first photo you want to select by clicking on it. Now press the Ctrl key and hold it and then select another photo. Both photos are now selected.

You can select photos from different albums. To do that, choose an album in the left side and select photos you want to insert from this album. Then choose another album and select other photos to insert from this second album. All photos are added to the current selection.

When you upload photos from this popup, they will automatically be added to the current selection.

Once your photos selected, (you can also select videos and maps), go to the Display medias tab

tab from medias insertion

In this tab, you can select videos to insert in the article. Videos are not hosted yet by TrotBlogger. To insert a video, you have to know its link. TrotBlogger allows you to insert videos that you can upload to Youtube, Instagram, Vimeo, Vine, Dailymotion and Youku.

Videos insertion Videos insertion

Enter the url of your video and then click on the button. The video appears in the videos to insert's list.

Videos to insert's list Videos to insert's list

The videos to insert in the current selection are selected (blue border), you can deselect one by clicking on it and by using Ctrl and Shift keys like for selecting photos.

Once your videos selected, (you can also select photos and maps), go to the Display medias tab.

tab from medias insertion

In this tab, you can select maps to insert in the article. Maps you can insert are maps from a travel or a part of a travel that you created previously.

Maps insertion Maps insertion

To insert a map :

  • Start by choosing the starting place by clicking on Starting place. A popup opens to select the place, choose the place corresponding to the starting place you want for your map and click on the Choose place button.
  • Select the ending place by clicking on the Ending place button and by doing the same thing. Both starting and ending place must be part of the same travel.
  • Check the box Display places list if you want to display the list of intermediate places between your starting place and your ending place on the map to insert
  • Check the box Display additional content if you want geolocalized photos or post preview to be displayed on the map to insert

Once you filled the details of your map, click on to create the map. It appears below in the maps to insert's list.

Maps to insert's list Maps to insert's list

Maps to insert in the current selection are selected (blue border), you can deselect it by clicking on it and using Ctrl and Shift keys like for the photos.

Once your maps selected, (you can also select photos and videos), go to the Display medias tab.

Display medias tab from medias insertion

This tab allows you to display all the medias you selected previously. Here you can arrange your photos, videos and maps together and in an elegant way.

The layout is a bloc which will contain all your medias. To make your choices easier, the layout is divided into lines. By default, three medias maximum are added on each line.

Default display of medias : one line of three and one of two Default display of medias : one line of three and one of two

You can now move and adjust your medias on the lines and choose an arrangement for the medias on each line.

Once this is done, you can choose to insert your medias by clicking the Insert medias button at the bottom of the popup or choose a style for your medias in the next tab

Move and adjust your medias in the layout

To rearrange your medias on the layout, you have, on the right side of each line, the buttons and

  • allows you to turn up the media which is on the left of the current line to the line above. If the line above does not exist, it will be created with one media on it.
  • allows you to turn down the media which is on the right of the current line to the line below. If the line below does not exist, it will be created with one media on it.

You can exchange two medias positions. To do that, click on one of the two medias to exchange and hold the mouse button. Drag the media until it's over the second one and drop it. The two medias have exchanged their positions.

You can also insert a media in another spot. To do that, click on the media to move, hold the mouse button and also hold the Ctrl key pressed. Drag the media where you want it to be insert and drop it. Release the Ctrl key. The media disappear from its original position and the line where you drop it now contains a media more. If you move the only media from a line, this line cease to exist.

You can take actions on medias using the buttons and :

  • or allows you to move the visible part of the media in its allocated window. Sometimes, the window in which the media is displayed is smaller than the real media, or does not have the same shape. This button allows you to move the visible part of the media inside the layout. To use it, click on the button and hold the mouse button. Move the mouse from left to right for the button or up to down for the button until the visible part of the media suits you. Release the mouse button.
  • allows you to deselect a media. Click on that button to remove a media from the selected medias' list. It will disappear from the current layout.
Pick an arrangement for the medias on a line

On the right side of each line, are different arrangements possible for the associated line. Click on the small drawing corresponding to the arrangement you want for this line.

The arrangements containing pink areas are those adapted for videos. The proportions of the pink areas are exactly 16:9. You can though insert video in any area.

Possible arrangements for a line containing <strong>one</strong> media Possible arrangements for a line containing one media

Possible arrangements for a line containing <strong>two</strong> media Possible arrangements for a line containing two media

Possible arrangements for a line containing <strong>three</strong> media Possible arrangements for a line containing three media

Possible arrangements for a line containing <strong>four</strong> media Possible arrangements for a line containing four media

Possible arrangements for a line containing <strong>five</strong> media Possible arrangements for a line containing five media

Possible arrangements for a line containing <strong>six</strong> media Possible arrangements for a line containing six media

Possible arrangements for a line containing <strong>seven</strong> media Possible arrangements for a line containing seven media

Style tab from medias insertion

This tab allows you to change the position and size of your media bloc in your article. The tab stages the medias bloc in a fake article, you can change its style using the following buttons :

  • Full width : default option, the bloc width is the whole page
  • 2/3 : the bloc width is two thirds of the page width
  • 1/2 : the bloc width is half the page width
  • 1/3 : the bloc width is one thirds of the page width
  • : The bloc is aligned on the left. If the bloc width is smaller than the page, the text of the article appears on the right of the bloc
  • : The bloc is centered.
  • : The bloc is aligned on the right. If the bloc width is smaller than the page, the text of the article appears on the left of the bloc

Choosing style before inserting medias Choosing style before inserting medias

Update and inserted bloc of medias

Once the medias bloc is inserted in the article, or while you update an article containing medias, you can update or delete these blocs. To do that, when your mouse is over the medias bloc, the and buttons appear :

  • allows you to reopen the medias insertion popup in the same state it was when the medias were inserted in the article. So you can update the display of your medias, its arrangement, its style, and even add new medias in it. You can also edit a medias bloc by double clicking on it in the writing area of your articles.
  • allows you to remove a bloc of medias from an article.

Insert only one media without layout

In some cases, like for example in the edition of text area in a design, it can be interesting to insert a media, like an image, without putting it inside a layout. This allows you to set a style for this image yourself, using native css for example. To do that, select only one media and then in the Display medias tab, check the Don't insert a layout, only the image box. Then click on Insert medias.

Be careful : Do not use this option in articles, medias would be inserted without any style and display problems can occur.

Use thematic albums

Thematic albums are collections of photos grouped in a different way than you did for your albums. For example, you can create a Sunsets thematic album and attach all your sunsets photos from all your albums. A URL is associated to each thematic album so your users can view all photos you grouped in thematic album. You can manage and update the url of a thematic album in Urls management.

Thematic album are also used in Designs to display for example a slideshow of photos in a particular place of your website.

To manage thematic albums, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Thematic albums.

Thematic albums' list Thematic albums' list

To create a new thematic album, click on New thematic album. In the opening popup, enter a title for this thematic album and a description. The description appears in the dedicated page for this thematic album below the title.

On each thematic album, you can take the following actions :

  • Update allows you to change the title and the description of the thematic album
  • Attach photos allows you to select which photos are attached to this thematic album. This button opens the same photos selection popup which we met in photos upload, the selection of photos follow the same rules than for the geolocalization of photos.. Select photos you want to add and validate.
  • Delete allows you to delete a thematic album. Be careful, if this thematic album is used in you website's design, you will have to update the design.

To delete a photo from a thematic album, click on the button which appears when your mouse is over the photo from a thematic album. This action won't delete the photo but will only detach from this thematic album.

Manage menus

Creating menus allows you to put links to your more important pages or to categories, maps, theme albums, ... The menu bar from your website is defined from your administration panel, click on and then choose Menus

You land on the existing menus' list and possible actions on these menus.

To create a new root menu (root menus are those always visible in the menu bar, first level), click on New menu. You can create a sub menu from an existing menu by clicking the Add a sub menu button from its parent menu. Sub menus appear when the reader's mouse is over a parent menu.

When you create a menu, a popup opens allowing you to define the menu to create :

  • Menu title : It's the text which will appear in the menu bar.
  • Menu type : It's the type of object this menu links to :
    • Parent menu > no link : this type is used to create a non clickable menu. This type of menu is used to group other sub menus.
    • Link to a page : this type is used to create a link to a page. When you select this type, a drop down list containing all your pages appears, allowing you to choose which page the menu will link to.
    • Link to a theme album : this type is used to create a link to a theme album. When you select this type, a drop down list containing all your theme albums appears, allowing you to choose which theme album the menu will link to.
    • Link to a map : this type is used to create a link to a travel map. When you select this type, a drop down list containing all your travels appears, allowing you to choose which travel the menu will link to.
    • Display a category > list of posts or Display a category > preview of posts: these types are used to create a menu linked to a category. When you select this type, a drop down list containing all your categories appears, allowing you to choose which category the menu will link to. If you choose this type of menu, you can not add sub menus to it. Sub menus from this menu will be all posts associated to the category you have chosen. Posts appears as sub menus in their publication order, most recent first. If more than ten posts exist in this category, only the ten firsts are displayed as sub menu, a link to the other posts in the category is added as the last sub menu.
      • The type List of posts displays sub menus as text, the title of the post is used as the sub menu title.
      • The type Preview of posts displays an elegant sub menu containing the title of each posts and their cover photos.

You can take actions on menus using :

  • Update allows you to update the title of the menu, its type and the object it is linked to.
  • Delete allows you to delete a menu, all its sub menus will be deleted too.
  • Move allows you to choose a new parent menu for this menu, and so to move it. Choose the new parent menu for this menu in the popup which opens and validate.
  • allows you to move the current menu as the first child from its parent menu
  • allows you to turn up the current menu among all sub menus from its parent
  • allows you to turn down the current menu among all sub menus from its parent
  • allows you to move the current menu as the last child from its parent menu

Manage categories

TrotBlogger allows you to associate categories to your articles. This allows you to sort them and to help your readers find it. As menus, categories are hierarchical, you can create sub categories for a category. So, if you create the category America which contains sub categories United States and Canada, every post belonging to the category Canada will automatically belong to the category America.

TrotBlogger allows you to create countries categories. These special categories are linked to a specific country, the icon from the category will be the flag of the country and the category will be able to have a starting date and an ending date.

Categories are created from your administration panel, click on and then choose Categories

You land on the existing categories' list and actions you can take on these categories.

Create a category

To create a new root category (root categories are those of level one, they don't have parents), click on the New category button. You can create a sub category for an existing category by clicking the Add a sub category button from the parent category.

When you create a category, the following popup appears :

Category creation Category creation

In this popup, you can define the category to create :

  • Category's icon : You can choose a personalized icon for your categories. Click on the on the left of the title and choose an icon in the list. If the category is linked to a country, the icon will be the flag of this country.
  • Category's name : The name of the category, which will appear everywhere this category is mentioned. This name will be also used to generate the url of the page dedicated to this category. You can manage and update the url of a category in the Urls management.
  • Description : A text which will appear on the top of the page dedicated to this category.
  • You can choose to display a map for this category by checking the dedicated checkbox. In this case, a map will be built from the different itineraries from each post in this category. This map will be displayed on the dedicated page to this category.
  • Number of kilometers : number of kilometers that you traveled in this category, this information is meaningful only if the category corresponds to a geographical area.
  • Display the category in the widget : A widget allows you to display the hierarchical list of categories. This checkbox defines if this category will be visible or not in this widget.
  • Starting date and ending date : These dates are calculated automatically from the posts associated to this category. This information is meaningful only if the category represents a part of a travel. You can update these dates manually.
  • Country : Check this box if the category represents a country in which you traveled. In this case, you will be able to indicate which country it is in the input below. If the category is a country, its icon will be the flag of the country you choose, and starting and ending dates will be calculated automatically.

Actions on categories

You can take actions on categories using the following buttons :

  • Update allows you to update all information about this category.
  • Delete allows you to delete a category. All sub categories will be deleted too.
  • Move allows you to choose a new parent category for this category and so to move it. Choose the new parent category for this category in the popup which opens and validate.
  • allows you to move the current category as the first child from its parent category
  • allows you to turn up the current category among all sub categories from its parent
  • allows you to turn down the current category among all sub categories from its parent
  • allows you to move the current category as the last child from its parent category

Use categories

When you create an article, you can choose the list of categories associated to this article.

You can create a menu linking to a category, all posts associated to this category will be displayed as sub menus of the menu you created.

Finally, you can choose to display on your website the categories' widget, which displays the hierarchical list of all your categories with links to the dedicated pages of these categories.

On each article, the list of associated categories is displayed on top of the article, categories in this list are links to the dedicated pages of each of these categories. This allows your users to easily find articles linked to the one they are reading.

Manage urls

TrotBlogger generates urls for you for the different pages of your website. To do this, it uses the title of the page and keep only alphanumerical characters. The other characters are replaced by hyphens. You can change these urls if it doesn't suits you or if the generated ones are too long.

Urls can be managed from your administration panel, click on and then choose Urls

Manage urls Manage urls

From this page, you can see the list of all pages from your website accessible from a url, being articles, categories, thematic albums or travel maps. You can filter your search by page type in the top right hand corner.

For each page accessible, you will find its title and the complete url of the page below. You can take the following actions :

  • Copy allows you to copy the url of this page in your clipboard
  • Update allows you to update this url. In the opening popup, enter the new url for this page (this url will be concatenated with your website's domain name). Note that only alphanumerical characters and hyphens will be kept. If the url you entered is already taken, a -2 and then -3, ... will be added to the url for it to be unique. Note that a few keywords are reserved.

Parameters of your website

Parameters of your website allows you to change global behaviors on your website. These parameters can be language, time zone, how photos are saved when you upload it, how your posts will be shared on social networks, information to improve your ranking on search engines, ... These parameters are really important to optimize, so do not neglect them and take time to setup your website.

To access parameters, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Parameters.

This page is divided in tabs which are detailed below. When you change a parameter, it appears on the right side of the page. You can save the updates you made on parameters by clicking the Save button.

General parameters

In the General tab from your website's parameters, you will find important and transverse to all your website parameters. These are the following :

  • Title of your website : it's the name you enter while creating your website. You can change it here. This title appear everywhere on your website and is the first thing your readers know about your website
  • Slogan of your website : A simple sentence describing you. In a few words, who you are, what you are doing and where.
  • Mail address : A contact mail address for your readers, let it empty if you don't want it to appear on your website.
  • Preferred domain : TrotBlogger offers you a domain name finishing by .trotblogger.com for free. If you subscribed a offer and reserved your own domain name, choose here which one you prefer. Of course, choose your own domain name if you have one. This is important for SEO considerations. The button Manage domains on the right redirects you to your website's profile which contains a Domains section where are listed all the domains linked to your website.
  • Logo of your website : Here you can upload a logo for your website. We recommend to choose a png image, with transparency. Your logo is important for your image. To choose a logo, click on the picture area and select a picture in the opening popup. You can download your logo directly from this popup if you want to.
  • Language of your website : Choose the language of your website here. The main content of your website is written by you but some texts like comments areas are not. This choice allows you to have all your website in your own language.
  • Time zone : Enter here the time zone in which you area actually. When you are travelling, think about changing it when you change time zone. This will have a directly visible impact on the localization widget which allow your readers to know where you area actually. If you fill correctly your hours of arrival in your visited places, your readers will be able to see We arrived in London 1 hour ago.
  • Number of articles displayed in lists : This parameter allows you to define how much articles will be displayed on each page when your websites displays articles' list. This parameter will be used in your posts' stream and on categories' pages.

Photos parameters

In the Photos tab, you can define the way your uploaded photos will be saved on our servers.

Note : Fill these parameters before uploading photos. We can not apply the changes you make to these parameters to the already uploaded photos.

Photos resizing and displaying

The parameter Resize your photos to this maximum size allows you to choose to which size your photos will be resized when you upload them. This information is important not to weight too much your photos folder on our servers and allow your readers a more convenient reading. Keeping your photos with their original size on our servers to use it on a website is not very useful. Your photos will be lighter with a size of 1920 and as pretty as are. You can save storage space by decreasing this size, and so save your quota.

The parameter Gap between photos in layouts allows you to define the gap in pixels between your medias (photos, videos and maps) in yours posts. When you insert photos in an article, these photos are arranged in a layout. Adjust this parameter to bring your photos closer or tu put more distance between them inside the layout.

Watermark

A watermark is a print applied to your photos to protect them from being stolen. You can choose what will be your watermark and where to apply it on your uploaded photos. If you want to change your watermark, the new one will be applied to newly uploaded photos but not to the old ones.

  • Use a watermark : this checkbox allows you to choose if you want to watermark your photos or not
  • Watermark's picture : picture to apply as a watermark on your photos. We recommend it to be a png file with transparency
  • Maximum size of the watermark on the photos : Size at which the watermark will be resized before being applied on your photos. The button Set the maximum size at the watermark size allows you to choose as the maximum size the actual size of the watermark you uploaded. This avoids resizing issues.
  • Opacity of the watermark : This parameter allows you to define the level of transparency of the watermark's picture when it's applied to your photos. If you update this parameter, you will have to wait a few seconds while saving it.
  • Horizontal position : Position of the watermark on the uploaded photo (left, centered or right)
  • Vertical position : Position of the watermark on the uploaded photo (top, centered, bottom)
  • Horizontal offset : If the horizontal position is left or right, this parameter set the distance between the watermark and the image border in pixel.
  • Vertical offset : If the vertical position is top or bottom, this parameter set the distance between the watermark and the image border in pixel.

Note : To help you adjust your watermark's parameters, a preview of a photo with your watermark on it appears at the bottom of the page. Once your watermark is ready, try to upload a photo and then display it using your photos manager (click on it to display it widely). Your watermark appear on this photo, check that its position suits you.

Maps parameters

Maps parameters are detailed here.

Communication parameters

In the Communication tab, you ca set mail notifications parameters and comments automatic moderation.

Parameters are the following :

  • Send a mail to administrators when a new comment is sent : if this box is checked, all administrators of your website (you can promote users to administrator in the user's management) will receive a mail each time a comment is sent on your website.
  • Send a mail to administrators when a new comment is waiting for approval : if this box is checked, all administrators of your website will receive a mail each time a comment is sent on your website and needs to be approved before becoming visible. (see comments' management and the following parameters for more details about comments moderation.)
  • Before publishing a comment, comment has to be approved manually : check this box if you want all comments sent to your website to be approved by an administrator before becoming visible for all readers.
  • Comments sent by user who already sent comments which have been approved are automatically approved : check this box if you want administrator to approve only comments from users who never have sent comments on your website.

Social networks parameters

In the Social networks tab, you can set and customize a sharing bar which will appear in your articles. A preview of this sharing bar appears above the parameters.

Social networks sharing bar Social networks sharing bar

Change the options below to customize your social bar :

  • Display a sharing bar in your articles : check this box if you want the sharing bar to appear in your articles.
  • Displayed social networks list : in this list (constituted of buttons containing the icon of the concerned social network), you can click on social networks to select / deselect them. Only the selected social networks will appear in your sharing bar. You can move buttons on the bar by dragging and them (holding the mouse button) and dropping them where you want them to be.
    Social networks select list Social networks select list
  • Buttons' size : you can choose if you want large, normal, small or extra small buttons in your bar.
  • Buttons' text : you can choose to not display the text (only the icon of the social network will be displayed), to display the name of the social network or to display the name of the action done by the user while sharing.
  • Alignment : choose if your bar is aligned left, centered or right in your article.
  • Add space between buttons : check the box if you want to separate the buttons with a small gap on the bar.
  • Use rounded buttons : choose if you want to display rounded buttons or squared ones

SEO Parameters

In the Search Engines tab, you will find parameters about SEO which will allow you to follow and increase your ranking. Parameters are the following :

  • Google Analytics ID : set this parameter to use your own Google Analytics ID. Google Analytics is a free service proposed by Google. Create an account on Google Analytics for your domain. Google will give you an ID that you will enter here. TrotBlogger will use this key to send detailed usage statistics of your website to Google Analystics. In your Google Analytics dashboard, you will be able to follow very complete statistics about your readers and what they see on your website, and even in real time.
  • Description : a description of your website in 160 characters maximum. This description will appear in search engines when your website is part of the results of a search. This is also this description which will appear on social networks when your website is shared.
  • Sitemap : Your website's sitemap is a file allowing search engines to crawl your website. It is generated by TrotBlogger and updated each time your content changes. TrotBlogger sends this sitemap to main search engines on each update. You can view your sitemap by clicking on this link.

Using Google Maps

Google Maps is a service proposed by Google allowing the display and customizing of maps. TrotBlogger uses this service to display maps on your website. For now, Google Maps is the only maps provider supported by TrotBlogger but we plan to offer you to choose your map provider soon. To allow this service usage, Google asks for an API key. TrotBlogger uses its own API Key to display maps on your website for ten days. After that delay, you have to enter your own API Key to continue using this service. Google Maps allows you to display 25,000 maps per day for free. You have to ask Google for a Google Maps' API Key and fill it in the Parameters of your website in the Maps tab.

All information allowing you to ask for a Google Maps API Key can be found here.

Follow the instructions which consist in the following steps (It takes two minutes, no more) :

  • Go to Google API Console.. This will create an API Project linked to your Google Account. Accept the terms of service and click on Agree and Continue
    Google is asking you to accept their terms of service Google is asking you to accept their terms of service
  • Google is asking you what credential you need. You need an API Key, click on the link "API Key".
    Select your credentials Select your credentials
  • You arrive on the key creation page. Fill this page and then click on Create
    • Enter a name for your key or let the default name
    • In the key restriction section, select HTTP referrers
    • In the Accept requests from these HTTP referrers section, enter the following values :
      • yourwebsite.trotblogger.com/* : this allows your blog to display maps
      • admin.trotblogger.com/yourwebsite/* : this allows your administration panel to display maps. Check you have the right name after admin.trotblogger.com by connecting you to your administration panel.
      • yourwebsite.com/* : this allows your own domain name to display maps (if you subscribed a paid offer. If not, don't enter this value)
        Creating your API Key Creating your API Key
    • Google displays your key in a popup telling you it has been created. Copy the key and click on Close
      Your API Key has been created Your API Key has been created

You can now enter your key in your administration panel, click on and choose Parameters. Select the Maps tab and enter your key in the dedicated field. Click on Save.

At any moment, you can access you Google API Console and edit or change your API Key. For example, if you subscribed a paid offer and get your own domain name, you will have to add your domain name at the restriction's list of your Google Maps API Key. To do that, go to your Google API Console, click on the API Key and add your domain name to the list.

Your Google API Console, you can edit your key by clicking on it Your Google API Console, you can edit your key by clicking on it

Customize your website

TrotBlogger allows you to choose a design for your website and to customize it so your website will be unique. You can change your design whenever you want without affecting your website's content. If you need something special and the existing designs are not sufficient for you, contact us.

Pick a design

To access your website's design customizing, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Design.

On this page, is the name of your actual design and a preview picture of this design. You can also set the design's parameters from this page.

To change your design, click on the Change design button in the left part of the page.

Pick a design popup Pick a design popup

In the opening popup, choose another design and validate.

Note : When you change the design on this page, this does not impact your website. You can change multiple times your design, change parameters for each design you choose, save it, preview your website with different designs and parameters, ... To apply changes to your website, you need to click on Choose this design for your website.

Customize the design

To access your website's design customizing, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Design.

In the right side of the page,are the different parameters you can set for the current design. This parameters are organized in tabs. Each design has its own parameters and we can just advise you to read carefully each parameter's description and do some tests.

When you finished setting your parameters, click on Save design's options, in the top right hand corner, this will save your parameters for this design. If the design you are setting is the actual design of your website, your changes will have a direct impact on your website. If not, these parameters settings will be visible only if you click on Choose this design for your website

You can preview the impacts the changes you made have on your website by clicking on the Preview changes button even if the design you are setting is not your actual design.

In the opening popup, you first see you home page with your current settings. In the drop down list on top of the popup, you can choose another page from your website to preview.

Design preview with different settings Design preview with different settings

The following parameters are often found in the different designs :

  • Content : these parameters allows you to define the content which will be displayed in the different areas of your website. For example, a header area on top of your website in which you can write whatever you want, or a thematic album to choose to show a photo slideshow on the main page. Generally, the areas that can contain widgets are set in this tab. You can choose which widget bar to display in which area. For example, a widget bar on the right side of your website and another in the footer.
  • Appearance : these parameters allows you to choose appearance of your design. For example, in this tab, you will find color settings, if the website is light or dark, fonts to be used for titles, for the text, ...
  • Css and Js : these tabs allows you to do a native customization of your website. You need to have a few knowledge in programming css (which defines styles on the web) and javascript, aka js, (which allows you to execute programs on your website). You can also copy some code you can find in this help page.Be careful, the code you insert in these two tabs will be part of each page of your website, be careful with the scripts you copy there ! For a few scripts examples, consult Examples.

Design settings example Design settings example

Appearance settings example Appearance settings example

Css and Javascript scripts examples

Below you can found a few examples of javascript and css scripts to help you to do small changes to beautify your website. These scripts allows you to do things which are not doable through designs settings.

Change menu's font

By default, the font used in the menu is the text font, if you want to use your title's font in the menu, use the following css script :

    .header .navbar-nav > li {
        font-family: "Baloo Bhaijaan"; /* Where Baloo Bhaijaan is the name of the title's font */
    }

If you want to load another font than the two you can set from your design's settings, use the following javascript script :

    WebFont.load({
        google: {
          families: ["Anton"] /* where Anton is the name of the font to load */
        }
    });

Be careful : Avoid loading too many fonts on your website, this is bad for the design and reading.

The menu if displayed in upper case by default. If you prefer to keep your case, use the following css script :

    .header .navbar-nav > li > a {
        text-transform: none;
    }

My logo in the header is not at the right place, the right size

When you choose to display your logo in the header, by default, its height is set to 40 pixels, which can be little for logos which are not large or which are rounded. In this case, your logo should appear too small... To improve that, use the following css script :

    #logo-header {
        height: 100px!important; /* new height of your logo */
        margin-top: -35px; /* Allows you to change your logo's position vertically in the header, try values until it's in the right place. */
    }

If your menu is centered and your resized logo overrides on the menu bar, you can use the following css script to change your menu's bar position :

    .nav-container {
      margin-top:50px; /* where 50px is the number of pixels from which your menu bar will go down */
    }

Photos' titles

By default, all photos' titles does not appear in articles, they appear when the readers' mouse is over the photo. To change that behavior, change the opacity property from the following script, choose a value (corresponding to the transparency of the background color) and add !important to it like in the script below. This permits to apply this opacity whatever are the circumstances. By default, the opacity is set to 0 and changes to 1 when the mouse is over. If you want to keep that behavior but to change the opacity, don't add !important. To change the background-color, update the background property in the script below. If your background color is light, change the color property in the script below. The text-shadow property allows you to change the shadow of the text. In the script below, the default shadow is removed.

    .tg-layout-line .item .tg-hover-caption {
        background: #E0E0E0; /* Background color of the photo's title */
        opacity: 0.75!important; /* Opacity of the photo's title. Add !important so the title won't be hidden anymore */
    }
    .tg-layout-line .item .tg-hover-caption p {
        color: #555; /* Color of the photo's title text */
        text-shadow: none; /* Shadow of the photo's title text */
    }

Photos' layouts

If you want to round your photos angles in your articles' photos layouts, use the following css script :

    .tg-layout-line .item {
        border-radius: 10px!important; /* Width of the rounding in the photo's border in pixels */
    }

If you want to round only the layout's borders (only the top left hand corner of the first photo, the bottom right hand corner of the last photo, ...), use the following css script :

    .tg-layout-line:first-child > a:first-child .item {
        border-top-left-radius:25px!important;
    }
    .tg-layout-line:first-child > a:last-child .item  {
        border-top-right-radius:25px!important;
    }
    .tg-layout-line:last-child > a:first-child .item  {
        border-bottom-left-radius:25px!important;
    }
    .tg-layout-line:last-child > a:last-child .item  {
        border-bottom-right-radius:25px!important;
    }

You can animate your photos in the layout when the reader's mouse is over the photo. For example, for the photo to zoom in lightly when the mouse is over it, use the following css script :

    .tg-layout-line .item
    {
        position: relative;
        overflow: hidden;
    }
    .tg-layout-line .item:before
    {
        transition: all 0.8s ease-in-out; /*You can adjust here the speed of the animation and the effect to apply */
        content: "";
        position: absolute;
        width: 100%;
        height: 100%;
        top: 0;
        left: 0;
        background: inherit;
    }
    .tg-layout-line a:hover .item:before
    {
        transform: scale(1.2); /* You can apply here different effects (try to add rotate(7deg) to the existing value)*/
    }

Animate your logo

You have seen on Autour de l'Orange Bleue the logo wave like an air balloon in the header of the website, and you would like to do something similar, here is the javascript script used on this website :

    //Animate header
    $(function () {
        var canvas = $("<canvas id='logo' class='img-logo'></canvas>"); //create a canvas
        canvas.appendTo($(".top-img .top-banner")); //append it in the header of the website, you need to change the selector to append it in another design
        if (canvas) {
            var ctx = canvas[0].getContext('2d');
            var img = new Image();
    
            var ang = 0; //angle
            var fps = 1000 / 25; //number of frames per sec
            var max = 5;
            var dir = 1;
            var ray = 50;
            var angdep = 0;
            var angdepy = 0;
            var angmov = 0;
            img.onload = function () { //on image load do the following stuff
                canvas[0].width = this.width << 1; //double the canvas width
                canvas[0].height = this.height << 1; //double the canvas height
                var cache = this; //cache the local copy of image element for future reference
                setInterval(function () {
                    ctx.save(); //saves the state of canvas
                    ctx.clearRect(0, 0, canvas[0].width, canvas[0].height); //clear the canvas
                    ctx.translate(cache.width + Math.cos(angdep) * ray * 4, cache.height + Math.sin(angdepy) * ray / 1.5); //let's translate
                    angdep += 0.01;
                    angdepy += 0.1;
                    ctx.rotate(Math.PI / 180 * (ang += Math.cos(angmov) * 0.2)); //increment the angle and rotate the image 
                    angmov += 0.1;
                    ctx.drawImage(img, -cache.width / 2, -cache.height /2); //draw the image ;)
                    ctx.restore(); //restore the state of canvas
                }, fps);
            };
    
            img.src = hottub.getOption("logo").image.link; // get the logo url
        }
    });

Issue to do whatever you want

You would like to do something in particular on your design which is not possible with the existing options and you don't know how to do that, contact us, we will help you...

Using widgets

Widgets are small applications that you can insert in your website. For example, a widget can display the list of your last posts, or the place you are actually in the world, or to propose your readers to subscribe to your blog and be notified when you post new articles.

To choose your website's widgets, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Widgets.

On this page, is the list of the widgets' bars you have created. You can create as many widgets' bars as you want to. For these bars to be visible on your website, you have to reference them in your design's settings, generally in the Content's tab. To create a widget's bar, click on Create a widget bar at the bottom of the page. You need next to add a widget to this bar by clicking on Add a widget next to the number of the widget bar you want to add a widget.

Widget's settings Widget's settings

In the popup to add a widget, you have to select the widget to add. Each widget is an application on its own for which you have to set some options. You can enter a title for the widget which will appear on top of the application in your widgets' bar.

At any moment, you can preview your widget by clicking on Preview the widget in the bottom right hand corner.

The existing widgets are the following :

  • Localization : This widget displays a small map with your last known place for the travel you want (a drop down list in the options).
  • Categories tree : This widget displays the hierarchical list of all your categories (those defined as visible in the categories' settings). Each category is a link to its dedicated page.
  • Recent posts : This widget displays a list of the last published posts on your website. You can choose the number of articles to display and choose to display their cover photo or not.
  • Most read articles : This widget displays the most read articles on your blog, you can choose the number of articles to display, choose to display or not their cover photo and choose the statistical period to search. You can choose to display the most popular articles of the last week, last month, last year or of all time.
  • Publications calendar : This widget displays a tree of you blog's posts sorted by year and month. You can choose to expand all the tree or just the most recent month.
  • Facebook : This widget displays a sharing bloc from your facebook's page. You have to enter the link to your facebook's page and its name.
  • Subscribe to website : This widget allows your readers to subscribe to your blog. Readers have to be registered to subscribe. To register, readers can do it through TrotBlogger, Google or Facebook. If the reader has already subscribed to your website, the application indicates it to him.
  • Custom text : This widget displays a custom text. Note that the text is written using the same redaction area than for articles, you can insert medias, and whatever you want in it.
  • Html5 Widget : This widget allows you to insert any html5 widget from a third party service on your website. You just have to insert the html code of the widget, provided by the third party service, in the dedicated option. For example, if you want to insert a translation widget, go to this link and follow instructions, an html code will be provided to you that you will have to copy in the code area of the widget.
  • Photos wall : This widget allows you to display photos from your blog, you can choose how many colons the wall contains and how many photos to display. You can choose to display the latest photos uploaded or random photos among all photos you uploaded.
  • Photos slideshow : This widget displays a slideshow of photos. You can choose the duration of each photo and the number of photos to display. You can choose to display the latest photos uploaded or random photos among all photos you uploaded.
  • Follow blog from social : This widget displays social networks icons for each social network you choose and redirects to your dedicated pages on each of these networks. Enter the urls of the pages you own for the networks you want. The last icon allows you to display a link to a rss feed of your blog.

In your widget's list, you can take actions on the existing widgets using the following buttons :

  • Update allows you to update a widget, you can change its options, its title or even change the widget itself.
  • Delete allows you to delete a widget from a widget's bar
  • allows you to turn up a widget to be the first on its widgets' bar
  • allows you to turn up a widget among all its siblings on the widgets' bar
  • allows you to turn down a widget among all its siblings on the widgets' bar
  • allows you to turn down a widget to be the last on its widgets' bar

Widgets' bar example on a website Widgets' bar example on a website

Know your readers

TrotBlogger helps you to better know your readers, to do that, it offers you easy tools to know where you readers are from, what they are reading which language do they speak, ... TrotBlogger has its own statistics system. If you want more statistics, you can set Google Analytics

Statistics

The dashboard

The Dashboard gives you a global sight of your website's statistics. It is the home page of your administration panel, from this panel, click on and then choose Dashboard to access it.

Here is the information you will find on this page :

  • Publications calendar : An annual calendar which allows you to see at a glance your publication frequency.
  • Latest published article's statistics : you will find the number of views and comments of the latest article you published
  • Today's statistics : you will find the number of pages viewed on your website, the number of visitors and comments for today
  • Since creation's statistics : you will find the total number of articles published on your website, the total number of pages viewed, the total number of visitors, of comments, the maximum pages viewed within the same day, the day of the week and the hour of the day in which your readers read the most.

Dashboard Dashboard

Statistics of your website

Statistics of your website gives you a detailed view of what content you readers prefer the most, where are they from, what language do they speak,... These statistics are available by day, week, month and year. To access it, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Statistics.

This page offers you on its top a chart of the number of pages viewed on your website. By default, this chart displays this statistic by day since the few last weeks. You can change the frequency of statistics by clicking the Day, Week, Month and Year buttons on top of the chart. You can also change the data to view by clicking the buttons below the chart :

  • Pages views to see the number of pages viewed
  • Unique views to see the number of unique pages viewed (if a reader loads two times the same page, it is counted just once)
  • Views from registered users to see the number of pages viewed by users who registered (potential subscribers)
  • Visitors to see the number of unique visitors on your website
  • Registered visitors to see the number unique visitors on your website who registered (potential subscribers)
  • Comments to see the number of comments

Number of views chart Number of views chart

Each time you click on one of the buttons allowing you to change frequency, or when you click on a specific day, week, month or year directly on the chart, statistics in the lower part of the page are refreshed to match the period of time you selected. These statistics are the following :

  • Articles and pages : The list of articles and pages (category page, thematic album page, home page, travel map page, ...) which have been seen during the current period, sorted by pages' views. You can click on a page or article, a popup will open showing you statistics of pages views, visitors, ... by day, week, month or year but specifically for this article or page
    Article's statistics Article's statistics
  • Country : The list of countries from which your readers have been connected to your website, sorted by pages' views. A map gives you a global sight of your visitors' origin. Click on to view this statistic in a popup and to see the complete list of countries.

Statistics by country Statistics by country

  • Referrers : The list of websites from which your visitors have accessed your website, for those who does not reach your website directly through its url but who clicked a link to your website. Click on to completely view these statistics in a popup.
    Statistics by referrer Statistics by referrer
    .
  • Language : The list of languages your readers speak sorted by pages views. Click on to expand this statistic in a popup and to see the complete list of languages.
    Statistics by language Statistics by language

Subscribers management

TrotBlogger gives you information about those of your readers who participate on your website. From your administration panel, click on and then choose Users.

From this page, you can see the list of visitors who participate on your website. A visitor participates if he :

  • has subscribed or has been subscribed to your website
  • has sent a comment on one of your articles

For each visitor in this list, you can see his avatar, his user name and his mail address. If the user has subscribed to notifications from your website, you will see a next to his name.

Users who have access to the administration panel of your website are Administrators, this word appears next to their name if this access is granted for them. If you created the website, you are initially the only administrator of your website. You are able to promote users to administrator from this page by clicking the Promote as administrator button next to the user you want to promote. You can undo this promotion later if you want to.

Users' list Users' list

Comments management

Comments allows you to communicate with your readers and allow your readers to communicate with you. In each article, your readers can send, if they want to, a comment. At the bottom of the article, an area is dedicated to comments sending, just above already sent comments. To send a comment, a reader has to be registered. To do that, he can use his TrotBlogger account or login with his Google account or his Facebook account. On TrotBlogger's websites, comments can not be sent by anonymous users, this avoids you to deal with spam comments every day...

When a user sends a comment, you can choose to receive an email to be notified. You can also choose how this comment will be approved, if it will appear directly on your website without control, if an administrator have to approve it before it becomes visible for everyone and if users who already have sent a comment which has been approved can have their comments being approved automatically. To set these parameters, consult communication parameters.

You can answer your readers' comments directly from your articles, in the comments area, by clicking on next to the comment you want to reply to. If you are administrator, you can also choose to delete a comment by clicking on the button next to it. If you are the author of a comment, you can also choose to delete it the same way.

To see all comments sent to your website and moderate them, from your administration panel, click on and then choose Comments.

In this list, for each comment, you will see :

  • information about the comment's author : avatar, user name and mail address,
  • the date on which the comment has been sent,
  • the comment itself,
  • its status : if it has been approved or not,
  • A link to the article on which it has been sent,

For each comment, you can choose to :

  • Update : you can edit the comments content
  • Approve : click here to approve the comment if it is waiting for moderation. Once approved, the comment will become visible in the article.
  • Disapprove : click here to disapprove a comment you don't want to see on your website anymore.
  • Delete : click here to delete definitively a comment.

Comments' list Comments' list