1) Add a new Blog Entry page type: Dashboard -> Pages and Themes -> Page Types, click the "Add a Page Type" button. Name is "Blog Entry", Handle is "blog_entry", select the 3rd icon from the left, and if you want tagging click the "Tags" checkbox in the Default Attributes section. Click "Add Page Type" button when done.
2) Set up page defaults: After adding the new page type, click the "Defaults" button over to the right of it in the list. Click "Edit Page", and add the following blocks:
BREADCRUMB NAV: Click "Add to Blog Post Header", choose the "Auto-Nav" block, leave all settings at their defaults EXCEPT "Sub Pages to Display" should be "Display Breadcrumb Trail". Then click the "Add" button. Now click on that block and choose "Custom Template" from the popup menu. Select "Breadcrumb" from the dropdown menu and then click "Update".
NEXT/PREVIOUS NAV: Click "Add to Blog Post Footer", choose the "Next & Previous Nav" block, keep the default settings EXCEPT uncheck "Return to start/end of page sequence" and check "yes" under "Exclude System Pages". When done click the "Add" button. NOTE: If you don't see a sidebar area on this page, it's probably because you are using a theme from the marketplace that doesn't include a template for blog entries, or because you created your own theme and didn't include a blog entry template. You will need to contact the author of the theme or add a new blog_entry.php page type template yourself.
COMMENTS: Click "Add to Blog Post Footer" (again), choose the "Guestbook" block, set the settings to however you want commenting to be by default (they can be changed on a per-post basis, but when a new post is added this is what they will be by default -- e.g. requires approval or not, show captcha or not, etc.). When done click the "Add" button.
MONTHLY/YEARLY ARCHIVE: Click "Add to Sidebar", choose the "Date Navigation" block, change "Pages of Type" from All to Blog Entry, change "Display pages that are located:" to "at the current level", click the "Add" button. NOTE: If you don't see a sidebar area on this page, it's probably because you are using a theme from the marketplace that doesn't include a template for blog entries, or because you created your own theme and didn't include a blog entry template. You will need to contact the author of the theme or add a new blog_entry.php page type template yourself.
TAG CLOUD: This is optional, only include it if you checked the "Tags" box in step 1. Click "Add to Sidebar", choose the "Tags" block, enter "Tags" for the Display Title, then click the little "Advanced" tab, click "Select Page", then find your site's search results page in the sitemap and click it [if you don't have one of these you need to create it first -- just add a page to your site and put a search block in the Main content area]. When done, click the "Add" button.
When you're done with all of those, click the "Exit Edit Mode" button, then click "Publish Changes". NOTE: You are in a new window/tab! Close the window/tab to go back to the first window/tab (the one that had the dashboard in it)
3) Create a top-level "blog index" page: Navigate to the home page, click "Add Page", choose a regular page type (e.g. "Left Sidebar" or "Right Sidebar" -- NOT "Blog Entry" -- we're creating the top-level index here, not an individual blog post yet). For the page name, enter the name that you want the blog to be (could just be "Blog", or something else like "Letters from the CEO" or "Recent News", etc. -- however you want this blog section of the site to appear in the top-level navigation menu). After you've entered the page name, click the "Add" button. NOTE: If you don't have a "Left Sidebar" or "Right Sidebar" page type available, and you are using one of the built-in Concrete5 themes, you will need to activate these page types first by going to Dashboard -> Pages and Themes, clicking the "Inspect" button next to the current theme, then clicking the "Activate Files" button.
4) Add the "blog index" functionality to this new page: Click "Add to Main" and choose the "Page List" block. Give it the following options:
- show 5 or 10 posts (however many you want to appear per-page in the index)
- only show the "Blog Entry" page type
- sort them with most recent first
- only show pages "beneath this one"
- DO use pagination
- DO show an rss feed
- do NOT check "truncate summaries"
Click the "Add" button when you're done. Now click on that new block (it's probably a teeny tiny super-short empty space, because there's no blog posts to list out yet) and choose "Custom Template" from the popup menu, select "Blog Index" in the dropdown menu, then click the "Update" button. You also probably want to add the Monthly/Yearly Archive ("Date Nav") block to the sidebar of this page -- it's the same process as in step 2, EXCEPT you want "Display pages that are located:" to be "Beneath this page" (instead of "at the current level" like in step 2). When you're done adding the blocks, Exit edit mode and publish changes.
5) Okay! The blog is now set up. To add a new blog post, just navigate to the top-level blog index page, click the "Add Page" button, choose "Blog Entry" page type, and you're good to go. You don't need to do steps 1-4 anymore after the initial setup, just repeat this step 5 for each new blog post.