Journal Manager Help


The Journal Manager is a tool in the Host Control Panel that allows Web Baby Shower hosts and the expecting/adopting parents to create and maintain a pregnancy or adoption journal (also called a "blog") in their Web Baby Shower. This help page is meant to help Web Baby Shower hosts and the expecting/adopting parents to use the Journal Manager in the Host Control Panel.

Please note that at this time there is only one Host Control Panel login allowed per Web Baby Shower. If you are the host of a Web Baby Shower and would like the expecting/adopting parents to create and maintain their own Journal entries, please share your Host Control Panel login information with them so that they can access the Journal Manager.

The Journal Manager allows you to accomplish the following tasks:



Create New Journal Entries

To get your Journal started, and to continue to add new entries, please follow these steps:

  1. Go to your Web Baby Shower home page
  2. Log into your Host Control Panel
  3. Click "Journal Manager" (letter blocks icon)
  4. Under "What would you like to do?" choose "Create New Journal Entry"
  5. Click "Go!"
  6. The next page will have a form where you can enter the details of your Journal entry:
    • Author / Your Name (or even the baby's name if you want to be cute!)
    • Title -- optional. If you would like to Title your Journal entry, enter the title into the Title Field
    • Journal Entry. This text area is where you enter your journal entry.
      • If your entry is very long, please write it in a text editor or word processor where you can save it as you go along and then copy and paste it into the Journal Entry field.
      • At this time there is not a way to save Journal Entries without publishing them
      • IMPORTANT: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SUBMIT YOUR JOURNAL ENTRY WITHIN 10 MINUTES!!
        • For security purposes, your Host Control Panel Session will time out in about 15 - 20 minutes (depending on your browser)
        • THERE IS NO AUTO-SAVE FEATURE at this time, and when your session times out, YOUR ENTRY WILL BE LOST if you do not submit it within about 10 minutes.
        • As mentioned above, if you need to write a long entry, please compose it on your computer's hard drive (using a text editor or word processor) and copy and paste it here when you are done.
        • You may submit every 10 minutes and keep re-editing your entry until you are done. If you do not want your guests to see your entry until you are done, you will need to turn your Journal page OFF so that your entry cannot be seen until you are done with it (don't forget to turn your Journal page back ON!).
      • HTML is not allowed in Journal entries; at this time BBCode is not recognized.
  7. After you have entered the details of your Journal entry into the form, click Submit. Your journal entry will appear on the Journal page in your Web Baby Shower.

When you add your first Journal entry, the Journal page in your Web Baby Shower will be turned on automatically for you and a link to your Journal will appear in your Web Baby Shower navigation bar. You can add an unlimited number of Journal entries and edit or remove them at any time (see below for details).



Edit Previous Journal Entries

If you would like to edit one of your Journal entries:

  1. Go to your Web Baby Shower home page
  2. Log into your Host Control Panel
  3. Click "Journal Manager" (letter blocks icon)
  4. Under "What would you like to do?" choose "Edit or Remove Previous Entries"
  5. Click "Go!"
  6. A table of all the entries in your Journal will appear, with the most recent Journal entry at the top.
  7. Once you have found the Journal entry you wish to edit, click the word "Edit" next to it
  8. A form will appear that has all of the parts of the Journal entry, similar to the Create A Journal Entry form. You can make the edits you desire to each part of the message and then click "Submit Changes".
    • You cannot edit the date the message was posted
    • You cannot delete required fields (Author & Journal Entry). You can edit these fields, but they are still required.
    • IMPORTANT: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU SUBMIT YOUR JOURNAL ENTRY EDITS WITHIN 10 MINUTES!!
      • For security purposes, your Host Control Panel Session will time out in about 15 - 20 minutes (depending on your browser)
      • THERE IS NO AUTO-SAVE FEATURE at this time, and when your session times out, YOUR ENTRY WILL BE LOST if you do not submit it within about 10 minutes.
      • As mentioned above, if you need to write a long entry, please compose it on your computer's hard drive (using a text editor or word processor) and copy and paste it here when you are done.
      • You may submit every 10 minutes and keep re-editing your entry until you are done. If you do not want your guests to see your entry until you are done, you will need to turn your Journal page OFF so that your entry cannot be seen until you are done with it (don't forget to turn your Journal page back ON!).
  9. If you change your mind, you can click "Cancel" and the Journal entry will be left unchanged and you will be returned to the list of Journal entries for editing or removing
  10. If you decide you would rather remove the Journal entry completely, you can click "Remove Entirely".

Please note that if you make changes to a Journal entry 24 hours after it was originally written, a note will appear after the Journal entry on your Web Baby Shower Journal page indicating when it was edited.





Remove Previous Journal Entries

You can remove any Journal entries you no longer wish to display in your Web Baby Shower Journal page. Please note that it is possible to turn the Journal page OFF without having to remove all of your Journal entries. Please see below for details. If you are sure that you want to remove a Journal entry or entries, you may do so as follows:

  1. Go to your Web Baby Shower home page
  2. Log into your Host Control Panel
  3. Click "Journal Manager" (letter blocks icon)
  4. Under "What would you like to do?" choose "Edit or Remove Previous Entries"
  5. Click "Go!"
  6. A table of all the entries in your Journal will appear, with the most recent Journal entry at the top.
  7. Once you have found the Journal entry/entries you wish to remove click the box in the "Remove" column next to the entry. You can remove as many entries as you need to at once
  8. Once you have selected the entry/entries you wish to remove, click the "Remove" button at the top or at the bottom of the page
  9. A confirmation page will appear asking you to confirm that you wish to remove the entry/entries. Please be certain that you wish to remove the entry/entries because at this time there is not an "undelete" function.
    • At this point, you can un-check any Journal entries you do not wish to remove
  10. If you wish to remove the entries from your Journal permanently, leave the Remove box(es) checked and click "Confirm Removal"
  11. If you change your mind, click "Cancel" and you will be returned to the complete list of Journal entries for editing/removing

Please note that if you remove all of your Journal entries, the Journal page will no longer be displayed in your Web Baby Shower.





Journal Entries Sort Order

You can choose to have the entries in your Journal displayed in chronological order (first to last) or to have the most recent journal entries appear first. The default is to have the most recent entry appear at the top of the page. You can change the order of the entries in your Journal as follows:

  1. Go to your Web Baby Shower home page
  2. Log into your Host Control Panel
  3. Click "Journal Manager" (letter blocks icon)
  4. Under "What would you like to do?" choose "Choose Display Order for Journal Entries"
  5. Click "Go!"
  6. Under "How would you like to display you journal entries?" there will be two radio buttons with the options for displaying your Journal entries. Your current setting will be "checked" on the appropriate radio button.
    • If you would like to have the most recent journal entry appear at the top of the page and go backwards chronologically, click:
      Show the MOST RECENT journal entry at the top of the page
    • If you would like your first journal entry to appear at the top of the page and go forwards chronologically, click:
      Show the FIRST journal entry at the top of the page
  7. Click "Submit" to submit your changes

You can switch the sort order of your Journal messages very easily, as many times as you need till you decide which order you like best!





Turn the Journal Page On/Off in your Web Baby Shower

You can turn the Journal Page in your Web Baby Shower on and off (without having to remove your Journal entries) as desired. Please note that if you do not have any Journal entries on file, the Journal page will NOT appear in your Web Baby Shower navigation bar. The page must be turned on AND you must make at least one Journal entry for the Journal page to appear in your Web Baby Shower. You can turn your Journal page ON and OFF by following these steps:

  1. Go to your Web Baby Shower home page
  2. Log into your Host Control Panel
  3. Click "Journal Manager" (letter blocks icon)
  4. Under "What would you like to do?" choose "Turn Journal Page OFF"
    If your Journal page is currently OFF, the option will say "Turn Journal Page ON"
  5. Click "Go!"
  6. A confirmation message will appear above the "What Would You Like To Do" title indicating that your Journal page has been turned back ON or OFF.




Updated July 14, 2008






Important Note: At this time this website is offered in English only. Any language translations of this website are unofficial and not authorized. This website is not responsible for errors, omissions or mistranslations caused by unauthorized translations. Thank you.