Once I’d finished creating the initial round of pages necessary for the launch of the Sharing the Point site, I realized that there was still a significant aspect of the site that still needed to be created. Namely, the tour blog, where I’ll be spending loads of quality time throughout the tour in March.

Happily, creating a blog in SharePoint 2010 proved to be as simple and straightforward as one could hope. From the Site Actions drop-down, I just selected the More Options… button:

Clicking that button spawned a Create page featuring a menu of objects from which I could choose to create a new space on the site. Naturally, Blog was among the available object types, so that’s the one I clicked:

As you can see on the right-hand side of the image above, I needed to enter a Title and URL name in order to create the new blog, so I went with the obvious, calling it the Sharing the Point Asian Tour Blog.  Since I was under the gun and on deadline at the time, I wasn’t able to document the entire process with screenshots, but I can tell you that the default look of the newly created blog featured an initial “post” that included helpful instructions for the care and feeding of a blog.

I deleted that instructional content and clicked the Create a post hyperlink in the Blog Tools Web Part (located default in the top corner of the blog’s right rail), which spawned a Posts – New Item form:

I wrote an introductory post, gave it a headline, and clicked the Publish button (cut off in the image above). Next, I added some Categories to the blog, using the Add new category link under the Categories heading which appears in the top corner of the blog’s left rail default. I added four Categories, each of which now appears as available for the easy association when I create/modify a post:

Note: The image above represents the bottom portion of the Posts – New Item form that was cut off in the preceding image. As you can see, applying a Category to a post in SharePoint 2010 is as simple as selecting from the left-hand column and clicking the Add button.

Finally, to complete the look and feel of the new blog, I needed to edit the About this blog Web Part in the right rail. Editing the Web Part was as simple as selecting the Edit Web Part button from the drop-down next to the About this blog title bar. Once in edit mode, I simply replaced the default image with the official tour logo, and replaced the default text with a brief description of the blog’s purpose:

And with that, the Sharing the Point Asian Tour Blog was ready for its close-up.

See how easy it is to create a new blog in SharePoint 2010?  Feel free to share links to your own SharePoint 2010 blog in the comments below if you’re so inclined.

 Read the entire SharePoint 2010 Lessons Learned series:

• Part 1: Wrestling with Images & Links
• Part 2: How to Create a Blog
• Part 3: How to Create a New Page (and Delete a Page)
• Part 4: How to Grant Permissions
• Part 5: An Image-uploading Caveat Regarding Anonymous Access, and Frustration Involving Modifying Font Styles
• Part 6: A Cautionary Tale Involving Deleting Photos While Editing a Blog Post
• Part 7: What’s Up with Out-of-the-Box Web Analytics for Blogs?
• Part 8: ‘What? I Can’t Embed Video in a Blog Post? You’re Kidding, Right?’