Help using Jotpress

What is Jotpress?

Jotpress provides a free service for anyone to share their thoughts and writings with the world, in the simplest way possible. All you need to do is send an email with your thoughts and ideas to post@jotpress.com and we will instantly publish it on the web. You can choose to remain anonymous, in which case you have to do nothing else – not even create an account with us; it is all automatic. Personalizing your pages is just as easy through your personal control panel. Jotpress also allows you to follow the activities of other people, and others can also choose to follow your posts. It does not restrict you to share your thoughts just with your friends, but allows you to be part of the World Wide Web. It also does not impose any artificial limits on how long your posts are – it can be a few words or a long essay – it is up to you.


How to post your first Jot?

It can’t be any simpler – open your favorite email tool and write down what you want to say. Include images if you want. Once satisfied, just send the email to post@jotpress.com. In a few seconds you will receive an acknowledgement email from Jotpress. Follow the link in this mail and you will see your first creation on Jotpress for everyone on the Web to see. Search engines like Google will also discover your page within a few days, and anyone searching for something you have in that Jot will find it.


How to post future Jots?

The process remains the same – you just have to send a mail to post@jotpress.com with the title of your Jot as the Subject line and the content of your Jot as the main body of your email. You can also create a Jot using the online editor which will be described later.


Including Jotpress in a group email

You can add the Jotpress email address (post@jotpress.com) to any email you are writing, As long this address is included in the “To”, “CC”, or “BCC” fields, the content of the mail will get published as a Jot. That is, if you are sending an email to a group of people, you can also get it published by including Jotpress as one of your recipient.


How to personalize your account?

As you create your first Jot, the system will automatically create an anonymous account for you with a unique number (e.g. User32456). You can stay with this if you want to remain nameless. However, most of you would like to personalize your account. Jotpress will send you a registration email immediately after your first post. This will include a link to your "My Profile" page. Here you can add your name and other particulars about yourself (including photographs). The Account Management function also includes many other features that you should explore.

Logging in

Once you have personalized your account, you can log into Jotpress by using the login area at the top right corner of any screen. After the system recognizes your email and password, a number of new buttons and links will show up. Use these to go to parts of the site (My Home, My World, My Profile etc.) that are customized for you. The full power of Jotpress is only available when you are logged in.

Creating and Editing a Jot online

You don’t have to create Jots only through emails. You can also go to the Jotpress site and create a new Jot or edit an existing one using the online editor. You have to be logged in first. Once logged in you can use the “Add New Jot” button to create a brand new Jot, or click on the “edit” button at the bottom of an existing Jot to edit it. In either case you can use the online editor to create and format the Jot. When done editing, click on the “save” icon to save the final version.

Following a Jot

If you are logged into Jotpress then you can click on the “Follow this post” button in the left hand panel and your account will be added to the list of people following this particular Jot. Any time anyone adds a comment to this Jot, or if the author modifies the Jot, an email notification will be sent to you. Whether the message is sent to you immediately or later depends on the preference settings in your “My Profile” area.

Following a User

If you are logged in then you can add any other user to your “follow” list by clicking on the “Follow this user” button on the left hand panel. Once added, you will be notified any time this user is active (add or edit a Jot, or comments on someone else's Jot). Any user can also decide to follow you.

Adding Comments to Jots

Anyone visiting a Jot page can leave a comment. This can be done by typing into the “Add your comment” text area and clicking on the “Add comment” button. You will receive email notifications any time a new comment is added to any Jot that you are following. If you reply to any of these notification emails then your email reply will be treated as a new comment. You can also remove any comment added to one of your Jots by clicking on the "delete" button next to the particular comment.

My Home

Once you log in, the horizontal menu at the top of the page shows four items. One of them is “My Home”. Clicking this button brings up the page that lists all of your Jots in reverse chronological order with the most recent Jot at the top. Clicking any Jot takes you to the specific Jot page. A menu in the left hand panel allows selection of a specific month, and all activities during that month are displayed.

How to lock the position of a Jot in “My Home” page?

The normal order to display the Jots is chronological, where any new Jot that is added pushes down the rest of the list and occupies the top position. This can be changed by clicking on the “Pin” icon to the right of a Jot item. Turning on the Pin forces that Jot to retain the top spot in the list. As new Jots are added, they are placed below any Jot that has been pinned to the top of the list. A pin can be released by clicking on the Pin icon again.

How to make a Jot "private"?

There is a button at the bottom of any Jot that you have created, which allows you to make it "private". A private Jot is visible to you, but is not shown to anyone else.

My World

Once you log in, the horizontal menu at the top of the page shows four items. One of them is “My World”. Clicking this button brings up a page that lists the activities of the all the people you are following and any comments added to your own Jots. A menu in the left hand panel allows the selection of a specific month, and all activities during that month are displayed.

My Profile

Once you log in, the horizontal menu at the top of the page shows four items. One of them is “My Profile”. Clicking this button brings up the account management page. Here you can set or change your password, define the primary email address (your login), provide particulars about yourself (name, location, activity, interests, biographical profile, profile image etc.). You can also define more than one email address for yourself so that any Jot email coming from these addresses are recognized as coming from you. However, you have to define one of these as your primary email address. You can also specify how frequently you want to receive update message emails from Jotpress. Finally, you can see all the people who are following you, and the list of people and Jots you are following.

Adding additional email addresses

You can add any number of alternative email addresses for you. Doing so allows you to send Jot emails from all these addresses and the system will recognize them as coming from you. Any time you add a new email address using the “My Profile” page, the system will send a verification email to that address so that you can confirm that the address truly belongs to you. You can also remove existing email addresses by going to the “My Profile” page and clicking on the “delete” button next to the specific email address.

How to control the notification mails you receive from Jotpress?

By default Jotpress will send you a notification email any time an event happens (e.g. someone posting a comment on one of your Jot, or there is some activity associated with someone you are following). If you prefer to receive fewer emails then you can go to your “My Profile” page and select “Once a day” in the “Messaging Preference” section. If selected, Jotpress will consolidate all messages collected over a 24 hour period and send a single email per day.

Search

You can use the search box at the top of any page to search the entire Jotpress database. The search includes all Jotpress users, which includes all Jots and user profiles.

Email addresses in Jots

When you post a Jot using an email, any visible email addresses in the text will be masked. This protects the personal email identity of anyone whose address would otherwise be visible in the email body, such as in an email thread. All email addresses are replaced by a pattern like "****@****". However, if you create or edit a Jot using the online editor, then the email addresses won't be removed.