Here are the steps I followed to create this blog-as-presentation:
1. New blog. I started out with a "picture window" blog at Blogger.com, choosing a color scheme to match one of the colors in the Upgrading Online conference logo. I picked a transparent background to use for minimum distraction.
2. Layout. I am starting with a layout that I think will be "presentation-like," and then after the conference, I will change it to a more conventional layout.
Pre-Conference. The blog has just one column, with the widgets I normally use (navigation labels, Google+ profile, and some kind of Twitter widget) in the footer rather than in the sidebar. I widened the main column to 750 pixels so that I could enlarge the font to 20-point Trebuchet, and I changed the font to Trebuchet for the post titles and blog title also. I set the date font color to transparent (invisible), and I made the link text colors the same for both new and visited. I removed the top Blogger navigation bar and use this nifty trick to remove the white space. I need to remember to make sure to keep the width of the images to the usual 400 pixels or 500 pixels so that I can make this column smaller later.
Post-Conference. After the conference presentation is over, I will reconfigure the blog to a more traditional single column plus sidebar view and move the widgets from the footer to the sidebar. I'll probably reduce the font some, and change the column width to 600 pixels.
3. Index and backdating. I've created an index page to stay on top (with the Settings for just one post on the home page), and I'll be backdating the entries to 2014 in order to keep the index on top. I'll use the month/day settings in order to line up my "slide" posts in the right order when I'm done. I'll create index pages for each of the labels when I'm done; I'll date those to 1/1/2015.
4. Labels. I really like label navigation in a blog, so I'll be sure to have at least one label on each post.
5. Comments. I'm not a fan of Google Captcha, so I set the comments to Google accounts only with no Captcha, but I also changed the message to let people know they can contact me at Google+ and/or at Twitter too. I set the comments on a separate page (again, to reduce distraction).
6. Post formatting. I've stripped down the post formatting in order to have it not be distracting (no post date, etc.).
7. Post template. I created a simple post template to use for the actual slide posts (and I just delete the template contents when I am doing a different kind of post).
8. Spreadsheet. I set up a GoogleDocs spreadsheet to keep track of post titles and post URLs; I can use that later to organize the slide posts in order and quickly add the next/prev links to the navigation. I'll write up a post about that separately.
9. Subdomain. To make it easy for people to quickly go to the blog during the presentation so that they can click on links, experiment with the live content, and save bookmarks, I created a static redirect at this subdomain: Upgrading.MythFolklore.net, and I made that the title of the blog for now. I'll switch to a more conventional title after the conference is over.
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