How to create and maintain multiple journals
So, through trial and error and following other people's directions, you get this little guide. I'll have pictures for those that need them and pointers (ie: I messed up and will help you not to do the same). There will be cuts so your flists don't get overly crowded and feel free to repost this if desired. I'll leave it public, though, so it can be linked to.
First off, I have lost more data off my harddrive, so I don't keep a back up of my journal there, so I'm not going over that option. I'm just giving instructions for creating an online backup and keeping both your primary and back up journal up to date with each other. Second, your colors will look different than mine. I have my computer set up to display colors that don't hurt my eyes, but that others may have trouble reading, so if the screen shots are hard to read, keep that in mind. It's my settings, not the programs.
Step one: Create another account, preferably with the same username because some of these instructions seem to need that. But, given the propensity of people to keep the name they use, this shouldn't be too difficult...unless you are a 'beautiful and unique snowflake' and pick a username that is insanely popular. I used http://insanejournal.com for a few reasons.
If your userpics are important to you (and they are to me), take the time to transfer them over to the new journal with the same names. That is, the keyword you gave them in lj is to be the same as the one you give them in your new journal. Yes, this is tedious, but an easy way to do it is to have your userpics open in one tab and the upload new userpics open in another tab and just go systematically down the list (you can 'upload from url' which lets you right click on the picture, get the location and paste it over on the new one. This saves time, too). IJ gives you 100 user pics with a free account. Yes, this does mean when you get new ones, you'll need to upload them to both accounts with the same names. Custom mood themes are not a free feature over at IJ, though.
Step two: Create a backup of your current journal by porting over entries. There is the hard way (copying and backdating all your entries...if you have several days) or the easy way. I'll give you the easy way
Step two a: Download LJSec and install it.
Step two b: Log in.
Step two c: LJSec will give you a list of all your journal entries. If this is the first time running it, it'll take a while to pull them all. Don't worry, this is normal.
Step two d: LJSec will display a list of all your entries. For your first run, go to "Selections" and "Check All" Then, go to "Journal" and "Repost checked entries to another journal" or press "F5" You'll get the following screen. Fill it in with your new journal information.
Step two e: Press the repost button and go do something else. This will take a while. The more enteries you have, the longer it takes. Polls will most likely be lost and comments will be lost. Unfortunatley, I haven't found a system to counter this.
Now that you have two wonderfully synched journals, you now want to keep them up to date, right? There are two ways of doing that. Post to one and then periodically run LJSec to update your other journal or post to both of them at the same time. We'll call this step three.
Step three a: Download Semagic and install it. Now for the part I made mistakes on, but there are pictures and you can learn from my mistakes.
Step three b: In the username field, type 'your username lj' which is to say, I should have typed in "hcolleen lj" then type in your password and click both boxes (Remember password and auto login). DO NOT LOG IN YET.
Step three c: Go to the "File" then "Servers" menu. Take the "lj" out of the username box (and the space, too) and make sure it's going to log you into livejournal. If you don't do this, you won't be able to log in. It'll tell you something about a "Client error"
Step three d: Now you can log in.
Step three e: Log out.
Step three f: Repeat steps b-d using 'ij' and logging into 'insanejournal' and any others you want to use.
Step three g: Type posts into Semagic. When ready to post, got to "Journal" and "Post to multiple journals" Check all the journals and then post.
Things I haven't figured out yet: Why logging into LJ with semagic gives me a "Malformed login response, web menus will not display correctly" The tutorial I got these instructions from said it would fix itself after the initial log in. It hasn't. Nor do I know why Semagic doesn't actually list the names of all the journals when going to post to multiple journals (though, that may be my settings). Also, LJSec doesn't seem to transfer over userpic keywords (unless that works if you sync your user pics before you sync your journal. I did journal then user pics).
And, since this is the first entry I'm posting with semagic, expect errors and learning curves ;)
My resources: http://brown-betty.livejournal.com/284083.html
http://snapetoy.livejournal.com/137618.html
One other thing to consider: Journal default security level. To change it at IJ, here's the instructions: http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=32
First off, I have lost more data off my harddrive, so I don't keep a back up of my journal there, so I'm not going over that option. I'm just giving instructions for creating an online backup and keeping both your primary and back up journal up to date with each other. Second, your colors will look different than mine. I have my computer set up to display colors that don't hurt my eyes, but that others may have trouble reading, so if the screen shots are hard to read, keep that in mind. It's my settings, not the programs.
Step one: Create another account, preferably with the same username because some of these instructions seem to need that. But, given the propensity of people to keep the name they use, this shouldn't be too difficult...unless you are a 'beautiful and unique snowflake' and pick a username that is insanely popular. I used http://insanejournal.com for a few reasons.
If your userpics are important to you (and they are to me), take the time to transfer them over to the new journal with the same names. That is, the keyword you gave them in lj is to be the same as the one you give them in your new journal. Yes, this is tedious, but an easy way to do it is to have your userpics open in one tab and the upload new userpics open in another tab and just go systematically down the list (you can 'upload from url' which lets you right click on the picture, get the location and paste it over on the new one. This saves time, too). IJ gives you 100 user pics with a free account. Yes, this does mean when you get new ones, you'll need to upload them to both accounts with the same names. Custom mood themes are not a free feature over at IJ, though.
Step two: Create a backup of your current journal by porting over entries. There is the hard way (copying and backdating all your entries...if you have several days) or the easy way. I'll give you the easy way
Step two a: Download LJSec and install it.
Step two b: Log in.
Step two c: LJSec will give you a list of all your journal entries. If this is the first time running it, it'll take a while to pull them all. Don't worry, this is normal.
Step two d: LJSec will display a list of all your entries. For your first run, go to "Selections" and "Check All" Then, go to "Journal" and "Repost checked entries to another journal" or press "F5" You'll get the following screen. Fill it in with your new journal information.
Step two e: Press the repost button and go do something else. This will take a while. The more enteries you have, the longer it takes. Polls will most likely be lost and comments will be lost. Unfortunatley, I haven't found a system to counter this.
Now that you have two wonderfully synched journals, you now want to keep them up to date, right? There are two ways of doing that. Post to one and then periodically run LJSec to update your other journal or post to both of them at the same time. We'll call this step three.
Step three a: Download Semagic and install it. Now for the part I made mistakes on, but there are pictures and you can learn from my mistakes.
Step three b: In the username field, type 'your username lj' which is to say, I should have typed in "hcolleen lj" then type in your password and click both boxes (Remember password and auto login). DO NOT LOG IN YET.
Step three c: Go to the "File" then "Servers" menu. Take the "lj" out of the username box (and the space, too) and make sure it's going to log you into livejournal. If you don't do this, you won't be able to log in. It'll tell you something about a "Client error"
Step three d: Now you can log in.
Step three e: Log out.
Step three f: Repeat steps b-d using 'ij' and logging into 'insanejournal' and any others you want to use.
Step three g: Type posts into Semagic. When ready to post, got to "Journal" and "Post to multiple journals" Check all the journals and then post.
Things I haven't figured out yet: Why logging into LJ with semagic gives me a "Malformed login response, web menus will not display correctly" The tutorial I got these instructions from said it would fix itself after the initial log in. It hasn't. Nor do I know why Semagic doesn't actually list the names of all the journals when going to post to multiple journals (though, that may be my settings). Also, LJSec doesn't seem to transfer over userpic keywords (unless that works if you sync your user pics before you sync your journal. I did journal then user pics).
And, since this is the first entry I'm posting with semagic, expect errors and learning curves ;)
My resources: http://brown-betty.livejournal.com/284083.html
http://snapetoy.livejournal.com/137618.html
One other thing to consider: Journal default security level. To change it at IJ, here's the instructions: http://www.insanejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=32