How to post a message ("Tweet") on Twitter

1. To post a message, or "Tweet", on Twitter, log in to Twitter and you will see a page with "What are you doing?" with an empty box below it:



If you have logged into Twitter and you don't see this, then you are on a different page. Click on "Home" (at the top towards the right) to get to this page.

2. Type the message you wish to send into the box that is below "What are you doing?":



3. Click on the box containing the word "update" located below the box you just typed in. Your tweet will appear in the list of tweets below the word "Home":




Your tweet is now public and will appear for people who follow you. It will appear in their list of tweets on their home page. Your tweet can also appear in the results of searches by people using Twitter, Google and other methods of searching the web.

How to Log in to Twitter

If you have already signed up for a twitter account, you can log in by going to http://twitter.com:



Click on "Sign in" in the top right hand corner and the following box will appear:



Enter your twitter Username in the box under "Username or email":



Then press the TAB key to go to the next line and enter your password. The password will not appear, instead a large dot will appear for each character you type:



The click on the "Sign in" box, just below where you entered the password. If you entered everything correctly you are now logged in. You should see something like this:

How to Log out of Twitter

To stop using Twitter you can go to another web page. When you come back to Twitter you will still be logged in.

However, if you want to log out of Twitter altogether click on the 'Sign out' at the top right hand corner.



Then the sign in page appears:



You are no longer signed into Twitter. To use most of the features of Twitter you will need to log in again.

How to Sign up to Twitter - A Step by Step Guide

You've heard all about Twitter and you want to tweet too. But before you jump in, you'd like to know exactly what the Twitter sign up requires. No point getting half way through the process and finding out you need to give them a email address, and you don't have an address you'd like to share with Twitter.

To help you, here is the complete Twitter sign up process, step by step.

Step 1. Go to the Twitter page: http://twitter.com
You should see the following page:

[you can click on any of these images to enlarge them]

Step 2. Click on the green box containing the words: "Sign up now". That will take you to the sign up page:


Don't worry if you have different words other than 'bombast' and '12' in that box.

Step 3. If the cursor (a flashing vertical line) is not in the box next to "Full Name", then click in that box now. The text "enter your first and last name" will appear to the right of the box, if it was not there already.



Step 4. Type your name and it will appear in the box. When you have finished typing your name, press the TAB button (not the ENTER key) to move to the next box. The text next to the first box will change green and say 'ok'. The cursor will now be in the box next to "Username".



Step 5. Think up the Username that you want to have for Twitter and enter it in the box.
You will be known on Twitter by your username. People will use your username to send you messages and to refer to your tweets in their tweets. It is best to make your username short if possible, as tweets are limited to 140 characters and so every letter counts. Something involving your name, your initials or a nickname works well.

Once you stop typing your username, Twitter will search to see if that username has already been used. If it has been used, you will see the red message "username has already been taken":


Keep trying different usernames until you get the message "ok".



Step 6. Now that you have the "ok" message, press TAB to move to the box next to "Password".



Step 7. Decide on the password you will use for Twitter and enter it in the box. You will not be able to see what you type. A large dot will appear for each key pressed.
The password must be at least 6 characters long. Twitter will tell you how good your password is as you type it. Don't use something that would be easy to guess, like your name or initials. Bad passwords are short and contain only lower case letters. Better passwords contain numbers as well as letters, and even use other characters too. Longer passwords are generally better than shorter ones. In the next few images Twitter tells me how good my password is as I type it in: first "Too Short", then "Weak", then "Good", then "Strong", then "Very Strong".








Step 8. Press TAB to move to the next box, the box next to "Email".



Step 9. Enter your email address and press TAB. This is the email address that Twitter will use if they need to contact you. (For example, if you forget your password.) It should be an email address that you already use to send and receive mail.



Step 10. Twitter will regularly send you information about Twitter to your email address. If you do not wish to receive this, click to untick the box next to "I want the inside scoop - please send me email updates!"

Step 11. In the box next to "Type the words above" type the distorted words (known as a CAPTCHA) that appear in the larger box. In this case the words are "bombast" and "12".
If you find the words too hard to read, you can get two different words by clicking on "Get two new words", which is located to the right of the words.



Step 12. As it says at the bottom of the screen: "By clicking on 'Create my account'... you confirm that you accept the Terms of Service". So you may want to click on the Terms of Service and see if they are acceptable to you. If you wish to accept the Terms of Service, click on "Create my account".

If you did not type the CAPTCHA words correctly you will get the red message towards the bottom of the screen: "Please try to match the 2 words shown above, or try the audio version":



If this happens enter the 2 new words that appear, or click on "Hear a set of words" to do this aurally. Then click "Create my account" again.

If all has gone well you will be asked to see if your friends are on Twitter:


If you have an email account with Gmail, Yahoo or AOL, Twitter can look in your address book for contacts whose emails match the emails of users on Twitter. Twitter will then ask if you want to follow these users on Twitter. You can skip this if you wish to, or if you don't have an email account with Gmail, Yahoo or AOL.

Note that Twitter cannot look at your address book without knowing the password of your email account. In general, it is a bad idea to give anyone your email password. You should keep it secret. With your password someone can read and download your email, send other people email that appears to come from you, and change the settings on your email account. If you wish to use this feature of the Twitter sign up, I would recommend changing your password after Twitter has used it. I'm not saying that Twitter can't be trusted with your password. I am saying that the best security practice is for no one but you to know your email password. If you like your current email password, then change your password to something temporary, let Twitter use the temporary password, then change it back to the password you are used to using.

Step 13. Either click on "skip this step" at the bottom of the screen (and continue this guide from Step 18), or click on Gmail, Yahoo or AOL, depending upon which company you have your email with. If you click on Gmail you will see the following (you see something very similar for Yahoo and AOL):



Step 14: Enter your email address and password:



Step 15: Click on 'Continue'. Twitter will search your address book for Twitter users. While you wait the following will appear:


When this finishes, Twitter shows a list of your contacts on Twitter (I have blurred the email address in the image so that I don't get spam):



Step 16. All contacts are selected by default. Remove any contacts that you do not wish to follow by clicking on the tick boxes to remove the ticks. Click "Continue".

If there are people in your address book who are not on Twitter, you will be asked to invite them:


You can see the invitation message that will be sent by clicking on "See what you'll send them":



Step 17. Either click on "skip this step" in blue at the bottom of the screen or click the tick box next to anyone you wish to invite, and then click 'Invite'.

Twitter will then present some popular Twitter users for you to follow:


Step 18. Click the boxes next to those you wish to follow:


Step 19. Click 'Finish' or click on "skip this step" if you do not wish to follow any of the suggestions.

You have now created you account and are logged in and ready to use Twitter.

Helpful Guides Coming Soon

Welcome to my blog. I've just got the site going, but check back soon. I will be posting clear and simple guides on how to use the most popular web sites.