No Stopping Me Now …

There really is no stopping me now! This 'Windows Live Writer' programme is so easy to use that I can't think that I shall go back to editing things in either the WYSIWYG (Compose) window, or in the HTML window, or in a text editor - ever again!

This programme even has an HTML window (I'm actually typing in it at the moment) that allows you to insert snippets of code that aren't carried as standard. The 'capital' letter I use to start each new post, for example!

 

My Patch ...

 

With a single click you can insert a map, as I have done above. It is the area of Lisbon, Portugal in which I live. Precisely at the apex of the L-shaped building, bottom left, that you can't see in the thumbnail (sorry about that). The bit of 'green' is the space I use to walk the dog and let him exercise a little a couple of times a day. On reflection, it really is a crime to keep a hyper-active Boxer locked up in a 7th floor flat!

 

Adding images is a GAS. The proggy actually manages to add all sorts of little effects that it would take you a month of Sundays to reproduce with CSS or HTML. The above took one click to produce rounded corners.

Now, how cool is that?

I shall post more about the functionality of 'Windows Live Writer' as I discover the various things it has to offer. In the meantime, why don't you take it for a test drive? The learning curve is so shallow that you'll wonder why this has been such a well-kept secret for so long!

Have a blast …

 

TIP - Post Formatting

You compose your 'post'. That's the hard part. You post your 'post'. That's the easy part. You sit back and wait for somebody to visit, read and comment. That's the satisfactory part.

In between you get on with your life. As we all do. But isn't it amazing that when the Blogging-bug has struck that we all appear to schedule our everyday tasks around our (sacrosanct) blogging time?

So, why not make it easy on yourself? Why not pre-plan how you compose and publish your blog posts so that when you hit the "PUBLISH POST" button you can be assured that they will appear exactly how you envisaged they would?

1. Select 'Dashboard' or 'Customise' (depending where you are on your Blog) and you will be taken to your 'Template' page. Select 'Settings', then 'Formatting' and you will be faced with the page you can see in the pic below. Take note of the two areas I mention. These are the main changes you may need to make, but check the rest of the boxes in case you've overlooked something. Don't forget to "Save Settings" after you've made your changes. These changes aren't critical, unlike changes you make to the template; they can always get changed back if you aren't satisfied with what you've done!

 

 

2. In the pic below you will see that I have already inserted a few 'justified' paragraph 'starts' and 'ends', because that is how I compose my posts. Your mileage will vary. I also have the whole code for the 'Up Arrow' that I use at the end of each post. This makes life easy for me as I don't have to remember the exact code, and since it appears in exactly the same place in each post (repetitive coding) I decided to insert it into the formatting template for all future posts.

 

 

I also have a series of 'hyphens' (dashes) included as a standard divider between 'sections' of a post. It was something I started in my earlier posts and something I decided I would continue to do for subsequent ones. I could find a post with a dashed line and copy/paste it into the new post, but this way is so much easier, don't you think?

You may wish to use a horizontal rule instead and you can achieve that by using the 'Compose' feature and selecting it from the menu, or if you are using the HTML feature just type the following ...

<hr width="50%" align="center">

... to give you a horizontal rule that is 50% of the width of the display area, and which is centred in the middle of the page.

More tips to come ... !

 

Change Your Header - NEW Blogger

NEW Blogger instructions, probably for the majority of users, and probably the one that will interest most of the visitors to this site looking for simple instructions on how to change a 'Header' or 'Banner'.

Have you got your image ready? Is the image width set to the width of your current template? Please remember I am dealing specifically with 'Rounders-3' and 'Rounders-4', and in those the width of the image is the same as the width of the template - 740 pixels. The height of the image is what you choose to make it, but I suggest 150 pixels for a balanced display.

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1. Backup your old template. Either by using the built-in backup feature in Blogger, or by copy/pasting it to a text editor of your choice, and saving it in a location you can find easily and with a name that makes sense to you!

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2. Clicking on 'Customise' on your main page, or 'Layout' on your Dashboard will bring you to the "Add and Arrange Page Elements" of the 'Template' tab. This is the new feature of NEW-Blogger in which you can literally 'drag-and-drop' modules wherever you wish. The one we are interested in is the 'Header' panel at the top:

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3. When you click on 'Edit' (see pic on top) it takes you to a new window in which you are asked to make a few choices. I have annotated the choices you should make so I won't reiterate them here:

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4. Nearly done - but not quite! Those pesky codes in the /* Blog Header still need to be changed so that the image will sit exactly where you want it, centred at the top of the page. It is exactly the same criteria that was edited in OLD-Blogger, so take a look at the graphic below and do the editing . . .

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That's it. You wanted more?

The examples for this sort of editing are all around you. The banner header on this site was inserted using exactly the same editing techniques. The banner header on David McMahon's blog (using the Rounders-3 template), and the banner header on Cecilia Mercado's blog, Dance with the Sun (using the Rounders-4 template), were also edited using the same instructions I've posted above.

If things don't work out first time, just restore the site to the way it was by using the saved template you copied before you started. Then e-mail me directly and I will visit your site and see what I can do for you. Don't forget to add as much information about what went wrong.

Over to you . . .

 

TIP - Picture displays 101(b)

This is an experiment to attempt to 'integrate' the lightbox variant, called "Thickbox", into a standard Blogger post.

If it works, then I've cracked this prickly little problem. Keep your fingers crossed, because if this thing comes off, none of our blogs are going to be viewed the same way ever again!

And if this works I will try the 'Gallery' display for pictures, still using 'Thickbox', but it will require much more editing of the HTML in the post. I am sure that a lot of people will throw their hands up in horror at this suggestion, but I will attempt to walk you through all the processes, step by step, until editing your pictures becomes second nature.

And I will explain HOW in the next post.

Promise!

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Update: 11 May 2007

Darn, but it only works 'partially'.

The script is being called successfully in both these examples, but the larger image that was uploaded to the Blogger server for the first attempt is 'refusing' to open!

The image on the right opens as it is expected to, the only difference is that the larger image is on a different server (my own). Don't understand why this is happening, but I am investigating . . .

Watch this space!

Promise!

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Update: 19 May 2007

Cracked it! I will post the step-by-step 'tute' as soon as I've managed to get all the screen captures necessary to make things crystal clear.

Watch out for a new post!