Category Archives: revised e-courses

Oh my goodness, everything’s changed!

Posted on Thursday 26 May 2011 by Alice • 0 Comments
Fairy Blog Mother: blogging help

Click my logo to ask a question!

I’ve been watching the new developments of WordPress.com recently, as they dramatically update and change the existing blogging platform they offer. This means, of course, that I need to update all my existing e-courses, and create new ones to accommodate all the new features they have in place – ah, happy days!

So over the coming weeks I’ve got my work cut out, which is probably a good thing. I was going to put all I know into a series of books, and it’s not a good idea to fill it with old stuff when there is a brand new version ready and waiting to be explored!

During this time I’ll also review how I explain the processes of blogging, to make it compatible to as many people as possible, and this is where you guys can help out. I need as many queries as possible about existing and new developments in WordPress.com (and I will find out whether the newest version of WordPress.org contains these new features after I’ve updated), so I can find out the answers and provide a coherent and user-friendly e-course or blog post to explain everything!

I rely on my readers and followers to point out things I have missed or overseen. I do try to cover every little thing about using WordPress, but it’s amazing how much I don’t notice, or assume is unimportant, when actually it has been troubling someone or preventing another from progressing further. Help me by telling me everything you want to know, and I will do my best to answer – just click on my logo in this post to send me an email – and get your friends and colleagues to participate too, the more the merrier!

Filed Under: blogs and blogging, Free Wordpress blogs, non-jargon, revised e-courses

How to make pictures look better

Posted on Tuesday 3 May 2011 by Alice • 1 Comment
Fairy Blog Mother: blogging help

Fairy Blog Mother

In my last post you learned how to put a picture into a post. But there’s a lot more to pictures than you think, how they are positioned, creating padding around them, making them readable for the search engines – even understanding how to prepare your pictures beforehand.

When I started working for my boss and her newsletter provider, I was astounded how her staff struggled to prepare the pictures so they were suitable to be inserted. Her newsletter system was very particular, and could only cope with jpegs that were below 30MB, and the software available to use was Paint, which didn’t even work on my computer!

It took me a while to persuade my boss to buy Photoshop Elements, but once purchased, transforming pictures became a doddle. I taught my colleagues about dots per square inch, and that 72dpi is the most suitable for the web. I showed them how to crop a picture to show the best subject matter, how to reduce it in size without distortion, and how to to save it within the required size-frame. I even showed them how to collect images from different sources and convert them into jpegs so they could be used appropriately.

Suddenly the newsletters started to brighten up, look more interesting and attract more attention. And the same can be for your blog.

Click on your newly inserted picture, and you’ll get these icons:

It’s obvious that the red circle on the right means delete, but if you want to edit your picture, click on the left icon and you’ll get this menu:

Here you can change the alignment of your picture, whether it is placed left, right or centre within the page (from where you place your cursor) and the text will be automatically wrapped around it. (If this doesn’t work, which might be the case in some WordPress.org blogs, then you’ll need to add in a caption because then the image will be placed in a caption box which the text can wrap around.) If you don’t need to worry about your picture’s alignment, leave it as ‘None’.

I explained about alternative text in my previous email: alt tags describe the pictures for the benefit of the search engines who can’t read images, so use appropriate and relevant keywords, and for blind people whose computers read the alt tags.

Below that you can see the picture’s special URL, which will link to the picture’s allocated page within your blog. But you can edit that field to any other URL destination, internal or external to your blog, or to your email by typing ‘mailto:’ immediately before your email address.

If you’re happy with these changes, click on ‘Update’.

However, there is an ‘Advanced Settings’ tab at the top:

Here you can change the size of your picture to whatever you want. A tip: change either the width or the height, and then leave or make the other field blank, WordPress will adjust the picture accordingly without distorting it.

I use the image properties for creating ‘padding’ around my pictures. (This isn’t necessary if you have a caption, as padding is automatically created for your caption box.) Padding is the white space in between the picture and the text, preventing them from jutting against each other, and using this can make a big difference when presenting your pictures. I generally put anything from 5 to 10 in the boxes (vertical and horizontal), but you can experiment to what suits you.

The border box obviously provides a border for your picture, but be lenient – use between 1 to 3 unless you want to make a statement!

Again, once you’ve finished editing your picture, click on the ‘Update’ button.

So to sum up, make sure your picture is the correct size, is 72 dots per square inch, is aligned within your text, has alt text added to it, has a link added behind it, and has appropriate padding for ‘breathing space’ within the text. Then you’ll see a difference between professional picture placing and those that don’t know…

Filed Under: blogs and blogging, design makes a difference, Free Wordpress blogs, revised e-courses, Self-hosted Wordpress blogs

How to place pictures into your post

Posted on Monday 2 May 2011 by Alice • 1 Comment
Fairy Blog Mother: blogging help

Fairy Blog Mother

One of my blogging ‘guinea pigs’ asked me about how to ‘do’ pictures correctly. This is quite a big subject, so I’ve broken it up into two posts – here is the first one:

There are three ways to put a picture into your post, whether its straight from your computer, from your media library or if you know its URL. Go to the picture icon above this field you type your post content into:

You’ll get a menu sitting on your blacked-out screen:

If you are uploading your picture from your computer, once you’ve clicked on ‘Select Files’, it will bring up your computer’s browser for you to find the picture you want to use. Select it by clicking on the right file, and your picture will be uploaded into your Media Library for use:

Now you can give your picture a title (for recognition), add in alternative text (this is the words you put behind your picture for the search engines to read, and is usually as a description for blind users to ‘hear’ it), a caption (this puts the picture in a box with the caption underneath), a description (for the search engines), the picture’s own URL (for HTML use and for the second uploading option) and the alignment and size of the picture. After this has been completed you then choose to either upload it into the post (it will appear where you put your cursor) or save into the Media Library.

The second uploading option uses the picture’s URL, which is either provided for you by the Media Library with each picture’s storage menu, or if you have uploaded your picture into the blog’s server, to be accessed like a document:

A URL of a stored picture from the Media Library looks like this: http://fairyblogmother.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/4/P-computer2.jpg and it shows the picture has been automatically stored away in the uploads file and given a date. It is wise to highlight and copy these URLs to paste them correctly to make sure you don’t miss anything.

A URL from a picture you’ve uploaded into your server will look like this: http://fairyblogmother.co.uk/images/C-FormDashboard1.2.jpg which shows I have uploaded this picture into my images file in my FTP provider – ideal if you have a lot of pictures that might clutter up your Media Library. When you type this URL into its field, you don’t need to include the full URL, just /images/C-FormDashboard1.2.jpg will do.

Whatever URL your picture has, remember to fill it in appropriately. If it is correct, a green tick will appear next to it, if wrong, you will see a red cross, which means you have typed it incorrectly. You need to be scrupulously accurate. Don’t forget to click the ‘Insert into Post’ button.

The next option is to upload your picture directly from your Media Library, which will be if you have used it previously for another post, or if you saved your picture rather than placing it in a post:

Select the picture you want through the ‘Show’ link, and after you’ve added in all the necessary data, click the ‘Insert into Post’ button.

My next post will show you what you can do with your pictures once you’ve placed them in your post, to make them look good or perform appropriately for their chosen task.

Filed Under: blogs and blogging, Free Wordpress blogs, revised e-courses, Self-hosted Wordpress blogs

How to create your Twitter badge (revised)

Posted on Friday 15 April 2011 by Alice • 0 Comments
Fairy Blog Mother: blogging help

Fairy Blog Mother

It’s been almost exactly a year since I wrote a post instructing you how to put a Twitter badge on your blog. Of course nothing stays the same, and Twitter has changed its make-up since, making the above post out of date.

So here is a revised version (and it looks like I’ll have to do the same for some of my other e-courses, too).

First go to your Twitter profile and click on your username at the top right corner to activate the drop-down menu:

Click on ‘Settings’:

Pan down to the bottom:

And click on the ‘Resources’ link:

Select ‘Widgets’ and click on the relevant link:

Choose ‘My Website’:

Then select ‘Profile Widget’:

And you’ll see the default Twitter badge for your tweets. Now you can customise it. Click on ‘Preferences’:

…to select how many entries you wish to show and whether you want a scroll-bar or not. Then click on ‘Appearance’:

…to change the colours within your badge. Click on each coloured square:

…to bring up the menu to programme in your blog’s colour, especially if you know the hex-colour (mine is #7549b1) and then click on ‘done’:

After you’ve selected all the right colours, click on ‘Dimensions’:

…to change the width as the same as your blog’s sidebar, and the desired length. Once you’ve done, click on ‘Finish and Grab Code’:

…and the code will be presented for you to highlight, copy and insert into a Text Widget in your sidebar.

If you want to know how to do that, find the place in the original post where this leaves off, and go on from there.

Filed Under: Free Wordpress blogs, revised e-courses, Self-hosted Wordpress blogs, social networking