Archive for June, 2007:
Uploading photos for blogging
Table of contents for Uploading Images to Blogs
- Picnik makes posting images fast
- Uploading photos for blogging
Miss Terra from DST (she’s the queen of the newsletter there) asked about a quick way to post photos & layouts to her blog. This isn’t a one click, but in playing with the widget, I think digiscrappers may REALLY like it for there desktop too.
I can feel another series coming on! I’ll do a 2nd post about how to take fast screenshots to put on your blog. Both of these are dependent on your having a Yahoo account & use Flickr.
Now if you haven’t heard, my sister will tell you how much I love widgets. (she’s probably rolling her eyes about now!) So this is a set of widgets available from Yahoo. First I’ll show you how it works, then how to get it.
What it is - the widget is a picture frame on your desktop with a nice black frame:
- it can be resized & made large enough to almost fill screen
- slideshow of photos from Flickr or another photo source
- lots of flexibility - you can view your photos or anyone’s (it’s cool!)
How do you upload photos with it?
- In the top right there is a button for uploading
- This widget opens & you can click & drag image(s) in from ACDSee Photo Manager or Explorer
- Fill in the information for Flickr, add tags, choose privacy level
- Click on Upload Photos & you can see it uploading, then it appears in the frame - it’s that easy!
Now to get it the image(s) on your blog:
- In the little upload box, click on Edit Uploaded Photos on Flickr
- That opens Flickr in your browser.
- Double click on your photo, then click on Open Photo Page under image on the right
- Right click & choose Copy Image location & paste into your blog
- If you’re in Wordpress, use dimensions of 99% x 99% if the image is too large.
- This is what you get (I didn’t use the 99% for this - it’s called constraining)
You can download & install the Yahoo Widgets here.
A couple of comments:
- After the install, you get a toolbar of widgets on the right of your desktop.
- I deleted many of them.
- I don’t know how much junk comes down with the these things.
- I like the slideshow playing though. I’m not sure if it will slow down my computer.
- I’ll let you know on these things.
Update - I deleted many widget & hid most & am quite happy with the result. I think these will be quite useful! Want to see? You can put a webcam image in there Heidi! (She’s getting a new one on Monday…)
Subscribe to the comments for this postACDSee has new website & blog
I’ve been actively involved in the digiscrapping community for almost two years now & it’s amazing to see how it’s evolved!
ACDSee has launched their new website, www.acdsee.com that reflects their commitment & dedication to digiscrappers. Heidi & I have been writing our own tutorials for some time & we know how much people love ACDSee Photo Manager, so it’s awesome to see the company create a Home segment on their website that features digiscrappers.
I’ll give you a quick tour:
- tutorials with a downloadable pdf document
- Profiles of Digiscrappers (click on Profiles on the right)
- Becky Prochnow
- Jeannie Molle
- Edeline Marta
- Petra Prijs
- Downloadable Video tutorial
- Profiles of Digiscrappers:
- Sue Cummings - designer extraordinaire at Oscraps.com!
- Chris Campbell
- Connie Bensen - yes, tis me
I’ve gotten to know these ladies in various ways, and they’re all amazing! I won’t share usernames, but there’s photos & some of their work behind each link if want to browse. Maybe you know them?!!
And check out the ACDSee blog!
As we look for new ways to communicate with our customers, we thought that a blog was a great way for all of us to get to know each other. At ACD we not only create quality products, but we also use them. We are photographers, graphic designers & scrapbookers just like you. And we know that many of you are just as excited to talk about our products as we are!
This is a place to share your thoughts, comments, & ideas. Someone listed above told me she’s an ACDSee stalker. There you go! A place to talk with ACDSee staff directly. So go tell them what you think.
Evernote 2.0 a Great Organizational Tool
Evernote 2.0 has become my choice for organizers. I tried Google notebook but I wasn’t consistent with it (and you know how that goes – or doesn’t go I should say!).
- It’s a powerful FREE program!
- Copy & paste notes in
- Deleted notes can be retrieved
- Very intuitive – right click on most anything for options
- Can easily change dates of notes
- Making them more prominent
- Or into the future
- Click & drag URL’s in from the address bar & they remain clickable!
- Click & drag images in & a clickable link to their origin is created
- This is very handy for digishopping ideas
For cataloging your notes
- Premade categories like To-Do are offered
- Can make your own categories
- Assign multiple categories to one entry
- Add a cute icon for each category
- Clicking on the category brings up only those notes
Finding a free Wiki!
Table of contents for Wikis as Websites
- What is a Wiki?
- Examples of Wikis
- Finding a free Wiki!
- Have you used a Wiki yet?
Heidi’s input on creating a wiki:
Want to create your own free wiki? Want to know where to start?
- First, figure out what you would like to do with your wiki.
- Do you want a public (viewable by all the web) or private (viewable by a select few)?
- Do you want it editable by the public or select few?
- Then look for wiki’s that meet those criteria. (i.e. Wetpaint only offers public wiki’s.)
- Next, go to one of the free wiki websites listed below and play with them. Some provide a sandbox. A sandbox is really a place to try out the wiki and make changes.
- In the sandbox, Try to edit something and see if you like the editor.
- If they don’t have a sandbox or place to edit pages, just sign-up for a wiki and try edit a few pages.
- If you don’t like the editor or it’s not user friendly, people are not going to want to use the wiki.
- Try to add a page and see if that is easy.
- Find a site you like the editor and adding pages is easy? Then sign-up and get your own free wiki. But before you invest hours into it. Play with the settings (change the style, add a few pages, add a little bit of content.) Do you still like it? You are not committed to it yet. If it isn’t easy, go to another one and try it out.
- Once you have picked a free wiki that you like, add a little content and THEN share with your friends or family.
Free Wiki’s that I have tried and my thoughts on them:
Wetpaint is probably the easiest wiki to start using. You sign up and start creating. The editor that you use is probably the most user friendly of all the wikis that I have seen. If you have media content (photobucket slideshow or Youtube video) that is super easy to post with their widgets.
What I didn’t like about it was the ads and the restrictions.
- Google ads
- All wetpaint’s are viewable by the public
- Wetpaint wikis can be changed editable by all or by specific wetpaint users
- Limited Styles of the look of your wiki
- Restricted type of content. For example you can not put certain types of widgets/ads in your wiki.
The pbwiki is by my favorite free wiki that I have tried and use for a private collaborative project. The editor isn’t quite as friendly as Wetpaint’s editor but is still easy too use.
- Only ads are seen in bottom right hand corner and they are from pbwiki wanting you to upgrade past the free account.
- The wiki can be private (seen only by those you give the password too) or public.
- Allow if everyone or particular users can edit the wiki.
- They have youtube widget for video, and Bubbleshare or Slide widgets for photos but no Photobucket widget.
- Allows you to enter in code given on websites to insert in your own widgets. (Switch to Source mode and paste in your code.) This allows you to easily insert photobucket slideshows, ads, etc.
- Very few styles but allows you to make changes to these styles
- Easily backup your wiki with their tool.
Here are few other free hosted wiki sites you can try:
Here is website that compares wiki’s in a nice clean format. I have already selected the 6 free hosted wiki’s for you to view them side by side:
Wiki Matrix comparing the 6 free hosted websites.
And if you want to host your own wiki, that is altogether another thing. That involves technical knowledge of web hosting, choosing the wiki software, installing the wiki, configuring it, and then you can start using it. For more info on that, visit WikiMatrix and start reading…
ACDSee has a Creative Team Call!
ACDSee has a newly redesigned website featuring DigiScrappers! Check it out at ACDSee.com
ACDSee is looking for 5 talented, creative digiscrappers to showcase the power of ACDSee Photo Editor!
ACDSee products are available in a number of languages. If you’re fluent in German, French or other languages, please apply!
ACDSee’s Creative Team will:
- Use ACDSee Photo Editor to create layouts & post them at select sites
- Have layouts published for advertising purposes
- Promote products in forums & groups
- Be enthusiastic & have fun!
Compensation:
- Month 1 & 2: Licensed copy of ACDSee Photo Editor ($69.99), Four Seasons Collection of digital kits by 12 of today’s top digital designers including Jen Wilson, Misty Cato, Gina Miller and more ($42.00)
- Month 3: Licensed copy of ACDSee Photo Manager ($39.99)
-
Month 4+
How to apply
1. Your name & Email Address
2. Links to two layouts made using ACDSee Photo Editor
(30 day trial can be downloaded here & tutorials are located here)
3. Link to your favorite gallery
4. A list of current creative teams that you’re on
Answer the following questions:
5. How long have you been digiscrapping?
6. What software have you used for digital scrapbooking?
7. Are you comfortable with explaining instructions to someone else? Give an example of how you would explain how to do one of the following using ACDSee Photo Editor:
- You have a frame and photo. How do you get the frame and photo the right size?
- How to matte a photo.
Deadline: Call ends on July 2, 2007
ACDSee 9 User Guide
A newly published user guide for ACDSee Photo Manager 9 was released on ACDSee’s website. I know a problem with a lot of tutorials that Connie and I created are they concentrate on how to organize your supplies with ACDSee Photo Manager 9 but not necessarily how to USE ACDSee Photo Manager 9. I have heard comments wishing there was a user guide for this software and now you can get it here from ACDSee’s website:
ACDSee Photo Manager 9 User Guide
This is a pdf format, so save it and refer to it. It is very user friendly and explains a lot of things. There are tips and hints through-out it too! Just another resource to add to our growing list of helps for using ACDSee products.
Examples of Wikis
Table of contents for Wikis as Websites
- What is a Wiki?
- Examples of Wikis
- Finding a free Wiki!
- Have you used a Wiki yet?
In this post, What is a Wiki? , I gave a definition of what a wiki is. And the video does a great job of showing that it’s an online site where you edit, revise & save. To be honest the planning for a camping trip reminded me of our preparations for scrapping retreats!
But feedback was that people didn’t understand the correlation between a wiki & a website. Ok, let’s try to make that clearer. Today I’m going to share some examples of wikis that you can visit to get the idea of a wiki being used as a website. Then we’ll tell you how to build your own wiki that can serve as a website!
Browse the wiki that I made using Wetpaint’s free wiki platform. I created that in 3 hours. It’s very fast & easy to do.
DigiScrapInfo.com’s first Wiki - check out the Navigation panel on the left
These are two of my favorite pages (and keep in mind I created them & my technical skills are average)
Examples of layouts done in ACDSee Photo Editor
Wetpaint.com is a free solution for wiki’s, and I loved how easy it was for me to use, but my sister didn’t like the Google ads & thought it was too limiting. She had a larger vision, so she went & found new wiki platforms that were more flexible. And I think what she has done with our wiki to create DigiScrapInfo.com is amazing! She added our forums & blog to the wiki & it makes a great website. There is no comparison if you look at both of them.
So if a Wetpaint wiki looks interesting to you & you don’t want to be bothered by technical issues, give it a whirl! Even if you move to a more advanced wiki later, it’s easy to copy & paste the content over (that’s what we did).
What do you think of the format for the Wetpaint wiki? Do the Google ads bother you?
DigiScrapping Blog Carnival
It’s almost time for the first blog carnival. I had joined in the one that Christina Smith had going & that was fun. Hummie has taken the time to put this together & has more info. here on her blog.
What is a blog carnival? It’s a list of blog posts related to new sites, trends, tutorials, contests, and news about digiscrapping all in one place. Submitting things is really easy! You just go here & paste in the permalink to a specific blog post. When you click anywhere, it will autofill the other lines. Then it will be included in the next carnival.
Hummie is hosting the June 15th one. We here at DigiScrapInfo are hosting the July 1st one. There’s a widget down in the bottom right of our blog where you can see who’s hosting in the future. It should be fun!
What is a Wiki?
Table of contents for Wikis as Websites
I have a new series for you on wiki’s & how easy they are to use as a website!
I will start with a definition, then give you some examples in the next blog post & then in future blog posts, we’ll give you some options to create your own website on a wiki. My technical experience is limited, but I created a nice wiki in 3 hrs, so you can too!
Not so long ago if you wanted a website, you had to hire someone to do it. Now, wiki’s offer the perfect way to create a site. A website has some limitations even if you have created it yourself. My understanding is that making changes easily is difficult because things are ‘hard-coded’ which translates to me to be ‘don’t ask to change it often’.
What is a wiki? a wiki is a user based document online… they were used for doing collaborative work, but now they are a simple way to create a website. Wikipedia is the most famous one.
Most of our website is a wiki (but it’s closed, we’re not allowing anyone to add to it). We really like our wiki because it’s so flexible in how you can display information & images. We also have a private wiki where Heidi & I work on documents together. We live 300 miles apart, so it’s necessary & so much easier than email a document back & forth! At first, we started using Google Doc’s, but a wiki is much better!
In my next post I’ll show you examples of digiscrapping wiki’s. Here’s a video that’s short & a MUST see! I’ve watched it a few times & love the *SNAP*.
I found the video on James Lim’s blog
Our DigiScrapping Visitors
We have a map on our site that many have put pins in, but I enjoy looking at the map on Google Analytics (click on City View). It’s collecting everyone’s location.
It’s quite interesting! The big orange circle in the middle of North America represents my visits (don’t ask!). The size of the dot increases with more visitors. And where people are coming from is just fascinating! There are many from Europe. Some are coming from Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Budapest, etc…
Take a minute to leave a comment & tell us where you’re from & if you have a blog, link us to it. Then I can do some blog hopping this weekend!
