Adventures in Technology

I thought that I would post some lessons I’ve learned during my interaction with Blogger, both in the past and with this current project.

• Never, ever, ever compose your post in Blogger.  Always write up your post in Word (or whatever word processing program you use).  Blogger is very temperamental, and you could easily lose your entire post (see Serge for an unfortunate example).  Plus, you’ll want to have all your work stored in Word so you can send it to Dr. Logan if necessary, and to have for your own records.

• After I’ve written up my post, I copy and paste the entire thing into Notepad.  This is because I want to erase the paragraph formatting that Word has imposed.  Things that are double spaced are difficult to read in the blog format, so by pasting it into Notepad, I can control it.  Just to note, Notepad will erase all your lists, bullets, underlines, bolds, and italics, so you will need to redo all these formats within the Blogger posting window.  You’ll also need to reinsert any links within the Blogger posting window.  This might seem like a lot of work and a pain in the ass, but I have found that it really pays off in terms of consistency.  Before pasting the text into the Blogger posting window, make sure you select your font (I use Arial, normal size) – this will apply that font to the text you’re pasting in.  Be sure to take advantage of the “Save Now” option in the posting window, which will save your draft.  You can also hit “Publish Now” and then “Edit Post” to re-do all the bold, italics, underlines, etc. if you think it will get messed up somehow.  

• Be consistent in your design, spacing, font choice and color.  Switching between different styles will make your readers twitchy.  Pick a format and stick with it.

• Contextualize your blog for your readers.  The easiest way to do this is to provide links to your classmates’ blogs.  Blogger makes providing this list very easy – there are gadgets for link lists, or blog lists that display all the blogs you currently follow.  In last night’s class discussion (21 September 2010) we talked about the way Theodore Dwight was reaching back into time, looking for a usable past and thinking he had found it with Madam Knight’s Journal.  Imagine that a hundred years from now, students and scholars stumbling upon your blog (hey, it could happen!).  Now, would you like to provide them with as much context as possible, so that your voice has a better chance of survival?  Or would you rather take your chances?   

• I also take advantage of the Interests box on the Profile page.  If you add interests, then you’re included in the blog roll of all other blogs who share that interest – you’re joining the “ongoing conversation” regarding these topics.

• Use the labels/tags gadget because it functions as an index for your blog.  It’s very easy to use and edit, and there are two display options available (list and cloud).  It also helped me because I could glance at the labels for each post, and remember what it was about without having to read through the entire post. 

• Hack your blog to personalize it.  There are tons of resources on the web, such as Peter’s Blogger's Tips and Tricks, which helped me to add a favicon to my site, and to personalize my AddThis buttons.  But please note, always, always, always back up your template before making any changes.  You can also copy and paste your template (after hitting the expand page widgets button) into Notepad and save it that way.  

• Chances are, you probably know someone who blogs or is familiar with html coding – take advantage of that.  I asked my friend Elena for help when I noticed all my images were showing up with a gray box despite having white backgrounds, something I thought happened because the image wasn’t transparent.  I asked her to reformat the picture (which, bless her heart, she did like 6 times) because I didn’t have the right programs to do so.  It turns out, that I was a moron, because my template preferences were set to add a gray border to all images (go to Design -> Template Designer -> Advanced Layout).  I figured this out at two o’clock in the morning when I finally Googled, “make my images appear with no border in Blogger” (or something like that) and up popped Peter’s website.  One of his posts explained that sometimes the default setting is for visible borders on all images.  He is an incredible resource, especially if you know only a little about html and Blogger.

I’m pretty willing to admit when I’ve made a mistake (the border on the images), or to share cool stuff I’ve found (these icons are amazing!), so expect more tidbits throughout the semester.  Similarly, if you’ve experienced problems with Blogger or have found ways to fix issues, please share with the rest of us.