Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

setup alternatives on blogger and wordpress

<< < (2/2)

app103:
If you want to paste without formatting, this plugin may come in handy, but I only use it for pasting in 3rd party code, like for inserting youtube videos.

The carriage-return issue is why I usually do my posts like this:


* Construct all text for a post in a simple text editor like Notepad. (this gets around the carriage-return issue)
* Paste into WLW.
* Check spelling.
* Insert all hyperlinks.
* Insert images. (select text wrapping I want, tweak margins, set border, set "link to" target, resize image by either dragging or setting size on "advanced" tab, set alt text on "advanced" tab.)
* Format headers, bullets, blockquotes, etc.
* Switch to "Source" tab at bottom and tweak HTML directly if necessary.
* Apply tags/categories.
* Preview.
* Publish.
And I do not edit previously published posts in Blogger's editor. I only edit in WLW. Even if you don't see it listed in the "Recently Posted" you can still access older posts by clicking "more" at the bottom of that list. Combining different editors will do nothing but give you headaches, no matter what editors you use. They all have their quirks. Pick one editor and stick with it. This goes for Wordpress as well as Blogger.

And I think I would like to try the initial blog posts, month-by-month, to be top-down rather than the more-common upside down most-recent-first within blogs.  Is this sensible ?  I think I saw that in Wordpress but perhaps it is not available in Blogger ?
-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 04:52 AM)
--- End quote ---

So, if you have 100 posts, you would like post #1 (your oldest) at the top of page 1 and post #100 (your most recent) buried at the bottom of page 20? (that is what reversing the order would do, and why you don't do that unless you are building a "static" site and will never have more posts than can fit on page 1.)

Steven Avery:
Hi Folks,

The plugin looks nice, and will help a little. Plus I use Eudora as my Notepad equivalent and if there is no carriage return workaround I may compose first in Eudora (either fulll or just those small sections where the carriage return issue comes up) and then bring over to WLW before publishing.  It is surprising that the carriage return issue comes up .. I have seen it in other editors as well in the past.  

However the main double-step is the clipboard pics .. apparently they have to go directly into WLW as clipboard-->Eudora works and clipboard-->WLW but not clipboard-->Eudora-->WLW.  

> Insert images. (select text wrapping I want, tweak margins, set border, set "link to" target, resize image by either dragging or setting size on "advanced" tab, set alt text on "advanced" tab.)

That I will have to play with.

> And I do not edit previously published posts in Blogger's editor. I only edit in WLW. Even if you don't see it listed in the "Recently Posted" you can still access older posts by clicking "more" at the bottom of that list.

So it will re-edit to the same location I presume, ie. it knows the post. Understood. I was just hoping to do very small tweaks directly in blogger but if it don't work, it is as it is.

> So, if you have 100 posts, you would like post #1 (your oldest) at the top of page 1 and post #100 (your most recent)

I was only thinking within the month actually.  Or perhaps the last week, as one page of seven posts, something like that.  I thought I saw a setting in Wordpress.  Now I realize that this is always problematic, yet when you have a series of blog posts (say 5 posts on one topic) .. it sure would be nice to have them rightside up !   Granted you could bring them over to a webpage and then put them in order.  I guess you would have to have hand-control, series by series, to make this workable, and that is outside blog-city.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

app103:
However the main double-step is the clipboard pics .. apparently they have to go directly into WLW as clipboard-->Eudora works and clipboard-->WLW but not clipboard-->Eudora-->WLW.
-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 11:05 AM)
--- End quote ---

That was why I suggested a basic text editor like notepad. You don't insert images in notepad...you can't. Do the text first and then copy & paste it. Do all the image related stuff after you have all your text in place, just how you want it. Then just place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph and insert the image. The image settings will allow you to decide if you want it on the left or right and let you tweak the margins so the text looks right when it wraps around it. This isn't exactly something an email client is well suited for.

> Insert images. (select text wrapping I want, tweak margins, set border, set "link to" target, resize image by either dragging or setting size on "advanced" tab, set alt text on "advanced" tab.)

That I will have to play with.
-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 11:05 AM)
--- End quote ---

The image stuff in WLW is one of its strongest points. It's one of the primary reasons to use WLW. It even does stuff like watermarking.

So it will re-edit to the same location I presume, ie. it knows the post. Understood. I was just hoping to do very small tweaks directly in blogger but if it don't work, it is as it is.
-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 11:05 AM)
--- End quote ---

Every post has an ID. When you retrieve the post for editing, it also retrieves the ID which is passed back when you republish it.

I have WLW set to open my blog after publishing a post, so I can see exactly what it looks like. I can do any tweaking that is needed right in the still open WLW and republish it if I need to.

Now I realize that this is always problematic, yet when you have a series of blog posts (say 5 posts on one topic) .. it sure would be nice to have them rightside up !
-Steven Avery (September 12, 2010, 11:05 AM)
--- End quote ---

This is why when you write a series, you start the post by mentioning that it is a series and linking to the previous parts somewhere in your post. If it is just 2 parts, it's ok to link to the previous post in the first paragraph. If it is a 5 part series, I'd do it at the end, putting the titles for each post in a bulleted list, in order, and then linking them to the posts. I would do this in each of the parts, so that no matter when someone discovers a post that is in the series (might arrive from a search engine), they would have the full list of links to all the parts. (yes, that does mean going back and editing the older posts in the series when you publish the next one)

Also, don't underestimate the power of a sidebar (or footer) link list widget. If you have a few of these series, make a widget for each series, adding the links to all the parts. It's a good way to promote the series to anyone that may stumble across the blog and not even know about them. You could even use a template that has a 3 column footer, and put most of the link lists there, with one on the sidebar, and manually rotate them around every once in awhile...drag & drop the widgets so the one on the sidebar changes. (also a great way to make something old, new again)

app103:
There are some other reasons to use Disqus than the obvious, one of them being that you can see the comments left on other blogs by other Disqus members. Could help you decide if something really is spam or not, when you can check a person's commenting history. You can also ban commenters based on info like name, email address, IP, etc...then flush all that person's comments from your blog if they left any in the past.

Also, a lot of disqus users have their comment feed added to social networking sites like facebook, friendfeed, buzz, cliqset, etc. Sometimes someone sees a comment in one of their friends stream and it catches their eye and they get introduced to your blog. Yes, every Disqus comment made by someone that does life streaming is a free ad banner for your site.

Commenting
   Wordpress .. native system plus plug-in, if available on WP host, or later when self-host if not available now
-Steven Avery (September 11, 2010, 05:14 AM)
--- End quote ---

It's included in the latest versions of WP, including the version used on wordpress.com. Just have to turn it on, nothing to install...much easier than setting it up on Blogger (which really isn't that hard).  ;)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page