A note on blog technology.

To make this a modern day multimedia blog I searched for different ways to incorporate audio, video and images within my posts. To be blunt, it's not rocket science but some things took me many hours google-ing and I thought if I exposed what I had done a bit more it would not only be a useful reference for me and other students in later blogs but might even score me some marks for presentation and/or use of technology too! :)


You want: An image gallery/ slideshow viewer.
Example at the end of my post here.
Web address: http://www.ricocheting.com/code/javascript/html-generator/image-slideshow
Explanation: Upload you images onto the web somewhere, photobucket, blogger, wherever, and then get the direct image address (normally right click on image, select copy/view image url or similiar, you know you've got it if it ends in .jpg  /.gif/.png/.bmp). Then just follow the website above, generate code, paste it into the the Edit HTML bit when making a blog post. NOTE be sure to follow advice in the websites comments about resizing /forcing a specific width, otherwise your images might end up way bigger than the confines of your post. I know it looks a bit basic but you can read through the comments for tips on jazzing it up (or just play around with it yourself), and its the best you can get that works in blogger and isn't plastered with advertisements.


You want: To make a .gif you can upload, from pictures or film clips.

I tested this but haven't had reason to use it yet.

Web address: http://www.createagif.net/

Explanation: This isn't the best way to make a gif, as you don't have much control, but it's easy. Just follow the website. You'll upload files from your pc, then when it's done theirs actually a blogger icon on the side, click that and copy the code into the Edit HTML tab when creating a post.

You want: To embed just music/sound into your blog.
Example in my post here.

Web address: none, see code below

Explanation: Took me ages trying to find a nice clean music playing bar with no adds that actually worked on blogger, here it is! not so complicated, your sound will need to be hosted somewhere like http://www.zshare.net/ or maybe its already out there, for example i found this song on beemp3.com. Then you need that url again (you'll know its right if it ends in .mp3 /.wav/.midi/someotherdots). Then just past that url into this code below, after audioUrl=. Here i've allready got an url in for the ting tings, it ends at the qoute marks after .mp3, be sure to leave the quote marks in. Code:

<embed flashvars="audioUrl=http://alyshadeshae.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Fuck-That-Bitch-Up-Thats-Not-My-Name-The-Ting-Tings.mp3?stdfro.mp3" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"></embed>

You want: To embed a microsoft powerpoint/ word doc into your blog.

Example in my post here.

Web address: http://www.scribd.com/

Explanation: You'll need to sign up/log in with your facebook account here, and i'm pretty sure the website will tell you the rest.

You want: To link to an exact part of a webpage.
Example, a link in my post here to wikipedia directs the user straight to the part of the page entitled Functions

Web address: none, see below

Explanation: Sometimes when your linking someone to a website with lots of text on you might want to direct them to the middle portion. For SOME WEBSITES theirs an easy trick to do this. Find a defining word/subheading/ect that you want people to read on that page. Copy the URL for the whole page, but on the end just add #Wordtoskipto. for example www.cutecats.com/#Furry, would open up the page at the point with the word Furry on. (example is fictional.) NOTE, this WON'T always work, because modern websites are all structured much differently, but you can try it and see.

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Ps. Blogger does have some nifty features but It can also get a bit overwhelmed when you do a lot of formatting, my biggest annoyance is when i change my font style/size in the post, publish it, only to see that it's not changed at all. Blogger gets a bit bloated, if you look at the html you can see it formats every little paragraph. If this is causing you frustration use the 'T' with the little cross on it next to the spell check at the top to remove all the formatting around selected text and start afresh. Just be careful you don't apply it to links/videos ect or else they'll all be gone!