We will also be talking about incorporating pictures into these blogs, which are great for helping to tell the story.
All of these tools are what we would call cloud computing, that is the information lives on a server somewhere owned by a company. You don’t need any special software on your computer, just something to write text and move pictures from your camera to your computer.
Using Blogger, I set up a quick blog for our youth group’s trip to New Orleans. I first went to Blogger.com and clicked on create a blog.
After signing in, I chose a name for the blog (that appears on the top bar of your browser window, this web page your reading should say Tech Geek). You will also choose the blog address. Try to make the blog address as simple as possible because it will go at the beginning of the website address for your blog. Using Blogger your website address will be [your blog address].blogger.com.
After getting your blog named, you can then choose a pre-set template for colors and layout. There are many choices.
After that, you can begin writing your first post.
Amazingly simple, huh? Wordpress.com is very similar, except your address will end in Wordpress.org. Writing a post is much like writing an email in Gmail or Yahoo Mail or other online email editors, or to say another way a simple version of Microsoft Word.
**Wordpress.org is a different service, to create a free and simple blog you want wordpress.com. For a small fee you can get a very high functioning pay blog with your own custom address at wordpress.com
Pictures
You will likely have some pictures that you want to highlight, say a great group photo or a kid with a great smile, and then there are probably going to be photos that are good but not great. I want to show you ways to post both of those photos.
To post a photo you want to highlight, simply click on the add image box on the toolbar. You will then get a simple wizard that will help you choose the file off of your hard drive to upload and set the layout for. This is a good method for the 2-5 photos that sum up the day.
However, you will likely have many pictures you want to show to your friends. The best way to do this is to upload the pictures to a photo sharing website such as Picasa (http://www.google.com/picasa/) or Flickr (Flickr.com).
Both of these services exist in “the cloud,” however you can download some software called Picasa from the same website that will help you organize and upload your photos (you don’t have to do this, however).
Uploading the photos to these website is pretty self explanatory, but the neat trick comes in embedding a slide show. In Flickr, I chose an album and then clicked on Slideshow. In the upper right corner I clicked on share and saw this:
What are we seeing here? The first line, “Grab the URL,” is the address to the slide show that you could insert in your blog to send people here to see the slideshow.
The second line is the code that will embed this slideshow directly into your blog.
To embed the slideshow, click copy to clipboard for the second line, “Grab the embed HTML:”
Then go back to your blog, and in the top right corner of the writing window click on Edit HTML. This changes what you are writing from regular text (where the computer adds code around it) to actual code. Insert the text you have copied to your clipboard in the writing window (ctrl+v or left click on the mouse). The code should be embedded.
When you click back to Compose (the regular editing mode), you may not see anything, but if you click on Publish this is what you will see:
Now the entire album will be visible and playable right there in the blog. This is a great way to document the trip day by day.
Picasa and Wordpress both function in very similar ways, as will the other tools that are out there.
Good luck blogging, and be sure to let your congregation know where they can read about your trip.
Andy Sahl will be blogging about Bethlehem's trip to the ELCA Youth Gathering - Jesus, Justice, Jazz 2009.
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