For Aspiring Authors

Looks like Dave has figured the posting thing out. Here are some tips:

There are two modes for posting, HTML and Compose. Compose is the one that most people use. It is a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. HTML is an advanced mode that has more flexibility, but you have to know the Hyper-Text Markup Language. Compose mode contains a toolbar that has many word processing type functions (font, size, bold, italic, text color, links, justification, ordered and unordered lists, quotations, spell check, insert image and a remove formatting button). As far as I know, that are no limits to the length of a post, when you get to the bottom of the text box, just keep typing and the editor will add a scroll bar on the right side. Not all functions work in all browsers. I suggest doing your posting in Firefox. You do not have to give up your browser of choice to do this. Just download Firefox, connect to the internet in your normal manner, then open Firefox and log in to lakepeople.blogspot.com. Blogger even recommends Firefox in their help files:

"AOL users, as well as those unaccounted for here (Netscape, Opera, etc.), would be wise to use Mozilla Firefox in order to have the best possible experience using Blogger."

Putting photos in your post is a little tricky. Even though Blogger tries to re-size the photos as it uploads them, I have found that it is better to re-size the photos yourself using a photo editor. I like Picasa, it's free and does a decent job. Eventually, any photo you have in Picasa will have a one-button "publish to blog" feature. When you do publish a photo, there is a check box for how to wrap text to your photo. The published photo will always show up in the top of the page, not where you would like it based on where your cursor was when you inserted the photo. Not to worry, just grab the photo and drag it (hold down the left mouse button) to where you wanted and drop.

It is a good idea to save your post as a draft periodically while you are composing your post. This keeps from having to re-type everything if you lose it. I got into the habit of saving a draft after each paragraph after losing several posts on other blogs. Don't be afraid to use the Help files, they are chock full of good info if you run into trouble, but you will want to save your post as a draft before navigating away from the post editor (a good way to lose a post, believe me). Another good way to seek help while posting in Firefox is to right-click on the help button and select "Open in new tab". Firefox allows tabbed browsing, which lets you quickly switch between your post and the Help files while having both open simultaneously.

Putting a link in your post is very easy. Just highlight the text where you want the link to appear, click the link button in the toolbar, and a pop-up window will open where you can type or paste the URL of the page you would like to link to.

Hope this helps, I currently have Dave and Andrea set up as authors and will be happy to set up anyone else that requests it.

Benny