Category: How To

Use PowerPoint or Keynote to Create Text Images

Sharon Gerald

I’m in the process of setting up another site, Trailing Eudora, and the way I have it set up requires that I apply a thumbnail image to each post.  That stumped me a little because the right image can be trouble to find or create.  Then of course there’s the issue of whether or not the image is actually legally or ethically available to post once it’s been found.  Plus, though I do appreciate the use of images in blog posts, I don’t feel the need to always have one every single time.  Sometimes I’d rather have just a colorful text box with a short excerpt from my post calling attention to it rather than a photograph, I told myself as I contemplated the how of coming up with a thumbnail image for every single post.  That’s when it struck me that the easiest way in the world to create a colorful text box that can be posted to a blog as an image is to make it as a slide in PowerPoint or Keynote.  From either program, an individual slide can be exported as a jpg image.

Easy peasy.  Problem solved.

And the same technique can be applied to adding text-based images to flyers or other documents as well.  Sometimes the easy answer is really the best one.

How to Have a Professional Blog on the Cheap and Easy

Sharon Gerald #

I’m paying for the privilege of keeping up this blog along with others. I don’t even want to talk about what I’m paying. I started out on Blogger in the ancient days of 2005. I flitted around from there mainly because I wanted to make my blogs look and feel like professional sites. I envied people who had unique designs and custom domains. Blogger was somewhat primitive then, just an entry-level approach.

My desire to move beyond entry-level brought me here, to a self-hosted WordPress site, and I love it. If you want to put a little extra time into your blog setup without having to be too terribly tech-proficient, WordPress might also be for you.

If you want something easier, cheaper, and still customizable, take another look at Blogger. It’s come a long way. To set up your own custom site on Blogger, just follow these steps:

(1) Go to www.blogger.com and set up an account.
(2) Follow Blogger’s prompts to create your blog.
(3) Go to a site like Blogger Templates to search for and download a template that appeals to you. This will provide far more template choices than the automatic Blogger setup, and your blog will look more unique than 90% of the Blogger blogs because most people just use the built in options.
(4) You’ve probably just downloaded something that comes in zip form. You’ll want to unzip it and find the xml file inside.
(5) Go to Layout and Edit HTML in your blog’s settings. At the upload template prompt, upload the xml file for the template you’ve selected.
(6) Go to Publishing under your blog’s settings. Click on Custom Domain. For $10 a year, you can purchase a unique domain name from Google.
(7) Go to Layout and Page Elements. If you click on Add a Gadget, you’ll see lots of options for sidebar widgets that can be added to your site. You might want to look at some other blogs to decide which ones you want.
(8) Start adding posts. You’re done.

This is very easy and very customizable. You can appear to have installed your own custom site without spending much money at all. If only I’d known before…

Remember, though, it’s about the content in the end. People will come to your blog no matter how it looks if they like what you have to say. Appearances help, but they don’t make up for nothing worth reading.