Blogs and Macs

[RogerS]

Well this blog thing is looking to be a right pain in the proverbial and for the first time I'm cursing the overly complicated way and lack of consistent use of terms that Apple are using with their software. I had the same problem with iTunes believe it or not. For some reason the way that Apple s/w developers think programs should work/run and the logical way that i think they should run are diametrically opposed. rant over.

I've got a neat piece of software for the mac called blogmac but the blog isn't going to be much use if i can't get pictures into it and that is where I am stuck.

Somehow I have to publish a photoalbum and then get blogmac to find it. Problem is in iphoto where the photos reside, under the share menu there are three options to publish (send to Iweb, photocast and .mac slides) and I have no idea which one to use. I've tried all three options but when I go to blogmac and select the pulldown for .mac iphoto albums nothing is there.

Searching through Apples discussion forums I'm struggling to see the link between idisk, iweb, iphoto and the homepage.

So any help very welcome.

 

[Chris Knight]

Roger, try Wordpress - see my blog about a motorcycle here http://www.woodgen.com/wordpress/

 

[mr]

If you're having troubles with the proprietary Apple stuff then why not use one of the online free services - like Blogger https://www.blogger.com/start

Wordpress is a very nice system but you also need hosting for it.
Cheers Mike

 

[wizer]

another vote for wordpress here, it's fabby

 

[Smudger]

I use iWeb - couldn't be easier, especially with a .Mac account.

 

[RogerS]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I've taken a quick look but the downside seems to be that I need to set-up places to store the images such as flickr..I know that's not that difficult...just that it will take managing and if I'm going to do this then I need to make it as easy for me to use as possible. If I can keep it all within the Mac domain then that's more manageable. At least that is the theory!

Meanwhile the good news is that buried deep in one of my hard disks I discovered that I have a WYSIWYG editor called iWeb and that links in seamlessly to both my Mac and also my .mac account which set-up today. OK - doesn't have the fully fledged functionality of the other two maybe but I think it will do for now. One of the things that I like is that I can drag and drop my photo's from iPhoto straight into the webpage and then resize them in iWeb.

 

[Smudger]

Yes...

Have a look here - this was done with iWeb in about an hour.

http://web.mac.com/r.c.smith/iWeb/My Web and Blog/Welcome.html

 

[RogerS]

I use iWeb - couldn't be easier, especially with a .Mac account.

Our posts crossed!

 

[RogerS]

That's interesting. How did you create the third page/thread from your home page?

 

[Smudger]

Do you mean the Carshalton Page? It was just a blank page, I think, with pictures & text drag&dropped. I'll fire up iWeb and get back.

 

[Smudger]

File - New Page - Blank Page

It was the first page that I did, and I hadn't realised that the Photo page would give me slideshows etc.

I must do a new blog entry...

 

[dedee]

Roger,
my own, Alf's and Philly's are all on Blogger.com and it is possible to load the images straight to the blog. I have to admit that this is a bit hit and miss with me but Alf seems to manage OK with the MAC.

Off now for a week - hope you get it sussed

Andy

 

[RogerS]

Taking a quick look at your all the excellent blogs has confirmed to me that perhaps a blog is not quite the right solution as it seems only to allow one image per article.

It's great as an online diary but not for a project as I don't think that that will be enough to get over what's going on/what the issues are etc and hopefully to provoke a dialogue with folks.

 

[ByronBlack]

Wordpress does NOT required a hosting account! You can signup for a free hosted account with wordpress already installed and ready to go. See my girlfriends blog in the link in my signature.

Roger, iWeb is not really a great program for blogging - wordpress is far superior, it's all run on the web and does not require any proprietry working. Adding images is very easy - my girlfriend uploads all her images from a mac mini so its very mac friendly. It is the fastest and easiest and totally free way to get up and running that I know of.

Roger, in wordpress you can have as many photo's as you like in a post. Again, see the link below for examples. Tracey (SWMBO) also has a third party gallery/slideshow plugin (which is also free) on her blog and that makes project style (step by step) images very easy to do.

 

[mr]

Wordpress does NOT required a hosting account!

Oh look http://wordpress.com/ you're so right. Ive always "done" wordpress by installing to a server yada yada yada. In light of that there's no need to look elsewhere. Wordpress cant be beat for simple but fully featured blogging.

Cheers Mike

 

[RogerS]

Roger, iWeb is not really a great program for blogging - wordpress is far superior, it's all run on the web and does not require any proprietry working. Adding images is very easy - my girlfriend uploads all her images from a mac mini so its very mac friendly. It is the fastest and easiest and totally free way to get up and running that I know of.
Roger

Like the slideshow. How does she upload her images? I'm used to opening iPhoto, looking at the one that I want and dragging it into the application...you know, the kindof lazy smart way that us mac users like to do things. I tried that with slideshow and that didn't work. Seems like you have to navigate specifically to the slide you want using the folder/file list....just like in PC world :wink: and for that reason, as they say in Dragons' Den, I'm out

Quite like blog.mac but I do like slideshow

Just tried wordpress. Initial thoughts are it's very slow to create pages, moving around etc. Clearly must depend on their server load. Uploading images is a pain in the butt. Big time. It seems to only understand lala land and insists on me navigating to every damn picture using the file/folder menu. But I organise my photo's into albums and I've as yet been unable to locate where the albums might be stored. So finding an image out of 1000+ (and growing) is a non-starter. BUT I maybe am missing an easier way to upload the images?

blog.mac is seamlessly integrated with my mac and .mac and knows all about my albums.

 

[RogerS]

I've finally got round to starting a blog on the cottage but as I wanted to make it interactive and to let readers comment, I'm a bit stuck to see how this functionality works.

Is it an attribute of the blog program or something else entirely?

blog.mac seems to link into something called haloscan but haloscan seems to need any person commenting to have their own blog where they post comments about my blog and haloscan links them together (I think)
which seems naff.

blogger as used by Alf, for example, requires you to log in but wordpress seems to let anyone add a comment.

Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

 

[ByronBlack]

Roger, I believe with wordpress you can restrict as to who comments on your posts. I'll check with SWMBO as to the exact name of this attribute.

Just been notified. In wordpress you do the following:

1. Login
2. Go to 'Options'
3. Go to 'Discussion'
4. Scroll down to the section that reads: "Before a comment appears"

You have three options:

1. An administrator must always approve the comment
2. Comment author must fill out name and email
3. Comment author must have previously approved comments.

You can click any of these options on.

That should cover it for wordpress. I can't help with the other two systems i'm afraid.

Hope that helps.

 

[Alf]

blogger as used by Alf, for example, requires you to log in but wordpress seems to let anyone add a comment.

As far as I'm aware anyone can comment on my Blog without logging in - it's certainly set up that way. Am I deluded? It's hard to know when you're already logged in! :?

Cheers, Alf