Adding Pictures to Your Active Rain Blog--The 20/20 Rule

Adding Pictures to Your Active Rain Blog--The 20/20 Rule

I was teaching a blogging class at our Association recently and one of the questions was about posting your photos and clip art on your blog. "How do I keep my text/words from running into my pictures?"  I explained the 20/20 rule to him.  This week I received an email asking me that same question from another member.  Today as I was reading a post, I noticed that the text was butting up against the bloggers clip art and thought it was time I share this simple rule with you for posting pictures on your blog.  Here's a simple tutorial on posting photos/clip art to your blog:

Is this what you're seeing after you've uploaded a photo?

Do you see how the words appear to be running under the photo?

Here's what you need to do to prevent/correct this problem.  After you've clicked on the Upload button, you'll remain on the 'General' tab--this is where you enter your picture's description and title here.

No need to click 'Update' just yet...you've got just a little more to do!  Next you click on the 'Appearance' tab:

 

Now, select the following:

1.  Where do you want the photo/clip art positioned in relation to your text?  Under ALIGNMENT (click on the pull down arrow), I generally click either left or right (and alternate each photo so that all of the photos aren't weighing one side of the page down!)

 

2.  What size do you want your photo to be?  First, you want to be sure that the 'CONSTRAIN PROPORTIONS' box is checked.  Then, I typically select 300 - 400 in the first box, which is the horizontal box,  then  TAB over to the second box, which will automatically change the size of the photo to the proper proportion (rather than 'stretching' the photo so that it's skewed and out of its original proportion).  

3.  Then tab down to the VERTICAL space and type in 20
4.  Next, tab down to the HORIZONTAL box and type  20 again.  (Hence, my 20/20 rule!)

5.  If you'd like to add a border to your photo, you can type the size of the border that you'd like.  I rarely use this feature but, anything from 1-3 is what you'll see used to provide a border around your photo/clip art.

6.  Then, click UPDATE and you're through!

Now, if you don't like one of the adjustments that you've made, simply click on the photo, which will show a border around the photo.  Clicking the photo ALSO highlights the INSERT/EDIT IMAGE box; simply click on that box.  You can tab over to appearance and make the adjustment that you need!  Don't forget to click the UPDATE button when you're finished! 

 

See the difference?

 

Remember that pictures keep your readers engaged--even just one breaks the monotony of an all-text post which alot of readers avoid.  You'll notice that featured blogs all have photos or clip art to keep the reader's attention--it's just easier on the eyes than text alone!

Happy Blogging Everyone!