Dressing Up Your Blog.... Nirvana Recipe

If you are a PC owner, then it is for you. Mac crowd in computer terms is already in paradise (LOL)

This is for those who are not in Paradise yet, and who are still alive and fighting with not so perfect PCs. Here’s how to achieve the nirvana the way I do…

Open Microsoft Word and just type you post.
First advantage is that you are not going to lose your work if you accidentally clicked the Back button in AR, or the Proxy Server Error raises its ugly head again. Microsoft Word “remembers” what you have and you can easily restore the text by clicking “Undo”.

The other is that you do not need to use any HTML program like Kompozer, do not need to switch from IE to Firefox to use Scribefire, which is not great...

I set the font to Calibri because this was the first font besides Courier that I tried, which did not give me trouble. It sometimes allows me to use Verdana, but it is a hit and miss, and I am quite content with Calibri, so that’s what I use by default.

I usually choose font size 14 like in this post. You can adjust the size depending on how good your eyes are. You can underline it, and/or italicize it in Word, but if you want to “Strike thorough”, you can do it after you have saved it in AR.

Do not format in Word beyond just typing. Use Calibri (any size) font type, italicized or underlined and set the colors. No fancy stuff. Do not add images in Word. I will tell you how to do it later.

Do not create links in Word. Do it in AR, but not in Word. It should be just text, or it would not work. 

After your thoughts are set on “paper”, you can highlight it (Control + A) and set the color of the font like you normally do. You can then decide that you would like to make each new paragraph, or a few words from this paragraph in bold like I did in this post. You can highlight any part of the text and set the color for it.

You can also opt for the background color. Again, just highlight the portion of the text, go to the icon “Text Highlight Color” on Microsoft Word menu and apply the color you like (very limited choices, though) like I did it here.

When you are done with the text, fonts and colors go to your AR and click “New Blog Entry” button. You should have both of them on your screen, the AR page and the Word page. Highlight the post you have in Word and drag (not copy and paste, but drag) it into AR page. It will be gone from your Word page but you will see it in your AR window. Type the title, choose “Draft” mode and submit. Now you will not lose the information.

The key here is dragging. If you copy and paste, it would look great, all the colors there, but when you press submit, it will come out as plain, as if you did it in AR blog window.

After you already have saved it in draft mode, you are not going to lose your work, but I still keep the word page open, until I finally publish it Members Only or Public. What’s left are some minor details. At this stage I add a photo or clip art the way you would normally do it in AR, and do “Strike Through” if I want to...this is it.

If you want to use a link to another post like when you are referring to another post (Jon Zolsky just posted Dressing Up.... Blogging Nirvana Recipe) you can either drag it from another post right into yours (in Edit mode, of course), but then it will be in much bigger font, so I drag it to Word, change the font to Calibri, set the size (usually the same 14 pt), and then highlight in Word and drag into AR. This way it will have the right size, and it will be already a link. All other links you do the way you always do in AR.

What if for some reason it is not showing with font and colors when you dragged into AR and submitted it? Easy fix. Open it again in Word, highlight the text, find and click “Clear Formatting” icon to remove the formatting. Then change the font, size, add color and you are done in less than a minute. This is a very easy and quick fix. Remember, you can drag anything from Word to AR window. But it is so much easier to work in Word.

If you did it the way I do, you will see it exactly the way you see mine here as this is how I did it. Is it a nirvana? Well, for blogging purposes it is the closest thing for me.

*  Images courtesy: Dressing up the Blog Brianna McCarthy, Color pencils david.nikonvscanon, and two last images by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com. All via Flickr.com