Have you been wondering how other ActiveRainers come up with all these custom graphics for their blogs?
Take, for example, the Calendar posted on my "outside" blog, the Business Plan graphic on one of my ActiveRain blogs this weekend, or the book and sign-carrying dog on my 12 Key Questions for All Home Sellers blog a few weeks ago. Be sure to click on these three links before you continue, so you can see examples of what this blog is about.
Well, the book and sign-carrying dog were created using a free and easy website I learned about on ActiveRain, called ImageChef. But here is my easy 10-step recipe for the other custom graphics:
IF your MS Pub document or graphic has 2 or more elements, such as clipart and a text box, group them as follows: (1) Click on Edit and Select All, (2) Cllick on Arrange and Group. Now all your elements are combined into one image
In MS Pub, click on Edit, Select All, and Copy
In MS Paint, click on Flie and New
In MS Paint, click on Edit and Paste
In MS Paint, click on Image and Crop
In MS Paint, click on File and Save As
Choose the picture file on your computer where you want to save this (I created a new folder called "Custom Clipart") and save it there.
In Internet Explorer, open Shrink Pictures or Irfanview and follow directions to size your new graphic image
In ActiveRain, insert your new custom graphic image using the same tool you use to insert photos
Thanks to Brian Block, I learned that you can follow a similar recipe after you create a graph or chart in Excel (instead of a document or graphic in MS Pub). I had been suffering from "graph envy" for months, and he showed me that the process was super-easy. Be sure to check it out!
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47 Comments on Recipe for a Custom Graphic on Your Blog
well thank you Margaret.....I can sell real estate but all this techo "stuff" in like Latin to me. I appreciate the play by play.... Now hopefully I can "play" with some results. Have a great one!
This is good stuff, Margaret. Thanks for sharing this information. I kept meaning to ask Brian about some of the graphics I had seen in his posts, and I like your custom graphics as well.
Desiree - I'm with you. Tech stuff scares me to death. This isn't too technical, though.
Brian - You're welcome. I hope you find it helpful!
Thesa - I'm sure there are other ways to do this, but this works for me - and I'm no techie.
Todd & Danielle - I'm always so grateful when people share how they do things, and this is one I hadn't seen before.
Bob - Thank you! As to saving the MS Pub image as a jpg file, I know I can do that with the document, but I don't know that I can do it for "just" one image on MS Pub. Do you know how to do that? If so, would you share?
I just experimented until I figured out the calendar - 'used a portrait style template, colored and shaded it to taste, and then just figured out the right size for the blog by trial and error.
Karen - I'm glad you like my blog. One thing, though... those are black-eyed Susan's - Maryland's state flower. If/when you get a minute, read the "About" - but I think most Marylanders will recognize them.
Jason - Thank you, I hope you can use it - and do read Brian's blog about his charts and graphs, if you haven't already.
MARGARET: I haven't used MS Publisher yet, but because of this post, I think that it's something that I should look into. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Margaret Great Post and I will use ImageChef - it is "hands down" better than anything I have used which has been ClipArt and filling shapes. Since I'm new to blogging this is a resource Ican use, Karen
Margaret-You're the best! Did I say You're the best? Oh my gosh, you really put yourself out there to make us all better and better. I love it. Thank you. You've put it into such simple steps that it's fool proof. I can't wait to give it a try. Just an FYI, I ran across a blog by Jeff Turner over the weekend which featured http://www.picnik.com/. I wonder if you can use them in conjunction with each other. We'll have to give it a try.
This is good stuff. Silly me, I had wondered where everyone was getting the cool graphics. Sally said you made her a logo - was that in MSPub other something else?
Jeff - Yes I did that logo for Saly in MS Pub, as well as the one for Woda's Words of Wisdom (I'm really not all that creative, as you will see from the similarity of the two logos). There are probably more sophisticated programs available, but I've found this one to be "ol' reliable" for me for years. I do most of my ads, flliers, and postcards on MS Pub, too.
Julie - Thanks for the hint about picknik, I'll have to check that out. As to sellers' written goals, the time when you will whip them out is at negotiations, right along side the offer. Thank you for the nice compliment!
Diane, I look forward to seeing some of these in your posts.
Karen - Isn't that the greatest?
Adam - If you already have MS Pub, as part of a software bundle, and you just don't use it, then give it a try. However, it's expensive, and I don't know if I'd buy it before looking for an alternative that does something similar. I couldn't live without MS Pub, so I look for bundled software that includes it each time I upgrade to a newer version of MS software.
Karen, it took me a long time to figure out what you were talking about. Then I realized it was the Black-eyed Susans. I certainly don't know any other state's flowers! And they are the same color as sunflowers... just several inches shorter and smaller and... lol. The point is, you like my new blog, and that is what's important, right?
Thom, I'll have to take a look! Glad to be of service.
oh oh yeah, I see now...No. In order to resize and crop it you will have to paint or MS Photo Editor.
It saves the whole page as the picture. Maybe customizing the size of the blank page. Instead of using the 8.5 x 11 use a 4x6 and put the calendar or graphic on there then save it as a jpg. I will play around with that in the morning. I think that will work for you.
First I just had to delete that HUGE photo of me - too many wrinkles showing! But I do appreciate your little demonstration and I copied/pasted your comment into a Word doc so I could have the benefit of your information at a later time. Thank you!
Second, You may be making this harder than it has to be. It's really easy to make your logo or graphic in any random size that is convenient to work with, select all, copy, and paste to MS Paint, then crop, and do your resizing when you insert the graphic into your document.
It takes less time to do this than it does to type the explanation.
In my experience, if the page you're working on is too small in MSPub when creating a graphic/logo etc., then you lose some resolution later when you've converted it to PNG or TIF. Be sure to use the "commercial printing" option when doing so. I don't save my masters anymore in JPG - too much loss. For web use you just resize the graphic down.
Jeff, You're right. That's why I just make it in a size that large enough to see and manipulate comfortably, because quality improves when youV shrink the image.
Margaret, if you ever write a book, I want the very first "signed" copy please! I need to get MS Publisher, soemthing else on my to do list. Thanks for the info.
Chris, you're right, you can create a logo with Photoshop or any number of other programs. These are not logos I created - they are ones I found online with the same letters as commenters initials, and I tried to attribute each to the appropriate individual or business that uses the logo. The point of the post, of course, was to get people thinking by referring them to that article, and followed up by some real life examples. How about you? Do you have a logo with your initials?
Donna, If I write a book, it will be more along the lines of my new series - Woda's Words of Wisdom (title created by Adam Waldman)... But I promise you autographed copy!
Beth - Oh that! I thought you were referring to the initials when you said something about spelling it out, and I thought that was very creative. 'Just changed the photo to grayscale, in MS Pub, put a wide pink border on it, dropped in the pink ribbon logo (found online), used the exact same process outlined in this blog post, and then uploaded it to my ActiveRain profile. Lots of other creative approaches out there - I think Sarah Cooper's may be the best, Ginger Wilcox did something, Bob Carney, and many others. Did you see Bob Carney's list of blogs about cancer?
I really liked your link to the calendar. Do you have to pay extra for this service ? How would I go about setting something similar like this up for myself? This is really a great idea. Not that I would have any events to enter. LOL. Just real good to know. Thanks, Beate
Beate - Glad you like my calendar. If you read this article over again, you'll see exactly how I created the graphic. I assembled the information posted on the calendar by searching the websites of various community organizations.
Great post. In fact, I just wrote one the other day asking for pointers. Michael Pierce was Johnny on the spot with his info. I am still learning this tech stuff so more to follow.....
Margaret, Thank you for this approach - it gives mr another avenue to explore. I've been using Power Point and Adobe Photoshop, but I think your plan is easier, Karen
Margaret Woda, Crofton Maryland Real Estate Crofton, MD More about me…
Long & Foster REALTORS
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Real Estate and community information for homebuyers, sellers, and rookie agents in Bowie, Crofton, Crownsville, Fort Meade, Gambrills, Odenton, Millersville, and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Proven systems - combining local expertise, professional experience, and technology - to give you a competitive edge when you buy or sell a home.
Margaret Woda, Crofton Maryland Real Estate
In MS Pub, create your document or graphic 
well thank you Margaret.....I can sell real estate but all this techo "stuff" in like Latin to me. I appreciate the play by play.... Now hopefully I can "play" with some results. Have a great one!