Ain't got the tools? Tools for making SMASHING blogs

Arsenal of Tools for creating your blogs

What to use to edit your posts? What about editing photos? You can write and do limited editing of your posts directly on AR or use a blog editor etc. but WAIT there is more!
 
Here is an arsenal of tools to use for making and editing blog posts. Most of these are free (free is good). I have tested and tried several different applications, software etc. and then settled into these tools (have not found a better alternative, yet anyway).


WRITING - EDITING YOUR POSTS
KompoZer - FREE
You download it into your computer and take it from there
Add colors, change font size, add links, add pics (if from your flickr acct etc.), make tables.... the list goes on
You can write with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) mode all the time, but you can go and look at and tweak the html source if you need to

!There has been some issues with using Kompozer with Internet Explorer (font colors don't carry over etc.). Maybe somebody can verify it that is still an issue. I use Firefox browser which I love for so many reasons.

The older version of Kompozer is Called Nvu, works the same way but I had issues with it kicking me out of the program while I was typing (argh) and upgraded to Kompozer.


PHOTO EDITING
Photoscape - FREE
Add frames, text, resize, add special effects, etc.
You can also combine several shots, make banners, etc (our AR header is done with this program), take screen shots etc.
Really great tool that has worked for me well
 
PHOTOS/ PHOTO EDITING - online
Flickr - Picnik FREE (paid subscription for Flicker pro account $24.95/yr and Picnik premium account $24.95/yr - I have paid both upgrades)
FLICKR
upload, store and use your photos from online (rather than storing them in your hard drive)
PICNIK
edit photos, add cool effects, frames, text etc.

Note - I can add the photos from Flickr to my posts while writing in Kompozer (or later when I have copied the post to Active Rain)
If I use photos from my computer I add them on the Activerain - post a new blog screen.
Personally I prefer to add all photos into my posts when I am looking at the text on Activerain. This way I am able to make sure the photos go where they need to and I can add the description tag to photos (important for google juice)

GRAPHS
MS Office Excel
I love, love, love Excel. It is so versatile, I learn something new every day about features that it has. (Yes I use it daily).
If you'd like a sample of what Excel can do see these graphs on one of my market reports (scroll down a bit)


CONVERTING to/from PDF/JPG/PNG etc.
ePDF converter and creator ($29.90 - this has been worth every penny)
convert word docs etc to PDF
convert files, to jpg, png, bmp....
how/where do I use this?  - converting docs to pdf, and I convert all the excel graphs to either png or jpg files in order to manipulate and post them on the blogs
this installs as a printer so it's really easy to use
e.g. you want to convert a word doc to pdf, select print from the menu, select epdfconverter and creator as the printer and save - that's it


I use/have
Firefox Browser
Windows Vista
I don't know if or how some of these work on MAC, older windows, or IE brower etc.


NOTE! If you use Firefox - COPY your completed post from Kompozer (or elsewhere) with RIGHT CLICKING your mouse and PASTE directly to AR with RIGHT CLICK. It's that easy!

NOTE #2! I do not use word or other word processing software to do the post as they add a lot of extra "junk" to the html code!


Rita

Disclaimer: Kenna Real Estate Blog does not guarantee nor is in any way responsible for the accuracy of the information provided herein, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied.

Copyright 2009.© Kenna Real Estate. Rita Burke. Denver Real Estate. All Rights Reserved. May 28th 2009. "Do you have the tools? Tools for posting your blogs."