Office 2003 to Office 2007

If you have been living in the dark ages, and not yet on Office 2007 (like me and the place where I work), then here are some useful help items I have found, during my recent mini-quest to find out about Office 2007.

There are some great “Interactive Command Reference Guides” that can be downloaded from the Microsoft Website. Eg: Go to the downloads page at:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx and type into the Search bar at the top of the page, the words “Command Reference Guide”, then it should bring up a list of various downloads.

In particular there is one for Word, one for Excel, and one for PowerPoint.

They tell you how to do Office 2003 functions and operations in Office 2007, with little Flash Help movies that show you exactly what to do. Very Nice.


The PDF document below has some details and examples.

If you would like to have your own copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.

Alternatively, you can view or save the PDF by clicking the link below:
(Click the Browser's Back Button to return to this Blog).

Click here to open or save the PDF

Also there are some good free Office 2007 Tutorials at Baycon:

http://www.baycongroup.com/index.htm

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Flash SWFs Slide Show in AS 3.0

Playing above is a set of “Car Driving” Animations that my students made.

Unfortunately there is sometimes a glitch when the slide show plays through the first time. As you may see above, it sometimes plays "one and a bit" of the movie, then does a wobbly jump to the next movie. This glitch does not occur when the Flash slide show is ran locally on a stand alone computer, and it stops occurring when the slides go through for their second and third times etc.

The first time through, this Blog page has to download the movies from the internet, and this probably causes the delay glitch. However, second time through, the browser is probably getting the images from the temp files on the user's hard drive, and so faster load speed, and no delay glitches.
(If I ever find out how to remove the glitch, I will go back and modify this blog page. Maybe I don't have my Browser buffering set up properly ?).

The main reason I needed to make a slide show was to be able to present some student work at an open day and/or school assembly. And running stand alone on my laptop, it works just fine with never a jumpy glitch. :)

In fact, I had been wondering for quite a while how to make a set of individual Flash SWF files into an automated slideshow.

The answer to these ponderings was found at the “Flash and Math” website, in their “External Clips in Flash CS3” tutorial. This tutorial goes through step-by-step, how to create a FLA project that uses Action Script 3.0 code that runs several SWF files one after each other.

The resulting SWF provides a looping slide show of our SWF files.

The component SWF files that are in the Slide Show, need to be ActionScript 3.0 SWF files that play in a continuous loop, and do not themselves contain any Actionscript.

The tutorial for making the Slide Show is in two parts, at these Web addresses:

http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/externalclips/ext_clip1.html

http://www.flashandmath.com/intermediate/externalclips/ext_clip2.html

(There are also some further Parts 3 and 4 tutorials, but these are on how to control FLV video files using Actionscript, and not about SWF files.)

The Parts 1 and 2 web pages also have downloadable finished “FLA” files.

So if you just need to animate some SWF files, (and don’t have time to learn the ActionScript code), then download their finished FLA file, and rename your SWF files to clip0.swf, clip1.swf, and clip2.swf. Then make sure these files are located in the same directory as the downloaded FLA file.

The “Car Driving” animations that the students made, were developed by following an excellent set of instructions by Denise Etheridge, located at: http://www.baycongroup.com/flash/01_flash_5_tutorial.htm

The PDF document below, gives full instructions and details about setting up a Flash Slide Show of SWF files. It also includes how to put the end product onto the web in a blog page.

If you would like to have your own copy of this PDF, then simply click the save disk icon button on the PDF viewer, and you should be able to save it to your own hard disk.

Alternatively, you can view or save the PDF by clicking the link below:
(Click the Browser's Back Button to return to this Blog).

Click here to open or save the PDF

Enjoy, Big Passy Wasabi

Web 2.0 Maths at GEOGEBRA

My High School Mathematics Teacher would have loved the above interactive page for teaching Calculus.



Instead of having to hand-draw lots of Tangents on a whiteboard, the blue dot on the Parabolic curve can be dragged along, (by clicking on it and holding down the mouse button on the blue “T” dot), and it traces out the blue derivative straight line as we move the Tangent along the curve. (Keep going backwards and forwards with the tangent "T", until the straight line is nice and thick and clear).



Absolute Magic and sheer delight for math nerds like me !



But unfortunately no fun on Apple devices. The iPad fails to deliver yet again, because GeoGebra runs Java applications, and Apple devices don't do Java. Why any school would want to used IPads, and not wait for Android Java and Flash enabled tablets to be available, or just use Laptops, just doesn't make sense.



Click the link below to try out this interactive screen at the GeoGebra site:

(Note that it can take a minute or two for all of the Java to load in).

Use the web browser's back button to return to this Blog.



Do the "Tangent" Interaction at the GeoGebra Website



GeoGebra is officially at : http://www.geogebra.org , but the list in English of all the free resources is actually in their Wiki at:

http://www.geogebra.org/en/wiki/index.php/English .





Here is how the GeoGebra site describes itself :



"GeoGebra is a dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. On the one hand, GeoGebra is an interactive geometry system. You can do constructions with points, vectors, segments, lines, conic sections as well as functions and change them dynamically afterwards. On the other hand, equations and coordinates can be entered directly. Thus GeoGebra has the ability to deal with variables for numbers, vectors and points, finding derivatives and integrals of functions and offers commands like Root or Extremum. These two views are characteristic of GeoGebra: an expression in the algebra view corresponds to an object in the graphics view and vice versa”



(The web pages run Java applets to make this happen, and so there could be occasional security blocking issues on some school networks, but at home on the web it all works fine. Eg. At home simply click Yes or OK when your browser asks if it is ok to trust and run the Java).



There are many great interactive resources at GeoGebra.



Here is one, where the equation of a Circle can be manipulated, and the Circle auto re-draws, and can also be transformed into ellipses.



Eg. We can double click in the top left hand corner, where the circle's algebra equation is, and add number values in front of the x-squared, and y-squared, to graph elliptical shapes. (We can also edit the radius "r" value).







Click the link below to try out the Circle interactive screen at the GeoGebra site:

(Note that it can take a minute or two for all of the Java to load in).

Use the web browser's back button to return to this Blog.



Do the above "Circle" Interaction at the GeoGebra Website



Finally, here is another GeoGebra resource that is good for practicing the geometrical shapes of the different Quadrilaterals: Square, Rectangle, Rhombus, etc.







Click the link below to try out the Quadrilaterals interactive screen at the GeoGebra site:



(Note that it can take a minute or two for all of the Java to load in).

Use the web browser's back button to return to this Blog.



Do the "Quadrilaterals" Interaction at the GeoGebra Website



And so that is just some of GeoGebra; it's great for maths classroom demonstrations, and for students to use as well. Remember to always use this link to the Wiki, to get to the full list of interactive resources that are in English language: http://www.geogebra.org/en/wiki/index.php/English .



If you want to make your own GeoGebra resources, then you can join the community, and download the "How to Build Stuff" software onto your PC. learn how to use it, and contribute to the community. I have not yet investigated this aspect of GeoGebra. There are so many useful resources already made, and ready to go, that I have not actually been able to think of something I could add to the collection.





Finally, a couple of my favorite Geometry jokes:



Q. What did the Square do when he missed the last train home ?

A. He caught the Rhom Bus !



Q. What happened to the cute angle after she went out Night-Clubbing ?

A. She came home a wrecked angle !





Enjoy,

Big Passy Wasabi

The World of Web 2.0 TWITTER

Using Twitter For Your Personal Network

View more PDF documents from Mike Romard.

The above Slideshare is about why Twitter is useful to Educators.

To view the above Slideshare in Full Screen mode, simply click the bottom right hand corner "Slide Screen" icon. To get back to normal size and return to this blog, press the Escape key at any time.

For me, I get enough new information each day, simply by “Googling”, belonging to a couple of knowledge-sharing communities, and following various special interest Blogs. My information needs are asynchronous, and I do not need the “up to the moment” information supplied by the likes of Twitter. In fact Twitter would simply be information overload for me: (four different email accounts to check each day is more than enough) !

But for those who want to set up an account and try out Twitter, then the link below to the wiki written by Sue Waters, supplies an excellent and quite comprehensive set of instructions:

http://suewaters.wikispaces.com/twitter

The following Slideshare supplies some possible classroom uses for Twitter.

Twenty Five Interesting Ways To Use Twitter In

View more OpenOffice presentations from guest0b0302b.

To view the above Slideshare in Full Screen mode, simply click the bottom right hand corner "Slide Screen" icon. To get back to normal size and return to this blog, press the Escape key at any time.

Students might be engaged while using Twitter, (since so many of them are “communication junkies”), but my concern would be whether they would stay on-task, or just drift off into the idle gossip and chit chat of "Twitter Land".

Personally I do not have the time or inclination to use Twitter at all, but perhaps the new shorthand version “Flutter” will be better suited to my needs:




- Yes I am definitely a Flutter kind of guy !

And finally, here is a video by the very funny Lisa Nova, for those who do not particularly like the idea of Twitter, (or possibly for anyone with a sense of humour as twisted as mine).

Don’t be alarmed by the title, there is no mention of prostitution, and the two minute clip is fundamentally “child safe”.




Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

The Vast Online World of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 Tools to Inspire

View more Microsoft Word documents from tippydawn.

To see the above Slideshare in Full Screen mode, simply click the bottom right hand corner "Slide Screen" icon. To get back to normal size and return to this blog, press the Escape key at any time.

I am just beginning to realize how big Web 2.0 is ! There are probably thousands of applications out there, not just the ones shown in the above Slideshare.

If you want to see just how many Web 2.0 apps there are, then the following site is the place to go: http://www.go2web20.net/ .

The above site has pages of Web 2.0 applications. We can click on the icon of the app, and then it gives us a summary of what it does, and then we can click all the way through to that App's actual Website.

There is also a set of tag categories down the right hand side of the page, and so we could click on say "Music" to get a list of icons for a whole bunch of music related apps.

It's a big wild and bountiful e-world out there (or should that be "in there" ? )

So Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Seth Godin and Web 2.0

I stumbled onto "Seth Godin", as I have on a few things lately, simply by doing "Next Blog" while logged into my blog page. Doing this earlier today, I found a blog devoted to Business Marketing, and it kept mentioning this guy called "Seth Godin".

And so here is a short 2 minute YouTube video about Blogging.
It comes from http://www.openforum.com/ which is a business ideas site run by American Express.

It features Seth Godin, and if you want to find out all about him, then click to go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Godin , (and then use the browser back button to come back here).



Here is a good two minute video about internet Social Networking :



Finally, he has this interesting idea about forming Tribes, via the internet, and there is an interesting 12 minute video interview on this below:



There are plenty of other YouTube videos out there featuring Seth Godin, just go to http://www.youtube.com/ and type "Seth Godin" in the search bar.

There is also a link to his Blog at: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ in the right hand side bar of this blog.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

The Wonders of WORDLE

I knew I would eventually find a way of bringing the 1999 movie "The Matrix", out of the background and front of stage onto this blog sooner or later !

The above "Word Cloud" was created using the "Wordle" application at: www.wordle.net . Wordle is a Web 2.0 tool that is 100% free to use, and does not require input of an email address, or any signing up. Basically anyone can go to the website and use Wordle immediately. Note that the web address is .net and not .com, eg. http://www.wordle.com/ is an entirely different site.

The text that was used as input to generate the above Word Cloud, came from a synopsis of "The Matrix" movie, that was obtained from "IMDB" - the Internet Movies Database. IMDB ( http://www.imdb.com/ ) is a magnificent site that has information on just about every movie ever made. Check it out sometime.

The only potential difficulties for using WORDLE might be if your computer's Firewall blocks the Wordle Java applet from running, or if your Internet Browser is not setup to allow Java to run. Both of these problems are easily solved by reading through the information at: http://www.wordle.net/faq .

The Open Office PowerPoint below gives step by step information about How to Use WORDLE. (Click on the current slide to advance forwards each time.)

If you would like to download this PowerPoint, then use the following Link:

(Note the PPT file is 7meg in size and so can take three or four minutes to open)

View the above "WORDLE" Presentation as a higher quality MS 2003 PPT


The following Slideshare presentation gives some great ideas on how Wordle can be used for various projects, (particularly in school classrooms).

Note that the smudged screen mess is from her blackboard background, and
so there is no need to clean your PC monitor, (like I did :)
There are also links to good ideas at the end of her presentation.

To view the presentation full size, just click the "Slide Screen" icon in the bottom right hand corner of the Slideshare.

( Press the Escape key to come back to this page at normal size again ) .

Wordle Ideas

View more OpenOffice presentations from JenniferW.

And here are 25 more ways to use WORDLE in Classrooms:

Twenty Five Interesting Ways To Use Wordle In

View more OpenOffice presentations from rjensen.

and finally, at : http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/2008/10/top-20-uses-for-wordle.html is a list of 20 more educational ways to use WORDLE.

WORDLE is another one of those fun and useful Web 2.0 apps, that costs absolutely nothing to use, and so why not get right into it !

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

P.S. Check out the 4 minute YouTube video cartoon animation below on
"The Meatrix", which is a send up of the orginal "Matrix" movie. Nice animation example to share with students doing Adobe Flash, but with a very important message as well.

WallWisher Online Notice Board

The above Web page of resources for Junior High School Geometry was built using Wall Wisher. Click the link below to go to the "wall" in a new Web page window:

Click Here to view the Geometry Resources Wall

Wall Wisher can also be used to have an online group discussion, (that can be asynchronous) like in the following wall:

“Wall Wisher” is a Web 2.0 free online tool where anyone can build a "wall".
Everybody else can then go onto the internet and stick post-it notes electronically onto the wall, (and include linked Pictures, You Tube videos, PowerPoints, PDF documents, Excel Spreadsheets, or web page links). It was originally designed for birthday, anniversary or get well soon etc wishes. A whole group of people could add their messages for someone; and that person could then read them on the web. However, Wall Wisher can be used for educational purposes as well.

If you would like to view a PDF document that gives full step by step details on how to use Wall Wisher, then click the link below:

Click here to view a PDF on How to Use Wall Wisher


Sample Wall Wishers for Teachers

The following is a good example of Brainstorming:
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/slavery

The following one is a History of the UK’s involvement in Africa :
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/slchistoryscramble

Causes of World War II :
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/isthistory

Another one on causes of World War II:
http://wallwisher.com/wall/matthewj

And yet another one on the very popular World War II:
http://wallwisher.com/wall/SvqmKEV00p

This is a good example one for English teachers :
http://wallwisher.com/embed/vocabulary

A resources page of links to material that might be useful for English as Second Language Teachers:
http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/teachersweb20

Wall Wisher is 100% Free, easy to use, and lots of fun.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

SlideShare Examples for Teachers

Grammar - Adverb + Adjective; Noun + Noun

View more OpenOffice presentations from Evan Brammer.

Note that if you click the "Slide Screen" icon in the bottom right hand corner, you can watch this presentation full size on your screen. Press the Escape key to get back down to normal size again. Note that often we have to make it full size to be able to read all of the material on detailed slide shows.

What is Slide Share ?

"SlideShare" online presentations can be found at http://www.slideshare.net which is a Web 2.0 type site, where people can sign up and join the community. (Just remember to check your email afterwards and reply to the confirmation email, or you will not get full access) . However, you do not have to sign up to view the slideshows online, only to download them and make your own library.

Click this link to see the Slide Show at the start of this blog. at the Slide Share web site:

http://www.slideshare.net/ebrammer/adverb-adjective-noun-noun

Basically "SlideShare" it is where people can upload their PowerPoint presentations and have them shared and presented on the web page. Some of them even have "Get File" buttons so that you can download your own copy of the PPT, (in PowerPoint format). However sometimes the download does not always work fro some reason on presentations that are not so recent.

The other handy thing is that you can add "favorites", while signed-in on the SlideShare page, and thus build up your own personal library of presentations from anybody.

Here are just some of the thousands of slide share presentations available on the website. Check them out for your subject area, and also go to http://www.slideshare.net and use the top right hand search box to find hundreds more.


Slideshare Examples for School Teaching

English:

http://www.slideshare.net/ebrammer/adverb-adjective-noun-noun

http://www.slideshare.net/tichorsergio/have-possessive-adjectives

http://www.slideshare.net/richmel/adjective-1038342


Maths:

http://www.slideshare.net/richard_n413/basics-of-trigonometry-presentation

http://www.slideshare.net/MarkRosenhaus/geometry-in-nature


History:

http://www.slideshare.net/udteacher/hitler-early-years

http://www.slideshare.net/jjgarcia77/ancient-egyptian-history-presentation


Geography:

http://www.slideshare.net/juicygeography/oxbow-lakes

http://www.slideshare.net/duncanpatti/reading-topographic-maps-presentation

Science:

http://www.slideshare.net/guestf4812e/introductory-chemistry-chapter-1-power-point

http://www.slideshare.net/hughesydrummer/metals-chemistry-work


Religious Education:

http://www.slideshare.net/pcuadra/solemnity-of-all-saints

http://www.slideshare.net/guestdbf093/apostle-stuff

Food Technology / Cooking :

http://www.slideshare.net/thuyduong129/food-safety-and-technology


Phys Ed:

http://www.slideshare.net/millerrocks4/soccer-272866

http://www.slideshare.net/zmcdonal/australian-rules-football-tactics


Health: (Drugs)

http://www.slideshare.net/bcarriero/drug-abuse-1428548

http://www.slideshare.net/ravidiacare/alcohol-drug-abuse

Art :

http://www.slideshare.net/dil_engineer/history-of-art-per-historic-to-modern

ICT / Computers :

http://www.slideshare.net/kphillips/power-searching-within-google

http://www.slideshare.net/iarthur/intro-to-computer-hardware-presentation


and literally thousands of others.

Here is a Slide Show all about SlideShare itself:

http://www.slideshare.net/steven.anderson/the-digital-classroomslideshare-basics?type=document

Because it is a “document” and not a slide show, it is probably best to maximise it, (use the "full screen" icon at the very bottom right hand corner of the slideshare screen), and also use the scroll bar to read through it like a document, because the author seems to have made some pages a bit too tall to be a slide. (Use the Escape key to come back to normal size).

So check out slideshare sometime, if you need a presentation for a subject, (or to learn something new just for yourself) because there is great material there, and best of all it is 100% free.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Blogger Technical Tips - Lisa Huff

Using Google Docs with Blogger

View more OpenOffice presentations from Lisa Huff.

Lisa Huff has several Slide Show technical presentations at www.slideshare.net about using Blogger. I have embedded these onto this post, so that people can learn what she has been able to do with Blogger.

The slide shows cover incorporationg the following items into any Google Blog:

- Google Docs
- Images and Photos
- You Tube videos and SlideShare Presentations
- Create and Link to an "About Me" page

Embed Images in Blog Post

View more OpenOffice presentations from Lisa Huff.

Embed Video in Blogger

View more OpenOffice presentations from Lisa Huff.

Blogger About Page

View more OpenOffice presentations from Lisa Huff.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Blogger "How To" Presentations

How To Create Blogs

View more OpenOffice presentations from Jacqui Sharp.

The above is a SlideShare presentation that shows step by step how to join up with Google and set up a Blogger blog.

The bottom right hand corner "full screen" icon can be clicked to make the presentation full size (and more readable). Simply re-click the icon, or press the Escape key to come back down to normal size back in this blog.

The slideshow also covers how to add widgets and all types of useful items to the blog's sidebar, and has many useful hints and tips.

Here is another Slideshow all about Blogger, that will reinforce the material covered in the previous presentation.

Tutorial Blogspot

View more OpenOffice presentations from udalaitz.

I might do one or two more posts about How To Use Blogger, because I found quite a few useful presentations on Blogging at www.slideshare.com, and figure I might as well share the best of them.

There is also a You Tube Channel dedicated to how to do things in Blogger.
Click this link to go there: http://www.youtube.com/BloggerHelp

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

SlideShare Presentations

Smart Searching

View more OpenOffice presentations from David Coxon.

The above is an embedded version of a "SlideShare" presentation found at
http://www.slideshare.net/ which is a Web 2.0 type site, where people can sign up and join the community. (Just remember to check your email afterwards and reply to the confirmation email, or you will not get full access) .

A really cool thing is that right now you can click the "Slide Screen" icon in the bottom right hand corner, and watch this presentation full size on your screen. Press the Escape key to get back down to normal size on the Blog.
Note that often we have to make it full size to be able to read the material on detailed slides.

Basically "SlideShare" it is where people can upload their PowerPoint presentations and have them shared and presented on the web page. Some of them even have "Get File" buttons so that you can download your own copy of the PPT, (in PowerPoint format). However sometime the download does not work on presentations that are not so recent.

The other handy thing is that you can add "favorites" while signed in on the SlideShare page, and thus build up your own personal library of presentations.

The SlideShow above was not downloadable; however, like on a You Tube video, there is a box on the right hand side of the slideshow (when it is viewed on the slideshare web page), where we can obtain the embed HTML coding, and copy this into our own web page, like has been done on this blog post.

From their own words about their site:

SlideShare enables users to:

- view & download presentations on virtually any topic under the sun - upload your own presentations (ppt, pptx, pdf, odp, pps, ppsx and Apple Keynote file-types) and share with a global audience

- embed presentations into blogs, websites, wikis etc - you can now also upload documents to Slideshare and share them just like presentations (doc, xls, odt, ods formats)

- create an audio presentation using our free SlideCasting tool - embed YouTube Videos inside your SlideShare presentations

- use our event functionality to send conference invites, archive slide decks, publicise your event etc - use our privacy feature to share presentations privately with business clients, colleagues, family members

- participate or vote in our annual 'World's Best Presentations Contest'

Millions of people use SlideShare every day to make personal/professional contacts, generate business leads, archive conference slides, distribute academic lessons/assigments, share personal photos, conduct remote online meeting (using Skype, GTalk, Yahoo Messenger) etc.

Here is a Slide Show all about SlideShare itself.
It is probably best to maximise it, (use the "full screen" icon at the very bottom right hand corner of the slideshare screen), and also use the scroll bar to read through it like a document, because the author seems to have made some pages a bit too tall to be a slide. (Use the Escape key to come back to normal size).

The Digital Classroom-Slideshare Basics

View more PDF documents from Steven Anderson.

SlideShare is a place where we can get presentations on all sorts of subjects. We can then present them full screen from the http://www.slideshare.net website; or we can embed them into other web pages like those on Blogs or Wikis.

SlideShare is a very easy way that we can upload our PPTs, share them with others, and embed them into our blog.

Alternatively, we can find useful presentations from other people, and use them immediately, download them, or even embed them into our own web pages.

And best of all, it is all absolutely FREE ! :)

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

How to Embed a Flickr Slideshow

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The nice thing about the embedded Flickr slideshow above, is that when someone mouses over the top of the slideshow they get a set of controls. These controls can pause or speed up or slow down the Slideshow.

If someone mouses over the bottom of the slide show, they get a set of thumbnails and can go to any photo in the slideshow directly. However this will usually pause the slide show. But no real problem, since the slideshow can be easily resumed by using the top of slideshow controller.

The "bizzarre" Sand Castle photos are some that my students made as a Photoshop layers exercise. The original sandcastle photos were taken at the Frankston foreshore sand sculpture exhibit in Australia in 2008. The students then had to use these photos I supplied to them, to cut out and place the sand castles into new environments, using pictures obtained from Google Images on the web.


There is a link to a PDF document that has full step by step instructions on how to use Flickr and Flickr Slider from signing up to embedding in a Blog. This PDF may take a while to load in because it is nearly 3Meg in size.

Click Here for a detailed PDF document on How to Use Flickr

Having had your interest aroused by the Flickr Slideshow of "Photoshopped" pictures, perhaps you (or your students) might enjoy doing a similar activity in an image editor, such as Adobe Photoshop or Fireworks. It is certainly good fun relocating sand sculpture castles to new and interesting photographic locations.

If you would like to download a zip file of the "original" raw sand castle photos, then click on the link below:

Click here to Download a 6.6 Meg Zip File of Resources

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Making Your Own Blog Background

While clicking along through "Next Blog" in Blogger, I stumbled onto a Blog called "Bark Angel" which is shown above.

I investigated how they had got the really cool background onto their blog. I was also very impressed by the way the dark brown vertical lines in the image framed the post text, and how the whole thing fitted together so well.

Basically I figured: "I gotta get me one of them !"

In the PDF document link below, is a full set of instructions on how to make and install a background image into a Blogger Blog.

Click Here for PDF on How to Make a Blog Background

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Download and Install Dafont Fonts

Dafont is a website at www.dafont.com that contains some really amazing fonts, like the ones shown above. There are hundreds more. Go to the dafont site, using the link below, and check it out.

Click here to go to the Dafont Website

The fonts from the Dafont site can usually be downloaded and installed, free of charge, for personal non-commerical use.

The heading on this Blog page's template was actually made using Dafont "Designer Block" font, which was then stylized in Adobe CS3 Fireworks.

The downloaded Dafont files are zip files that need to be unarchived and then installed into Windows XP using Start > Control Panel > Fonts.

The PDF document below gives detailed step by step instructions on how to select, download, and install dafont fonts.

Click Here for PDF details on How to Use Dafont

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Insert Larger Images into a Blog

If we want a picture bigger than the default blogger size on our page, then we have to link to it ourself. This is often the case when we have made our blog wider than the standard 400 pixels, and increased it up to 550 pixels. The standard blogger pictures can look quite undersized on this wider setup.

Enlarging a standard sized blogger picture in edit mode on the Blog Post will often just make the picture blurry and fuzzy. In order to get a good quality larger picture, we need to use our own larger sized pictures.

Using an Image editor, (like Photoshop or Fireworks), resize the picture to be 500 pixels wide. We then transfer the image up to our own private website, and then link to it from within the blog Html like this:



Click the above image to see a larger version of it.

Eg. The above HTML will put the picture from the website at:

http://www.passyworld.com/F111%20Photos/alienppa.jpg

into the blog. Note that we also need to specify the picture’s size for the styling part as well, so we need to know how big our picture is by taking it into an image editor and noting its image size (Width and Height in pixels) .

This is why in the above HTML code we wrote the code as: style="WIDTH: 500px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 360px because our “alien” picture we are linking to is an actual size of 500 pixels wide by 360 pixels high.

Another way to find out how big a picture is, right click on it, on its original web page, and then click on “Properties” (in Windows XP).

And that's about all there is to it.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Make Your Own Blogger Header

Let's say we want to make our own custom Heading for our Blog, like the one shown above.

We can make the letters by getting a font we like from www.dafont.com (my one here is "Designer Block"). We then use Adobe Fireworks or Photoshop to make the heading text with a transparent background, using an image size of 750x71 pixels in size. (Save the image as .PNG or .GIF type to retain the transparency).

It is then just a matter of editing our Blog via Customize> Layout > Page Settings and replacing the normal header with our Image Header. There is also some header Html that we have to remove from our template as well.

Clicking the link below will open a PDF document that contains all the necessary detailed step by step instructions for making a custom Blog heading.

Click Here for PDF of How to Make a Custom Blog Heading

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

How to Make a Blog Wider

We all need a bit of extra width to increase capacity, especially on our Blog.

There is a great set of instructions for doing this on the web at this address: http://beginner-blogger-basics.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-change-width-of-blogger-blogs.html.

Click Here to View the How to Widen Blog Instructions

Changing the standard blog template basically entails 4 things.

First we increase the width of the Outer Wrapper and then we increase the width of the Header.

We then adjust the two columns inside the Outer Wrapper. These two columns are the Post column and the Sidebar column. Lastly we increase the width of the Footer.

The result for our blog is a text width of 550 pixels, rather than the standard 400 pixels.

This blog has been widened to 550 pixels, which is very handy for when we need to embed You Tube videos, Flickr Slidshows, scrollable PDF's or Open Office SWF format Presentations, because we can also make all these items up to 550 pixels wide.

If you cannot reach the previously mentioned website, and want a detailed copy of the "How to Widen" instructions, then click the link below.

Click Here for PDF of How to Widen Blog Instructions

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi

Note that the original wide ship picture used for this entry is located at http://www.go-africa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/shenzhen.jpg, and was found using Google Images.

Changing the Navbar in Blogger

The above image can be clicked on to be viewed full-size, and the main thing to note is the Navbar which is circled in yellow. This blue Navbar is the default color for Blogger, but it can be changed to a color more suited to the color of your blog. Eg. I would like to change my Navbar to be a black color.

We need to click the top right hand "customize" link, then choose the "Layout" tab, and then within this choose the "Page Elements" tab.

We then click the edit link that is on the Navbar and circled in bright green in the image below.

(Click on this image below to make it full size inorder to be able to see all of the tabs). Then use the browser's back button to return to this blog.



Doing the above navigation, and then clicking "edit" on Navbar should open up the following window where we can pick our Navbar color, from the four options that are available: Blue, Tan, Black, and Silver.



Let's suppose I was a bit "color blind" and chose the Tan color, then after saving and Viewing my blog I would see this:



Anyway, as you can see on my current Blog Page Design, I have chosen the black Navbar, which is the one that blends in best with my color scheme.

I have noticed on the web that there are Blogs that have no Navbar on them, but I do not know how they removed the bar, and I do not know how they would sign in to change their blogs, unless they do that at the blogger home page, and go in via their profile.

Enjoy,
Big Passy Wasabi