I have received a lot of emails asking me how I get my posts to look like this.
You can use an HTML publisher where you can write in plain text and then the program will change it to HTML for you such as Dreamweaver or Microsoft Front Page. But I am not patient enough to learn those programs and I do know basic HTML.
For the very basics; such as one or two color text, bolding text and changing the font size you can do that right in the Active Rain HTML editor. But the problem is you can not go back and forth from WYSIWYG to HTML. You must save the changes in each editor by publishing to draft. The other problem I have had is that when I change the color of the text in Active Rain HTML editor, save it, publish it and then decide to go back into WYSIWYG to edit something entirely different; when I re-publish, all the color is gone. So that became quite frustrating.
Then I read a post on Active Rain by Chuck Willman who said we could use a FREE HTML editor called Nvu.
In my post called, Colors, Colors, Everywhere; I used Nvu to do all the different colors.
Nvu is FREE and you can download it on your computer. My favorite part about Nvu is that I can use it to write my posts without being on line. So if I am at the park or at one of my son's homeschool activities or classes; I can still draft my posts without having to use Microsoft Word, which does not always turn out when you copy and paste it into your Active Rain blog. I used Nvu to write this post.
All you do is type your text, add your images and links, add your colors, bolding and font sizes as if you are typing a document in Word or any other word processor. It is SO easy. I love it!
You can also use Nvu to edit your websites and custom make pages for multiple websites. You can do some fancy stuff too. There are a lot of things you can do to add some:
WOW
Pizazz
and
| Umph! |
To your blog.
If you want to change the background color you can do that with making tables and changing the background of your table. You just choose the cells and sizes.
A couple of tips to know before you start; Do your whole post in Nvu including your signatures and buttons by copy and paste right from your blog. This is because you may run into the problem if you need to change something; it may not turn out right. You must edit in HTML in your Active Rain editor. Do not go to WYSIWYG and edit anything that way; you will lose your color. You can edit in the HTML. Always save your work. Nvu does not auto save so you must set up a named file and then just click save every so often.
Here is what I do in Nvu: First I do all my text writing. Then I go back and add my colors, bolding and font sizes. After that I add all my links. This is very simple to do in Nvu. I then add all my images. The last thing I do is copy my signature, call to action and disclaimer from my Active Rain blog and paste it into my post in Nvu.
When you add your images you have to add the image direct link location. I like to use Photo Bucket; it is very easy, free and fast to use. Nvu will not allow you to insert an image without adding an Image Alt1 tag. So make sure you do that too.
Then when you are all finished drafting your post you go to the bottom of your screen and click on Source. Your whole post will turn into all the HTML that you will need. Go to Edit, click select all, click copy.
Go to your Active Rain blog and open up a new blog post screen. Click on the HTML button. Put your curser on your blank post and then right click and click paste.
The entire source code all in HTML will be on your post now. Type in your title at the top of the page. Click on draft and the publish to draft. Make sure it looks fine and then choose your groups to post to and your tags. Click on the public tab and then publish your post.
Try it out for some fun, some change and some delightfully appealing blog posts!
Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtor ®, Business and Life Coach, Speaker and Author. Reach Katerina at: 561-753-0135
Disclaimer:The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Wellington Homes Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Wellington Homes Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Wellington Homes Blog does not express the views of International Properties and Investments, Inc or those of the broker.
Copyright © 2008 By Katerina Gasset, All Rights Reserved. *Give Your Active Rain Blog Pizazz and Punch The Easy Way!* Contact Katerina Gasset for Customized Business and Personal Coaching.
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
Katerina- Nice! I have been using Word and cutting and pasting. I don't want to fire up my full blown editors to write posts so I will give this a try. I appreciate the information.
Best wishes,
Scott
Katerina, WOW!!! I didn't see this on Chuck's or forgot about it. You do SUCH a GREAT job of 'splaining everything. I love it!!! You go girl!!! AND, HAPPY EASTER!!!
Okay, how do I do the Alt1 tag for the photo?
Okay Katerina.....another question. I did an entire blog post with our nu toy....but could never get the photo up. So.......I saved it in html, switched over to reload my snagit photo, and when I saved it again in the regular part, the red, green, etc. left. I had no problem except with the photo. I thought the alt1 meant what you said, and I did that.....but I lost it. So...........another time. ;-) Thanks for sharing!
Bookmarked for later. Happy I ran into this post, as adding color would definitley add some punch.
Thanks,
Hi Katerina -I had not heard of NVU before, so I will definitely check it out. Like Adam, I just don't have the patience to teach myself HTML, and each time I want to use a little splash here or there, I have to go google whatever it is I want to do. This little program sounds like it will save me from having to do that, thus saving time, and it looks like it will do more as well.
Many thanks for sharing!
Ann
editor/writer. Thanks SO much!
Good morning Katerina.
Thank you for a great post and helpful information. Your step by step will be very helpful. I have lil or no clue re: html.
Thanks again. Have a great day!
Thanks so much Katrina. I am going to give it a try.
Happy Easter!
Yipee! I have a new program to learn for next week! Thanks!
Tina in Virginia
Very nice! I'm going to bookmark your blog and use it as a reference for future blogs.
Thanks
Punch and pizzazz?
My vote is for the nice picture with some well-formatted text. Too many colors, doo-hickeys, and thingy-jammers can be fun but can make a post look like a clown show, if we're not careful.
Agreed though, people are more likely to read something that has some character to it!
Great information. Thanks for sharing & breaking it down. I've been wondering how to jazz my posts up. I'll definitely check it out!
Happy Easter to you both!
Katerina,
Thanks for this information. As a newbie, it is very helpful.
Katerina, As always, another great tip on your end. You are SO appreciated by us newbies, and many not so new I'm sure. Thanks so much. Happy Easter!
Great tip! After using other WYSIWYG / GUI editors with more features, this has been one frustration with AR blogs. Your info will hopefully help change that! Thanks.
Thanks Katrina,
Can't wait to try this. Keep smiling and keep selling.
Thanks very much Katerina. Love new tidbits!
This is totally awesome! I could just reach through the computer and hug you. I have spoken of HTML acting like a 2 year old on Skittles while gritting my teeth! I can't wait to try this program. I've learned HTML the hard way, even buying the wrong Dummies book. I can't wait to play!
Jeannette - The draft mode is in the same spot as members only/public. Sorry, still don't have snaggit or I'd show you.
Everyone- WOW, a lot more comments over the Easter Weekend. I never expected this post to be so well received. I will address the comments that have questions first and then I will do my best to come back and return your comments. I so appreciate all of your comments. I want you newbies to know that I am very excited that you are interested in blogging and really making it. That is great and it will be very rewarding if you stick with it. I want to get out some more tutorials this week so I may not be able to comment on every comment.
Jeannette- Hopefully you understood Natalie's answer to where the draft button is.
Hi Katerina...Great detail and info on Nku, I thought we were going to keep this a secret!!!...just kidding I love it.
Cheers, thanks for your Help with us all... Mum and Coach!!
WOW! Another great post to be bookmarked so I can find it later!
I may be incorrect in this, but I believe you can write in microsoft word, and save as a web page, and accomplish the same thing???
Gene- That is Snag It. You get a free trial and then it is only $39.95; the best 40 bucks I have spent online. It does SO much more than just torn edges. I wrote a post about it.
http://activerain.com/blogsview/366337/You-Asked-For-It
Katerina,
I have actually been using Google Docs. If I don't type right inside the blogging software, which is my preference as it helps me to write more freely. I'll have to check out this software, thanks for the nod in its direction
I love this kinda stuff! Thanks for sharing...
I have been trying to add color and character to my posts, thanks for the guidance.
Thanks for sharing this great info, will save alot of time & headaches! I'm off to download it now.
Sorry to say I tried it, had problems with pictures, DUMPED IT. Takes too much time for me.
Thanks for pointers I will have to check out NVU.
I recently made my own contribution to Active Rain. Its a free mortgage rates widget.
It looks a little better but i could not post all the code here. Here is the instructions for uploaded it.
Mortgage Rates Widget for your Active Rain Profile
Thank you sooo much!
I'm new at blogging... but I love this NVU.
I have a question on inserting pictures.
What is an Alt Tag1?
For some reason when I upload my pictures, they show on NVU, but not on my blog.
Any suggestions?
Okay, I finally understand the picture thing!
I did my first blog using your suggestions and now I'm looking forward to doing more and more blogs!
Thanks a bunch for sharing!
Myra Spano in Virginia Beach
I used writely at one point... but then that faded.....
I now just write my post in WYSIWYG mode....I add my photos..... THEN I go and add a table to make a background color in HTML mode...I add centering AND larger fonts if I like.... then I am done....
I use a table scipt I found in a previous AR post to do that......
VERY simple.... VERY easy.......
I guess there is MORE than one way to post a blog, hmm?
Variety is the spice of life!!
;-)
Believe me it took a while to learn it.........
BUT once ya learn, it is easy.......
There are a LOT of websites that teach it.....
You are welcome for the comment...plus it gets me 25 points!!
;-)
Great advise! Thanks for sharing. I am going to have to get started on changing my blogs to a more eyecatching appearance. Great tips that I will need to try out. Thanks!
Thanks for all your blogging help. You are great at helping others :)
Anne
Megakudos!
Peace & JOY!
Thanks, Katerina. I had already kind of figured out some of it, and how to use. But it seems to me I am doing double work- saving photos first to my computer, than to photobucket. For example, if I find something on Google images I like, I couldn't figure how how to save it directly to photobucket, so I am saving it to the computer, than uploading to photo bucket.
Have used Nvu a bit for my blog, and it looks pretty nice. Though I am not nearly as prolific a blogger as you are!!
I'm going to try this out! Thanks for the information. You guys always share such useful information.
Thanks so much for this, writing in HTML takes so long and can get frustrating, I can't wait to try this.
Judy- You are very welcome. It is free and fun and easy.
Pamelyn- This is sure a time saver. It is free and there are no catches. Just download it on your laptop and you are ready to go! Just click on the source tab and all your html will be there. There are some really fancy things it can do that if you know html you would probably understand. Check it out. It only took a couple of minutes to download.
I'll have to try this out when I have some time to play with it. Thank you! It's been bookmarked.
Kathy- I love the free Nvu. I like adding the color and the font sizes and you can also color your title backrounds. The page automatically optimizes for good SEO practicses.
Thank you so much for this info---it's just what I needed!
Katerina, thanks for sharing the information in this post. Kathryn and I are MS FP users, and I find that using Tables can help me better organize the information, and in many cases display photos separately from the text.
A tip I'd pass along is to not start a blog post with a table definition! Those headlines and teaser text you place on top must be placed prior to the table definitions or they won't be picked up by the AR and Localism Table of Contents.
John & Kathryn
The trick with color is to enhance a post. Color can help organize information and call to attention the important information. BEWARE: over-done color and images can make a page unreadable. Use your color palette wisely!
Best wishes!
I can't thank you enough!!!!! I have been doing my market reports in Publisher (which I know isn't a good option), but it was the best way for me to format. I did not want (or have time) to learn HTML code. I had become really flustered when I couldn't do it the same old way for the outside blog. The outside blog diminishes anything in Publisher to a point of non-readable. With determination....I found your article "Give Your Active Rain Blog Pizazz and Punch....".
What a gift!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It took some practice...some editing. It still isn't perfect but I was well able to post it and have it look decent on my outside blog, SuwaneeTalk.
THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!!
Janice Slaven
Way too cool! I must be really out of the loop because I hadn't heard of Nvu before now, but it seems like something that I am just going to love! You're being bookmarked for reference! Thanks!
great info, Thanks...
Hi, Katerina! Thanks for this great post! And thanks, too, for also directing us to Chuck's post. I've read both, downlaoded Nvu and am ready to start typing away!
I occasionally go to an easy HTML site and try to use a little of it, but it's really just too time-consuming for me. This will help tremendously!
Thanks again!
~Maura Gebhardt
Comment #174 by Mike in Tucson
Katerina,
I keep bumping in to great content like yours here, and am loving my journey in the Rain! God bless you and those you love. Thanks for this.
Mike
Katerina:
I am VERY GLAD I found this posting! I really had not thought about going into the HTML to modify stuff... I can do that!
Shay West
Thanks for this post. I've bookmarked it and plan on giving NVU a while. Mike
Every time I read one of your posts I learn an incredible amount of new USEFUL information!
Thank You!
Katerina,
I'm giving this one a try ! Hopefully my posts will look as exciting as yours !
Thanks for the info,
Kimberly
This is great. I've been cutting & pasting from WORD. I'm excited to give Nvu a try.
Again, I book marked your post for my wife. You have great tools! Thanks again for sharing with all of us Newbies.
Thanks for the tips!
Thanks, I now know how to bookmark and will do so!
I must be a bit slow....I am happy to see it up top again.....I will check it out.
Hi Katerina,
So what are your thoughts that using Pizazz actually lessens your ability to get picked up in spider searches? I was told to always "deformat" my writings into notepad, so it gets more traction...thoughts??
Hey Nestor, thanks for the info on customizing. I still have not done a thing to my blog but I will start now. Have a great day.
Nvu is FREE and you can download it on your computer. My favorite part about Nvu is that I can use it to write my posts without being on line.
Thanks Katerina!
Now that I'm finally registered here, I need to learn Nvu.
Bruce, Nvu is now Kompozer. SO look for Kompozer and use that for your editor for great color etc.
Thanks Katerina,
I appreciate the heads up on the name change. What I tell my clients about this business is that the only constant is change! :)
Katerina,
Thank you for this post. I was searching for something like this and there it was! I like the Snag It post too.
How do you add color background to your response to the comments? I think that is a nice feature. Please tell...
Thank you.
Judy
Katerina, this is the info I have been looking for, now to learn and use. Thanks again
Judy- The color backround in your comments is automatic by AR. We don't have anything to do with that. Returning comments is blue and AR staff is another color.
Keith- That is great, I am glad you found it.
Just a head's up. I don't like the program. It does change the editing and is difficult to make another change back to what you want. AR does not seem to like this program. Sometimes it works correctly and sometimes it doesn't.
Katrina:
I was tire of my post looking so bland, and went in search of how I could had some pizazz--- came across your very helpful post, so I am now going to investigate your suggestions. Thanks.