tools

Video: My first JumpCut Movie

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It’s very frustrating working with camera movies… I have to convert the movie from QT format to work with my tools, then I have to convert the result to Flash format to post it anywhere. Worse, often the tools I have fail to do the work properly leaving me scratching around wondering what I did wrong, and why I bother.

Enter JumpCut. This website property is akin to Windows MovieMaker in many ways with a little less power. But for me the great advantage is I can upload my camera movies in QT format without any problems, edit the content, then post the result on my blog when it is published.

Here’s my first effort: The Rain In Taipei… It doesn’t stay on the plain at all! It seems a little jerky right now, I’m not sure why. It played fine when I uploaded it.

Give JumpCut a try. Login via your Yahoo! ID and password, upload via their upload tool and see what you can create today!

DashBoard Editor: Changing your Dashboard in WordPress

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Sometimes as a blogger, I get tired of the traditional feel and look of the Administration Panel, and the slow loading of the WordPress feeds drives me nuts. I’ve already tinkered with the Administration page before on more than one occasion, but recently, I’ve been trying two plugins that are pretty neat: DashBoard Editor (this post) and MyDashBoard (Thursday).

DashBoard Editor
The first is Dashboard Editor, which is a simple panel that adds a dashboard configuration switch under the Dashboard editor. Currently, I can’t get the website to load but you can try again later.

dashboard-clean

It’s very simple to operate. And, most importantly, it works in a non-destructive way, so you can simply disable the plugin, and everything’s back to normal.

At the top you will see a text area that you can type in. This text will appear in the dashboard. Formatting is very similar to the bb-code style of posts and pages. If you used to blog in WP1.0+, you will already be familiar with the switches.

Below that area are a number of check boxes, all of which are self explanatory. They will allow you to remove the feeds, incoming links, news and so on. Of course, you can simply clean everything and start from nothing. One of the neatest features is that you can use Plugins, too. If you look at the last switch entitled “Use Sidebar Widgets”, this will create a separate column under your Presentation >>> Widgets menu. Simply create, add or move any widgets you want to show up on the Admin panel.

There are some limitations that you may wish to consider:
1. There’s no obvious way to have a widget in two places, though, ie. in your Admin Sidebar as well as the general sidebar(s). Also, the Admin sidebar is only available to those who login.

2. If your blog has many users who can register and login, you may wish to think carefully about the information you enter. For example, putting passwords for your email account in there may not be the wisest thing to do! Currently, there is no way to change the Admin area for different levels of users.

Overall, it’s easy to implement, easy to use, and easy to remove. We are looking forward to the developer adding features in the future!

BlogDesk Imaging Tools – Functional, Attractive and Easy to Use

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investorbloggerColleen Lane from Tricities Real Estate recently wrote back asking how I did the pictures on the blog, especially her posting:

Thanks! That blog entry is very nice looking. Other that using screenshots, how are you doing the drop shadow, and especially the ‘ragged edge’ look you did on the resources image?

Colleen :o)

BlogDesk is the secret

blog deskNaturally, I am reticent about telling ALL my little blogging secrets! Hah! Actually, I use BlogDesk, after trying a number of other blogging tools. In the end, despite the limited functionality for posting, I found that I could live with the limitations, but the tools for imaging really set this blogging tool apart from Qumana, w.Bloggar, and some of the others that I have tried. In fact, its import tool is very good at making the pictures look good, with edging, sizing, and positioning.

Imagine the Images

So I decided to focus my description only on the imaging aspects. In the left picture, you will see the imaging system, which is activated by clicking on the picture item in the top toolbar. You’re then given a simple “File Open” bar with a preview option. Find the location of the image you want to import, click on the file, preview it, then click “Open” to open the file.

image tools

Options and Layering: Menu (right) and Sample (left)

You are then taken to the picture above, and you will see a list of options down the right hand side of the screen that include sizing, cropping, borders, rotation, colors and alignment. The first and most important step is to set the size of the image, so that it doesn’t exceed your blog’s maximum image size! You may need to play around with this the first few times to get it right.

investorbloggerAfter that, you can adjust the other options as much as you wish. In fact, you can layer some of the effects nicely. For example, sometimes I layer a border around the image, then add a shadow or a make an instant image style. Other times, I might crop the picture, resize it, then add a tear border, like the picture here. To get the layered effect, you need to finish the first effect, then return to size, then add the next layer, and so on.

In the above picture, you’ll notice I took the same picture from the beginning of this post, I have added three or four layers: 1st is the border, then the shadow. Then I adjusted the size, and created an instant image effect. Finally, I added a tear on all four sides. This layering works upto a point, but it is easy to overdo it! My experience shows that two or three layers might be the most you can do!

I ended up removing w.Bloggar, Qumana, didn’t try LiveWriter, passed on Blogjet initially. I haven’t found anything as simple or as practical.

A Bugbear

I do have only one bugbear with BlogDesk and that is the posting times. I usually set my posts to be published at fixed times, but I am always getting the time wrong, because of the time difference between my Home in Taiwan and California Time – home of Dreamhost. As such, posts appear on the wrong day, in the wrong order or get published too early. Truthfully, this may not be BlogDesk’s problem, but some kind of offset would be good, so I avoid having to manage my posts after they are published.

Still, I’m rating BlogDesk very highly; but what blogging software do you use? Do you find anything practical?