Sam Woodfin's Micro

Testing TypePad with Dolphin on Kindle Fire

Still no rich text editor, but it's very, very different from using TypePad via Silk.

Sorry for the unwieldy title and lack of screenshots. Bigger fish, y'all!

Test posts. They happen, sometimes.

Like right now. I'm writing this post from the Amazon Kindle Fire I picked up at Walmart, today (complete with a $50 Walmart card included in the standard Kindle Fire price). So far, it isn't going smoothly. I'm writing in raw HTML mode because Typepad's rich text editor won't let me type anything, at all. I love TypePad, but one thing I've learned from this trip is that it's a mobile world. Technology that expects to sustain must be able to move with us. I'll be testing the Kindle Fire WordPress app in the morning.

A Step-By-Step Visual Guide to Combining Multiple RSS Feeds Into a Single Widget in Your TypePad Sidebar

How's that for an unwieldy title?

This is especially useful for Zazzlers (like me!) who have multiple shops, and who want to incorporate links to their newest products from all of those shops into their blog's sidebar, but who don't want to clutter that sidebar with multiple widgets.

The first several steps of this guide will also be useful to bloggers on non-TypePad platforms, but the last few steps are TypePad-specific.

First, you must combine your feeds. I used xFruits to do my feed-combining. The site requires that you have an account in order to use the service, but the actual combining is very simple.

Once you're signed up and logged in, from the main xFruits page, click on the Aggregator RSS option, which I've highlighted in orange on the image above.

Creating a combined feed is straightforward. In step 1, not shown, you give your feed a title and at least one tag. In step 2, pictured above, just paste in your feed addresses.

This page means your combined feed has been created. Click the "Add to" button and...

...this menu pops up. Choose Google.

Your feed address will be shown on the Google screen. (I've highlighted it, here, in orange.) Select that address with your cursor, right click, and select "Copy" in the contextual menu.

Then we go to TypePad. From your dashboard, select the blog you want to add your combined feed to. Go to the Design section, then clock "Content".

On the Content screen, scroll through the list of available modules until you find "RSS/Atom Feed". Click that. Then click the "Add this module" button in the "Details" column.

Paste the feed address that you copied from the Google screen two steps ago into the Feed Module popup. Click "OK".

Choose a title for your feed and the number of entries you want to display in your sidebar. Click "OK".

Use the drag and drop interface of the Content screen to position your feed where you want it to appear in your sidebar. You can click "Preview" at the bottom of the screen, if you want to view the placement of your feed, but the actual feed entries will not show up in preview. This doesn't mean that the widget isn't working.

Click "Save" from the Content screen, and your combined feed should display, neat and tidy, in your blog's sidebar. If you're using the Mosaic theme, it should look like this:

This Blog Has a Mobile Version

As do all TypePad blogs. Who knew?

Not me, since I don't have a mobile phone.

But Alex Sirota knew, and shared the info at Get Satisfaction.

For anyone who's had trouble reading this site via mobile phone, click here. There's a brand new link at the top of the sidebar to make access easier, too.

Hey! I'm in The Food Journal!

See!

The Food Journal is an "online newspaper" from paper.li, maintained by MyBlogWorld. I have no idea if stories are picked for inclusion by a human, or some sort of automated feed filter, or something in-between. But, right now, I like links well enough that I really don't care!

I also noticed that all of the stories linked in today's edition come from TypePad blogs, using TypePad addresses.

I like links. I like TypePad.

This is just a big ol' bundle o' like, for me!

Just Upgraded to TypePad Pro!

At least for the free, two-week trial. TypePad's cheapest paid account (which allows you to do lots of stuff--like integrating Fotomoto, customizing the sidebar, adding photo albums, claiming the site through Google's Webmaster Tools, and having direct access to your uploaded files--that the free TypePad Micro doesn't) is cheaper than Squarespace's cheapest account, but that still doesn't mean I'll be able to pay for it.

Over the next couple of weeks, though, expect lots of activity, here. Don't be surprised if the blog looks different every time you visit!

Why Tumblr-style Blogging is Bad for the Blogosphere

I'm hoping that the title of this post, alone, won't be enough to ire two different sets of 'netizens: people who hate the word "blogosphere", and people who love Tumblr. The first group is out of luck, since I happen to like the word, and since it's the best term for specifying exactly what I mean. For the second group, however, I'd like to clarify:

My beef isn't just with Tumblr blogs, or with all/only Tumblr users, but Tumblr just happens to be where I can most-easily see the degradation of the notion of original content and of respect for the work of others. For many Tumblr blogs -- some of which I read, subscribe to, and enjoy -- "blog" seems to mean "internet scrapbook". The blogger sees something on the internet, and shares it on his or her Tumblr. Which is all good and well, except that a) nothing is added to that original content, and b) the original source isn't credited. If you "reblog" something from another Tumblr blog to your Tumblr blog, however, that gets credited. So, instead of citing real sources, citations end up as a series of links between Tumblr blogs based on who likes the content well enough to share it; i.e., an incestuous, plagiaristic circle jerk. (And, yes, I'm still talking about blogs that I like.)

But the original content creator? Screw that guy. Who needs him?

Is this Tumblr's fault? No. (Even though they do make it easy.) Again, this goes well-beyond Tumblr. My TypePad dashboard is now full of posts consisting of pictures people have found somewhere else, sometimes credited, and sometimes not. And while Tumblr was designed, from day one, as a surf-and-post type of blogging tool, TypePad, originally, was not. It's just what a portion of it has recently become. I wouldn't suggest that any blogging service is free from this particular style of blogging. I've given in a time or two myself, reblogging something with very little input of my own (but always, always, always with a credit to the source), because -- let's face it -- it's easy.

And easy is good. That said, it isn't synonymous with "worth doing". If an image or quote is worth adding to your blog, shouldn't it also be worth writing a couple of sentences that add your own perspective? If not, at least add a link to the original source. Surely, at some point, some teacher, somewhere, taught you to cite your sources. The person who went to the trouble of drawing the drawing, taking the picture, or writing the article you've just copied and pasted at least deserves that little bit of respect.

Your readers deserve that respect, even when the original content creator doesn't demand it.

And your own integrity deserves that respect, too.

Utilizing TypePad Profiles

I've already bitched about it. After realizing that there are TypePad users who don't use TypePad Profiles to their advantage, simply because they don't know about them, I thought that maybe it was time to explain it. TypePad Profiles are a relatively new addition to the TypePad platform. Your TypePad profile is not the same thing as your About page. It's actually closer to what used to be known as TypeKey. The URL for your TypePad profile should be formed like this:

http://profile.typepad.com/yourusername

 

For example, the URL for my TypePad profile is:

http://profile.typepad.com/sharonda

 

Being able to find your TypePad Profile is all good and well, but I'm sure some of you are wondering what that profile is and how it can benefit you. This is a screen shot of my TypePad profile:

 

It posts excerpts from, and links to, my blog posts. It posts and links to the comments I make on other TypePad blogs. It also posts my latest Twitter status, as well as links to my profiles on other sites, and lets me keep track of both the people I'm following, and those who are following me.

Check those last two words: "following me". Now turn the "me" into "you". When another TypePad blogger follows your profile, your updates show up in the Recent Activity section of their TypePad Dashboard:

 

 

These updates just keep on updating as long as the main dashboard page is open. (Really, it's slick!) If you comment on or favorite another TypePad blogger's post, the people who are following you also see that in the dashboard, giving people who are interested in what you're blogging a chance to see the other blogs that interest you. Now that you know what TypePad Profiles are, and how to find yours, the last step is putting it to use. In your blog's Design section, go to "Content". There, you'll see a list of modules that can be added to your blog. One of them is called "Follow Me". If you add it to your blog, it will look something like this:

If you prefer things a bit more visual, you can use the TypePad Profile module, instead:

If that weren't enough, there's yet a third method: the simple link. You can add your profile link to a TypeList, using the "Notes" option; or, if your theme is equipped with a navigation bar, you can add it there. (Of course, if you're using TypePad's Chroma theme, you don't have to do anything. A profile widget is automagically included.) In short, this is TypePad's built-in social network. It's an opportunity to expose and be exposed, within a community that already has one big thing in common: TypePad. You should take advantage of it. And maybe next time, I should explain first, and bitch later.

Welcome to TypePad Micro! For Free!

Updated 15 September 2011: That palette-changing bit in Chroma no longer seems to work. Shame, that. It was the coolest thing about Chroma.

That's right! TypePad! For free! TypePad has made a lot of changes over the past year, but the one that's coming next will be the biggest of them all! SixApart is rolling out a whole new, free-of-charge level of TypePad service: TypePad Micro! One of the coolest things that Micro users who are new to TypePad will discover is Chroma. Chroma is a theme that was released for Beta members in late October, and it will be included with TypePad Micro. Wondering why you shouldn't just stick to Blogger or the free version of WordPress? Well, Chroma is one good reason why:

This is the default Chroma banner screen. Chroma allows for super-simple banner switching, but it does a lot more than that. Note that the recommended size for the banner image is listed, right there in the upload panel. Note also that the image is small (300 x 225). This allows for greater flexibility in selecting an image to use -- it's easier to reduce an image than to enlarge one, and still keep the image's quality -- but to take the convenience just a little bit further, these dimensions exactly match the default dimension of images from my digital camera. This makes life much easier for bloggers who know photography better than they know image editing programs. But wait! There's more!

 

When you upload a new banner image for your Chroma theme, three color schemes are automagically selected for you! This takes any and all guesswork out of working with CSS and hexadecimal codes, but, if you're so inclined, you can still tweak the CSS to your heart's desire! If you've actually looked at this blog, and looked at the image above, then compared the two, you can see that the color scheme I'm using isn't among the options presented for my banner image. CSS, of course, blows color-scheme options wide open, but there's actually a way for the less technically-inclined to get the colors they want:

When you upload a banner image that includes the colors you want in your scheme, click the scheme that you want, then click save. Then upload the image that you actually want to use on your blog, and your previously-chosen scheme, the "existing color scheme", will be presented as an option, along with the three newly-generated schemes. Easy-peasy, no? And if Chroma doesn't convince you to give TypePad Micro a try, here are a few more reasons:

1. Reblog. A brand new feature for TypePad. This allows other bloggers to quickly grab your content and re-post it on their blogs, with links back to your original posts.
2. In addition to posting via the dashboard, you can post via e-mail, text messaging, or the Blog It bookmarklet.
3. TypePad is socially-integrated, with optional automatic cross-posting to both Facebook and Twitter, and it's own in-house system that allows members to follow one another via the TypePad dashboard.
4. A favoriting system that allows you to share posts with people who are following you on TypePad, or to have your posts shared by others.
5. Unlike Twitter, TypePad Micro won't limit you to 140 characters, or to just text.
6. Best of all, TypePad has one helluva support team who are passionate about the application, who are open to interaction with TypePad users, and who are reachable via the built-in help system, via Twitter, and via Get Satisfaction.

For more information on TypePad Micro, see Announcing TypePad Micro at Everything TypePad

From the Archives: How to Simulate a TypePad Mixed Media Layout

This article was originally published on September 8th, 2007. It's being republished, now, because I found myself using the article's method again last night:

Yesterday's decision to switch this blog over to a "mixed media" layout lasted for less than five minutes. I'm not sure why TypePad would make mixed media layouts available, with no viable way to organize content, unless these layouts were designed exclusively for photo bloggers. (Which may be the case, as these layouts were the result of a partnership with Nokia. You can also see examples of mixed media layouts on this page.) For anyone with multiple TypeLists, and a concern for the layout of his or her blog's template, mixed media layouts are not a workable option. But a simple simulation is!

First, the basics: a mixed media layout puts thumbnails (and, sometimes, full-size images) of blogged photos into your blog's sidebar. There are several variations on this theme, including one that places thumbnails into a calendar based on the dates that images were posted, but for this simulation, we're going to keep it simple. This guide is best-suited to those who are HTML-challenged, TypeList-challenged, or both.

In addition to the ability to add images directly to blog posts, TypePad users can create photo albums. Users also have the ability to select from four different layouts (including one with no cover) for their TypePad photo album cover pages. When an album cover page layout uses thumbnails, those thumbnails are automatically generated whenever a photo is published to said album. This is very useful for simulating a mixed media layout!

Once your photo albums are set up, and your images are uploaded and published, look at your cover pages. Some of the thumbnails are going to look better than others, due to the centering and selection that TypePad uses to generate the thumbnails. In a separate browser tab, go to "TypeLists" within your TypePad admin. Create a new TypeList, and call it whatever you want to call it. On the photo album cover page, choose a thumbnail that you want to appear in your sidebar. Click on it to go to the page for the full-size image.  Copy the address in your address bar. Go back to the TypeList you are creating, and type this: <a href="COPIED ADRESS">

Now, go back to the thumbnail for the chosen image. Right-click the thumbnail, and select "View image". When the image loads, copy the address in the address bar, just like you did for the full-size image. Go back to your TypeList. Type this: <img src="COPIED ADDRESS"></a>

Repeat both steps for every image you want to include in your sidebar. After each </a>, except for the last one, type <br />

This will place each successive image below the one before it. If you want your images centered, simply type <center> at the beginning of your TypeList, and </center> at the end.

When you've finished adding images and formatting the list, click "Save". Then go to the TypeList's "Publish" tab. Select the pages where you want the TypeList to appear, and click "Save Changes". View those pages. If the TypeList isn't positioned the way that you want it, click on the design tab for the weblog you're working on. Click on "Order Content", and arrange things the way that you want them. Save those changes, then republish your weblog, because the changes won't show up until you do.

This method has both advantages and disadvantages to using TypePad's mixed media layouts. The disadvantage is lack of automation. Unlike using a mixed media layout, this simulation will not automatically update your sidebar thumbnails every time you publish a new image to your blog. But the advantage -- being able to control the positioning of your TypeLists -- is vastly more important for any blogger with lots of sidebar content.