Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

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Lorinsv
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Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Lorinsv »

Some of you know I post my BaCC story blog-style on my LiveJournal instead of linking to a slideshow.

The thing is, though, that I still use PowerPoint to organize and caption my pictures first.
Then I rename the pictures in the correct sequence
Then I upload the pictures to my LiveJournal
Then I copy/paste the captions from PowerPoint into LiveJournal

I still use the game camera primarily, which makes sifting through the pictures difficult (plus I take way too many hoping for the perfect shot). I could use my screenshot program exclusively to take pics which would save the renaming step, but I would then have to edit my screenshots to remove the little windowed-mode (I think) frame I haven't been able to shake since moving to my laptop with Windows 7.

The bulk my of time is spent in PowerPoint (my comfort zone), and granted, the latter steps aren't difficult, just tedious, and take 1-2 hours depending on the size of the update. My method of posting feels, and is, double work.

Basically, I'm looking for a way to streamline the process and hopefully skip PowerPoint altogether, so any tips from blog-format storytellers would be most appreciated.
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Teresa »

Greenshot is a screen shot program that might make things a little simpler. It will open the image for editing and then send to the program of your choice, send directly to the program, or save to file for editing later. It gives options for desktop, active window, or selected area.

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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Heather »

Prior to writing my story in slideshow format, I'd upload all my pictures to photobucket, and put them into the correct order there. I believe there is an option to generate image codes for all the photos in an album, in the order that you've organized them, and I'd paste that into the Livejournal post. Then I'd paste the writing underneath the correct image.

I did all the writing before setting up the LJ post, until I got lazy and started writing the story on Livejournal as I put the images in. I would not recommend that. My writing from that period was fucking terrible, because I forced myself to write the entire thing in one go, and at the end I'd be too tired to properly edit it. :lol: The save draft/post fearure on LJ doesn't always work correctly (at least not in my experience), so I was too scared to save the story and some back to writing later.

Even with the writing done on the spot it's still tedious, unfortunately, which is the main reason why I do slideshow format now. :P
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Lorinsv »

Thanks for the input! I'll recheck my Gadwin settings, and if I can't change the screencap settings or edit as I go, I'll try the Greenshot.

Today for the first time, I skipped PowerPoint and posted directly onto LiveJournal, because really, it is much easier since I'm now able to upload pics directly from my computer and can skip Photobucket altogether, though that may change if I reach LJ's limit, but it hasn't happened yet. I was quite surprised I felt little difference between organizing my pics on LJ vs. PowerPoint, though the potential for losing my post was a fear (unfounded in this case), BUT... it's done and with noticeably less time and effort. Might the be incentive I need to scale back on my picture taking (I mean, really this time! :pan: ) to get updates out quicker.
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Sam »

I do find blog format quicker for posting!

As for my method, I organise the pictures by numbering them in order for the update. This is easier for me as I screencap, but when I did use the in-game camera, I would organise the folder by date modified, which would then put the pictures in the order they were taken. :)

After numbering the pictures, sometimes I'll write the update in Word, sometimes I'll write it as I go along in LJ. It depends really - if I don't feel like I can write the whole update in one go, I'll use Word. If it's not an observational story either, I'll probably use Word.

I also use LJ for pictures, rather than photobucket, out of pure laziness :)
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Bouncer »

Yeah I actually do what Sam does, I personally was hoping for a secret method. I guess though that there isn't any program to make sure my stuff sounds like it does in my head xD


I personally also keep my pictures in order on my computer and backed up along with, usually the final wording I end up with (Been getting lazy on this part). Just in case something happens with things on the internet.
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by katrisims »

I do both blog-style and slideshow style: observational stuff in blog style and plotty stuff in slideshows. I take pictures with Gadwin, as it numbers the pictures right for me, which makes the arranging part much easier for both methods. (I'm running Win 7 too and don't have to edit away frames, so it might be about finding the correct setting?)

When I do an observational story, I like to type (almost) as I play. I keep open a Word file and two folders: my printscreen files folder and a folder for the pictures of the current chapter. I look at the pictures in the print screen files folder, choose which ones to write about and write into the Word file first the number of the picture and under it the caption I want for it. Every few captions I copy the selected pictures over to my chapter folder. This way, I avoid uploading unnecessary pictures and keep track of how many pictures the chapter is at, it gives a pretty good idea about the length.

When done, I upload the contents of my chapter picture folder to Photobucket and arrange the Photobucket album by filename. Then I select all the pictures and copy and paste the links into LJ. I add a bit of space between the pictures and move from HTML mode to Rich Text mode so I can see the pictures, and then I just copy and paste the captions under the pictures one by one, and move pictures where necessary.

I'm not 100% happy with having to copy and paste the text, but I don't trust DW's draft system enough to keep a half-written chapter there, and with my typical chapter length, I never write one in one go. (And well, in case something were to happen to my chapters online, at least I'd have a backup on my computer.) At least it's much faster now that I've realized I can switch to Rich Text mode and see the pictures. Way back I did the same with my BTS/picspam type of posts, except typing in LJ directly in HTML mode, and boy was that a pain!
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by MichelleCYoung »

I started out blog-style, and switched to slide-show, because it was such a pain. My blogging program makes me upload each picture I use, individually, and then input it into the post, and there's no sorting, and it's a lousy thing, but it's what I have and I'm not tech-savvy. I used to be a good computer user, but when I'm on pain pills, I'm very limited in brain cells, so...

Anyway, one thing I DID learn is that it really helps to write out all your text in a word processing program, so you can save as you go. Leave spaces or symbols, or something, where you want to put in the pictures - something that will be easy to spot, and doesn't get lost during the copy/paste. Then, it doesn't matter much if the internet goes flooey while you're in the process of posting it, because all the typing is still saved and editable.

I'd type it all up, proof-read and tweak it, and then copy/paste the whole shebang, and then go back and put in the pictures afterwards. And since I tend to write as I go (especially with observational stuff), this really made it a lot easier for me.

As for ordering the pictures, if you use only the game camera (I don't even have a screenshot program, although I did manage it a time or two on my Mac), then the pictures are all numbered in the order they were taken, so it's easy to keep track of them that way.

I'm actually curious to try writing it up in a presentation, then saving the whole thing as a .pdf file, and seeing if I can then copy/paste from there, and see if that imbeds well. I may have to do an experimental short story, just for that. Has anyone tried it, already?
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Scribal_Goddess »

I use Live Journal and photobucket... and the in-game camera. (I ragequit every time I try to set up a different print-screen program. I just have never figured out how to do it.)

So I usually take all my observational photos as I play... they usually end up as passage-of-time filler, or "let's see what ridiculousness happened at the graduation party!" and write captions later. For plotty scenes, I usually write first, and then stage: either way, I separate out my screencaps by scene and then sort through for the ones I want and copy and paste them into a word doc, renaming them things like "Lydia's solo scene 1" and "The big argument 19." Then I do photo editing of ones that need it, and upload them to photobucket en masse. (I need to be better organized about keeping chapters in separate folders...) I c&p the direct embed code directly into the word documents exactly where I placed the pictures.

Then I copy and paste the whole shebang into Livejournal, and toggle between rich text and html view until all the pictures show up and are formatted as needed. :)
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Gryffindork »

Does anybody else use Windows Live Writer? I started using it a few years ago and (at the risk of sounding like a walking advertisement) it was easily the best decision of my blogging career.

My whole process is pretty simple. I use the in-game camera, and then I pluck out the screenshots I like and put them in a separate folder. I edit them individually in GIMP - which sounds like an absolute pain, but I've done thousands now so I'm at the point where I can blindly resize-sharpen-export while watching Netflix. Then I open up Live Writer and "Insert Image," and I can click and drag to reorder them however I want. With the picture framework in place, I can add text at my leisure (and I'm really quite leisurely, ask anyone who reads my blog :lol:), and, when it's done, I just hit "Publish" and it uploads everything - pictures, text, tags, etc. - in one go.

My blog is on WordPress, but I know Live Writer can also pair with LiveJournal and a bunch of other platforms. What I don't know is what the media storage is like on other platforms. Hosting your images externally is kind of counter-intuitive with this method, so obviously they take up precious space on your WordPress/LiveJournal account instead. If you were using raw images, I imagine your storage would fill up pretty quickly. But resizing them beforehand seems to help a lot, and it looks like I'll JUST make it through ten generations (approx. 150 pictures per chapter, 15 chapters per generation) before my legacy blog hits the max. :)

One of my favourite things about Live Writer is that it reads your theme when it pairs with your blog, so you can see exactly what the post is going to look like while you're writing it. It also has an HTML view, and you can upload a partially-written draft to finish editing it online (I do this if I have to travel), or download one of your previous pages/posts to edit before re-uploading it.

So yeah, you can probably tell I love this program quite a bit. :P I'm sure it's not for everyone, but if you're exploring your options for streamlining then it's worth looking into. :)
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Lorinsv »

I have not heard of Windows Live Writer. Thanks for the tip, I'm going to check it out!
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Re: Tips for posting your story blog-style (not slideshow)

Post by Gryffindork »

No problem! Let me know how it goes if you end up trying it. :) I guess I forgot to mention my other favourite thing, which is that it's free... that's a pretty good perk, too.
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