Blog It Faster!!!

I know what you're thinking, "Um, if you can really blog so fast, why aren't you blogging more often?"  Well, dear friends, sometimes getting the goods to blog just doesn't leave time for blogging.  But I'm trying to blog as often as I can.  It's the only sort of scrapbooking I have going for me right now.

In any case, my sisters have all been getting (back) into blogging lately and another couple of friends have either started or just asked me questions about blogging.  I'm no authority on the subject, but you know those times when you wonder if there could be a better way but don't want to waste time looking around in case there isn't?  Allow me to save you a little hassle by introducing you to two of my best blogging buddies: Picasa Web Albums and YouTube.

I kept noticing the little sign that would pop up after I would post that my pictures were saved to Picasa Web Albums.  I would think, "Now isn't that nice?" and keep going.  Then, in one of the last Blogger updates, I noticed that when I went to upload pictures, I was given the options of uploading from my computer, from a URL, from the blog itself or Picasa Web Albums.  So I started wondering if it might be faster to upload pictures to Picasa first.  This was one of those moments when taking a little time to explore other options has paid off in gaining me time while I'm blogging.  Instead of having to click on my pictures one by one to have them upload to Blogger from my computer, I can control click and upload them all to a Picasa album at the same time!  And in a different window!  So, instead of having to wait for my pictures to finish uploading before I can start typing the actual post, I can type simultaneously!

I also noticed that it would take Blogger a fair length of time to upload my videos, sometimes overnight if it was a big file, and sometimes the video would never finish uploading.  I've also noticed that I can no longer watch Blogger videos that I have posted in the past and I can't view any videos my sisters have uploaded to their blogs through Blogger.  Hello YouTube!  Enough said.

So let's get down to business.  Here's my step-by-step on how I blog now:

1 - Upload photos to computer.

2 - Go through uploaded photos on Windows Photo Gallery.  Delete bad ones, crop, fix red eye, etc...  AND give the pictures and videos I want to blog a 5-star rating.

3 - Set Photo Gallery to show only 5-starred items.  (In the left-hand column, click the five stars.)

4 - Open Picasa Web Albums - sign in.  (The beauty here is that YouTube, Picasa and Blogger are all powered by Google so you should only have to sign in once!)  Click upload. I usually give my album the same name as my blog post-to-be. Then click "Select photos from computer".   This next part may get a little confusing in the explanation, but bear with me. 

Here's where the 5-star rating comes in handy. I have my Windows Photo Gallery open alongside the window from which I select photos to upload. Now, instead of having to enlarge the view in the second window, I click on my 5-starred photos in the photo gallery, usually going only two or three at a time, noting their numbers, and select those numbers in the other window, making sure to hold the control key so they all get selected at the same time. Once I have selected all the photos I want for a particular post, I hit okay and they all start uploading at the same time. Beautiful!

5 - In another window, open YouTube - sign in, if needed.  Start ALL 5-star videos uploading. (I always set mine to "unlisted". I don't want people to be able to search for them without the link from my blog. However, if you set the videos to private, people will not be able to watch them on your blog.)

6 - Now that my pictures and videos are uploading, I open my blog in a third window, start a new post and get to work on the text.  In general, Picasa will be long past finished uploading my pictures and I can insert them as I type.  YouTube may or may not be finished.  If a video happens to be fully processed, I click on the embed code and click "edit HTML" at the top of my post and paste the code at the bottom.  (If the video isn't ready, I just finish my post, save it as a draft and copy and paste embedding codes where I want them first thing in the morning.)

Another beautiful thing about using Picasa instead of merely uploading to your blog post is that you won't lose them if you don't have time to finish blogging and someone closes your blog.  In addition, it's really easy to "move" pictures.  Instead of dragging a photo over text now, hoping I can get it in the right spot without weird margins or ghost pictures, I merely delete the picture from where I don't want it and insert it again where I do want it.  Piece of cake!

Hope that helps anyone out there having trouble getting their videos to play or having to reload photos.  Happy blogging!

PS - Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or further suggestions!