Please NOTE...

Please Note... This website is for locating information. I would spend days looking for certain things, so I decided to share with you my findings. I make no claim in saying this is my words or work. I am just simply sharing links, and websites with you. Make sure you leave comments on their pages. They will appreciate it, and so will I... With much respect...Julie

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Monday, September 23, 2013

Create A Ticker


Create a Ticker

Got an important event on the horizon? Counting down to a goal? In just three easy steps, you can customize your own ticker. Pick your background, select your icon, and start counting down the days! Create it here. http://global.thenest.com/tickers/Default.aspx
Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Design Tips For Your Blog

Here are some quick and easy tips to remember when designing your own blog!
1.  Width.  When customizing the width of your layout, keep in mind that people who come to your blog have different screen sizes.  You don’t want your layout to be the default Blogger 660px wide and look tiny on a huge screen, but you also don’t want a 1300px layout that readers must scroll to the right t0 view.  A good “in between” size is from 900-1000 pixels.
2.  Header size.  The width of your header should be the width of the rest of your content (usually) so 900-1000px wide is great.  But what about height?  It all depends on what you put in your header!  Do you have a nice iStockphoto image that takes up a lot of space?  Or is it just text?  Photos?  If it’s just text – stick with around 150-200px tall.  If you have graphics, go 250-300.  I wouldn’t suggest ever going above 300.  The header isn’t the most important part of a blog – the posts and content are.  So always be sure to highlight the content with an attractive design instead of letting the design take over the blog.  (Good examples:  The Mommy Matters, The Happenstance Housewife.)
3.  Font choice.  With the new Google Web Fonts being released, it’s tempting to pick really cute fonts for your paragraphs and blog content.  No matter how legible the font seemingly is, it’s an eyesore for people who want to really read your blog.  Pick Arial, Times, Georgia, Century Gothic, Helvetica, or find a good “paragraph” font in the Google web fonts directory. (Or use a good paragraph font with Typekit and @font-face if you are on WordPress.)  Scripty, handwritten, cutesy fonts, are best reserved for headings and larger text.  (Good examples: Serif font: 2711 Designs, Sans-Serif font: November Girl and Family.)
5.  Layout.  Three columns, or posts on the left are the most favorable layout styles.  We naturally read left to right, so having the most interesting content (blog posts) on the left, the more comfortable your readers will feel.
6.  Colors: Dark text on a light background is usually the best way to go.  You can vary this and use darker colored text on a light background, but on computer screens – dark text on a light background is the easiest to read.  With regard to your design, you can pretty much go crazy with colors!  Let your personal style shine through!  I like to use kuler.adobe.com to make swatches, and Pinterest.com is great for inspiration.  Here are a few color tips too!
Reds, yellows, browns, greens:  Great for food blogs, as these warmer colors are more “appetizing.”  (Note: McDonald’s, Applebees, most restaurants use red.)  Also good for blogs about reading and money.
Blues, grays:  Use on informational sites, business sites, and professional blogs. (Note: Wal-Mart, Studiopress.com)  Did you know that BLUE is the least appetizing color?  Pastel blues obviously provide a feminine touch, and pale grays evoke professionalism.
Black:  Excellent for photography sites and portfolios, black makes your photos stand out against the background and creates contrast between the photos and design.
White:  Great for any site, especially as a backdrop.  Feelings of cleanliness, simplicity, purity, and optimism can be created with the careful use of white in your blog.  White text on darker backgrounds are okay for headings, but harder to read in paragraph form.
7.  Backgrounds:  There are a lot of choices for free backgrounds around the internet for your blog.  Choosing your background carefully can determine whether your readers stay or quickly leave because it’s the largest image (or pattern) on your site.  The background should compliment your layout – not be the center  of attention.  Choose a background with a subtle pattern, or a few pops of color.  Avoid highly contrasted, busy, and loud background images.  (Good Examples: Theta Mom Media, Mom and Wife.)
Hope these tips help!
Monday, July 11, 2011

Blogger Features

We created Blogger to give you an easy way to share your thoughts — about current events, what's going on in your life, or anything else you'd care to discuss — with the world. We've developed a host of features to make blogging as simple and effective as possible.
Getting Started | More Features | Advanced Features

Getting Started

New! Customize your design

The Blogger Template Designer offers many templates, making it simple for you to create a professional-looking blog. In addition, the Template Designer lets you customize your template. Choose from hundreds of background images, tens of flexible layouts, and rearrange widgets through a drag and drop interface. Add gadgets such as slideshows, user polls, or even AdSense ads. Changing fonts and colors is easy too. And if that’s not enough control, you can even edit your blog’s CSS and HTML.

Publishing your voice is easy and free

Creating your blog with Blogger takes just a few easy steps. In a matter of minutes you can start posting text, photos, videos, and more to your blog. Post as often as you want; it's free. Check out this article on How to get started or watch the How to create a blog with Blogger video.

Simple-to-use interface

Follow a few basic steps to start posting to your blog. Our simple-to-use interface lets you change fonts, bold or italicize your text, adjust text color and alignment, and more. As you compose each new blog post, Blogger saves it automatically, without interrupting your typing. There's also an easy-to-use spell-check feature and a simple way to add labels to your posts. In addition, Blogger includes an HTML editor that lets you fully customize the look and feel of your posts.

Your free website

When you create your blog, you can host it for free on Blog*Spot. Just choose an available URL and you're ready to go. If you change your mind and want a different URL later, making the change is easy. Blogger also includes a custom domain option; you can have a domain name, like example.com, and we'll still host your blog there, giving you all of Blogger's great features.

Add photos and videos to your post

You can easily add a photo to your blog post by clicking on the image icon in the post editor toolbar. Your photos are then hosted in your free Picasa Web Albums account, where you can order prints and organize photos into albums. Adding a video to your post is just as easy; just click on the film-strip icon on the post editor toolbar to get started. Videos uploaded through Blogger are hosted on Google Video.

More Features

New! Earn money

With Blogger, you can earn money just by posting high quality original content on your favorite topics. Blogger has a dedicated Monetize tab that allows you to easily place AdSense ads on your blog. Also, through Blogger’s Amazon Associates program, you can search Amazon’s product catalog and add links to products you recommend that earn you commission when your readers buy these products.

Develop your community

Let your readers follow your blog by adding the Followers gadget to your layout. With this gadget, your readers can click the "Follow This Blog" link to add your blog to their Blogger Dashboard and Google Reader account. They also have the option to add their image and profile to your blog to tell the world that they're a fan.

Feedback from your readers

It's easy for readers to leave comments on any of your blog posts, giving you useful, timely feedback. They can leave comments right below the post, in a pop-up window, or on a separate page. You can also use Reactions to let your readers quickly provide feedback with just one click.

New post notifications

Your readers can choose to subscribe to your blog's feeds, so they're notified whenever you publish a new blog post. You can also customize what's shared in your blog's feed, and set up your blog to email new posts automatically to specific email addresses or mailing lists.

One simple ID

Because you can login to Blogger with your Google Account — which also gives you access to Gmail, iGoogle, orkut, etc. — you have one less username and password to remember. Your blog's address can also be used as an OpenID to give you a single digital identity across the web. Since your blog can accept comments from OpenID users in addition to registered Blogger members, it'll be easier for all your readers to leave feedback and participate in your conversations.

Languages of the world

Blogger is currently available in 41 languages including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian speakers can use Blogger with Right-to-Left display and formatting. And transliteration is available for five Indic languages.

Advanced Features

New! Pages

With Blogger’s Pages feature, you can create new pages that are linked from your blog. For example, you can create an “About This Blog” or a “Contact Me” page, in a similar way you write a new blog post, and provide links to those pages as tabs at the top of your blog or in the sidebar.

Posting on the go

Blogger has many additional ways for you to post to your blog. You can post to your blog from your mobile phone or through a secret Mail-to-Blogger email address. Or use the Blogger Post Gadget to edit and publish posts directly from your custom iGoogle homepage. With these options, it's easy to post to your blog whenever you want, from wherever you may be.

Group blogging

With Blogger, it's easy to create a team blog, allowing multiple bloggers to contribute to a single blog. You select which team members have administrative authority and those who are just authors. You can also choose to make your blog private and restrict who can view it. This puts you in full control of your blog.

Third-party applications

You can choose among a host of third-party applications that integrate with Blogger to make it even easier for you to blog. Be sure to check out code.blogger.com if you're a developer and want to create your own great app.

Even more features...

We're constantly developing new features for Blogger; check out Blogger Buzz to stay on top of all the latest additions and changes. If you want to try some of our experimental features, check out Blogger in draft. And if you need more information about any of Blogger's features, be sure to visit the Blogger Help site or discussion group. To see what others are posting, check out Blogs of Note. We hope you like what we've created.

Tutorials

Reinstalling Google Analytics

Installing Google Analytics

Moderating your Blog's Comments


DIY Custom Blog Fonts

Unlocking Wordpress

Creating a Webs Account

Adding a Polaroid Effect to your Post Images

Changing your Password in Blogger

Using Free Backgrounds in the Watermark Template

Setting up a Photobucket Account

Expandable Post Summaries

Fancy Up your Footer

Making your Images Unclickable

Backing Up Your Template

Transferring a Domain Using GoDaddy.com

Spice up your Blog with Gadgets

How to Change the Color/Style of your Blogger Nav Bar

Finding the Old Blogger Templates

Adding Pages to your Blog

How to Right Click Disable Your Blog

Uploading Larger Pictures in Blogger
Thursday, May 12, 2011

Importance of Fonts

Found this at onthespotstudio... You will love this blog.. Make sure you comment on it.. Enjoy the content...



Fonts:

Fonts are one of the most important parts of your logo design. If your designer asks YOUR input on the type of font you like, be as specific as possible using links to the font(s) and other logo designs to guide them.
(check out sites like myfonts.com and fonts.com and give examples. The more detailed you are, the better)
A few tips while picking out fonts:
DONT go too handwritten/rough edged. Not only do these fonts not usually look professional but nine times out of ten: they do not print well either.
DONT choose a font that is either:
a) OVERUSED (ie: Scriptina, Corinthia, Passions Conflict, Inspiration, dear joe, pea fonts)
b) FREE (most free fonts are NOT okay to use for logo design)
c) hard to read/rough edged (dear joe, susies hand, etc.)
DO choose a font that is:
a) clean, sans serif ( Marlowe, Harry Thin, Le Havre, MrEaves)
b) clean serif (Garamond, Filosofia, Perpetua, Century)
c) Legible Script ( PF Champion Script Pro®, Liza, Dolce, Eye Catching, Feel Script)
Some fonts are NOT cheap. It’s nothing for me to spend well over $100 a week on JUST fonts for clients. This guarantees the design to be unique, timeless, clean and “you”.
When deciding on the type of font you want, be sure to let your designer KNOW that way they are not buying fonts you “think” you may like, as well as wasting money on fonts they may never use again. A good designer stays up to date on new release fonts and has an “eye” for what will and will not work on logo designs. If your designer informs you that they will have to purchase the font that you want, be absolutely positive, no doubt in your mind that that is the font you want. You will also have to purchase the font if you want your branding to be consistent. The designer can NOT give you the font file with your final designs, as it is against many font designers TOU. If the TOU are questionable, be sure to email the FONT DESIGNER yourself to find out if a special commercial license is needed for use on logo design. If so, let your designer know so that he/she can purchase the correct licenses for your designwork.
Remember: when designing your own logo or having a designer do it for you, sometimes, simple is better. The more legible your font on your logo is, the better chance of someone recognizing it.
Monday, May 9, 2011

Ustream ~ Broadcast video LIVE... Branding you!

Broadcast video LIVE to the world from a computer, mobile or iPhone in minutes, or watch thousands of shows from News to Entertainment to celebrities, 24/7.


  • Overview

    Ustream is the leading live interactive broadcast platform. Anyone with an internet connection and a camera can start engaging with their family, friends or fans anytime, anywhere. Millions of Ustream users view and broadcast a wide variety of content, from high school sporting events to red carpet movie premieres. Notable Ustream broadcasts include major political events, concerts, conferences, movie premieres, talk shows, sporting events, interactive games, and personal milestones.
  • Our Mission

    Ustream’s mission is to bring people together around shared interests for amazing live, interactive experiences that build and maintain relationships.
  • Company Background

    After meeting at West Point in 2007, founders John Ham and Brad Hunstable joined with Gyula Feher to create a service that would allow service men to communicate with their families and friends live, all at once. The founders launched Ustream in March 2007, and the service has since found worldwide adoption, becoming the leading live interactive broadcast platform. Ustream has offices in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Budapest.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011

SKYPE:Technologies inside and outside the classroom

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http://straubroland.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/skypes-the-answer/Skype is a free web tool where you can make and receive free calls and video calls only with an internet connection. I’ve already shown a short presentation on Skype in my previous post about Prezi so what I’m just going to give some tips on how to use it in your classroom as well as outside :)
Sorry for writing so much but I did this while on the train and I didn’t have my microphone with me and it would’ve been kind of awkward recoding this post with 8 people sitting around you :P

Inside the classroom:

  • Let’s say you want to invite a guest to talk to the class but this person is in another country and can’t make it to your class (transport, expenses, time, etc.  – for all these reasons and maybe others). What you could do is to organize a live video stream through Skype.
You could ask your students then to interview the person, take notes on his/her answers and write an article about him/her
  • You could start a call with a person (important for your lesson) on Skype without video feature. Ask him/her to hold a short speech on a certain topic and ask you students to speculate on the persons characteristics and appearance just by listening to his/her voice – for using adjectives; speculating language; language for prediction. In the end show the person by activating the video feature and ask your students to compare their predictions with the true identity.
  • I don’t know how many of you do this but I have some classes where I teach my students how to make phone calls, how to start a phone conversation, how to end it when calling for different reasons (personal or professional). In these lessons I like to use real examples. This means that I actually give them a phone or ask them if we can use theirs. Some might not want to pay extra costs for phone conversations on their phone in the English lesson and maybe you don’t want to do this either (mainly if you have a large class). Do you see where I’m heading with this? :) Yes, Skype is an alternative – in case you have at least 2 laptops at hand. You can use one laptop in the classroom for the incoming call and place the other one outside the classroom for the outgoing call. In this way they can not only practice phone conversations (such as reporting a crime or calling for help and describing what happened) but also video conferencing. Of course, keep in mind that you cannot have more than 2 videos running at the same time on one laptop. You can have a phone conversation with more people at once but not with video on.
  • Students record their conversations on Skype, send you the saved recording on email and you can give them feedback on it. I always strive to give a feedback as good as possible to my students and this might be sometimes difficult when in the classroom. I’m not saying it’s impossible….I’m just saying that processed information is easier to assess.

Outside the classroom:

I might want to practice the Speaking part for the IELTS, TOEFL or Cambridge (FCE, CAE, CPE) exams in the class and I see that my students still need practice. If I don’t have enough time in the class for further practice then I can tell them to practise their speaking skills at home. How do they do this?
Well there are more options:
o    You can ask them to record themselves using their phone while talking about a topic. However, not everyone has a phone with a recorder on it.
o    You can tell them to use a microphone and install a specific software on their computer to record what they’re saying. However, they have to buy a microphone in case they don’t have one and they have to install the proper software on their computer…something that not everyone is willing to do.
o    IF they have a laptop with an incorporated microphone, they could use that. However, not every Windows OS supports a recorder although Windows 7 has one and is free for use in the Accessories section. You just have to open it and push the big red button to start recording.

o    Using a proper recorder is of course a good way also but once again they need to buy one if they don’t have one yet. For most this might be a pain in the neck and might demotivate them to practice the speaking part.
And if you think about it, talking to oneself is not really what happens at exam…or in real life… :) Practising speaking on your own might be good if you’re practising for a speech and still you don’t have an audience…something that you do have in reality.
So without further a do….In my opinion, the best way of practising speaking at home on a phone with a partner is using Skype.
Skype not only offers you free calls but also free live video chat feature thus making it able for anyone who has a laptop with a webcam and a microphone (built in or external) to have a real conversation while practising some speaking skills. Yes, you do have to have a microphone…luckily most of the laptops nowadays on the market offer you a built in webcam as well a microphone thus making the purchase of an external microphone unnecessary.
So how do we give feedback on a conversation  that our students have had at home with another person? The answer is simple…we ask them to record the conversation and send it email it to us:)
How do we do this? On Skype of course :P Skype has many plug-ins which give us the possibility to record not only the voice but also the video calls.
You might not want to ask your students to record their video calls…I think asking them to record their voice calls is enough for you and for them. They might be shy enough to listen to their own voices and sending it to you could be something they might not be keen on.