How to Re-Size Your Photos on Google

Nov 182011
 

One of the many reasons that I switched from my hosting provider’s webmail to a gmail account is the sheer size of the images clients send via email. Which brings up a valid question for a lot of clients who want to add their own images to their WordPress site: How to resize the multi-megabyte images that even a basic cellphone camera will take so that the pictures do not interfere with a site’s layout and load time?

Since not everyone has Photoshop, is there a way for someone to re-size a large picture to be used on a website or to send via email without jamming the recipient’s inbox? Yes! With Google’s image tools, Picasa and Picnik, there’s an easy way to work with your images to resize them online and then use them however you need.

Step 1: If you don’t have one already, get yourself a Google account.

I love a lot of Google’s free services. There’s gmail of course, which enables me to receive emails on my phone with no hassle and gives me over 7,000 megabytes of storage. Then there’s Feedburner which allows me to offer subscriptions to a web site via RSS. Google Analytics is also another great tool to take advantage of. For this tutorial though, we’re going to look at two media tools; Picasa and Picnik. So go to google.com and sign up for account if you don’t have one already.

Step 2: Now that you have your Google username (email) and password, sign in and get started with Picasa.

Your Google account's top toolbar as seen from Gmail window

To find Picasa, sign in and then you will see more on the far right of the top toolbar.

 

Click that to open a menu where the last item is “even more”.

 

Click on Even More down at the bottom

 

 

Under the Media section, you will see Picasa on the left and Picnik on the right.

Google's Media Products

TIP: The direct url to your Picasa account is https://picasaweb.google.com/home
You should probably bookmark this page so that you don’t have to go through Google’s admittedly convoluted click-throughs every time.

Saving a bookmark in Firefox

Now you can get to Picasa without jumping through Google’s hoops!

Easy one-click access!

Step 3: Create your album and upload pictures.
If you decide to just start to upload photos that’s fine. Just understand that Google needs to sort them into albums so if you upload a batch of images today, Google will prompt you to create an album with today’s date (you can always give it a custom name).

Step 4: Once photos have been added to an album, select one to resize.

Link to your existing albums on Picasa's home page

Click on the album to open it

Click on a photo to open it

Click on the album that contains your images to open it. Then click on the image you need to resize. Once the image is in its own window, you will see a toolbar at the top with a little landscape icon at the top. Click on that to launch Picnik.

Click landscape icon to launch Picnik

You can also click on Actions and then select "Edit in Picnik"

TIP: If you want to bypass Picasa, you can just launch Picnik right away and upload photos directly from your harddrive. I just suggest uploading to Picasa if you are fairly mobile and you want to get the whole process done on the web as opposed to being chained to whatever computer has your images. Also, once the image is resized, you can always add it to your site via its URL on Picasa.

Step 5: Edit your image with Picnik.
Go to Re-Size on the leftside toolbar. Then simply enter in the dimensions that you would like the image to be to use on your site.

Editing toolbar in Picnik

Depending on the layout of your theme, maximum size can vary, but for the sake of example, I usually save my images at 450 pixels wide as the maximum width. Make sure you choose to retain the proportions as well.

 

Original photo's dimensions. Too big for a blog!

Enter in the new dimensions (width and height in pixels)

Step 6: Save your image and either download or get url.
Picnik will allow you to save your edits and then you can either download the image back to your computer or, on Picasa, you can get the url of the image.

Save to your Picasa album

Now you can download the re-sized image to a folder on your computer

Then, when you add an image into your WordPress post or page, it’s simply a matter of pasting that images url into the add-image pop up window. If you choose to download the re-sized image, then all you need to do is add your images the regular way and the smaller file size will take a load off your server!

Fun with Suffusion

Mar 282011
 

I attended my first WordPress Meetup tonight and it was an amazing experience. Just to realize that other people out there have had clients who erase a lovingly customized embedded Google map (“Html view? What’s that?”) made me feel that much less alone in the universe.

Not only was I going to my first meetup but I had been invited to be one of the presenters which was a really nerve-wracking fun experience. The theme was a WordPress BakeOff between Thesis, Headway and Suffusion. Each participant was assigned a framework and then given a design to re-create using their theme. As the Suffusion contestant, I found that it really helped to have an outline of all the features so you can see that here.

On a side note, this is where I am going to be working on a new look for my own site, so bookmark this if you want to follow the progress of my own Suffusion-powered site renovation!

“Random Image, Meet Short Code Exec PHP”

Dec 162010
 

-Now shake hands and play nice…
I’m putting together a proposal site for a (potential) client and using Sayontan’s excellent “Suffusion” theme. What makes it awesome (for me) is that it’s a snap to customize with the various customizing menus. And, it comes with a bunch of different layout templates so it’s easy to set a page to contain sidebars, or not, if the client prefers.

One of the design requirements, is that there had to be an image that would change every time one went to the home page. Not a bad idea, but one of those concepts so deceptively simple that it was lost in a sea of over-elaborate plugins promising to do everything short of picking up your drycleaning. Continue reading »

Connections: Facebook, Flickr and your camera phone

Jan 032010
 

Although there’s an iPhone app for everything short of walking your dog, sometimes there’s an easier way to something that’s a little off the beaten path. I was taking photos of some artwork that a friend of mine did with our daughter on New Year’s Eve and in the midst of sending it to my twitpic account, I changed my mind and came up with a way to post a photo to a Flickr photo stream and Facebook simultaneously. Continue reading »

NextGen Gallery: The Missing Manual

Dec 312009
 

As much as everyone loves the NextGen Gallery by Alex Rabe (myself included), a comprehensive guide to how to actually use it seems to be as scarce as the proverbial hens’ teeth. The first time I installed it for a client, I have to admit the sheer amount of options and settings was a little overwhelming. At any rate, you came here for a manual so here it is. Continue reading »

A Rough Guide to Business Blogging

Oct 142009
 

Author’s note: This is not the stuff that I do, but it’s what I should do.

5 Reasons to have a blog for your business

1. It’s environmentally friendly. Unless you are running a blog about your helicopter hunting/timber logging business venture. But not only is it green for the environment, it’s green for you. It takes up much less of your company’s business day since you no longer need to drive to cold calls, print out newsletters and manage mail merges.

2. It’s extremely cost-effective. Even if you feel the need to (ahem) hire a professional designer to “tweak your template” (more on that later), you should still save a ton of dough by not needing to do as much print advertising.

3. You will have an “auxiliary engine” to drive traffic to your company’s site. Put a link back to your company’s site. Use your blog profile tool to find local sites and bloggers and ask them if they are willing to trade links.

4. It can generate customer feedback and communication. Run a contest for your readers. Ask people for their opinion on your review of a local restaurant. Let people know you welcome comments by making that link more visible.

5. It’s fun! It’s a low stress way to promote your business without feeling like you are out there on a soapbox. Write what you enjoy writing about and they will come.

4 Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t be too negative too much. If you had a tough time with a client, or your favorite team/american idol contestant/politician lost, write about what you learned from it and respect others’ privacy and/or opinions.

Try to find a rhythm and stay with it. One interesting post a week is better than 7 entries that vary on “My Starbucks-Fueled Mini-Rant”, but keep your content as fresh as possible without sacrificing quality for quantity.

Be useful, or funny, or ahead of the crowd or any combination. Being creative doesn’t hurt either. Think about what kinds of questions your clients have had lately and how you can answer them.

Don’t blitz your readers with “bells and whistles”. We’ve all been to that site where so many “awesome”(bandwidth-hogging) features needed to load that we didn’t go past the home page.

3 Blogging Terms to Know

RSS: Almost synonymous with the term “Feed”, RSS stands for (in my opinion) Really Simple Syndication. It’s an easy way for your readers to keep up with your blog and make sure that they know when you have something new on the site. Of course, it’s up to your readers to decide to follow your blog, but putting a widget in your template (see below) suggesting that your readers to subscribe really helps things along.

Template: This is the term blogging services use for your blog’s layout and overall design. If you really want a distinctive look for your blog, such as colors based on your logo and custom backgrounds, etc, you should the editing options for your template before you go with it.

Widgets/Badges: Basically, those “bells and whistles” I was warning you about earlier. Like a good spice, use them only if necessary and they will work for you, not against you. Some examples of widgets are “Archives” that list your posts in chronological order, and Google’s Adsense which will place text ads on your blog by “sensing” the site’s content. (Which still doesn’t explain the Maalox ad that kept appearing on Jennsweb a few years ago.) Badges are items such as Flickr, which can display your Flickr images in a little window, and Twitter, which can display your most recent updates on your Twitter account.

2 FAQ’s

What should I blog about?
Almost anything. A post can be a photo, a story, an interesting link or all three combined. Don’t cast your net too wide. Think about the blog’s description (that little phrase underneath a blog’s title) and see if your entry would be something that someone finding your blog would find interesting as well.

How much time should I devote to this?
If you run a business, then you know how the word “busy” got in there. The best approach is the one that fits around your schedule. Blog on your coffee break if you want. As long as you get in the habit, don’t obsess over how much time you spend on it because…

#1 Rule: Have fun with it!
Remember, it’s not the annual report to the stockholders. Because who gets excited about reading those?

A Guide to Web Color-

Jun 282009
 

-right in your own (WordPress) backyard! I was ready to do a search for a good online hexadecimal color guide for a client, when I realized that they have one right there in the Editing window! Continue reading »

Getting Your Company Listed with Bing.com

Jun 252009
 

Bing.com is a new search engine that is being touted as the next big thing, at least that’s what Microsoft is hoping. They’ve pumped metric tons of money into marketing it as Google’s new competitor, but the jury still seems to be deliberating about that. Still, as Bing buzz builds, it couldn’t hurt to get listed on their local listings right?

I’ve talked a few clients through the process of registering their business with Google and, based on that experience, the idea of talking someone through the same process on Bing is a little more daunting, but doable. Here’s a comparison of the user experience for each site:

Google’s Home Page:

The process:

Step 1. Get a Google Account, if you don’t have one already.
Step 2. Go to Google.com and click on “Business Solutions” below the search terms window.
Step 3. On the next page, click on “Local Business Center” in the bottom half of the page.

Now you are all set to start listing your business with Google. One precaution: Make sure you are near your business phone so you can verify your listing with Google’s automated call to your business phone. They will call with a PIN that you will need to verify that this is actually your business.

Bing.com’s Home Page:

The Process:

Step 1: If you haven’t already, sign up for a Windows Live account (click on “Windows Live” in the top left corner of the page to get started)
Step 2: With your Windows Live email and password on hand, go to Bing’s home page and select “Maps” from the search options listed under the main search field.
Step 3: In the Maps page search field, enter either your business name or your location and business category.

Step 4: In the listing of search results, scroll all the way down until you see the words “local listing center” in page gray and click on that to get started with your listing.

Now for the real way to do this.
Go to: https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx
-and sign up from there.
I only listed these steps out to illustrate the fact that Bing’s method is; 4 (non-intuitive) steps as opposed to Google’s 2 somewhat obvious ones and that trying to explain this to a client over the phone is not high on my list of fun and easy activities. The only bright spot in all this is that, at the end of the sign-up process, Bing.com promises to send you a letter for verification about your listing as opposed to a phone call that can take some people by surprise.

How to Use WordPress: Part 1

Jun 192009
 

I feel like I haven’t posted anything new in forever! Mainly it’s because I’ve been really busy with new clients and now the result it that I have been to quite a few client meetings to tutor people on how to use their new WordPress site effectively. So, rather than keep writing the same emails over and over, here’s a rough guide to using the new WordPress dashboard. Enjoy! Continue reading »

Buttons and Chicklets and Badges Oh My!

Feb 182009
 

My most recent client is looking to upgrade the blog portion of their site by adding features to increase readership and create an online community. It’s something that’s fairly easily done via the web, but it’s the kind of task that requires a few simple tips to make sure your site makes the right connections with your readers. Continue reading »

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