I HAVE not seen an English-language mention of how to place a rotating image slideshow on TypePad blogs, but the Paris office recently updated its blog on how to do it.
The steps involved in placing an image slideshow in the main column of the front page of your website are pretty easy.
This widget will work on standard blogs, there is no messing around with Advanced Templates, so first off you need your TypePad blog ID number, this is available by logging in and then going to your blog's overview page and taking a look at the address bar of your browser.
Between the text /blogs/ and /dashboard you will see a long number, often featuring a few letters, this is the ID number for your blog.
Copy and paste this into the first empty form field of Etape 1, the next two fields allow you to personalise the widget to display images from a certain category of your blog, as well as provide a short title to the image carousel.
The category choice is used so you are able to pick and choose the stories and images that feature in the carousel.
To control the placement of stories in the carousel you could pick an existing category and only show these, or set up a new category and from now on when you want a story to be displayed add it to this category and any others you wish.
For example, you might want to add a new category called Featured, within the form field with the text that says 'Souhaitez-vous limiter l'affichage des images à une catégorie de votre blogs ?' type in Featured.
You then have to click one of the two buttons that describe the layout of your blog, this ensures the widget displays the images in the correct column on your site.
At this point you can now choose where to display the carousel, personally I'd keep it to the front page and the category archives, the first option, because it might be a little too much for it to be displayed on other pages.
Moving on to Etape 2 and you are now able to visualise what the image carousel looks like, and if your images are suitable for display.
Smaller images such as thumbnails will have been increased in size so that they look pixelated, so that's why creating a new category comes in handy as you can ensure these stories have full size images that the widget can draw upon.
Then click the install button at the bottom of the page, add it to your blog and then refresh your website home page to see the image carousel in all its glory.
Related:
Widget : Slideshow TypePad
Nouveau widget : carrousel en colonne de contenu
NEWSROOMS in the US have been using the new Twitter Lists feature to cover the recent shootings in Fort Hood and draw together news sources.
Mashable takes a look at some of the early examples, and it is good to see that other news operations have been placed on the Twitter Lists of other newsrooms.
Twitter Lists have only been available for a short time and I, like many, put together a list (see @thisfrenchlife/france) but wondered what more could be done.
This example of using a list for breaking news is a great use of the service, but I could also see lists being created for other reasons:
- Conference or event coverage
- Local and national election campaigns
- Meet-ups and networking events
As an added extra it would be a simple task to run the list through the Twitter widget that lets people display their own and others' tweets elsewhere on the web.
It would require someone to gather together the Twitter accounts to place on a list, but it could also help people cut through some of the hashtag mayhem that can occur when people gather round a subject.
Fort Hood Shooting Shows How Twitter, Lists Can be Used for Breaking News - Poynter Online
WITH my broadband connection finally up and running I've been able to crack on with tackling the six week backlog that had built up.
I can also keep up to date with some of the interesting links and tweets that I've seen pass through my Twitter account (@craigmcginty) here's a bit of a pick:
Tips for teachers using Facebook
Although aimed at teachers in the US, many of the tips can still be applied not only by teachers, but by everyone with a Facebook account and who wants a little more control over how their information is displayed.
Only five per cent of readers would pay for online content
The first of a number of articles written by PaidContent following their commissioning of a study into how popular paid for content could be - or not as this article highlights.
Racing Post’s paid-for website approaches 10,000 subscribers
But it is well known that focussed, niche content, that can benefit readers financially, can be charged for, so we may see newspapers pick and choose which sections to put a pay wall around.
Google's mission to drive up newspaper revenue
A move from Google to try and get on the good side of newspapers and magazines who have been constantly saying that the search giant is taking more than giving.
Eleven more things I’d do if I ran a news organization
One of the first people I ever read about the changing news landscape was Dan Gillmor, and it's articles like this that have kept me reading ever since.
The Great Panto Review 2009: Oh yes it is
Another great fund raising idea from my pal Linda Jones, this time it involves bloggers reviewing pantomimes, with donations going towards the National Alliance of Childhood Cancer Parent Organisations.
Linda is looking for bloggers who are interested in doing a review, but also PR and marketing representatives of theatres staging shows who are able to offer review tickets.
I HAVE helped freelance journalist William Knight get up and running with a TypePad based site called This New Zealand Life.
William recently headed off to the other side of the earth with his partner and two children after having spent time on and off in New Zealand in the past.
The site will be offering news and advice for people looking to move to New Zealand as well as feature interviews with those who have made the move, as well as articles by William about his own experiences of life overseas.
As for making it pay, at the moment it is just via Google Adsense but as readership grows then Addiply is likely to come into play and I hope that William begins to gain in other ways from This New Zealand Life being recognised within its field.
SAD to see that Sarah Hartley has left the Manchester Evening News (MEN) and closed her Mancunian Way blog.
Sarah writes more about her experiences of spending the past few years heading up one of the region's leading news websites.
And I've no doubt that a rosy future lies ahead for Sarah 'the glue' Hartley, as I used to call her for bringing the different corners of the Manchester digital scene together.
What does worry me is that this is yet another retrenchment from MEN Media as they cut back regional offices, slash the number of journalists they employ and now whittle away the ties that have developed with a burgeoning digital industry sector.
The MEN seems determined to cut its journalism costs yet at the same time it is distancing itself from local communities, be they geographical or interest based, eventually though it will be swamped as these groups gather and power forward.