Blog.Mac Tutorial Blog

Blog.Mac is in sync with your iTunes. Share your favorite playlists, refer friends to new music, or hook 'em on your favorite TV show. With the iTunes Movie Store, you can also link to movies with free previews and cheap downloads or rentals on popular movies like Juno, shown below.

If you're one of the millions of proud Mac owners, you've probably used iLife and .Mac to organize your digital life. If you haven't used iLife, then you're missing out on an incredible product; if you've never used .Mac, you don't know what you're missing.

iLife '06, just released in January, provides Mac users with powerful and flexible tools to manage your movies, digital photos, music and web sites. iLife also ties in very nicely with your .Mac space, giving you powerful sharing functionality and a transparent on-line space for back-ups.

Blog.Mac was built to provide Mac users with a flexible, customizable and simple way to create and manage your own web log, or blog. Since iLife and .Mac are crucial features of the Mac experience, we built Blog.Mac to fill the gaps left by iLife for publishing a flexible yet feature-rich blog.

This blog will highlight the features of Blog.Mac, provide instructions for customizing your blog, and show you how to utilize the advanced features to make your blog work for you. As always, we at Largemouth Software want to hear from you so we can make Blog.Mac even better for the Mac user, so please utilize the feedback mechanism on this blog to pass on questions, provide suggestions or ask for clarification on any topic presented below.

Thanks for your interest!

Sam
Largemouth Software, LLC

Digital TV is coming...what do you need to get ready? What does Digital TV and HD TV mean anyway? Well, here's a quick guide to deciphering the tech scare tactics that the big box electronics dealers will push on you.

First off, who will the conversion affect? Everyone who receives television using an over-the-air antenna, not cable and not satellite. If you are paying for cable or satellite television, rest easy until your television conks out. If you have rabbit ears or are plugged into to an aerial that sits on your roof, read on because you will be impacted by the shift to digital television.

Now that we know that you need to prepare for the shift to digital television, what do you need to do to get ready? It depends on what you kind of television you have now. Some folks have old style picture tube televisions that were built years before digital television was even considered. More recently, many televisions were sold as "HD TV ready" but didn't come with digital tuners. Both of these television sets will only receive digital channels when connected to a digital tuner or converter box. Some of the boxes will be basic no frills devices, while others will be capable devices equipped with remote control and other features. Most of these converters shouldn't be more than about $50 each.

Some electronics vendors will tell you that cable and satellite companies will have to convert to digital television signals and so you'll have to upgrade too. That's simply not true in 99% of the cases; in cases where a cable box or cable converter is now connected to your television, no change will be needed. After January 2009, some cable companies may ask what kind of television you have to ensure that your television is compatible with their new cable converters and their converters will be able to handle televisions that are built with digital or analog tuners. In a few rare instances, cable customers might have to get different equipment, but check first with your cable company.

Luckily, more information is available. Click here for the FCC's handy consumer guide to HD TV.

Find more ideas by searching Wal-Mart or other low-price technology vendors:

Creating your blog couldn't be much easier! Simply start Blog.Mac and select "New Blog" from the File menu.

Blog.Mac creates a new blog file that you can edit while you're on-line, or off the net while on vacation. When you publish your blog to your .Mac home page, Blog.Mac uses your blog's name. To make it easy for readers to visit your blog, save your Blog.Mac blog file using a simple name based on the theme of your blog, like "myblog" or "musicnews". If you enter punctuation characters or spaces, Blog.Mac will strip those characters for publishing since web addresses need to be plain text. If you want to spread out the name of your blog, use an underscore, like we did for this "tutorial_blog" file.

After you've created a new blog, simply fill in the various fields and make selections for customizing your blog. Save your blog, then click the Publish button to put your blog on line.



Read more below to learn how to customize your blog for even more functionality.

Your computer is the center of your digital life...so why not make your blog the front door?

With Blog.Mac, it's easy to add photographs, links to your favorite sites, or home movies. Simply drag and drop files into your blog articles or select them from your computer using the media browser. Blog.Mac will help you crop the article, uploads the file and then adds the code to display your images right in your blog article.

You can easily add a section to your blog to show what your are listening to on your iTunes. When you change songs, your blog changes too, and whoever is reading your blog sees the change, no matter where they are in the world. Adding this feature is as simple as checking a box in Blog.Mac.

Check a box and publish...it's that easy!

You've probably got photo albums in iPhoto that you published to your .Mac space, and now you want to share them on your blog. With Blog.Mac, it's easy to add a link to your photo album, or if you care, a browser that shows a thumbnail-sized images. Your readers can quickly navigate through the album.

To Add a Photo Browser to Your Sidebar:

1. Click the drop down menu at the bottom of the Sidebar Contents panel and select an album from the "Add Sidebar iPhoto Album Browser" sub-menu
2. A sheet will ask you to label the blog section and whether you want the thumbnail images to link to the full-size image
3. Select the new Photo Browser section that Blog.Mac added to the Sidebar section of the Blog Contents navigation table to flip through the imported images
4. The format of the photo browser (like the background color and the frame around each picture) will vary with the template used to publish your blog
5. Save your blog document and re-publish the page

To add a Photo Browser in a Blog Article:

1. Click on the "Articles" tab on your Blog document window
2. Click on the "Insert .Mac iPhoto Album..." drop down menu and select a photo album
3. A sheet opens giving you the option to insert a link or a photo browser
4. Select "Insert Thumbnail Browser..."
5. If you want each small image linked to the full-size image, also check the "Link thumbnail images to full size photos" checkbox
6. Click the "Insert" button
7. Code is inserted in your article; click the preview button to see your results

It's easy to add videos in just about any format. If you have a video of your own, Blog.Mac can help upload and display the video. Simply open the media browser using the "Media" button on your tool bar, or select "Media Browser" from the "Window" menu. Select a video from your computer, and drag it into a selected article. The video file is uploaded and the code is entered to display the video in your blog.

YouTube and Google videos are just as easy! Find the video you want and look for the "Embed" code on the video's page. Copy and paste the code into an article:

The code for the video above looks like this:

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xvMasa9gfEc"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xvMasa9gfEc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

New in version 1.3, our template editor is now integrated! Change your favorite template or create a new one just for you. Check out our new beta (available here on our home page). If you are comfortable with CSS, try our free Blog.Mac Template Editor. You'll have full control over the layout and format of your blog but some of the new automated features being added to version 1.3 aren't yet available. While you'll need to learn a little about CSS, the new version will soon be out so you won't need to refer to Google or our free Blog.Mac Support!

You've worked hard on your blog...now it's time for your blog to work for you. There are many tools available to you to add advertisements on your blog that can earn you cold hard cash. Once you've added the code for these advertisements, you can earn money everytime your blog is read. It's easy with Blog.Mac!


Here's an advertisement that links to the iTunes Music Store:

Want to try it in your own blog? Test it out by cutting and pasting this code in your own blog:

<a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=uD0pi4Lemno&offerid=78941.10000773&type=4&subid=0"> <IMG alt="The Office" border="0" src= "http://images.apple.com/itunesaffiliates/US/2005/
12/6/NBC/300x250_TheOffice.jpg"> </a> <IMG border="0" width="1" height="1" src="http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id=uD0pi4Lemno&bids=78941.10000773&type=4&subid=0">

You can enter this code in an article or in a Custom Code Block, which can be displayed in the sidebar of your blog:

1. Click the drop down menu at the bottom of the Sidebar Contents panel and select "Add Custom Sidebar Code Block"
2. Select the new Custom Code section that Blog.Mac added to the Sidebar section of the Blog Contents navigation table
3. Give the section a unique name to describe this section
4. Paste in the code for your advertisement
5. Save your blog document and re-publish the page

The whole point of spending time writing your blog is to get people to read it, right? Luckily, Blog.Mac includes a few tools to get you started:

• RSS Feeds - Created automatically and ready for news readers, MyYahoo! home pages, Firefox RSS menus, and more
• Email Notifications - Created automatically whenever you update your blog; let your readers know there's something new
• And finally, some ideas for advertising your own blog

One of the most popular advertising methods these days is Google AdWords. Set up an AdWords account in 10 minutes and start driving traffic to your blog. Get started here:

Google AdSense is an advanced advertising tool provided for free by the folks at Google. When you add Google AdSense to your blog, Google's servers read the text of your blog and create advertisements that match the content of your blog. It's easy to add your own AdSense code to a blog article or in the sidebar of your Blog.Mac blog:

<script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-0041305848403424"; google_ad_width = 120; google_ad_height = 240; google_ad_format = "120x240_as"; google_ad_type = "text_image"; google_ad_channel =""; google_color_border = "B0E0E6"; google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; google_color_link = "000000"; google_color_url = "336699"; google_color_text = "333333"; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script>

You can enter this code in an article or in a Custom Code Block, which can be displayed in the sidebar of your blog:

1. Click the drop down menu at the bottom of the Sidebar Contents panel and select "Add Custom Sidebar Code Block"
2. Select the new Custom Code section that Blog.Mac added to the Sidebar section of the Blog Contents navigation table
3. Give the section a unique name to describe this section
4. Paste in the code for your advertisement
5. Save your blog document and re-publish the page

To get started, you'll first need to sign up for Google AdSense, which is an easy process. Click the banner to get started:

Want to share your choice in books with your readers? Why not show them the cover to the book, and earn a portion of the money if one of your readers clicks on the link and purchases the book through Amazon.com. Adding them to your Blog.Mac blog is easy!

There are many varieties of banners available, and you can see a few samples in this blog's sidebar.

Here's a sample linking it to one of our favorite books:

You can enter this code in an article or in a Custom Code Block, which can be displayed in the sidebar of your blog:

1. Click the drop down menu at the bottom of the Sidebar Contents panel and select "Add Custom Sidebar Code Block"
2. Select the new Custom Code section that Blog.Mac added to the Sidebar section of the Blog Contents navigation table
3. Give the section a unique name to describe this section
4. Paste in the code for your advertisement
5. Save your blog document and re-publish the page

You've probably spent a lot of time on the iTunes Music Store. Maybe it's time to earn a little back! Become an iTunes Affiliate and place a link on your blog page. Create links to a dynamically created advertisement or link to your favorite genre or category, then quickly and easily add them to your Blog.Mac blog.


Here's a banner for this week's Free Single of the Week (external link, might not always be current):

You'll probably use some chunks of code over and over again. Rather than trying to find the code in other published blogs and then cutting and pasting these chunks into new articles, use the Blog.Mac Code Library, available in the Window menu:

Unlike iWeb, Blog.Mac gives you full control over your blog article content and template. Download the free trial of Blog.Mac today!