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| Archive - August 2006 Posted Aug-22-06 11:17:06 PDT Updated Sep-02-06 21:29:58 PDT Are your ready?Tis the season to get ready for fall and
dress up your blog.
Do your have a logo or store banner you want to add
to your blog?
Need a new fresh color scheme?
There are several members on the blog
forum who can make a pretty banner for you if you don't already have
one. Hopefully they'll append their names to this post. After hosting the banner online, take it to the BlogStyler and select some new page colors to go with it.
This
free online stylesheet Editor will allow you to modify your page appearance
without
knowing any coding. It will also help you add a counter to your Blog.
Please read the Traffic
Counters post for more info on creating your
counter.
Read
this guide about the BlogStyler stylesheet editor, or go directly to the editor
site.
http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/blog.htm
Learn how to add photos
on this discussion thread:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000166766 And discuss your blogging experience or
blog problems with other eBay members on the Blog Help board
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=1000000029
This recent workshop also
contains useful tidbits from eBay staff for managing your blog:
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000156351
This post will disappear. To
bookmark this info, do so from this main page:
http://blogs.ebay.com/shipscript
(This post
will self-destruct in 2 days) Posted Aug-20-06 17:19:20 PDT Updated Aug-20-06 18:06:01 PDT Blog Lockout
The new blog changes have caused some users to become locked out of
some blogs due to specific coding in one or more posts in those blogs.
I suspect this is only going to affect users who have added
HTML to their pages. If you repeatedly encounter this message while
trying to visit a blog, then you may be seeing a lockup situation.
Being locked out of one's own blog does not affect one's ability to
view other blogs.
If you can't get into your blog, or if you repeatedly encounter this error message when
visiting another blog, please follow this link to the Blog Help
board and post a link or name of the locked blog.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000341063
We've identified at least one cause for the problem, but there may
be other issues. Some users have lost access to their blogs and we'll
need to get eBay involved in unlocking them.
Posted Aug-18-06 16:02:36 PDT Updated Aug-19-06 19:27:49 PDT
With the introduction of ever larger camera resolutions, we're starting
to see photos that are two and three times wider than our screens.
These are coming in our emails and are appearing on some websites. It
is important to remember that a large percentage of users are still on
dialup and they simply can't view images that are overwhelmingly huge.
If your photos are taken strictly for web use, then set the camera to
its lowest resolution setting, preferrably under 1MP. The higher
settings are there for making prints.
Making your Photos SmallerMost cameras come with some sort
of image editing software. Use that software to resize the images to
something that is comfortable for viewing on a web page. 400-500
pixels across is pretty good for most images and is about half a screen
width. When saving the resized image, look for the compression or
quality setting on the "save as" screen and set it in the middle if it
used words like good better and best. If it mentions "compression" then
use something between 10-25% and if it mentions "jpeg quality", use a
number between 75-85%. That setting will help make the file smaller and
faster without affecting the dimensions of the image.
If you don't have any image
editing software for your PC, there are two other methods for resizing
images. One is to use your mail program and the other is to use MS
Paint on your PC. The Email Method on Windows XPThis method should always be used as a courtesy to your recipients when emailing unedited images to friends and family.
1. Go to your "My Pictures" album on your computer.
Right-click on a photo and "Send To" "Mail Recipient".
If you hold down the Ctrl-key, you can click on several photos at once.
Then after they are all highlighted, right-click to "Send To" to process the whole group.
2.
A popup will ask if you want to keep the original size or make them
smaller. Of course, we want to make those giant photos smaller.
3.
The smaller image file (or group of photos) will be added as an
attachment in a new mail. At this point, you can email to someone, or
email to yourself. But if you are using Outlook Express, you can simply
drag the image icon from the slot in the email to your desktop and you
will have the new smaller photo on your desktop.
4.
The new smaller photo can then be uploaded to your online image host.
The photo on your desktop can be given a new name and moved back into
your "My Pictures" folder, or you can simply move it back into the
folder and replace the original large photo that is still there.
Posted Aug-18-06 15:59:52 PDT Updated Aug-18-06 16:28:34 PDT With the introduction of ever larger camera resolutions, we're starting
to see photos that are two and three times wider than our screens.
These are coming in our emails and are appearing on some websites. It
is important to remember that a large percentage of users are still on
dialup and they simply can't view images that are overwhelmingly huge.
If your photos are taken strictly for web use, then set the camera to
its lowest resolution setting, preferrably under 1MP. The higher
settings are there for making prints.
Making your Photos Smaller
Most cameras come with some sort
of image editing software. Use that software to resize the images to
something that is comfortable for viewing on a web page. 400-500
pixels across is pretty good for most images and is about half a screen
width. When saving the resized image, look for the compression or
quality setting on the "save as" screen and set it in the middle if it
used words like good better and best. If it mentions "compression" then
use something between 10-25% and if it mentions "jpeg quality", use a
number between 75-85%. That setting will help make the file smaller and
faster without affecting the dimensions of the image.
If you don't have any image
editing software for your PC, there are two other methods for resizing
images. One is to use your mail program and the other is to use MS
Paint on your PC.
The MS Paint Method
1. Go to your "My Pictures" album on your computer.
Right-click on a photo and farther down the menu, select "Open With" and choose "Paint".
2. Within Paint, select "Stretch/Skew" from the "Image" menu.
That
will open a dialog window, where you will change both vertical and
horizontal stretch % values at the same time. They must both be the
same number. A smaller value will make a smaller image. If a photo was
taken at the 3MP or 4MP setting, you might try 10% or 25% to see how it
looks.
If it doesn't look right, then click the UNDO option, and repeat step two using a different value.
3.
When the image looks about the right size on your screen, save the
image to a new name, and be sure the "jpeg" option is selected in the
dropdown list on the save screen.
4. The new smaller photo can then be uploaded to your online image host.
Posted Aug-14-06 15:31:39 PDT Updated Aug-14-06 16:24:40 PDT It may be a little while before eBay adds a link-maker to the Blog editor, so here is an interim solution. Link Maker Tool For users who don't know how to construct a link, this tool that will create the code for you.  http://www.isdntek.com/tagbot/qlink.htm - In the top slot,
you will need to paste in the destination URL where the user should be
taken. The destination can be a webpage or the URL of a hosted online
image.
- If you want a clickable
image or thumbnail to launch the link, then you'll need the URL of a
hosted online image for the second slot, instead of your "click here"
text.
- Several linking styles are selectable, and
are designed for auctions; however, the top four styles can be used in
Blogs and posts, while the javascript prevents the bottom two from
being used in blogs or forums. The tool displays the code and previews
the link for testing. There are two ways to paste the code into a blog:
- Preview the link in the popup. Highlight and copy the active link in the popup, and paste it into the RichText Blog editor.
- Copy and paste the HTML code from the Code box on the link-making page and paste it into the plain text editing box for forums or checkmark the "View HTML" screen of the Blog editor before pasting into the editor.
Important Blog workaround:
When pasting into the Blog editor, be sure to click your mouse into the
editor, or type something after pasting into the blog editing window,
to make sure it sticks.
Or Code your Link by Hand For
users who want to construct the link by hand, type your page and mark
where the links will go by adding a row of ***5*** wherever needed.
Then checkmark the "View HTML"
box to switch to the HTML screen of the Blog editor. Paste one of these
codes into your editor at the marker and change the URLs to match your
own webpages and images: Image or thumbnail link to open an Image (click-to-enlarge)
http://myhost.com/bigimage.jpg" target="_blank"> http://myhost.com/thumbnail.jpg" > Image link to open a webpage
http://myhost.com/mypage.htm" target="_blank">http://myhost.com/thumbnail.jpg" > Image link without the colored border (border="0")
http://myhost.com/bigimage.jpg" target="_blank">http://myhost.com/thumbnail.jpg" border="0"> Text link to open an image
a href="http://myhost.com/image.jpg" target="_blank">click here Text Link to open a webpage
http://myhost.com/destination.htm" target="_blank">click here Text link with a different color *
http://myhost.com/destination.htm" target="_blank">darkgreen">click here
* A colorchart provides a complete list of color names and numbers.
The color change is already handled by your blog if you created a stylesheet at the Blog Styler. The
links open the destination in a new browser window. If you would like
to reuse the same browser window, then remove the code that says target="_blank" It
is important when coding links by hand to keep the pairs of quotes
intact. If one quote gets dropped, the remainder of the page may
disappear. It is also important to use the quotes around the URLs in
the Blog editor. If quotes are left off, the editor will report an
error and the link or image may simply disappear from the code. Posted Aug-10-06 12:32:22 PDT Updated Aug-10-06 15:33:21 PDT Make a blog group Have you found new friends and fellow bloggers who have common interests? Did you know you can create blogging groups by using keywords in your blog's "tag" field? Select a term that is not likely to have another meaning, like 22R33. Every blog owner with similar ideas or interests can place that same keyword in their tag list. To find other member blogs in your group, click that special group tag in your own blog.  Search on Tags We know we can click on tags in blogs and find other similar blogs. But how do we search for tags from scratch? The main blog page allows us to search by Title, Posts, and Member, but not by tags alone. Selecting Title will show results for titles AND tags. If you want to search from scratch (not from the main page), simply copy and paste this line of code into your browser window and replace the term at the end with the tag word or phrase you are searching.
http://search.blogs.ebay.com/_W0QQfindZ3231QQsearch_typeZblogsQQtrackingtagZtagsQQkeywordZ"auction templates" Posted Aug-05-06 15:26:12 PDT Updated Aug-05-06 21:03:30 PDT eBay's Wiki, Guide, Review, & Blog in Layman's Terms. A Wiki
is an encyclopedia of facts that are contributed by members. Other
members may add to or change an entry. The goal is that with so many
people contributing and editing, the errors are purged and only the
true facts remain. A wiki does not contain opinion nor does it refer to
"me", "I", "we", or "us".
Encyclopedia is the defining term for Wikis.
http://www.ebaywiki.com/
A Guide
is an instructional page outlining how to create, use, operate,
assemble, classify, or understand something. A Guide is less formal
than a wiki, since personality and some opinion may be included in a
guide to make the explanations easier to read. A guide is created and
edited by one member, and another member may vote, but not comment, on
the guide.
Instruction is the defining term for Guides.
http://reviews.ebay.com/
A Review
is an evaluation of a product or service. It is based on one's personal
experience with the product and may contain personal opinions about the
product. It will describe ease or difficulty of use and satisfaction
with the end results. It might also describe the features of the
product and how well they work, or how important they are to the
reviewer. A review will help a buyer decide if the product is right for
them. A review is created and edited by one member, and another member
may vote, but not comment, on the review.
Evaluation is the defining term for Reviews.
http://reviews.ebay.com/
A Blog
is a personal opinion forum, where the blog owner may add, edit, or
delete posts on any schedule. Blogging is really just a venue for
creating conversation and connections with other users. A Blog is
controlled by the owner who makes posts, and other members may add
comments or answers to the owner's posts, while the owner has full
control over deleting comments.
Opinion is the defining term for Blogs.
http://blogs.ebay.com/
Posted Aug-04-06 18:11:12 PDT Updated Aug-05-06 19:29:43 PDT eBay has decided to reward bloggers who create new and interesting content on a regular basis.
So sharpen your pencils and wit, and start blogging on August 9th. Read about it here! http://popular.ebay.com/odcs/custom.htm?template=GuideContest#contest A discussion thread has been started on the Blog Help forum for members who might need assistance http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000332007 Have fun! |
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