Struggling with Images for Blogging
Sending images to where I can put then in a Bog post
I run WordPress on all my blogs and mostly I am able to blog from my office at home using my iMac. Today though I am working at school teaching English in Banyoles and I have to write my blog posts using the iPad only. I could actually use some Windows computers in the staffroom, but I would really rather not.
So far I have written todays’ post for Mac20Q Blogathon using Byword on the iPad and it has been a good experience. I have the bluetooth keyboard from my iMac with me and even though I don’t mind typing on the iPad screen itself, this does work out more comfortable and faster. I do seem to lose the automatic spelling checking and word replacement by using the external keyboard. It is kind of swings and roundabouts with that one.
Getting the images uploaded to the internet
This is where I am struggling. I can’t get the pictures uploaded while in WordPress to my blog. I can get access to the media library I have there already, but I can’t get new images sent in. I get as far as the dialog box for it and then it all falls apart. I have thought about using a WordPress app that I have but that is not doing it either. I tried to send images to DropBox and then get the url. That looked like it was going to work, I got the url from DropBox but it was rejected by the WordPress image uploader.
Where is the FTP app when you need it?
What I need is an FTP application that will connect directly to the web hosting that I have and let me send images directly. I have one more to try on that. I looked at the possibility of sending the image to Flickr. I uploaded one image there but couldn’t find a url so that I could put into WordPress.
Getting a blog post published with Blogsy
The latest idea is to use the blogging software for the iPad called Blogsy. It looks very capable and what I am doing now is writing this using Byword so that I can write in Markdown. In Blogsy the page was expecting html code and although I could write that way, I would prefer to do it with Markdown. It is so much easier and less likely that I will make a mistake with the html code. I will see if I can upload and insert an image using Blogsy.
Blogsy connects with quite a few blogging platforms including LiveType, WordPress and of course Blogger. There have been a lot of changes to the app recently and I have to re set up all of the blogs from scratch. It is not too difficult and I have all the passwords for it in 1Password.
Missing the talking to my computer.
I could dictate using the Dragon Dictate app for the iPad but I doubt if it would work to well in a noisy staffroom. Talking to the computer in a quiet staffroom would also be annoying for the other teachers too. Besides the mobile application, while very good is not as accurate as the desktop version of Dragon Dictate. In the mobile version you have to have an internet connection and the voice recording must get sent off to be converted to editable text. I find that if I leave it too long until I edit it I have difficulty remembering exactly what I really did mean to say.
Yippee – I got the image uploading working with Blogsy
It took me a while to work it out, but I read a how to guide for Blogsy and discovered how to complete the task. I will have to make a little video to put on the Wizardgold YouTube Channel to show how it is done. I am starting to like the Blogsy Application now. I also discovered a WSYWYG view for entering text into Blogsy. I think I prefer the Markdown in Byword as it is constantly being saved into iCloud. Much better for back up purposes. I can also bring images into Blogsy blog posts from Picasa and Flickr. In fact, it looks like I can grab stuff from YouTube too.
Battery life of my iPad 1
I started the day with 100% and now at 3pm the iPad is down to 42%. I still have work for the iPad to do this afternoon so I am hoping it will last until after the last class of the day. I have my camera with me today so I might go into the playground of the school and record some video.
