I mentioned once before that I am a computer idiot, but I’m proud to report that after only three months of blogging I’ve learned to put captions on the photos I post. Oliver, BHM’s webmaster, showed me how to do it with Photoshop since Wordpress, the blogging software we use, doesn’t appear to have that capability. This is a workaround, obviously, and I’m lucky to be familiar with Photoshop as it has been a basic tool of publishing since the computer age began. It goes to show that blogging software, and all this computer technology that is hurtling publishing into the 21st Century, is still relatively primitive when it comes to what I consider basic capabilities.

That said, I like Wordpress for its ease of use. If it allows this computer idiot to use it, it’s got to be pretty good. Wordpress does support captions that you can read by running your cursor over the photo, but that seems like a lame way to have readers read captions. Besides, I couldn’t get the captions to show up in Mozilla Firefox, which about 15 percent of readers use to access the BHM blog. Oliver came up with the Photoshop idea after we spent an hour on the phone trying to solve the Firefox problem. We did also solve the Firefox problem.

If anyone knows of an easier way to put captions on the photos, kindly let me know.

Blog comments

I also discovered I had a lot more comments on my blog posts than I thought. I just didn’t think to look back through the posts to check comments put on previous posts days after I made the posts. I should have responded to some of the comments, and will try to do so in the future. All this blogging stuff is new for me, but I will catch on to the technicalities of how it’s done soon.

I also think I’ll begin to narrow the focus of this blog to a behind-the-scenes look at publishing a magazine, which was my original intent. Right now the blog is all over the place, which has been good to get me used to how to do blogging. But a narrower focus will help build readership, and since I’m a publisher I’m obviously interested in building readership.

A publishing tip

Here’s a publishing tip: Just yesterday I had to go into a previous blog and correct the spelling of someone’s name. It is always unacceptable to misspell a person’s name in full view of the world. It is the greatest error of publishing. I know the Mom of this person, and she said she didn’t mind that I misspelled her daughter’s name. It may not bother her, but it should bother a publisher. Facts must be correct, and the most important fact in publishing is the proper spelling of people’s names. It is not so bad to misspell an ordinary word (people always forgive simple mistakes), but a misspelled name is a MAJOR error in publishing, damaging the credibility of a publication. A name, properly spelled, is very important to most readers. If you ever publish your own magazine or newspaper, or even a little newsletter for your local soccer team, this Rule should be a primary concern.

Progress is swift on new Subway

Progress has been swift on the building of a new Subway into the front of the BHM building. They gutted the front of our building less than two weeks ago, but have now installed all the plumbing and framed the exterior walls. They expect to complete everything and open for business in another four weeks.

The kids at the “open campus” Gold Beach High School across the street will be glad of that. So won’t I. Now I can walk next door for lunch. I can also start collecting rent! That’s the best payoff for BHM. We now have a long-term tenant.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 11:24 am and is filed under Publishing BHM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.