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INTEGRATING MSN SPACES IN YOUR BLOG |
Unlike some other blog services, you cannot pre-date or post-date entries. Manipulating the date is a feature not often found in social networks. Editing and deleting blog entries are common tasks, and MSN makes them more accessible than many competing networks. Click the X corresponding to any blog entry in your blog module (when in Edit mode) to delete the entry. Click any entry title to edit that entry. Your blog module must be positioned in a wide column to see entry titles and the corresponding deletion Xs.
You can probably tell that I like MSN Spaces. But the best is yet to come. MSN has fabulous photo features. Fast, friendly, fabulous photo features. This service makes it unusually easy to upload, display, and even touch up your digital photos. Pictures are automatically compressed — which would be a “so what?” fact except that the compression helps you fit more pictures in your allotted space. You can create as many photo albums as you like. The Photo Upload Control tool streamlines the addition of multiple photos like you wouldn’t believe. And in the end, your photos are presented on your Spaces page as a slide show.
You don’t have to use the MSN Photo Upload Control uploading tool, but I recommend it. The following steps walk you through installing it (could hardly be easier) and starting to use it for all uploading to MSN Spaces:
1.In the Photo album module, click Create.
2.Enter an album title.
The default title is the date. Highlight that title and type over it. Unless,
of course, you want the photo album’s title to be the date it was created.
3.Click the Add photos link.
A window pops open, offering something called MSN Photo Upload
Control. Could no one think of a less intimidating name for this thing?
Sheesh. Still, it’s a great little program.
4.Click the Install Now button.
5.If a verification pop-up appears, click its Install button.
The installation is fully automatic and takes less than ten seconds over a high-speed connection internet.
After creating a photo album, you might want to rearrange your modules or even choose a new layout style. The reason for this consideration is that the photo album module contains a fancy and effective slide-show control that invites your visitors to browse through your photos right on your main page. They can click through to a full-page presentation of the photo album, but a large, prominent photo album module is a convenience to your visitors and is great to look at. Try using a layout with wide sidebars and putting the album in one of them. Just a thought. Figure 4-11 shows a page design that puts the Photo album module in a wide main column and shoves the blog into a sidebar. That’s a dramatic example of showcasing the photo module. As you can see, narrow blog modules show not full entries but links to entries.