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Custom Preview Template in MarsEdit
Ever since MarsEdit extended support for Tumblr, I’ve used this blog editor exclusively to publish everything on this site but there’s have been moments when I’ve turned to Tumblr’s online dashboard mostly because I like to get a full blown preview of what the entry will look like before I publish.
If you’ve used MarsEdit before, you’ll know the software does have this Preview option already where you can see your writing live while you type but when using it straight out of the box, you’re really just looking at an unappealing blank un-styled page of everything you’ve written.
Formatted HTML/CSS so that MarsEdit previews a post exactly like Jorgeq.com To spice up the writing experiencing a bit more, I followed Matthias instructions in copying the HTML and CSS code he’s made available and placed it into the Preview Template Editor. After some CSS styling of my own, I’ve completely replicated the look and feel of my site into MarsEdit.
If customization is your thing, I can’t recommend this enough. I’m enjoying this piece of software even more.
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Craig Mod's Photography Rules →
Craig Mod sharing his approach on shooting and I personally can’t say I do anything different myself -
- RAW only. JPEG quality is irrelevant because it seems insane to shoot anything but RAW. I’m shooting for documentary and archival purposes, as I think we all should.
- Mainly aperture priority.
- Mostly Auto Focus because things move quickly in real life.
- Everything handheld. Night shots with a tripod.
- No flash. Almost always available light.
- Edit. Edit. Edit. And post-process. I spend tons of time in Lightroom editing and filtering images — trying to find thematic threads — and preforming ‘standard’ darkroom post-processing.
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Insanely Useful Blogwriting →
Blogging has always had its similarities with the act of keeping a diary or a journal with the exception that what you blog is intended to be read by an audience and not secretly hidden. The reason I blog has always been very simple - sharing information and when close friends stumble across my site, I think they have a preconceived notion that the content would be all about what I ate for breakfast or what a terrible commuting day I might have had.
Not to say that content like that has no value to anyone else other than the person who publishes it but sometimes readers can be very fickle in that if you’re not giving them something that will hold their attention, they’re likely to just leave.
As a reader I’ve done it before and I’m sure you’re no stranger to the act of unsubscribing. So what do you do to maintain that audience that categorizes having a blog in the first place? Leo Babauta presents some invaluable blogging tips and these are the ones that stood out the most for me which I always keep in mind before clicking that publish button -
- Write for the reader - While a blog can be a personal journal, if you want an audience of more than your friends and family, write for an audience. Don’t just write about your random thoughts and experiences, but think of what the reader wants to know, what the reader’s concerns are, what the reader is interested in, and how you can help provide that.
- Make it worth talking about - Don’t just write what everyone else writes. Write about something that’s a bit (or a lot) different, or in a way that’s different. Write about something that people will want to respond to, pass on, talk about with others. Be bold and be different.
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I’ve own my fair share of Apple notebooks in the past and I’ve always managed to sell each of them successfully so as to upgrade to a new one but there were a couple steps that I wish I had known before shipping them out. Dan Benjamin offers some insightful tips in how to prepare a Mac for sale. (via Kyle Baxter)
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Inauguration Travel Tips from Expedia →
With record turnout expected, Expedia announces new web page with travel tips for inauguration-bound travelers. The page will bring together the tools needed to plan a patriotic visit to the nation’s capital during inauguration week by reserving hotels, airline tickets and admission to various activities and tours around the D.C. area. I’m considering it.
