Comments on: Tips and Tricks I Learned as a Technical Writer (Part 2)

By: Neicole Crepeau

Neicole Crepeau — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:51:38 +0000

Hi, Mark. You make an excellent point about images and the images in context sticking in people’s mind. It can provide an anchor and give some life and breathing room to the post, but also help keep the post in the reader’s mind, after the leave the site. Images have that power.

Thanks for your comment!

Neicole

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:07:25 +0000

Cool article, (I found this via the Linkin group). I do photography and like to blog, so thinking about the visual representation of blogs and how they combine with the images you use is always on my mind.

I went to the last BarCamp in Berlin and talked about visual imagery for blogs, the SlideShare presentation is in my website link. I think the image and context given it to it by what you write is main thing which can stick in the mind of a reader, with the image creating a visual anchor that the rest of the post revolves around. I tried explaining this in German to a guy who was interviewing me and it didn’t translate so well.

Thanks again for the cool post.

-mark

By: Chris Franklin

Chris Franklin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:05:33 +0000

I’m looking at The Bloggers Bulletin itself and I think it needs more white space and removal of “Categories” listed at the top under the header (after all, the categories are already listed within a sidebar widget). It needs multi headings, better font manipulation, and line spacing and so forth.

I also think it’d be ideal if every post had a photo or some kind of media associated with it that could be see on the front page. Pictures always get my attention but my eyes will glaze over with too much text.

Since Contributor photos hinge on the presence of a “plug-in” (now installed), this is doable. So please post photos/video, nice doodles whatever you need to make your case in your post.

Me, my tastes lean towards a custom blog design. I’d like to see The Bloggers Bulletin have a unique template, unique header graphic/art, unique everything. I cringe when I see other blogs — group or not — using the same template as us!

Btw, does anybody know of a WordPress template that might work better for a group blog?

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9/29 Note:

Managed to get rid of the “Categories” horizontal listing that was crowding the header. Finally just deleted the right side-bar; didn’t want to do that, but it did end up seeming to provide more white space. Basically I think the Bulletin could use photos/media/video with each post, key points in each post in bold, and if not a unique template design, then at least a unique graphic or header font of some kind.

By: Mike Clough

Mike Clough — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 02:43:12 +0000

I understand tables and HTML formatting. I am just amazed that this themed accepted it. I do not be believe the theme I use will accept tables. I am sure I tried that once without success. But you can bet I will try it again. Thanks so much!!

By: Neicole Crepeau

Neicole Crepeau — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:21:28 +0000

Boy, this comment manager isn’t going to let anything that looks remotely like HTML get through. Well, if you’re not familiar with tables, try viewing the source on the page to copy my formatting. Sorry!