Need some Blogger help

Ok, I'm getting frustrated with Blogger. I'm new at it, but not usually an idiot with software. In this case though, apparently I am. Before I yank it and move on to something else, I thought I'd ask for some advice here as I know many of you use it. Here are my questions...

1. How do you put your photos in your post? Do you use the Blogger uploader deal, or something else?

Here are the problems I'm having with this - First, if I upload to Blogger it makes the images small (even at large setting) until you click on them, which then opens them to their true size in a new window. I hate this. Second, if I FTP them to my website (which is what I want to do) and put them in with the Blogger uploader (using the URL link side) it makes them all the same width. So my verts look nice and big, but the horiz are sized to the same width, so they are half the size. Major suckage.

I have also tried hosting at Flickr which solves the size issue nicely but a) I don't want to host my images on Flickr when I have a ton of webspace I'm already paying for and b) When you click on the images it takes you to my Flickr page, which I think looks unprofessional.

2. When you are doing an epic blog post (like 20+ images) how the hell do you do it without taking all day? There has to be a better way than what I'm doing which is: FTP them to my site. Navigate to where they are hosted on my site. Right click on an image, choose "save image location", then tab to my uploader, paste in the url, and repeat. The Blogger uploader only lets you do 5 at a time, so that slows it down even more.

It seems like there should be a way to identify a group of images, load them all into the post at the same time (like a bulk uploader), then write your text around them. That would take like 3-5 mins vs. 15.

3. Why the hell does Blogger always put an image at the TOP of a post even if you have written a whole paragraph already? Is there a way around this?

Maybe the answer is to move to a different blog service like Bigfolio or Wordpress. I definitely can't pay to have a custom one done right now, so I'm stuck with trying to figure out how to do this and not go insane.

As always, thanks for your help

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C.Steele wrote in post #6420737
Ok, I'm getting frustrated with Blogger. I'm new at it, but not usually an idiot with software. In this case though, apparently I am. Before I yank it and move on to something else, I thought I'd ask for some advice here as I know many of you use it. Here are my questions...

1. How do you put your photos in your post? Do you use the Blogger uploader deal, or something else?
I use blogger uploader.

Here are the problems I'm having with this - First, if I upload to Blogger it makes the images small (even at large setting) until you click on them, which then opens them to their true size in a new window. I hate this. Second, if I FTP them to my website (which is what I want to do) and put them in with the Blogger uploader (using the URL link side) it makes them all the same width. So my verts look nice and big, but the horiz are sized to the same width, so they are half the size. Major suckage.
Yeah, I hate it as well. I haven't found a good way around it, so I just use the blogger uploader on the large setting. I noticed the same thing with the width being the same, it makes photos in portrait orientation twice the size

I have also tried hosting at Flickr which solves the size issue nicely but a) I don't want to host my images on Flickr when I have a ton of webspace I'm already paying for and b) When you click on the images it takes you to my Flickr page, which I think looks unprofessional.
You could remove the link to your flickr site in one of two ways: 1) go into the code, there will be something that says <a href = "flickr.com/photo(or whatever the address is)"><img = blahblah></img></a>. Remove everything in the <a> and </a>. Alternatively, you might be able to click the picture, click the little button that makes a hyperlink (its like a sideways paperclip) and delete all text from there, so there is no text in the hyperlink. Either way, you should be able to change that link to not be there.

2. When you are doing an epic blog post (like 20+ images) how the hell do you do it without taking all day? There has to be a better way than what I'm doing which is: FTP them to my site. Navigate to where they are hosted on my site. Right click on an image, choose "save image location", then tab to my uploader, paste in the url, and repeat. The Blogger uploader only lets you do 5 at a time, so that slows it down even more.
It isn't that bad, I just use the blogger uploader which only does 2 at a time, but each upload of 2 only takes 5-10 seconds. I also try not to upload more than 10 photos, because I don't want my blog to just be a collection of photos. It's supposed to be a blog as well. I have a website to host the galleries.

It seems like there should be a way to identify a group of images, load them all into the post at the same time (like a bulk uploader), then write your text around them. That would take like 3-5 mins vs. 15.
That'd be sweet.

3. Why the hell does Blogger always put an image at the TOP of a post even if you have written a whole paragraph already? Is there a way around this?
Haha, yes this is extremely annoying. What I do to combat this is to either type up my blog post first, cut it, insert my images, and then paste it at the top, or just simply add the photos before typing.

Also, you have to load your images in reverse order (if you care how they are ordered) because blogger will put the most recent uploads on the top. So if I want to upload images 1,2,3,4,5 in that order, I do this:

Upload 4 and 5 in one batch
Upload 2 and 3 in one batch
Upload 1

Then they are ordered correctly, and when you upload two at a time it will do the first one on top so you can't really go in reverse order.

Maybe the answer is to move to a different blog service like Bigfolio or Wordpress. I definitely can't pay to have a custom one done right now, so I'm stuck with trying to figure out how to do this and not go insane.
You could try wordpress, although I remember there being some reason I couldn't use them. I think it had to do with having your own domain, maybe not, but I remember I wanted to use them and they wouldn't have worked for me.

As always, thanks for your help

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Chris
Good luck. I hope blogger gets their act together and implements some simple changes and bug fixes for photo uploading, like you talked about. A bulk uploader, allowing the full size photo to display, and uploading wherever you have the cursor would be my three most needed features.

My message is too short? I need 3 characters...?

Thanks for taking the time to respond! I got a tip from someone on another site that solved all my issues. Here it is...

First, I have my own website with plenty of storage so I store my photos there, you could still do this if you stored them on Flickr as well.

1. Write your post
2. Click the "edit HTML" tab
3. put the cursor where you want the photo
4. Type <img src=location of photo by copying and pasting it here>

*Oh and if you do host with Fickr, don't copy the line full of all the crap they give you below the photo. Just right click on the photo itself and "copy image location." That gets rid of all the junk you don't need.*

That's it! Your images show up full size (so size them correctly before) and are oriented correctly in your post. Super easy.

An added tip: If your photos are numbered photo1, photo2, etc. Just do the first one by hand, then copy the entire line and paste it where you want the rest. Then just go back and change the 1 to 2, etc. Makes it even quicker!

Hope this helps, it helped me a ton!
Chris

C.Steele wrote in post #6424280
Thanks for taking the time to respond! I got a tip from someone on another site that solved all my issues. Here it is...

First, I have my own website with plenty of storage so I store my photos there, you could still do this if you stored them on Flickr as well.

1. Write your post
2. Click the "edit HTML" tab
3. put the cursor where you want the photo
4. Type <img src=location of photo by copying and pasting it here>

*Oh and if you do host with Fickr, don't copy the line full of all the crap they give you below the photo. Just right click on the photo itself and "copy image location." That gets rid of all the junk you don't need.*

That's it! Your images show up full size (so size them correctly before) and are oriented correctly in your post. Super easy.

An added tip: If your photos are numbered photo1, photo2, etc. Just do the first one by hand, then copy the entire line and paste it where you want the rest. Then just go back and change the 1 to 2, etc. Makes it even quicker!

Hope this helps, it helped me a ton!
Chris

Yeah I'm pretty familiar with coding, but wouldn't you still have the problem with the vertical images being twice the size of the horizontal?

I thought I tried this as one of the first things I did. Maybe not...

Edit: Just saw this in use on your site, sweet. Can't wait to change mine to that format.