From TamsinP: How To Write And (Not) Publish Your Posts

 

"Good morning Ladies, Gentlemen...and Ray. My name is TamsinP and I will be the Senior Flight Attendant for your journey through Challenge XII Quadrant. As we have a number of first-time passengers and some who are returning after a gap (also because there have been some changes to how we are doing things) I have been asked by Captain Campbell, our Chief Pilot, to write a guide on how to record your memoirs of this expedition. I hope that this instructional post will help."

Tamsin's Terribly Terrific Tutorial To Challenge Posting

Before You Post

Just a little checklist for you to consider:

1. Have I taken photos of everything I am including in the post?
2. Are there at least 3 photos of everything, taken from different angles?
3. Have all the photos been resized to a maximum of 1000 pixels in either direction?
4. Have I worked out how many points I am claiming?

If your answers to all four questions is a resounding "Yes!", then you may proceed.

A Request On Behalf Of The Minions

"Given how many passengers we have on this year's tour, please (please, pretty please) try not to overwhelm your poor, suffering, wretched minions with hundreds of posts every week. If you can combine multiple entries into a single post, that would be very helpful. That being said, you might want to do a separate post for "Quadrant" submissions."

"Remember, the minions are all volunteers and doing the minioning stuff does take them away from their own painting."

How to Create a New Post

1. Open the Challenge Blog (linky-link)

2. Click on "New Post" (as indicated by the red arrow in the photo above). This will take you to this screen:

3. Click on "New Post" (as indicated by the red arrow in the photo above). This will take you to the post editing screen:

Congratulations! You may now begin writing your post!

A quick word about post formats. There is a certain preferred "style", simply because it looks good on all screens. However, if you choose to format differently (within reason) you won't be penalised. Just take this guide as, well, a guide on how your post should look.

As a reasonable example of preferred post formatting, here's a post of mine from AHPC X (linky-link). 

Post Title

This is very important and there is certain information that must be included. Here is an example of how the Title should look:

A brief explanation of the different parts:

[draft] - This indicates that you haven't finished writing the post. When you are finished writing and happy for it to be published, change [draft] to [ready]. On your posting day, your minion will delete the [ready] from the title once they have finished scoring your submission.

[today] - As everyone has an assigned day for posting submissions (linky-link), please do remember to include this is your post title. For example, my posting day is Sunday so my post titles would start [draft][Sunday]

"NB - The first and last few days of the Challenge are, traditionally,  "free-fire" and you can post submissions on any day of the week. Captain Campbell will advise you as to when the "free-fire" rule applies,"

"From TamsinP:" - Please start your post title with your assigned "handle" (linky-link). After all, we want to know who has painted those wonderful miniature masterpieces - no need to be shy! It's also a great help to the minion who will be scoring your post. You can either use a colon (":") or a spaced hyphen (" - ") as a separator.

"How To Write And (Not) Publish Your Posts" - Something that describes what you are posting. For example, if your submission is a warband of 28mm Orcs, you might make this part of the title "28mm Orc Warband".

(Nul points) - Please do include an estimate of how many points you think the submission is worth. The scoring per figures can be found in the announcement post (linky-link)

Just as a quick addendum, if your submission includes entries for the Challenge XII Quadrant, please include the location name between the description and points claim, eg:

"Phew, that's the Title done with. Onto the main bit. Which should be quite quick and painless*."

Body Of Post

This is the part where you write your actual submission and add all your photos. Some people choose to start by adding a group shot of all the figures in their submission, some start with an introductory text. The choice is yours.

What we expect to see in the text of your submission is:

A description of the miniatures - how many, the scale (eg 28mm), what they are and the manufacturer (if known)

A summary of the points you are claiming for the figures and (where applicable) Quadrant locations, eg:

24 x 15mm foot @ 2 points = 48 points

12 x 15mm mounted @ 4 points = 48 points

9 x 28mm foot @ 5 points = 45 points

Arda (Outer Ring) bonus = 20 points

Total = 161 points

"NB - the points summary is possibly the most important part of the post from the minions' point of view as without it scoring your submission may be difficult (we don't want to spend an hour working out from your photos how many figures you are claiming). "

If your post contains multiple different submissions you can, of course, include a summary after each section and then a "grand summary" at the end.

Beyond that, feel free to write whatever you want. You can, if you want, write a tall tale interspersed with photos (RIP NoelW - you will definitely be missed by us all). You can include a guide to how you painted the figures. Or you can just write "Hey guys and gals - here are some Orcs I've painted".

Adding Photos To Your Post

Yes, we do want to see photos of your painted minis. We do know that not everyone is a great photographer, that not everyone has the best lighting for taking photos and we don't expect that.

What we do want to see?

• Photos that show how many figures are being claimed - if you are claiming 5 x 28mm orcs, we want to see a photo of the five orcs together.
• Photos taken from different angles.
• Close-up photos if you dare!

How to add photos:

1. Assuming you have written a couple of paragraphs of text and wish to insert a photo between them, eg:

2. The first thing to do is click "Enter" to create an additional blank line between the paragraphs:

3. To add your photos Click "insert Image" (as indicated by the red arrow in the photo below):

This will bring up a menu:

4. Click on "Upload from computer" (as indicated by the red arrow in the photo below):

That will open this pop-up window:

5. Click on "Choose files" (as indicated by the red arrow in the photo above). That will open your Folders, like so:

6. Find the folder with the photos you want to add, select them and click "Open" (as indicated by the red arrow in the photo below):

7. Your selected photos should appear in the "Add Images" pop-up window:

8. Make sure that all the photos you want to add are highlighted, then click "Select" (as indicated by the red arrow in the photo above). The photos should now upload to your blog post.

The last photo uploaded should be highlighted and there should be a menu box:

9. Please adjust the image size to "Large" for all your photos - click on the button indicated by the red arrow above:

10. You can add captions underneath your photos. Click on the photo to bring up the menu bar and then click on the "A" button indicated by the red arrow in the photo below:

Underneath the photo you should now see "Add Caption":

Add whatever caption you like to the photo:

"There you go, wasn't that simple and clear*. Now you know how to add photos to your blog post, so that we can all see your lovingly painted miniatures!"

* amended from "clear and simple" to avoid confusion with a brand of soap

Just one more thing (TM Lieutenant Columbo) - please check that there is a blank line between text and photos and also between photos. It just looks nicer (and also makes it easier to correct any formatting issues).

And another thing (also TM Lieutenant Columbo) - please, upload photos rather than linking to photos on another site. Doing so avoids the possibility of broken photo links in future.

"Okay, so we have the post titles, scoring summaries, post text and photos covered. That just leaves one very important thing to cover before we go on to saving and (not) publishing your post."

*I might have been slightly "economical with the truth" when I suggested "quick and painless" at the start of this section.

On The Importance Of Labels And How To Do Them

Labels are pretty important as they allow people to search for specific posts. For example:

• all posts written by TamsinP
• all posts for a particular Challenge XII Quadrant location
• all posts that qualify for entry to the "Sarah's Choice" prize
• all posts with Orcs
• etc, etc, etc

So, how do you add labels to your post and what should you include? I'll cover these in reverse order...

What Labels To Include

• Your "handle" (linky-link) (eg TamsinP), as per the Post Title
• Scale of figures (eg 28mm)
• Period (eg WW2)
• Army/nationality/faction (eg Space Marines)
• Manufacturer (eg Warlord Games)
• Challenge XII Quadrant location if applicable (eg Noel's Comet)
• "Sarah's Choice" if applicable (ie a female figure* is part of the entry)
• Anything else that you think might be helpful for people searching the blog

* for avoidance of any doubt, the female figure should be humanoid. Painting a bear and claiming it as a female miniature isn't the done thing, is it Ray? 

How to Add Labels To Your Post

In the right-hand sidebar, you should see "Labels" at the top:

To add your labels, start typing where it says "Separate labels with com...":

As you start typing, if anything looks like it might match the label you want to add, the "matches" will show below where you are typing:

In the photo above you will see that I have added "TamsinP" and started to type the next label - it has offered a match "Administration" to the "adm" that I have typed. As that is correct, I click on the offered match. One letter earlier in y typing, the list of "matches" was much longer:

If no correct "matches" are offered, finish typing your label, ad a comma immediately after and click "Enter". That will create a new label:

"Is that all clear? Jolly good - we can move on now to saving and (not) publishing your post."

Saving And (Not) Publishing Your Post

Now that you have finished writing your post and are ready for it to go to the minions for scoring, etc, there is just one little task do first - go back to your Post Title and change [draft] to [ready]. All set? OK, let us proceed.

Whatever you do at this point...

DO NOT CLICK PUBLISH!!!!

I repeat...

DO NOT CLICK PUBLISH!!!!

For the avoidance of any doubt....

DO NOT CLICK PUBLISH!!!!

OK, it's not the end of the world if you do click "Publish" but it requires a bit of work to correct it. This is particularly important if you are writing the post ahead of your assigned posting day.

This is what we need you to do.

Just above the red arrow, you will see a button marked "Preview" - click the arrow next to it. That will bring up a small menu:

Click "Save". 

NB - you can click "Save" at any point while you are writing your post. It might in fact be a good idea to do so every so often if your post is quite long.

Your post is saved and you can now either close the tab or go to the "Posts" screen if you want to write another post:

To do so, click on the little arrow above the big red arrow. That will return you to the "Posts" screen and you should see your post in the queue:

If all has gone to plan, you should see in orange "Draft" underneath the title of your post.

Now, you may be asking "how do I add links and videos" to my posts. Adding videos (use the "Inset Videos" button next to the "Insert Photos" one) is much the same as adding photos, but we do ask you to link from another site. 

Adding links (as I have done several times in this tutorial)  is quite easy.

1. Highlight the text that you wish to use as a link

2. Copy the URL of the page you want to link to

3. Click on the "link" button (as indicated by the red arrow in the photo below):

This will open a pop-up window:

Paste the link where it says to, and then check the box for  "Open the link in a new window". Click "Apply" and you should have created the link.

Phew! I do hope that I'm getting paid overtime for doing this as it's taken me much longer than anticipated, what with all the screen captures and photo editing. 

What's that Curt? I'm doing this for free?!?!?!?! Yikes!!!!!

Anyway, that's enough from me for today. I hope that you have found this post useful. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.

Toodle-pip!

Tamsin