Using emojis in blog posts

Could emojis be useful in blog posts?

Following a tip from Jake Miller about using emoji bullets in Google Docs and Slides, I investigated a couple of ideas for using them in Blogger.

📌 subsitute for plain bullet points
📌 to add some colour

Several ways to access emojis

 1️⃣   From the blogger menu bar, Insert special characters reveals a wide range of emoji.

Insert special characters from Blogger menu bar

2️⃣   In Windows 10 Use the WIN logo key and period to reveal this pop-up from which to select emojis. It is displaying the 1 and 2 I've just used.

Pop-up displayed - WIN key and period

3️⃣   Use the Windows 10 touch keyboard. To enable the touch keyboard on non-touch screens, right click on the task bar and ensure touch keyboard has a tick next to it. The icon for the keyboard now shows on the task bar. Click on the task bar icon to use the keyboard on screen with either mouse or touchpad.

Touch keyboard

4️⃣   Can't find the emoji you want? Try EmojiCopy

Keep in mind that emoji may display differently to the one you inserted depending on the device your reader is using. These numbers I have used 1- 4 appeared blue when inserted, but display as white when published here on Windows 10, but retain their colour on the ipad. Have fun investigating.

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info

Annoying Anonymous

Is that really you?

My blogs are set up so that any comments made are sent to me for approval before publication. Most days I receive a comment from that unidentifed person or robot Anonymous. 

Anonymous, your comments are never going to be published even if they are sometimes complimentary. Comments are only published when the commenter's details are provided so please stop wasting your time and my time.

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info

How to use Google sites for Family History

Create a family site in the free Google sites

Have you been adding family stories to your blog? A blog is a great platform for sharing those stories and making cousin connections. 

A blog displays posts in reverse date sequential order so that the latest post appears first. One needs perform a search or use the tags or categories provided to find all the stories about one person or one family. The stories found will still be displayed in the reverse date order of their publication. 

Perhaps you have established separate pages for each family and published links to the blog posts about that family there. Have you found new photos and documents about a family and updated an older post? Even when updated the original publication date of the post remains so the new information may be lost in your archive of posts unless you republish that post.

Enter new Google Sites

This free platform gives you control over the order and display of your information. 

Some ideas why you might want a free Google site or several free Google sites.

• Aggregate all the information about one family
• Sites can be public or privately shared
• Easily add and share information housed in your Google Drive
• Upload pictures and easily move, reorder the layout on any page
• Share datasheets for viewing or editing by family members
• Add forms to gather data
• Embed streams from your social media
• ***Free and simple to create***

There are many other reasons you may want a website of your own. 

Here's one I made to help you get started. Family Site: How to create one in free Google Sites.

Do take a look and let me know what you think.

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info