You can insert a table into your post from a Word document

So you might have designed a neat table - or got someone's ok to use one - and you want to put it into your blog.  You can just select it in your document, push Control + C (or copy by mouse clicking) and then go to the point in your post where you want it to appear and type Control + V (or paste by mouse) and there it will be.  Easy!

Fresh Herbs - Flavor and Uses		Spices - Form, Flavor and Uses
Basil	Sweet, sunny flavor versatile. Green beans, peas potatoes, chicken dishes, tomato sauces, salads. Only add at end of cooking time or on prepared dish	Allspice	Berries, ground. Similar to cloves and cinnamon combo, more complex.  Cakes, cookies, relishes, tomato sauce, stew, chicken, lamb.
Bay Leaves	Pungent, mint like; dried leaves more widely available. Used in sauces, stews, gumbos; many varieties	Celery	Seeds, ground. Stronger then celery flavor.  Salad dressings, potatoes, veggies, soups, beans, pork
Chives	Delicate onion flavor, never overpowering. Use at end of cooking or as final flavor garnish. Chop finely; snip with scissors. Great with eggs, salads, potatoes dishes, poultry, sauces	ChilePeppers	Ground, dried whole, pepper flakes. Made by grinding hot chilies. Countless types from many countries.  Mild to blistering hot.  Soups, stews, beans, sauces, poultry, greens; add to most foods for that extra kick
Cilantro	Fresh, aromatic, distinctive. Predominate in Mexican and Chinese cookery; salsas, chutneys, chicken, pork, salads, tacos	ChilePowder	Ground mixture commonly of chile peppers, paprika, cumin, black pepper. Spicy, hot or mild. Chili, beans, Mexican dishes. Buy high-quality
Dill	Pungent, tangy; dominate, use alone or with parsley.  Seeds also have strong flavor.. Salmon, peas, eggplant, cabbage, cucumber yogurt sauces, salads, pickling; predominate in Mediterranean cooking	Cinnamon	Sticks/bark, ground.Pungent, sweet, hot. Fruit desserts, cakes cookies. Also try on pork, lamb, meat pies, curries
Marjoram	Oregano like but sweeter. Fish stews, stuffing's, carrots, greens, beans, egg dishes	Cloves	Whole or ground. Aromatic, sweet. Fruits, desserts, meats, curry, soups, beans, pork
Mint	Strong; sweet. Teas, desserts, lamb, fish, salads	Cumin	Seeds, ground. Bold, distinctive; can overpower.  Chili, tacos, stews, cabbage, beans. Toast ground or seeds
Oregano	Earthy. Lamb, chicken, pork, seafood, eggplant, tomato sauces; excellent with lemon: Retains good flavor when dried	Curry	Ground. Mixture of numerous spices including cloves and cumin . Buy high-quality.  Base spice for curries; use also in tomato sauces, stews
Parsley	Clean bright flavor. Good with almost any savory food; all seafood, beef, chicken, potatoes, sauces, soups, salads. Fresh is better then dried	Fennel	Seeds, ground.  Licorice-like, stronger then fresh fennel.  Bread, fish, Italian dishes, sausage, tomato sauces. Toast ground or seeds to enhance flavor
Rosemary	Fresh, piney, pungent; easily overpowers.  Chop finely and use lightly. A must with poultry, potatoes, white beans, lamb, breads, fruit salads	Ginger	Fresh root, ground, candied. Pungent, spicy.  Grate, mince to use in chicken, squash, sesame noodles, applesauce, chutneys, marinade. Ground and fresh have much different flavors. Predominate in Asian cooking.
Sage	Almost mint-like, slightly bitter; can overpower other herbs. Use whole stems in soups, stews, remove when done. Chop whole leaves in very thin strips.  Pork, veal, sausages, poultry, stuffing, sauces. Dried herb has much different flavor	Mustard	Seeds, ground. Often hot, pungent. Several varieties available.  Vegetables, stews, relishes, seafood, salad dressings.  Seeds can be toasted to enhance flavor.
Savory	Reminiscent of thyme. Veal, pork, eggplant tomatoes, stuffing	Nutmeg	Whole, ground. Sweet, spicy, fragrant. Cakes, fruit, desserts, beans, sauces, cabbage, spinach.
Tarragon	Licorice, lemon flavor; strong. Use alone or with parsley; veal, chicken, potatoes, mushrooms, tomato dishes, vinaigrettes	Paprika	Ground. Made from red peppers. Can be mild or hot and pungent.  Not just for garnish.  Buy high-quality with fresh peppery aroma.  Seafood, vegetables, eggs; almost anything
Thyme	Earthy, subtle, versatile; use whole sprigs in soups, stews. Pluck leaves and add at all stages of cooking. Excellent in most dishes especially seafood, poultry, pork, veal, tomato, vegetables, breads. Retains good flavor when dried	Pepper	Whole berries, ground. Most common of all spices. Hot peppers, sweet peppers and peppercorns are from same plant.  Peppercorns are black, white and green--depends on level of maturity.  Pink peppercorns are a distant relative.  Use on everything including sweets and fruits.  Buy a pepper mill and whole peppercorns. You'll be glad you did.

That's exactly how I just put this herb chart in.

A neat infographic about ways to promote your blog posts - thanks to Launch Grow Joy

A basic guide to putting a photo/infograph into a post in Blogger – for newbies only

Ok, all you experts out there will know how to do this.  But some people who are just starting out would like to know!

So how do you go about putting a photo or graph into your post.  First you find and save your photo/graph.  I know you will be careful about saving pics that are not your own!

I tend to save onto my own hard drive – but many people use photo storing sites – and I am sure that works just fine – in fact, if anyone would like to share a tip or two about them, that would be great – you can guest post or I can link to your post.

Then you open up the window where you normally draft your posts.  Up the top of that window you will see a row of stuff.  The one with the picture frame is the one you want – I have circled it in red.

Once you have clicked on the picture frame – this is what you will see.           

I just click on choose files and it then takes you to your picture files and you just click on the one you want to use.  You will see that it also has other options for how to select the photo.

Once you have chosen your file the box at the bottom called "add selected" will come live and you just click it and there your image is in your draft post!

Using Infographics

Apparently you get more page views if you use infographics - which can be simple like this one - or complicated - but if you use a complicated one be careful about readability!

Google Friend Connect Followers sidebar

If you are on Blogger, it is so easy to add this gadget.  And it makes it so easy for people to follow your blog (including those who follow lots of blogs and would otherwise hit up against the follow limitations within Blogger).

All you do is go to your dashboard and click Layout.

Then you click add a gadget.  It comes up with a list of basic gadgets - scroll down til you find Followers and click the plus sign. And that's it - the Google Friend connect thingy will show up on your blog after you click Save Arrangement - yellow button on the top right.

If you don't like where it is in the layout you can drag and drop it around - but do put it somewhere where your readers can find it easily - don't tuck it away at the bottom of the page.

If you are on Wordpress you can install it too.  Obviously I haven't done that myself.  But this is a link to a site telling you how to do it.

Keyboard shortcut for the day – Control + P

When you go to print something out do you click your mouse around or do you use the keyboard shortcut Control + P?  I find it quicker to just type Control +P – the print dialogue box opens up and Bob's Your Uncle!

Get more page views with Reddit

I have only just subscribed to Reddit – it is free and easy to do and then you can link in some of your posts to it – you are not allowed to link in too many at once but I did manage to link 4 things in on the first day and have seen a considerable uptick in page views as a result.

I do recommend that you sign up with an email (which you then verify by clicking a link they send you to that email address) – this will allow you to add links to Reddit without doing the captcha stuff.  When you are linking it you have to choose a subject for your link.

Have a go and see what you think.

Buttons and awards – your views please?

Hi everyone.  Up to now I have kept Carole's Chatter a button and award free zone.  Not for any particular reason other than a wish to keep each post based on real content and also a belief that the less cluttered my home page is the better.

I would be really interested in starting a discussion about what you think the best approach is.  Obviously there could well be a different approach to buttons from awards.

So many of the awards going round seem to be a bit  like chain letters.  Does this bother you?  I must say that when I have been nominated for an award, I feel like a bit of a heel declining it.

In relation to buttons, I don't have a button for my Food on Friday or Books You Loved series.  I try to make each link event as easy as possible for people to participate in.  And because of this I haven't up til now put buttons on my site where I have linked in to other people's events.  I do visit lots of the other links and comment and so I do feel I am doing my bit.  Again what do you think is the best approach?

Keyboard shortcut for the day – Control + F

Today's shortcut is one I used lots of times each and every day.  It is the quick way I find things like the blog I want to check out in my blog list or when I want to check whether I have blogged about something already or not.

So what does Control + F do?  Well, when you are in a word document it opens up a little search pane and you type the word/part of word you are looking for and it will find them for you.  And it does the same thing on any open webpage in Chrome or Internet Explorer as well.  It displays the results slightly differently but the basic idea is still the same.

So if you find yourself searching for a mention of something, do it the quick way with Control + F.

A photo size tip from Grandma Loy's Kitchen

Click here for a helpful little photo size tip from Grandma Loy.  She has found a way of posting pics that are bigger than Blogger's large but not so big that it goes over  into the sidebar.

Google Analytics - get it now!

I wish I had signed up to Google Analytics much sooner.  Because I was late to the party, I can only see quite recent data on traffic to the site.  Signing up for it is easy and free – I can only tell you how I did it in Blogger.

You have to have a Google account to sign up.  If you are on Blogger you will have one.

Go to the Google Analytics official site.  This is the link. 

Click on sign up now – you find it in the top right hand corner.  You put in your Google account details and then you are almost there.

Then you just follow the boxes giving your blog address and name .  You have to agree to their terms of service.

You can then get the whole code – but you don't need it for Blogger – you just copy the Web Property ID and paste it into the relevant box in the settings part of your dashboard.  It is towards the bottom of the Other tab under settings.

And once you have saved your settings you will be good to go.  Any time you want to check what is there – just go  to Google Analytics and sign in and click to see what is going on.  

I recommend that you don't do this too frequently – or you will get obsessed!  You can look at all sorts of different views/cuts of the data about your blog.  I don't use much of it but will learn more over time.

Keyboard shortcut for the day – Shift + F3

+

I thought I would share with you another keyboard shortcut I use constantly which is a good time saver.  Many of you will already use keyboard shortcuts so just skip over this post if you know it all.

This shortcut works in a Word Document (which is where I draft almost all my posts). 

If you forget to put capital letters at the front of some words or accidentally hit Caps Lock you will be faced with fixing it.  You can do it manually but there is a quicker and easier way.  That is pushing the Shift key and then the F3 key (and holding them both down).  Then keep pushing the F3 key until you get the words as you want them.  It will toggle between all caps, first letter caps and all lower case.  – Just select the words you want to change and then off you go with Shift + F3.

If you haven't used a Function key before – you will find them in a row right at the top of your keyboard.