Sunday 30 August 2015

Using a language translator for your website



LANGUAGE TRANSLATORS.                                                    

I have always been interested in the many different ways there are (or are not) to translate languages on your website (or blog). What I say goes for Blogs as well as websites. Some WordPress themes are said to be “translation ready”-making it easier to translate. But they don’t actually translate. I have spent ages trying to work out how to get free translation on WordPress.com and failed. WordPress.org websites costs money to use but you can get actual translators that are designed for them. There are free ones but the best translators cost money (or so the experts say).

Google Translator translates and is free. I don’t think it worked for me on WordPress.com because it uses Javascript which WordPress does not like.

My Yola website already has a Google language translator there. You just have to get it ready to go.

I could not get any type of translator to work on my WordPress.com website. I tried Google translator which didn’t work on Blogger either (strangely enough as they are both the same company I thought). But I added a Bing Translator to Blogger and it worked. Google Translator works on the self hosted WordPress but not on WordPress.com (the free site)

I could not get any translator to work on my Altervista website. I have just started using Altervista and it does not Blog at all with the beginner’s theme website I have. Also it is not user friendly (well, not Ashby friendly).

 

Here are some translators which are free and you just have to put in the URL of your site (into their little code manufacturer) to get some code which you add to your post or page. Even I can do this. How good the translators are-as regards accuracy-I don’t know.


Also there is



 

Addendum.

I have not tried the ones below.

http://imtranslator.net/translation/#





http://www.conveythis.com/


This is a site that lists lots of translators:

http://www.lexicool.com/translate-web-page.asp

An excellent article: http://lifehacker.com/five-best-language-translation-tools-1634228212

And this too: http://listoffreeware.com/list-of-best-free-translation-software/

Thursday 27 August 2015

A beginner’s guide to putting pictures onto your website via an html post.


 
Subtitled: Saving a multi-voice poem using “Print Screen” command: Part 3.

This has been a long and difficult road but hopefully it will be easier for you. I encountered “a few” difficulties doing what I thought would be easy.

The most helpful web editors doing this were Microsoft Expression Web 4 (which is available on free download and has no time limit on usage –so the experts say-no matter what is says when downloaded). I also used a different web editor for the first time. Alley Code is a new web editor I had never tried before. It was available on free download.  It worked well. Both web editors correctly showed the two page poem Roadblock on Design mode and on Preview mode.

I spent a lot of time trying to get the html for two Print Screen Command pictures to work properly in the html editors of Blogger and WordPress.

WORDPRESS.COM

Firstly –as a beginner in html- I was not sure what happened when you went to Insert on your web editor to insert your two pictures. I had thought that the code was a representation of the picture. Then I thought perhaps the code linked to the picture which had been somehow saved in the Web editor and would Post to my website along with the html. Neither was right. When you go to Insert and find the picture file you are looking for, in our case a picture file but it could be any image file, you insert an identifying code into the html - from the picture. And this can be used to trace it later.

Please put a space between your two pictures in the html-to stop them appearing side by side rather than one above the other (use paragraph tabs for instance). The two files should be in the Body part of your html one above the other.

You need to have your two picture files already in the Media gallery of your website. It is easy to add picture files to most website picture galleries. Although I had both pictures there, when I Posted the html into the html editor on my site it did not work. I don’t think the html “found” the pictures properly (on the WordPress Post it showed an icon and the alternative text where the picture should have been). So, on WordPress.com, I went to the Picture gallery (I selected insert media and it took me to the Gallery). I clicked on each of the files one by one. For each file I selected it and made sure I had the image set to the right size. For the first file I clicked it (it shows a tick when it is selected) and went to Inspect Element. I then copied the identification part of the image (the src bit). It is in a box labeled URL. I put this in instead of the identifier script I had already in my web editor (the identifying bit between the quote marks). Make sure you replace one bit with exactly the same bit  of code (the identifying bit).  I then did the same for the second bit of src image code. I then Published this and it worked. So, you should be able to see a Roadblock poem added to my site via a Microsoft Expression Web 4 editor (that is how I have titled it). It looks clear and is the right size. Again, I tried books, and help sites and Googling for help but I had to stumble my way through it.

You can also see the URL and set sizes of pictures on WordPress.com by going to Media and then to Media Library and double clicking a file.

 

BLOGGER

Also on Blogger-when trying to Post the html code I had made up- the pictures did not show. Only an icon and the alternative text. So I went to insert Media and then, From this blog. I then clicked to select the picture. A tick mark appears when selected. When you have selected a picture, you must pick Extra Large picture from the options of size that you are given. Right click and from the options choose: Inspect Element. (I could not see a URL option). You will see a lot of text highlighted that describes picture size and details. Choose to Copy this code. This is the entire code necessary for your picture to be identified and published at the correct size. Delete all the image code for each picture (in your web editor) and replace it with the appropriate code you have gained from each of the pictures on Blogger picture Gallery. You can insert this code either directly into the html on your Post where that picture should be. Or copy it and paste into your web editor (which is preferable if you want to add text and make changes). The code for the Blogger picture seems to be a hyperlink rather than just a link (but it does work). I now have the Roadblock two page poem on my Blogger website. It is slightly too small to see clearly.

 

To summarise: How to place your images into a Post for Blogger and WordPress.com You have your images already in your Media Gallery. Make sure they are the right size (by selecting and changing if required). Copy the URL or identifying code for the pictures you want to use. This can be placed directly into the website’s html editor at the right point in your code. Or can be placed at the right point in your code in your web editor.

 

Of the two methods of placing your print screen pictures onto your site as a Post, you may think that the method where you simply post it in from your Media Gallery is the simplest. I didn’t always get that working though-sometimes the Post placed the pictures side by side rather than one on top of the other. However, if you can Post your print screen pictures as part of an html Post then you have learnt a lot about html. Also, you can add bits of text and other links as well. If you can do it, please try the web editor method (both methods were compared in my last Post).

Glossary:

Within the angle brackets your image will have the identifier: img src=“yourpicturefilenamehere.png” If you are using a format other than PNG then it will be a different format at the end.

You will also have to (in your web editor) give a short alternate description of the image. And also a long more detailed one in case it does not show. Your web editor will ask you for it when you Insert your picture file.

src means source.

img means: image.

html means: hyper text markup language

Links allow users to e.g. click their way from page to page within a website.

A hyperlink is a text or an image you can click on, and jump to another document.

 

Always be tidy and use a separate folder in My Documents for when you are using the screen shot command. It keeps everything together. But all web files that you have prepared in your web editor and are ready to be opened by your browser (e.g. Google Chrome) should be saved in your My Websites Folder (I read this in a help forum but I am able to open web files from other folders). It saves automatically to there when I click on Save Web Files. Make sure you always Save with the correct format in Save As Type (e.g. Save As Type in Microsoft Expression Web 4 automatically saves as Web Pages for me). Do not save a web page as text.

PS

In the last post I gave a link to a site which said that Alt and Print Screen allows you to copy and paste the active screen instead of everything on the screen. Please try it, but it didn’t work for me. Here is another site that says it should work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_screen

 

I eventually added the two print screen pictures to Publisher. This is a text and picture editor. I saved this as Rich Text and it seems to have worked ok. Memory used up was about 5 mega bytes.

 

And also, in one Post I was worried about print screen pictures added from html Posts maybe using up a lot of memory. Well they don’t.

 

Sunday 23 August 2015

Saving a multi-voice poem using “Print Screen” command: Part 2.

 At the end of the previous Post, I set myself the challenge of finding a way to put more than one page (or one screen shot) into a Post-in order to replicate a two page multi-voice poem. To try and get one page under another for print screen shots I have done the following (plus follow the instructions for the “print screen” command article I recently wrote). Again, it does matter what browser you are using. Google Chrome is a trusted browser.

There are (at least) two different ways to try.
The first is to put your two picture files into the picture folder for your website host Picture Gallery and then insert them from there into your post or page. Make them as big as possible so you can see the text clearly. Have them as near as possible vertically-so there is no space between the two pictures. And have them fitting for size and text alignment. Theoretically this should be easier than working with html and css.
The other is to put both picture files into a photo or web editor and line them up there. I have tried lots of different editors to do this. One that added the pictures nicely for me was Microsoft Word when opened as a Blog post. I didn’t even know it could do that. Oh, and Microsoft Expression Web 4 also worked. Many did not work for me but that may have been my lack of experience in using them. So, I will try and place my two page poem Roadblock onto all my multi-voice sites using whichever method works (if any).
This is the method I used for Microsoft Expression Web 4 (use whatever web editor works for you): I obtained one screen shot of each of the two pages of my multi-voice poem Roadblock. I opened a new Microsoft Word file and pasted in the screen shot. I clicked on the screen shot illustration to pick it then: Save As Picture. Save this as a PNG (portable network graphics) photo file. This is a good quality format. I have then clicked on this file (to pick it) and Opened With [an option given] Serif PhotoPlus X5. I cropped this till only the poem and none of the extraneous bits were showing. I saved this as a PNG file (but there are other options too). I then opened Microsoft Expression Web 4 (you use whatever html editor you use) and changed the title in the html heading to Roadblock. I then went to Insert and then Picture and then File. I found both and entered page 1 then below it page 2 in the body section of the html. When I go to Design view it seems to have placed the two pages as near as they can be. I have just to place the poem into my Websites.
Always be tidy and use a separate folder in My Documents for when you are using the screen shot command. It keeps everything together.
Addendum: I have just seen these instructions which are useful for just capturing the active screen (cutting out any extraneous bits):
And this tells you about some limitations: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/27946/is-it-possible-to-take-high-quality-screen-captures
And this that I have not tried yet: http://www.7capture.com/ (free print screen capture software that claims to be excellent).
Since I wrote the above I have put two Roadblock picture files in the WordPress Picture Gallery. I tried many times to get the two files to line up correctly-same size and aligned vertically. When I eventually did get it working in Preview, I Published this. Annoyingly the two pictures moved away from each other when Published. I had to Trash the Post. This happens a lot for me. I get things all aligned in WordPress Preview and then they drift apart when Published. So my one picture poem worked ok on WordPress but not my two picture poem. I have also found that when you change Theme that it can change the alignment of complicated text: although some experts told me this would not happen. So I am wary about changing Themes.
I was able to load the two picture files and manoeuvre them properly on Blogger. I have Published this.
I have also tried to use the method where you put the picture files into a picture or web editor and Post them directly to your Website. This never worked for WordPress. I will now try it for Blogger.

One last tip. I like photography and often take pictures of Nature. These are useful for adding to Websites. Pictures you take can also be altered in a Paint package or used directly as background.

Thursday 20 August 2015

Test for translator

This is a translator I am trying out. I hope it works.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

SAVING A MULTI-VOICE POEM USING THE“PRINT SCREEN” COMMAND.


SAVING A MULTI-VOICE POEM USING THE“PRINT SCREEN” COMMAND.
This takes up a bit of memory but I am trying it out to see how it works. Peace is a 4 part multi-voice poem. I have a version on rich text Microsoft Word that is eight point Lucida Console (a monospace font). I have this poem on a couple of my sites already (as html) but have not yet tried this way of saving the poem.

I view the poem on the file and zoom in until the poem fills the screen. I then do a print screen command (on my PC this is “Ctrl” and “Print Scrn” keys at the same time). I open a new Microsoft word file and paste in the file. I click on the screen shot illustration to pick it then: Save As Picture. Save this as a png (portable network graphics) photo file. This is a good quality format. I have then clicked on this file (to pick it) and Opened With [an option given] Serif PhotoPlus X5. I cropped this till only the poem and none of the extraneous bits are showing. I save this as a PNG file (but there are other options too). I will try to load this onto my web site and see how it looks. This is easy to do but I cannot see how I can do it for a two page poem (i.e. two screen shots).
I had to choose google chrome for my browser before the file would add.

Ashby

CREATING A WEBSITE


CHOOSING A WEBSITE HOST

I have been searching for a year for the ideal website for someone who wants to post complicated text (like poetry). I need a free site. I also need one that is hosted by the web company (to save me having to do security updates, and finding and paying for a host server). I also need a site that is ok for beginners. So, I need one with already written Themes.

I am no web developer.  And I find it difficult to find (internet or magazines or books) good help when I have difficulties in posting multi-voice poetry. So I have went from WordPress (which does not always cope with the html I post) to Blogger. I have had a few difficulties with code in Blogger as well recently. So, I have started a Yola account too. I also have difficulty with Yola with some html posts.  Two html posts went on ok. Then two html posts didn’t. All these are free sites.   I use all these sites.  I write in an old laptop at home then use a memory stick to upload my writings.

Advertising:  Of the sites I have mentioned, only WordPress puts advertising on your site. I fear that, apart from it looking not that great, that there will be ads that I don’t approve of (with me being an animal rights person). I do understand they have to make a profit somehow though (Websites get paid for the advertising that is placed on your site).

I also have a free Tumblr. account.  I use a local Library for internet access but Tumblr. is partially blocked there.  This is an interesting article about using html with Tumblr.: http://buildthemes.tumblr.com/post/41557258904/displaying-html-and-code-in-tumblr-posts

I have just heard that Twitter will in the next few weeks raise its word limit from 140 characters to 10,000 characters but only for direct messages. Public Tweets are still at the 140 character limit.

Yola was recommended on many review sites. So I started a website there.  I have just found out that you can only have three pages. Also, that is does not Blog. At all! You have to Blog on Tumblr, and get posts allowed on Yola using a Tumblr. Blog Widget (it does seem to work and is easy to set up but I don’t know why you cannot do ordinary Blogging on Yola). Again they have a host of help lines and community lines and forums and help emails, but none seem to answer the questions I have. Also, I have not found Yola easy to work with (with regard to editing my website).

So, I have WordPress automatically send my posts to Tumblr. And Tumblr. automatically sends those posts to Yola. They must get tired out.

Partly because no website is perfect for me and partly for me to be able to write about whether they are worth joining, I have started a new free website on Altervista. My other new Website name is: multivoicepoetry.altervista.org They offer three different levels of complexity of theme. I have chosen (yes, you guessed it) beginner level. It seems to be able cope with the html for my poems as long as they are not five or six columns broad and needing a lot of horizontal space.

I cannot try out every website host but I did note that both Wix and Freehostia have some themes which are Free.

 

You will find on touring the internet that huge excellent looking reviews of websites sometimes miss things or get things wrong in their comparisons. Some reviews are not independent and are sponsored.

The only way to really find which site is best is to try a few. Blogger so far has been the best website for multi-voice. WordPress is great for lovely themes and simple prose. But Yola seems very limited.

And I am on Facebook too.

And on You Tube (well, Chromatic Voices 2 are) at:


 


I have a multi-voice website. Web address is:


And at:


And at:

multi-voicepoetry.yolasite.com/

 

Also a human rights poetry website at: https://humanrightspoetryashbymcgowan.wordpress.com/

 

And a short story website at: https://ashbyshortstories.wordpress.com/

 

I also have automatic sendings of my posts on WordPress to these two sites:

 

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ashbymcgowan


 

PROSE.  Many years ago I used to write a lot of factual prose. Twice I had serious complaints against publishers. I was a Member of a professional body and also sought legal help but on both occasions I was unable to do anything. I was so upset over what had happened and the inability to something about it that I gave up writing factual prose. That was fifteen years ago.

PLAYS.  I have never found a New Writing Theatre in Scotland (if such things exist) able to help me develop and put on any of the plays I have written.  None have ever come to any rehearsed readings of my work that they have been invited to. And I have no connections in any Theatres

Poetry.  In poetry, conFAB is worth looking at for possible support.

Speaking for all the creative writing disciplines I have used, I have never (apart from conFAB) had funding from any creative group or writing group. Any Funding I (or Chromatic Voices) has had has come via the poetry group conFAB.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

DANCER



                   Dancer 1                          Dancer 2

 

 

Blue fingered, dancers dreamlike, slowly moving,          Light fingered, shadows seem like, colours moving,

As we dance down, upper sky                               As we dance dawn, passing by

Light lingered, shadows seem like, colours merging,       Blue lingered, dancers dreamlike, slowly merging,

As we dance dawn, passing by                                   As we dance down, upper sky

Past birds, past clouds, brown hills, green fields,       Fast birds, fast clouds, green hills, brown fields,

And splashing white and grey, we dance                    And splashing grey and white, we dance

Fast birds, fast clouds, green hills, brown fields,       Past birds, past clouds, brown hills, green fields,

And splashing grey and white, we dance                    And splashing white and grey, we dance

 

 

 

                                                           

LOVING YOU

Loving You

[This poem contains a few swear words.
I have used asterisks in these words
but when performed obviously the word is performed as intended.
This is a performance Poem for two (very over the top) Voices] LOVING YOU Voice 1 Voice 2 Love you ……………. …………….. Love you I love you ………………… …………. I love you I love you …………….. ………….. I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I ……….. ……………… Love You ……. ……………… I love you! I love you lots and lots …………….. ………………… I love you more than life itself I love you more .......... than anything else ………………………. ……………………… I love you more than the stars ……………………………. love the sky I love you more than the ……………………………… Sea loves the shore ……………………………… ………………………….. I love you more than anyone has …………………………. ever loved anyone else I love you more than ...................... anyone has ……………………………. ever loved anyone else ………………………… …………………………… I love you more than that And I love you ........................ much more than that! ……………………….. …………………………….. I love you the most! No you don’t ………………… ………………………….. I do Don’t ….. ……………………………… Do! You only love me when ………………… you want something ……………….. ……………………………. Rubbish! You used to love me, ………………….. but now you’re only ………………… Nice to me when you’re …………………. drunk and you’re randy …………………….. ………………………………….. You Ba***rd! You Bas***rd! …………………. You F***ing Ba***rd! You F***ing Ba***rd! I love it when you talk dirty, …………….. Say some more …………………… ……………………… I really do love you, you sweet ………………………… And lovely Ba***rd Ohhh! Darling, I love you! Ohhh! Darling, I love you!