Tuesday’s Tip, My Current Plan for Backing Up Reflections, I Think - -

Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

(This post could also be titled, "Tuesday’s Tip, My Love/Hate Relationship with Word", and originally, it was!)

I have been looking for a way to save my blog posts. I do download, or back up my blog periodically via the blogger program, not frequently enough, but, I have done it. That will allow me to restore it, if necessary. I hope I never find out how well that backup/restore thingy works. GULP!

I have looked at several of the online methods of backing up, like Blurb, a book publisher. Many bloggers use this web site, and they say it makes beautiful books, however, I was not looking to PRINT.  What I really wanted was to have a back up stored on my computer.  I want the resulting files to look similar to my original post. If you use Blurb, but do not publish, you are allowed to download the file, but, each page has a prominent shadow placed there by Blurb (or it did when I last tried it a few months ago). They do that so you cannot take to your local corner print shop. Protecting their product, totally understandable.

I have tried BlogBooker as well, no shadows here, and it was pretty easy to use. The formatting was off a bit, the comments were transferred with each post, you can do a month or so at a time. It downloads as a PDF file. Of the most concern for me was the fact that paragraph spacing disappeared, a big time issue. Hey, a gal just has to have her paragraphs in place!

I have tried screen captures via OneNote, and have to say that was disappointing as well. It has been a while since I tried it, it was cumbersome and I was disappointed in the results, so, I moved on.

I have just learned of Tabbloid, which will deliver your blog posts to you in PDF format. I tried a test, and here are a few observations, first, it seems to publish in landscape, not portrait, therefore you get columns, not a deal killer, just interesting. My font choice is not maintained, this may or may not be an issue for you. You can choose to have a daily or weekly delivery. Comments are not included, if that is important to you, that is an issue. I must say, the test post is quite attractive, background entirely white (mine on Reflections is a buffy color). If you subscribe to two or more blogs, all will arrive in the same PDF file/email.

Even though I may use Tabbloid in the future, I have all those prior posts to deal with tho, about 650 of them. So, what other choices do I have?

My friends all know how I feel about Microsoft Word. To say I have a hate relationship with it, is, well, a small understatement. I refuse to use Word unless it is a dire situation. (I think I may have climbed or tumbled to that plateau in this use/case.) On the other hand, for the most part, I love, love, love Word Perfect, been using it for years and have had great success with it, publishing any number of books and projects with it.

I don’t remember how I discovered this - - thanks to my leaky ole brain cells - - but, I found I can highlight my blog post by dragging the curser, then click “copy” and “paste” it directly into Word. (When I try this with Word Perfect the results are less than satisfying, no photos, formatting disasters, WP just does not measure up to this challenge.) In Word, the photos look pretty good, and my formatting for the most part is maintained, including my font of choice, and, my paragraph breaks/spaces are maintained.

After a few minor adjustments to any given post, I can then print each to Adobe, and save to my hard drive. Saving to Adobe format reduces the size of the stored file. I can, with Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro take the individual posts and link together, month by month, forming a book(let) of sorts for each month’s posts.

I can even link the monthly booklet to my family history data base, RootsMagic - - yes RM will store and open PDF files. Or, I could link individual posts back to the person I wrote them on inside RootsMagic using the Multimedia area. Now, that is an idea I must investigate further, ya - -

Me thinks this may really work for me - - - might take a while to grab all 650 plus, but, a few at a time - - - and, I need another project so badly, never enough projects, are there??

*Note, please, as my first disclaimer, your results may differ from mine, both my copy of Word and Word Perfect are older versions. For the most part, I use Word Perfect and am happy with it, but, in this case - - NOPE! And it hurts me tremendously to admit same! LOL

** Standard disclaimer (my second) applies here, Blurb, BlogBooker, Tabbloid, RootsMagic, Adobe, OneNote, Word and Word Perfect are all trademarked names, they own their own copyrights. No one gave me one penny or one pat on the back for writing this post. All observations are mine and just that, my observations, my experiences and my opinions.

***Graphic courtesy of Clipart Graphics free clipart now. 

****While writing this post, I did indeed subscribe to Tabbloid.  My first email arrived just a bit ago, containing FIFTY (yes, 5-0) posts from Reflections and Reflection's Flora and Fauna, the file is 10547KB in size.  I signed up for one email a day, can't wait to see what comes in tomorrow's email.  I opened the file, and the end product for two blogs will not work for me. Oh, well, it was worth a try.
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