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How to publish to blogs and CMS




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On this page we will add details of how to Publish or export Story Software layouts as:

  • window-sized views or snapshots of the canvas and all text boxes, or
  • everything in the canvas no matter how big

Then you can place them into popular blogs such as WordPress and Blogger and content management systems (CMS) such as Drupal.

This information also applies to social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram etc.

These can be grouped together as ‘online shared platforms with user-generated content‘, or what used to get called Web 2 (before the hype moved on to Mobile).

You can also just email the exports if you do not want it online, or use file transfer such as Dropbox, or even ftp, to a private or shared account.

What is web 2?
Instead of working offline (or connected) on a desktop or laptop, you work online in a hosted shared software application, with an individual login account. This means you can instantly share things with other people, however their access is set up (ie, private, shared with a group, within the online platform, public).

Publish & Exports
The Publish button (in right of Toolbar) is at v2.2 the same as the File/Export menu.

In v2.3 I will add a system for storing logins so you can send the page view straight into your preferred system, assuming this is technically possible. It might need plugins at the receiving end, which adds a lot to the cost so it depends a bit on demand.

The simplest way by far to export to anywhere at all, is to use:

Publish/Export visible window to an image

You can arrange whatever you want within the on-screen application window you are using, then Export as a view of that area. This works at whatever zoom level you are at, but note that the text flow can get altered by the zoom level.

The image you export can then be imported into any other application simply as an image.

This is a fast way to make a text poster or graphic design, or even just some copy layout, and then ‘snapshot’ it using the Publish image function. This can then be sent or uploaded anywhere.

Tip: If working with someone you can quickly make versions or alternatives of a design, then Publish them out to whatever is your usual online platform.

Export all Story canvas to an image

Publish can also export the whole of your canvas to the extents of all boxes. This could be a very large image if you have spread out all over the canvas. This will not easily import into some systems, so check the maximum size allowed. You might have to zoom out then use window snapshot. I will put the maximum sizes on here later.

Using Google Maps

For very large images, you can use a cutter and then show the tiled image using Google Maps display system. An example of that is shown in the illustrated story example here >

Export for Web (HTML)

Story Lite has an accurate HTML export for the web. Note that there is a very slight expansion of box size so allow a little extra between boxes if that is important.

This is the best way to export but in v2.2, you will need a little computer knowledge of files and the web etc to use the output created.

Export RTF

This is rich text format which retains nearly all the formatting, and can be used in a word processor such as Word, Pages, Libre Office etc.

The boxes are separated by lines. The order of the boxes (the text from within them), in the rtf file, follows a left to right, down the page direction.

Summary

The best thing is to try these Publish exports out and see which you are happiest with. In v2.3 the automation will come for some blogs, cms and social media platforms.

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