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How To Publish ScreenshotsFriday, May 16, 2008
A forum user recently suggested that a nice feature to add to Raven would be a slick screenshot tool akin to what can be found in OneNote. Apparently they have a cool feature where you can take a screen capture of only a specific part of the screen (by specifying a rectangle using a screen capture tool). Once taken, the screen capture is then injected into OneNote. This made me realize that, while we could implement such a feature, we should be able to come up with a decent workflow to take screen captures with the current Raven build. Raven has the ability to paste an image that is on the clipboard directly into the blog post. For example, you can do the following:
I'll try this now, and insert the resulting screen capture...
Of course, after I pasted the image into my blog post, I then created a thumbnail of it. But you get the idea. The part we're still missing is the ability to capture only certain parts of the screen by specifying a rectangle. To enable that behavior, I think another tool is required. On the forum, it was suggested that Snagit could fulfill this role, although I have not used it myself. Suffice it to say, there must be a handful of utilities out there that one could use to take partial screen captures. Once the capture is taken, and the image is on the clipboard, Raven will let you paste it right into the Editor. Done and done. Using The XHTML Code EditorMonday, April 21, 2008
The XHTML code editor in Raven (version 0.9.279) is almost feature complete with following enhancements.
When using the code editor, note that the content of the editor should content of a XHTML <body> tag. Do not enter <xhtml>, <head> and <body> tags. Use only child tags of the <body> tag such as <p>. Find and Replace:
Zoom Controls:
Paste as XHTML (Ctrl + Shift + V):
This is the first paragraph Second line. Second paragraph 2nd line 3rd line then pasting as xhtml insert the following formatted code:
Text Formatting:
then the final markup would be
If you do not have any text selected when you invoke one of operations (e.g. Bold or Ctrl+B), then the relevant markup is inserted with the cursor positioned between the open and close tag. For example, the Bold button would insert
where Note: Be careful when you apply markup on selected text as the markup is applied to the whole selection even if the selected text had partial markup. For example if the selected text is
(i.e. includes partial text for <em> open tag), then after applying Bold, the final markup would look like
Notice that the <strong> tag was applied over the partial <em> tag since it was part of the selection. Code Completion:
Below is a screen shot showing the tag list at the top (root) level:
The list for
XHTML Validation:
Note: validation is performed against your post - and not against your Blog site. You should make sure that your Blog site is XHTML compliant (most are based on templates).
How To Insert XHTML Tags From The DesignerMany users have requested a feature enhancement to allow them to insert xhtml markup tags such as headers (H1, H2 etc) and other inline tags such as <sup>, <code> etc. using the Raven WYSIWYG Designer instead of having to switch to the XHTML code editor . These feature enhancements have now been included into Raven (starting with version 0.9.279) as a tool bar drop down button.
The tool bar has two buttons - one is for formatting block level elements such as <h1>, <pre> etc. To format text as a header, simply select the text and choose one of the tags shown from the drop down menu. The horizontal rule (<hr>) tag is also available in this menu. If you want to insert a <hr>, make sure that you do not have a text selection - otherwise your selection will be replaced with a <hr>. The second tool bar button also allows you to format you text selection, except that the list of available tags are schema dependent. In most cases, you will see inline tags such as <code>, <em>, <sup> etc. Labels: how-to How To Backup Your DataTuesday, April 8, 2008
A question that we recently had asked on the forums was "How do I backup my Raven profile data?" This particular user was interested in doing this due to a needed re-install of Windows. I think it's a good question in general, so here's how you do it.
C:\Documents and Settings\ZoundryMan\Application Data\Zoundry\Zoundry Raven Of course, unless you log in as "ZoundryMan", that part of the path will be different (your username). For the record, I don't mind if you use "ZoundryMan" as the username for your computer. :) If you are using Raven2Go, then your profiles will be in a "profiles" directory within the Zoundry Raven installation directory, for example: E:\Portable Apps\Zoundry Raven\profiles
That's all there is to it. How To Create Block QuotesTuesday, March 25, 2008
Creating Block Quotes in Zoundry Raven takes only a couple of steps:
To remove the block quote, place the caret/cursor on the quoted paragraph and press the "remove indent" button (i.e button with left arrow). Labels: how-to Adding Custom Weblog Ping SitesSunday, March 16, 2008
Similar to adding your custom links, you can add your own weblog pings sites by contributing to extension point "zoundry.blogapp.pubsystems.weblogping.site" (since there is no UI at this time).
This zip contains just one plug-in folder (for the plug-in XML file) with the plug-in containing one contribution (ping site) to the extension point "zoundry.blogapp.pubsystems.weblogping.site". The zplugin.xml can be found in the plug-in folder
<zoundry-extension point="zoundry.blogapp.pubsystems.weblogping.site">
<!-- id for Bitacoras -->
<id>zoundry.blogapp.pubsystems.publishers.weblogping.site.bitacoras</id>
<extension-data>
<weblog-ping-site>
<name>Bitacoras.com</name>
<url>http://ping.bitacoras.com</url>
</weblog-ping-site>
</extension-data>
</zoundry-extension>
Labels: development, how-to Adding Custom Links And Tag Sites To RavenOne of the key features of the Raven blog editor is its extensibility via plug-ins. Some of the plug-in extension points are based on XML file configuration (i.e. no programing required) while others require programing. Some examples of the first category are blog sites/servers that appear on the New Account wizard, FTP based sites that appear on the New Media storage wizard, weblog ping sites and "quick links" that appear in the Link To right click context menu. The current beta release does not provide a UI for the user to add his or her own list of quick link sites that appear in the context menu or even the tag sites that appear in the post publish settings dialog. How ever, if you are technically proficient in XML, here is way to "manually" add links and tag sites.
The plug-in zip contains two folders, one for the plug-in xml and the other being the plug-in resources (icons). In this example, the plug-in id is
You can edit the sample zplugin.xml file to add your own links and tag sites. You can find more examples in the zoundry.raven.blogapp.simplelinkprovider plug-in (this is the default link provider plug-in that Raven ships with). Labels: development, how-to, linking, tagging Multiple Profiles and Launching Raven With a Different ProfileMonday, March 10, 2008
One of the features of Raven is to allow you to manage multiple Profiles (in addition to multiple blogs within a Profile). A Raven Profile maintains all posts, tasks, indexes, account information etc. (basically all runtime information) in a single folder. Normally, most people would end up using a single profile. This default profile is normally stored in your Windows Application Data directory (e.g. Example of cases where you may want to use multiple profiles are:
At Zoundry, we also maintain multiples profiles - one of them being for the this Development Blog (and the Zoundry Blog) and the rest (a lot) being various "test" profiles. For example, some profiles contain 1 blog with a few posts, while others may have multiple blogs across various platforms with 1000s of posts. Another case is where some users have zipped their profile and emailed it to use for tracking down bugs. Profile Manager: This is the dialog you normally see on start up. It allows you to select the profile you want to open as well as create and delete Profiles.
Currently, this dialog is shown only during start up. You cannot switch profiles once you have launched the application. If you need to switch profiles, you need to exit the application and restart it. (This issue will be addressed in a later release). Notice that this dialog has a "Don't show this dialog again" check box. Well, if you do check it, the dialog will not be shown and Raven will always launch with the last used Profile. Currently there is no way (with the current UI) for you to get to this dialog again (this will be resolved as well). If you must see this dialog, then the only option is to exit the application and modify a XML configuration file:
Changing the Profile From The Command Line: If you are launching Raven from a command line or a Windows shortcut file, you can provide the path to the profile using the "--profile" option. The syntax is:
We use this technique in our development environment (Eclipse) to allow us launch different test Profiles from Eclipse's Run menu. Launching a Profile From The Desktop: Using the --profile command line option it is possible for one to launch a Profile from a desktop shortcut. For example, I launch the Zoundry Development Blog profile directly from my desktop - bypassing the Profile Manager Dialog with its many profiles (in my case).
Now, when you double click on the desktop shortcut, Raven will launch, bypassing the Profile Manager and using the Profile defined in the command line option. Powered by Zoundry Raven Labels: command line options, development, how-to BlogThis with Command Line OptionsSaturday, March 8, 2008
Zoundry Raven version 0.9.233 or later now supports command line options to allow external programs to launch the editor - specifically to support BlogThis functionality. The syntax is
where -title is the post title and -text is the plain (not xhtml) text. Other options/flags include:
GreatNews Setup: GreatNews (GN) is another cool news reader from CurioStudio. GreatNews has a BlogThis functionality to support external client applications such as Zoundry Raven.
To set up GreatNews to work with Zoundry Raven:
where path_to_raven_install is the install directory for Raven. For example,
RSS Owl News Reader: Instructions for RSS Owl:
FeedDemon Use the following for NewsGator's FeedDemon:
For example, the command line should be similar to:
TDB - Launching Raven directly from your web browser (FireFox and IE). Labels: blog this, command line options, GreatNews, how-to How To Add Attachments To Your Posts (Hint: Drag and Drop)From time-to-time, you may need to upload non images with your posts. For example, a PDF attachment, or more frequently a MP3 podcast file. With Zoundry Raven (ver 0.9.223+), this is easy as a drag and drop. The only requirement to accomplish this is that you must have a media storage setup that is capable of accepting large non-image files. The best option is to use a FTP based media storage as it can handle large files and it is efficient in uploading files (compared to xml-rpc). The second option is to choose your blog's xml-rpc (e.g. WordPress). How ever, these do have limitations on file size. If you try to upload very large files (e.g. 8MB, depending on your server configuration), the server may not allow file uploads. These PHP based servers can be configured to support larger files. Please read this forum post for more details (thanks to David Leigh). Media stores that are of Image type hosting sites will not work as these sites allow only images to be uploaded. Example of these include PicasaWeb, LiveJournal FotoBilder and ImageShack. OK, now for the instructions. To upload and link files, there are two options:
During the publishing process, local files will be uploaded to the media store. Media files will automatically be marked as enclosures (rel=enclosure). Labels: attachments, how-to, linking Changing the Editor Working Font Name and SizeThursday, March 6, 2008
The WYSIWYG editor (basically the MS IE control) font name and size, by default are based on your Internet Explorer settings. Depending on the your desktop screen size and dpi, this may be small for some. The next beta release candidate will have a user preference to all you to set your own font name and size. Once the setting has been applied, you will see the changes next time you open a document/post.
While on the topic of screen sizes, dpis etc, did you know that you can change most of the toolbar button sizes as well. To do this, simply right click on the toolbar (e.g. editor toobar where the Save buttons is) and choose the "tool size" as well as the "show text" option. Learn more about this from the Zoundry Raven: Custom ToolBar post. Labels: how-to How to Send Us FeedbackWednesday, March 5, 2008
The Zoundry Raven editor has a built-in dialog to allow you send feedback, bug reports etc. To access the Send Feedback dialog, choose Send Feedback option from the Help menu.
Labels: how-to Coming Soon: New Tag UIRaven provides a simple text control for you to enter a comma separated list of tags (or labels). These are entered in the "Tagwords" field, found below the Title in the edtior.
In the previous release (0.9.199), these tagwords were linked (bound) to Technorati.com tagspace when post is published and updated (even if tagging was natively supported by your blog platform such as Blogger or WordPress 2.2+). A feature of the new beta release (0.9.223) is that we have finally removed the "hard coded" references to Technorati tagspace that was in the alpha release. With this release, you can select one or tag sites (or none at all, if you are on WordPress). The new version has an additional tab ("Tag Sites", similar to Weblog Pings) in the blog post configure UI.
By default, the available tag sites are unchecked. If you want to add your tags to Technorati (or any other tag supported tag site), then the Technorati (or other) tag should be checked. Now, the nice thing about this option if you are using Blogger, WordPress 2.2+ or LiveJournal, then you do not have to select any tags sites since these three platforms supports tagging natively (unless you also want to add tags to sites outside your blog such as Technorati). For Blogger, we treat tags and categories as labels. So, most of you might end up using the Tagwords section to enter Blogger labels rather than using the (some what inconvenient) Category check boxes.
Default tag site selection can also be made at application level (via Preferences) as well on a per Account and Blog basis (via Account Manager). Finally, if you want to link to a tag space within your post content, simply select the text you want to link, right click and choose Link -> LinkTo -> Tag -> Technorati (or other supported site).
Helping Us Debug Defects Using LogsMonday, February 25, 2008
During the alpha testing (and now beta) period of Zoundry Raven, you may come across a defect that may not be easy for us to figure out with visual symptoms alone. This is where logging becomes very useful, especially debug logs, and we may occasionally ask you to enable the debug logging, reproduce the defect, and mail us a zipped copy of the log files. The typical steps are:
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