Blog Tips--Using animated gifs

This post was inspired by MJ's questions about gifs, those fun animated pictures. I had to do a little research and there was quite a lot of information I came across. To tell you the truth, a lot of the information was hard to follow, especially since I'm not a computer expert. But I was able to find out why some gifs work on blogger and some don't. The main reason why gifs stop working on blogger is because Picasa doesn't support gifs . So if you upload gifs using the Upload picture icon on your Compose post screen, the gifs will not work. However, there are two solutions that I've found to help you get animated gifs into your blog posts.

The first solution involves hot linking to a photo site.

1. The easiest way to do this is to get a Photobucket account or another free foto hosting site account.

2. Upload your gif to the photo hosting site.

3. Then when you want to use the gif when composing your post, use the Upload picture icon.

4. When the pop up comes up for Upload Images, add the gif url (at the foto site) in the Add an image from the web box. Choose a layout. Then upload your image.

5. After it's completed uploading, click Done when the pop up windows shows up. Then check your blog to see if the gif is working.

The second solution that I found doesn't require a third party hosting site. It's actually something new I'm trying. I'm using Google Docs! That's right.

1. Go to Google Docs. If you have a Blogger account, you have a Google account; that means you also have access to Google Docs.

(Just look at the drop down menu on the Firefox homepage (the Firefox search page ), then find Google Docs. )

2. Sign in. Click on New menu and start new document. Type your post. You insert your gifs and pictures using the Insert menu. Once you're done with your post, Click on Save.

*Here is an alternative :  After you've saved your post in Google Docs, open Blogger in a new tab or window and sign in.  Click on New Post to start your new post.  Go back to your Google Docs tab and copy your post and images.  Then go to your Blogger New Post tab/window and paste your post and images from Google Docs.  See if your gifs are working.  If they work, then go ahead and Publish.  If they don't work, continue with the steps below.

3. Go back to to Docs Home. Click on More Actions menu, then choose Preview to see if your gifs are working.

4. Go back to Docs Home and click on More Actions menu, then Click on Publish. You'll be taken to the Publish Document screen. Click on Publish to blog. Fill out the settings as appropriate. Then Click Ok and you're done! Go visit your blog and see how the post looks. You can make your adjustments there til you're happy.

I used Google Docs for this post. I'm pretty happy with the results. Not bad for a first try. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.