I finally printed my blog, and only the first year at that. However, I was testing to see if I liked the site I went through, and the overall answer is a resounding YES!
I used Blog2print. Tyler found it for me because we were having some troubles with Blurb.
Pros:
It is the easiest thing ever. Blurb needs way more user interaction putting things in and moving things around and choosing layouts. For me who has quite the extensive blog, this gets tedious. At Blog2print, it really just rips the whole thing and tosses it in there for you. You can then change things around if you want, but they do a good job to begin with.
They have a place at the end for your comments. I didn't see this option at Blurb.
I think it is a little more cost efficient (still pricey though if you are as wordy as me).
They don't waste space. When one entry stops the next one starts right up so you don't have a lot of white space at the end of pages.
I'm published BABY!!!
Cons:
You can't choose a whole photo for the front; you only have a small spot to put a picture. I like the red though, it stands out (and you can choose from several colors and a few designs).
The table of contents is useless. It says two things: Dedication page—1 and then Life Savers—4. It doesn't label the posts individually, which is what I would like. I need to play around with this and see if I can change it.
The pictures are not as big as I would like, but there is actually an option to make the pictures bigger. I chose to keep them the same, or I would have WAY too many pages. So this isn't such a bad con.
The pictures are all on the side; not interspersed with the text. I think this is because I don't use any formatting when I put pictures in, so I don't really know how it would look if you use right or left, etc. However, it isn't bad that they are on the left side; you just have to look over while you are reading.
I am sure that I have forgotten something, so if you have a question about one or the other, just ask. I will be happy to give you whatever information I have. I am off to get my other books printing. It is such a relief to finally have a hard copy that my family can read and keep. Life Savers is now an official journal. And here I thought that I would never be able to keep a journal for a year, and I am going on two.
does it give you the option to delete specific posts before printing?
ReplyDeletei also use a web res pic on my blog that won't print well. does it give you the option to swap out for a print res pic?
If Blog2Print turns out to be even remotely easier than Blurb, I will kiss the ground you walk on. I'm so frustrated with Blurb that I was just about to start copying and pasting my blog into Word and printing it myself!
ReplyDeleteAlissa,
ReplyDeleteYep, when you open your book, you can go to the Blog Entries section. From there, it shows you each individual post and there is a button on the right that says REMOVE. I assume you could take out whatever posts you want.
Then if you click on an individual post it brings it up with all the pictures and there is a button under each picture saying REPLACE PHOTO. If you click on that, it lets you upload photos and choose one to replace the existing photos.
Pretty straight forward. Even I am learning new things this time around, so thanks for the questions.
Skye,
I really think you will like this one much better. It is a little slow loading everything sometimes, but the user interface of so much better.
Alissa,
ReplyDeleteLooking again, I think you can delete comments, but perhaps not individual posts. I am trying and it isn't working so well.
Well I am a Blurb girl but it is great to see that there are other options out there. Great job on getting it done. That's why we are all doing these blogs right? It is for me at least!
ReplyDeleteMaleen that is cool about the book! I need to do that to our blog. Plus I LOVE the picture of the eyes at the top of the blog it turned out so well!
ReplyDeleteEventually I'd like to print my blog entries...I may ask you at a future time about it!
ReplyDeleteooooh, I'm impressed. How nice to have that for your family history. You're making me want to be better.
ReplyDelete