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Clamour Creative Inc. has ceased operations as of December 31st, 2018. The information on this website may not be up to date.
WordPress: Why Self-Hosting WP Is Better Than Using WordPress.com
If you are a blogger or even a regular reader of blogs, you are probably familiar with WordPress even if you’ve never used it. Since its release in 2003 it has evolved from a basic blogging platform to a flexible yet easy-to-use content management system, thanks to the efforts of many developers and users. It is currently the most popular blogging platform on the internet.
Aside from the ability to post writing, images, or other media, one can also create and edit regular web pages – sometimes referred to as static content, in that it is information that is not time-sensitive as blog posts often are. Non-bloggers can forego the blog posting function altogether, resulting in what might be considered a more “traditional” website.
WordPress users have the option of changing the overall look and feel of their sites via the selection of a theme, which is essentially a series of templates dictating various elements such as layout, colour, typographical detail, and sometimes other special features. Additional functionality can be enabled with the integration of various plugins, chunks of pre-written code offering a wide range of special virtual gadgetry. The degree to which one can use these features to customize a WordPress site depends on whether the site is hosted at WordPress.com or self-hosted. Continue reading “WordPress: Why Self-Hosting WP Is Better Than Using WordPress.com”
Account Security: 2-Step Verification in Gmail
2-step verification allows you to use your mobile phone as a second layer of security to access your Gmail account, and the POP email addresses you’ve linked to your Gmail account. You’ll need a phone that can receive text (SMS) messages, or you can opt to use a voice call.
What is the primary benefit of enabling 2-step verification? If someone successfully guesses or cracks your Gmail password with a computer other than your own trusted computer, you will receive a text message with a verification code. That verification code will be required to get into your Gmail account, so the would-be cracker will not be able to get in, and you’ll know that someone has attempted to log into your account, which means you’ll need to log in yourself as soon as possible in order to change your password. Of course, if you’re using this password for any other accounts, you should change it there too. Continue reading “Account Security: 2-Step Verification in Gmail”
Check POP Mail Using a Gmail Account
One of the greatest ongoing frustrations for many computer users – even those with some technical ability – is the configuration of an email client to send and receive messages. A part of me finds it surprising that even now, with email having been a part of our professional and personal lives for so long, I still get questions about this. Still, I must agree that configuring email clients is often not a particularly user-friendly process.
Tutorial: Saving Multiple Images to Target File Size for Kindle MOBI
In a recent project, I converted a graphic novel originally destined for print to EPUB and Kindle (MOBI) formats. The author/illustrator reformatted any spreads to work on single pages, and provided me with nearly 300 images, each each of which would be a single page in the ebook. Rather than creating a fixed-layout ebook, I found the more efficient route in terms of was to create a regular reflowable ebook in EPUB format, then after filling out the metadata and adding various code tweaks, converting it to Kindle format using Calibre. Continue reading “Tutorial: Saving Multiple Images to Target File Size for Kindle MOBI”
iTunes Store Ebook Uploads: Image Size Limitations
Shortly after the I uploaded the epub file in my previous blog post, I received the following email from Apple:
Dear [hidden by AZ – this is a client],
Your book, vendor ID: [hidden by AZ], could not be delivered. The following images are larger than two million pixels and must be resized:
Full ePub:
cover.jpeg
To calculate the image pixels, multiply the image height by its width. For more information on image specifications, see the FAQ module on iTunes Connect.
Once you have corrected the issue, you can resubmit your book.
Regards,
The iBookstore team
The screen resolution of the Retina display on the new iPad (aka iPad 3) is 1536 x 2048, or a total of 3,145,728 pixels, which is indeed a hell of a lot larger than two million. I thought I’d be clever and upload a cover that was precisely this size. Not allowed…or so I thought. Continue reading “iTunes Store Ebook Uploads: Image Size Limitations”