This session is for anyone who wants to gain a quick-fire overview of what social media is. It is most suitable for absolute beginners, and only a basic working knowledge of the world wide web is assumed.

See further details here.

What is a blog?  It is a mini, personalised website.  The difference between a regular website and a blog is that the owner posts articles – blog posts – regularly to let the public know what he/she is up to.  Use it to display your interests, photos of family/friends or even promote your business.

I am are holding a two-day workshop – Welcome to the Blogosphere: Blogging for Beginners – at QUB, Belfast on Saturday 21 & 28 March.  To book a place, phone the School of Education (Open Learning) on 028 9097 3539/3323 or email openlearning.education@qub.ac.uk.

On this practical workshop, you will create a blog (with www.wordpress.com) and learn how to customise it with posts, photos, links and tools.  You will also be given access to three months’ free technical support.

This workshop is for total beginners only.  I promise – once you begin, you’ll be blogging into the wee small hours!

This term at QUB, we have three new workshops for the working professional: Assertiveness and Workplace Confidence; Managing Customer Experience and Emotional Intelligence Goes to Work. These workshops are hosted by the School of Education, Short Courses Programmes (CPD).

For eveyone else, there is the School of Education’s Open Learning Programme.  This term, we’re running the following events:

Social Networking: Facebook and Twitter

Lies and Damned Lies: How to Become a Human Lie Detector

How to Be Funny

Welcome to the Blogosphere: Blogging for Beginners

The Main Thing: How to Find Meaning in Your Life

See Current Events Schedule for dates and prices for all events.  And, if you’d like to find out more about a particular event, please ring us on 028 9043 6634 or email info@sensei-winbeforehand. co.uk.

We’re also planning the following (dates to follow):

I Want to Speak to the Manager!

So You Want to Be An Entrepreneur?

Streetwise: How to Protect Yourself Against Aggression

I’ve just started using Snag IT 9 for some screenshots for a client’s project.  I’d last used it several months ago when editing some pictures for myself.  This is version 9.

Screenshots of Snag It 9 for this blog post

So, I thought I’d add in a few pics to keep things interesting.. and here was the first thing to boggle the mind of a technical writer.

How can I capture the Snag It application as a screenshot, when it temporarily disappears to allow screen capture (presumably of something else)?  Ahhh!  Following several frustrated minutes of frantic searching various settingstype locations, I found it!  Choose Tools>Programme Preferences>Programme Options and deselect Hide Snag It before capturing.

Slick Interface

The first thing you will notice is it’s slick charcoal grey user interface. That makes the menus toolbars really stand out, something that you will appreciate when you spend hours at a time working with graphics.

Become an Elite SnagIt Capture Ninja or Sninja

Regularly-used capture settings can be saved as Profiles.  Become an Elite SnagIt Capture Ninja Sninja.  There are default Profiles and you can create and customise your own.

File Types

There are now a number of file types.  As well as SnagIt Capture File (.snag) and PDF, you can save files in twenty-eight formats, including .jpg and .wmf and .png.  I’m impressed.

Blogging Outputs

OK, maybe this has been around for a while, but you can also blog directly to WordPress for example, from SnagIt.

Follow the blog, Visual Lounge, for news on Snag It and other TechSmith products.

• Business recommendations
• Personal recommendations
• Leads from the website/blog/email list
• Meeting people at networking meetings

So, before you go off to pay that magazine the price of an exotic animal for an advert the size of a microscopic amoeba, think again!

And, I’ll let you in on any marketing secrets I discover at the event.