Robin Williams - Podcasting and Blogging with GarageBand and iWeb

Robin Williams
John Tollett

Podcasting and Blogging with GarageBand and iWeb

Robin Williams and John Tollett

Published in association with SpiderWorks Press

www.SpiderWorks.com

Peachpit Press
1249 Eighth Street
Berkeley, California 94710
800.283.9444
510.524.2178
510.524.2221 fax

Find us on the web at www.Peachpit.com

To report errors, please send a note to

Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education

Copyright 2007 Robin Williams and John Tollett

All original illustrations, art, and design
2007 John Tollett and Robin Williams
Interior design by Robin Williams
Interior production by Robin Williams and John Tollett
Index by Robin Williams
Editing by Dave Mark
Prepress by David Van Ness

Notice of rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

For information on obtaining permission for reprints and excerpts, please contact .

Notice of liability

The information in this book is distributed on an as is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, neither the authors nor Peachpit Press shall have any liability to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software or hardware products described herein.

Trademarks

All trademarks are the properties of their respective owners. Rather than place a trademark symbol in every occurrence of a trademarked name, we state we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of the trademark owner with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

ISBN 0-321-49217-X

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to Robins mom, the intrepid Pat Williams, who is probably the only 77-year-old woman in the world with her own podcast that she made herself! And she learned to do it using this book. ;-)

A blog is a personal journal, posted on a web page for anyone to read.

A podcast is, essentially, an audio blog; you can listen to a podcast on a web page, in iTunes, or download it to an iPod. Some podcasts include video, but it is much easier and often just as effective to create an audio blog and include still images.

The following pages explain in detail what blogs and podcasts are and show a number of examples of the way some of our friends are using iWeb and GarageBand to post their creations.

This book assumes you have three things:

A Macintosh computer.

The iWeb and GarageBand software. These are both included in the Apple software package called iLife 06 (or later). If you bought a new Mac recently, iLife might already be installed.

Youll use iWeb to create a web site to hold your blog and podcast, and youll use GarageBand to create your podcast.

A .Mac account. This account costs $99 a year, but the perks it comes with are invaluable. There is no easier way to post web sites, blogs, and podcasts, plus there are so many other benefits. Just go to Apple.com, click the .Mac tab, and either sign up for an account or get a free sixty-day trial.

A blog can be like a diary thats available on the Internet for anyone to read, or it can be a source of valuable information in your area of expertise. Blogs can range from a minute-by-minute update on a developing news story to yearly updates on Grandmas pet catand everything in-between.

Blogs are often just forms of personal expression, places to rant, complain, observe, ponder, criticize, honor, praise, preach, report, or ramble. A blog can provide important information to a class, business associates, family members, or any other group.

Blogs have become a very important means of disseminating information, as well as developing a community among like-minded hearts and souls.

The ease and immediacy of blogging has made it a popular and useful phenomenon. If you can type, you can blog.

There are probably almost as many reasons to blog as there are blogs. Some blogs are outlets for self-expression and creative writing, while some are centered around discussions of social and political issues, news, technology, and anything else you can think of. Many of the most popular blogs are informative and offer instruction or guidance.

Blogs you create in iWeb can include a feature that allows you to receive comments from readers. This can add another level of communication to a blogfamily, friends, or associates can use the blog as a communication tool rather than just a one-sided newsletter.

A blog can help organizations publicize themselves and keep current information available either for the public or for select personnel. The head of a company, church, school, or any other type of organization can maintain a constant dialog with associates, students, and other interested parties.

If you have something to say (or think you do), blogging is for you.

A podcast is an audio blogyou listen to it rather than read it. Its like having your own radio show that everyone around the world can tune in to whenever they want, not just at the moment you happen to be recording or broadcasting. Podcast episodes are placed on a website, where people can subscribe to them. Subscribers are automatically notified when a new episode is availableby the podcast player software installed on their computers (iTunes for Mac users). But listeners dont have to subscribe to a podcast to listen to it; anyone with access to the podcasts web address can go there and listen.

Listening to episodes on your computer isnt the only way to enjoy podcasts. One of the biggest attractions of podcasts is that theyre portable. Anyone with an iPod (or some other MP 3 player), can transfer episodes from a computer to their player and listen when and where its convenientin the car, while grocery shopping, at the gym. This is how an increasing number of people stay updated with their favorite news, sports, and entertainment sources.

Most podcasts are simply audio files. Its easy, however, to create enhanced podcasts that include graphics, photos, and even web page links. As youll learn in , its easy to create an enhanced podcast, placing photos or graphics in a timeline so they appear precisely when you want them to appear.

Video podcasts are also popular. Theyre as easy to make as audio podcasts if you have a video camera and know the basics of editing video in iMovie (see ). A video podcast (also know as a vlog or video blog) is a movie file thats been compressed and resized (smaller) to a format thats compatible with the web.

Video podcast files are much larger than audio podcast files. They take up more room on your web sites storage space and they use more bandwidth when viewers watch them. If your podcast gets too many viewers, your web host provider may charge you extra for bandwidth usage.