Treat Yourself

On April 15th Joyce Valenza, teacher-librarian at Springfield Township High School in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania, and blogger at NeverEndingSearch with School Library Journal, posted an article titled Postering with new tools.  In that article she discusses using two web 2.0 tools, Smore and Block Posters (which I love too and talked about here.)  Being new to me and liking the results it produced, I went to the Smore website.

In order to begin using this free application click on the Try it now button found throughout the home page.  Smore is in private beta so use is by invitation only.  You need to fill in a simple form giving your name, email address and stating why you think you should go first.  Within a couple of days I had my confirmation email.

You can create an account using your Facebook account or have a separate account; all that's needed is a password.  Your first page contains a board of featured flyers by other users.  Across the top right as a user you can invite others, send in feedback to the Smore creators, go to your own flyers or log out.

To begin click on the Start a new flyer button.  The next screen is where you design your page or flyer.  You enter in a title and subtitle.

Beneath that you can add a title to your text.  Text can be bold, in italics, or underlined.  Links can be added or deleted. (When adding a URL do not include the http://).  Two forms for bulletts are available.

Between the title and subtitle space and the text space a plus sign opens up more options.  In that area more text, a title, an embedded link, a video, a picture, an event, a gallery (three images in a row), a biographical contact space or directions can be included. 

On the right hand side of the page users can create a finished page, save it at any time, or choose between three designs (modern, vintage, minimal).  When a design has been selected a new background, colors and fonts can be chosen.  The number of choices for each is determined by the design.

When create is clicked you are again asked for a page title, given a URL link and whether you want comments via Facebook to be allowed.  A created page has more options.  Across the top it can be liked on Facebook, posted on Twitter or a URL link can be copied.  On the side are buttons providing for editing, preview, the number of visitors, sharing on Facebook, Twitter or via email, and settings (sharing options). Analytics and more sharing are still to be developed further.

Here is the link to a page that I designed for Poem In Your Pocket Day on April 26, 2012.

I love this new web 2.0 application, Smore.  The steps to a finished page/flyer are easy to follow with professional results.  The options for information that can be included on a flyer are numerous and varied.  You could not ask for better sharing capabilities. 

Click---That's the sound of Smore being added to my virtual toolbox.