Easy Headers & Dividers~ How To: for oldish people

in #steemiteducation6 years ago



The longer I'm on Steemit making posts, the more I enjoy formatting. Yes, I'm a bit weird that way but I really like it when everything matches and is bright and colorful to look at.

I do know how to use GIMP, a free Photoshop-like software, but I don't always have the time to sit and mess around with it. I'm also very lazy. I will always try and find the fastest way to do something but still have it at the quality level I expect from myself.

I'm not saying everyone should format posts like I do. That would be boring and there is always more to learn and try so my formatting is, I hope, always changing and getting better too.

This 'How To:' will show you what I use when I don't have a lot of time to find graphics, when I want to try new things, and when I'm feeling lazy.

If you would have asked me 4 months ago if I thought this was a lazy way of making headers and dividers I would have laughed at you and said, "NO!"

Why bother telling you all this? Because.

Making your own custom headers and dividers is just like learning anything. It's a bit confusing and takes forever until you try it a few times. Unless you are a Superhero then this tutorial is really not for you anyway. For the rest of us mere mortals, you never know when you will find yourself saying, "REALLY? I never knew that!"



Making Original Headers & Dividers



The first thing you are going to want to do is to go to Pizapand bookmark it. If you are like me you will not always remember what it is called so having it bookmarked helps find it when you forget. Trust me!

Once there you will see a page that looks like the photo below. We will be making a header from scratch. Click on the 'Design' icon.




You will want to click on 'Custom Size'. You can also see with this free program you can make all kind of this other fun graphics.

You could make even more cool things if you pay them real money for a Pro Membership. I have never paid for a membership. Are there items in PiZap that I would like to use and can not because I'm too cheap? YES!

You have now been warned!! 😁



I make all my Header, dividers, footers 800 pixels wide. This way you don't have to worry about centering anything. This is a personal preference of mine. You will find your own personal preference the more you format your posts.

The size I use for Headers is 800 pixels wide and 450 Pixels tall.

Click on the green 'GO!'




You will now have a lovely sheet of white in front of you. So lovely you might, just might fall asleep while looking at it. Now is the time to get your creativity flowing. Or in my case, you hope to end up with have something someone will not make fun of when they see it in their feed. 😍

You will also see all the wonderful icons at the top of the page. Those are what you will be using to make your header more non-white by clicking on the white 'Canvas Color' box.



Once you click the white little box a large color picker rectangle will pop up. It is up to you to choose what color you want your background. This part usually takes me about ten minutes. I go from green to yellow to blue and finally just pick pink like always. 😏




We have our wonderful pink background and you could just add your title to this and be on your merry way but........well, errrrrr....... I like to get a bit more creative than that sometimes. Plus if we stopped now this would be a very boring How To:.

One of the cool things you can do is add a personal photo to your header. To do this click on the Add a Photo icon.



A box like you see below will open up. Click on Computer. Search for twenty minutes for the photo that you want to use for your header. You know it's right there because you just saw it but now can not find for the life of you.



Once you find your photo click Open and your photo from your computer will now be in the middle of your header. Using the green circle arrow and the larger white dots you will be able to make your photo larger or smaller and change the angle of it also.

When you have it where you want it just click on the green checkmark to set the photo so it doesn't move on you.



I still found the background a little plain for my taste plus I wanted to show you some other cool things you could do in PiZap. I then clicked on the 'Borders' icon. On the right-hand side, you will have a bunch of different kinds of borders to choose from. Today I chose the bubble one.

When you have extra time you are going to want to click around to see how many other cool borders you can choose from. You can get really creative with the borders.




Type



Click on the T icon to open up the Type window.

Type is the most frustrating thing for me. Most of the fonts I want to use you need to pay for but that doesn't stop me from making headers that I like. There are still plenty of choices for you to make your header really cool looking. Do yourself a favor and don't even look at the fonts that have PRO written by them.

As you can see in the photo below you can move the fonts all over just like you can with photos. You can change the color, size, glow behind it and the list goes on and on.

Make sure you have a fresh cup of coffee before you start playing with the fonts for the first time. Even without paying there is still a ton of choices and really how much time you want to spend on it is your only limitation.




With your masterpiece finally all done, you will want to save it to your computer. Click on the Save in the upper right side.



A box will come up asking you if you want to save it to your computer. I always do. I also just use the Standard Quality.

Make a note where you saved your new header too or you might spend another twenty minutes trying to find where you put it. Not that I have ever done that.......... Okay, maybe once.......or 5 times.......😋




Igmur and Dividers



A lot, not all, but a lot of my photo's I will take and store in an Imgur account. Some things I find easier and faster to do in Igmur than anywhere else. Dividers are one of those things.

Igmur is also free to use but you do have to sign up to use it. I think what you get out of it is worth handing over your e-mail address. I can say that I do not get spam e-mails from them either. making it another plus in my book to use it.



Once you have an Igmur account, upload your header you just made by clicking on the green Add images button.




Click on the small pencil icon to edit your new header.



While in the Regular Edit Mode, you will be able to take your cursor and drag it across your header to crop out a divider. I make my dividers 800 pixels wide and 7 pixels tall.



Once you have the size correct for you and your preferences, click on apply in the upper left corner and you are done! Hit SAVE!


To use your Imgur divider in your post, click on the photo to open up the box like you see below.

Click on the blue copy next to DIRECT LINK

This will be the code you paste into your post for your divider to show up in your post link you have seen through out this post.



As always I make a 'How To' post based off of someone not knowing anything. A lot of the steps are just one click. I learn more by seeing then reading so I tend to make my tutorials very photo heavy for that reason too.

Are there easier ways to make headers and dividers? I'm very sure there is. This is what works for me and takes me all of 5 minutes or less if I'm in a huge hurry.

If you have never tried it this way or didn't know where to start. I hope this will give you a good idea of how to start and not get frustrated along the way.



Thank you so much for stopping by!

Hugs!

Snook



SNOOK.gif

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Nice @snook!!
This is a great way to easily do it!
Also there are some great dividers out there for free use.
Heres a few and here is a few more.

Thanks for these too... for when I'm feeling l.a.z.y., @doctorcrypto. ;)

hehehehehe I use your dividers too :D thank you for linking them!!!

Yeah ! I'm also so lazy and it's a good idea ! Thanks for sharing 😇

you are very welcome

I will try the dividers in imgur. have been using Canva

I never used Canva :D your could be easier LOLL

I use canva too! But I didn't realize you can do dividers there...🤔

ooohhh I have always used the @promo-mentors dividers since it looks great and a way for me to advertise Promo-Mentors as well hahaha

Great idea!!! I have some I use for certain posts too :D

Wonderful graphic page divider tutorial, @snook! Thank you. xxx

You are welcome <3 I hope it helps you in some small way!!

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thank you!!

You lazy??? Never! This tutorial is perfect for me...thank you so much! : )
HUGS

You are very welcome!!!! Everytime I go outside I think of you and your new camera :D

Aw, thanks. I think about you a lot...let me count the ways. I better not because it would turn into a hilarious novel. Too much to type in a reply. LOL!

I love your "for the oldish" tutorials :D I made my bitmoji using one of them hihihi and this seems very nice and educational too. I am sure it will help a lot of people 💚

Thank you @zen-art <3 means a lot that you like it!

Very helpful. I have been wondering what the measure was for a banner.

yaaaaaaaaaaaaa :D I'm so happy it helped!!

I like your "How To" guide! The humor you injected was absolutely perfect ("Search for twenty minutes for the photo that you want to use...") There are definitely some pretty good features in Pizap (I took a peek at it). If you ever need anything written in one of those "Pro" fonts, let me know; I do not have all of them on my computer, but I did see a few I recognize! GREAT JOB on this tutorial! You rock!

awwwwww Thank you so much @thekittygirl!!! You just made the end of my night perfect!

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