Recently I have been trying out different programmes for drawing and painting on my computer with a Wacom pen tablet. I’ve been using trial software by by Corel and Adobe. Corel is easy to use and has everything you need to paint and draw and so does Adobe. But Corel is easy to use. If I want to paint with acrylics or watercolours I can do that straight away. Corel has a mixing pad and an easy to use interface with everything I need at the click of a button. Adobe has everything I need and much much more. I’m sure if I went to university and studied rocket science I would prefer Adobe over Corel. Sorry Adobe, Corel beats you simply because it’s easy to use. I don’t have the time or patience to learn another language just so I can draw a circle and resize it!

Corel Painter is the one for me.

Submitted for Wacom Anime Girl Contest. Submissions close tomorrow so I may have gotten in too late because it’s the weekend. There are some really excellent pictures in there, mostly from Thailand because it’s an Asia-pacific competition. I could have spent more time because I’m still learning how to use Corel Painter software. In this picture I used many layers and shapes as well as saving my images to my portfolio and bringing them together in the one picture. If I had more time there would have been more detail and the brick wall would have been more refined.

600 x 800 pixels 72 dpi acrylics pencils airbrush toners inks artist brushes

This is the first draft of my first illustration using a Wacom Sketch Pad.

Today after posting a blog about the Bing home page, Greg suggested that I post it on Windows Live Clubhouse.  I replied in the comments about how I don’t think I’m able to use Clubhouse as I’ve seen other members do. I’ve kinda given up on Clubhouse of late because it doesn’t seem to work for me. I did go there yesterday to submit my vote for Clubhouse members awards which was fun!

In the screenshots below, you can see the issue I get. In this example, I had clicked on Mikes recent Clubhouse tag (Challenge-Win7treasure) on his latest blog entry “Windows 7 video treasure hunt” For whatever reason, this particular time I wasn’t able to view the entries in Clubhouse related to this topic. This sometimes happens, usually, this is my only way into Clubhouse to view posts by the members. Once in, I can then surf around and check out what’s the latest etc.

When I click on “Your Profile” or any of the other links under the Clubhouse logo, I always get taken to the “Join Clubhouse” page. See below.

The other day I watched a video by Docextreme G,  which was all about how to become a Clubhouse member, and I saw that he gets a different home page with his profile etc. I did receive an email after I signed up a while back, welcoming me to the Clubhouse community, So at this point I’m just assuming that I mustn't have fit all the criteria to become a fully fledged Clubhouse member who has a profile and is able to post blogs (I’m pretty sure the blog posts are screened for quality reasons).

If anyone else has this problem, let me know, cheers,

Sean.

Ok, even though I’ve updated my account configuration after the last time I changed the theme and fonts on my Windows Live Space, I did it again, just to be sure. As you can see from the screenshots. The margins here on Writer are much wider than than the margins on my Spaces Blog. So now I’ll insert some pictures and some more text below. there are three lines in this paragraph, and this is how I would be expecting it to look on my blog. When I click on preview, the margins are even wider.

So here I have a picture on the left. That’s my Dad. We own a  2.5 hectare property together in Donnybrook, Western Australia.

Also, I have a picture on the right. We grow all sorts of grapes and they are delicious. I have set a custom margin around the images so that the text I’ve written doesn’t sit right up against the image and make your eyes bleed. It’s a common problem that people fail to do when constructing a blog. Using custom margins for your images is very easy to do. all you have to do is click on the image and set them from the toolbox on the right hand side of the Writer application. Excellent little feature in my opinion. Hooray for Windows Live Team.

So we have a total of three paragraphs and 18 lines of text, all sitting nicely in-between the two pictures. Beautiful, Just the way I want it. Let me demonstrate how it changes when published.

The two pictures I have provided for you above show what my blog entry looked like in Live Writer before I published to my Blog on Windows Live. You can see the first one in Edit Mode and the second one in Preview mode. Two completely different margins, and neither of them are the same size as my blog margins. I used the table technique to insert my Live Writer Example screen shots, that way, I knew exactly how big I could possibly make them. If I had gone any bigger than 810 pixels, the images would have been cut off on the right hand side by the blog margin when published.

So you can see how all the text I placed neatly between the two vineyard pictures, has spilled out from between the two pictures and is starting to fill up an area underneath them now that I have published this blog. The text that I have written here, I haven’t bothered to margin because there are no pictures either side, and my Windows Live blog will just squish it all in anyway.

So you can imagine the trouble it causes when you have spent an hour or two constructing your beautiful blog and have it all set just the way you would like it to look, only to find when you finally publish your cherished work, that it all looks wrong. The more images with text wrapping you have, the more advanced your blog post, the more trouble it causes. You get a snowball effect which moves its way down the page and eventually, the whole post just looks all wrong.

If you are writing a “how-to or a “story”, you really need your text to be inline with the corresponding picture. The last thing you want is one sentence crammed into a 20 pixel gap between pictures and the edge of your blog. Here in Writer (as I’m writing this), I have four paragraphs and 13 lines of text below the screen shots. After publishing, I still have my four paragraphs, but because it has been squished into a smaller space, I have more lines of text. Hope you learned something new.

Happy Spaces Blogging,

Sean.

So the day finally came that I’ve been waiting for for so long. Supernova Pop Culture Expo has come to Perth. For anyone interested in Comics, Anime, toys, books, celebrities and games, Supernova is a must. I didn’t  make it to the opening last night which would have been a blast but that’s ok because I had a great time today watching movies, meeting celebrities and checking out all the pop culture displays. The biggest highlight for me was the sheer number of people who dressed up as their favourite superheros and characters for the occasion. Seriously it was like a massive costume party. Some people really went to a lot of effort considering the National Cosplay Championships are being held over the weekend.

Doors opened at 10 am so I made sure that I was there nice and early to catch the contestants whilst they were fresh in their outfits. I was one of the first people there and  had a great place in the line up but just couldn’t help myself. Armed with my trusty Kodak camera, I took off into the line up and spent some time chatting to people and taking their photos. By the time the doors opened, there were thousands of people lining up, it was a real spectacle.

The line was huge and went in both directions. The early punters were mainly the younger crew and I had a sneaky suspicion that most of them were drugged up to the eye balls, but then again, they may have been just as excited as I was to be there!

Everyone was friendly and chatty so I felt no shame in asking to take their pictures and all of them were more than willing. Seriously, I’ve never had so much fun with my camera.

After milling around outside for a couple of hours I decided to venture inside and really get stuck into what I came for, comics and art. For me it was like a wonderland and it was packed. Supernova runs over the whole weekend and there is so much to see and do. I had no idea they would have wrestling matches by professional wrestlers, and it was the first time I’ve seen it done in real life. I was amazed at how these guys put their bodies on the line for the purpose of sheer entertainment. Even though I knew it was all set up and rehearsed, I found myself wincing and groaning when some guy was body slammed or thrown to the ground.

It cost $25 dollars for the day and I didn’t have much money so I spent most of my time just browsing comics and attending some of the seminars. I had a go at the computers with fancy touch screens with Photoshop and drew pictures while onlookers showed me how to use the applications. Kids were playing some of the latest games on various platforms with huge projector screens and artists were signing books and posters. There was so much to see and do I really couldn’t make up my mind what to do.

Everywhere I looked there was action. Towards the end of the day, after watching some Japanese animation in the Madman room I decided to go and see some of the celebs that were there. Even well into the afternoon the line up to meet the celebs was huge but it really didn’t matter because there was so much going on around. I stood in line to meet Karl Urban who plays Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy from the new Star Trek movie and changed my mind and decided to start taking more snaps. I’m pretty sure tin the picture to the right is Dirk Benedict, the original and best Starbuck!

There were a few Storm Troopers cruising around as well as a Darlek. Behind me a whole bunch of people were play superhero chess. It was quite funny watching people act out fighting and dying scenarios on the huge chess board. Personally, I could never bring myself to dress up and act in front of so many people I didn’t know. They were all having so much fun.

I realised pretty soon after I arrived at Supernova, that my partner Maureen had made the right decision in staying home, because I was like a headless chicken in there. There was just too much for me to see in one day, so I’ll be back again tomorrow. Toward the end of the day I was hungry and had  sore feet from back and forth between stalls and exhibitions. I sat up against a wall and waited to get my photo taken with Jake Lloyd, the guy who played the young Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars. I waited for about 30 minutes and was finally ushered into the photo booth with him. He was very polite but seemed more interested in the jacket I was wearing. I really didn’t know what to say to him. Actually, I wanted to say: “Hey, you got old man” because he’s well and truly grown up now but still really short. We had a bit of a laugh about thrift shops and dime stores. He shook my hand several times and the photo was taken, then he was rushed off to sign more photo’s for his fans. You can still see from our photo, that Jake still resembles the young chubby faced Anakin Skywalker.

So all in all, day one was great and I’m looking forward to returning for some more picture taking and seminars. Check out some of the costumes people were wearing.

View Full Album

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog!

1. Mobile Spaces Bing search

All you have to do is type in “mobile spaces” into Bing. This brings up heaps of New and Recently Updated Mobile Spaces. You are effectively surfing mobile.spaces.live on your computer. There are Recently Updated Spaces in here. Every now and then you will have to start over because Windows Live goes down quite often in here.

2. Direct access to Mobile Spaces.

http://[your space name].mobile.spaces.live.com/

This link will take you directly to your own Mobile Space. This is pretty much the same as what you get through a Bing search except you start from your own Mobile Space. It’s what you see if you are surfing Windows Live Spaces on your mobile device.  Scroll down the page and click on Windows Live Spaces. You will then see your own contacts who have recently updated, plus people who aren't in your network who have also updated recently.

3. Changes.      http://spaces.live.com/changes.aspx 

Ok, this is an actual feed provided by Windows Live Spaces. Refresh the page every few minutes to update the feed. Unfortunately, you can’t just click on the Spaces you want to view. You have to Copy & Paste the Spaces URL into your browser to view the Space you want to see.

You can see my own Space listed after I posted this Blog.

Happy Spaces surfing.

Sean.

Mucking around in my Statistics page for Spaces I stumbled upon a page in mobile.spaces.live. Here I get recently updated spaces which we no longer have access to on our Windows Live Space. Typing in mobile spaces into Bing brings up a steady stream of recently updated mobile spaces too. But are they really Spaces?

I was having a gander at what pages had been viewed and from where so I clicked on one.

I noticed straight away the “Updated spaces” box.

When I click on any of the links I get to see the space that was updated.

every now and then it doesn’t work but I just click “refresh”

I then get a new set of links for different updated spaces that are not in my network. Cool!

Only problem is, Its only Mobile Spaces . I’m not getting the actual page or profile from here. This isn’t the real deal, It’s simply mobile phone spaces surfing but on your computer.

Please bring back “Recently Updated Spaces” to Windows Live. I miss them…

I couldn't contact fruits one night so I left her  a message on MSN Messenger! I used to giver her foot massages after her long work days. She must've liked the message because she blogged it. 

Quote

Feets

sean just sent you a nudge.

 

sean says:

are you sleeping?

sean says:

ok.. fair enuff

sean says:

tryed calling you, all i got was the  "klunk"

sean says:

miss u

sean says:

want to cuddle you

sean says:

kiss your feets

sean says:

cuddle your feets

sean says:

worship the feets

sean says:

clean feets?

sean says:

sore feets?

sean says:

needy feets?

sean says:

fuity feets!

sean says:

i need feets!!!!

sean says:

gnight feets...

 

sean just sent you a nudge.

 

Now I know what you thinking, but no… I’m no sexually perverted feets freak!

 

Found this blog on the  The Spacecraft Space. Seems the guy who made the tool gave up on it…

Can't help but laugh at this one… The resurgence is coming?

It goes on and on. Page after page of Spam and No Names! I guess it was all just too hard.

Usually articles on the web these days have pictures and links for the reader to interact with. Pictures look great in articles, and links provide the reader with extra content to explore at their own leisure. Inserting media content such as video’s, images, and hyperlinked text is made easy using Live Writer but will only publish to your blog. But not everybody has their blog on their front page in Windows Live Spaces. In this post I will demonstrate how one can create a “Front Page Article” without publishing to your blog.

So how do you create an article for your front page without publishing to your blog? Well, we use our Custom  HTML Modules, with a little help from Live Writer and SkyDrive.

It’s very simple to just type in some text into your Custom HTML Module and click “Publish” Instantly you have an article on your front page. You can then just drag and drop the module wherever you like on your Windows Live Space. Text is formatted as per the rest of your page and it looks great. But… plain old text can be a little boring. People like pictures when they read articles and having the option to then click on links and surf to other related pages, is great to expand the content of your article. So you need to do just a little more than type in some text. Below, you will see an example of an article from my own front page. 

The article above is more advanced visually. I had no need to add any hypertext links so I was able to play with it a little more. I was able to add the blood splatter effects with one of my image editing applications. You can see that basically, I have a photo scatter and a few paragraphs on the left . So for this tutorial, I have a simpler example that I also have on my page, which you can see below. If you want to know how to add an article like this to your front page in Spaces, then read on!

Any image you like can be used in your article. In this case, I used the “Photo Scatter” effect from Windows Live Writer. If you haven’t already got Windows Live Writer, you can download the Windows Live Essentials Suite here. You can use whatever application you like to create whatever photo or image effects you choose. I prefer to use Windows Live products because they are free and easy to use. Try using Live Writer to create a Photo Scatter.

When you open Writer, you will see “Photo Album…” in the “Insert” tab, which is located on the bottom right hand side of the application.

When you click this, you will then get a pop-up box giving you the option to insert your album from from online, or straight from files on your computer (example on left). Where you want your images to come from is entirely up to you. The Article example above contains random images from my computer, so I added them individually using the “Add Photos” option from my own files.

Note: You will find it quicker and easier to open up a separate window  with the file you have the images stored in on your computer, then you can just drag & drop the pictures into the pop-up.

Once you have selected all the images you want to have in your photo album, click “Insert” on the bottom right hand side of the pop-up. You will then see your album inserted into your new entry. On the right hand side of Writer you will now see some extra options under “Photo Album.

Use the drop down menu under “Album Style” to choose “Scatter” and if you like you can then click “Change cover pictures” to shuffle your images.

You may also want to change the size of your album display by simply clicking on the album image, and then dragging the corners out to the required size.

Now we have created the image for our front page article. You should be left with something similar to the example below.

Now you need to make a copy of this image. An easy way to do this is to use your “Snipping Tool” You can find the Snipping Tool in your Start menu. It is located in Accessories. See below right.

Use the Snipping Tool by dragging the cursor over your new photo scatter, thus outlining it. When you let go, you will then be able to save the image wherever you like on your computer.

I recommend leaving the file type as JPEG. This is set as default in Snipping Tool, and leaves a clear crisp image. Again, this is entirely up to you. You may very well want to use another type of picture style or effect for your article. There is plenty of choice for you, and if you were to use a more advanced programme, you will have virtually unlimited choice in what you do to the images in your article.

So basically, what we have done here is just use Writer to create a photo scatter effect for our front page article. If we were going to publish our article to our blog we would then just add whatever text we wanted to the entry and then click publish. But remember, We are going to publish an article to the front page of our Windows Live Space, not to our blog. This article will stay on your front page, regardless of what happens in your blog. Once you are happy with the image you are going to use, and have saved it on your computer, you can close down Writer as you will no longer be using it for this task.

The next step is to save our image somewhere online. There are lots of places to do this. I prefer to use SkyDrive because its a Windows Live service and it is linked directly to my Windows Live Space. So upload your new image into your “Photos” folder or in a “Public” folder.

Go to your SkyDrive and click on the folder where you want to save your image. Then click on “Add Files” from the menu’s at the top left.

Drag and drop the image you created using Writer into the box provided then click “Upload”.

After you have saved you new image to SkyDrive, open it up all the way. Just keep clicking on the image until it opens up to full view. You will see the URL of the image up in the address bar at the top of your screen. Right click the URL (which highlights blue) then “Copy” it to your clipboard from the drop down menu.

We are going to use this URL to display the image into our Windows live Space. You now have the image stored online so that it can be embedded into your Custom HTML Module, along with anything you wish to say in your article.

Click Here to learn more about the Custom HTML Module. Also, you can find links Here that will show you in more depth, how to use HTML Modules on your Windows Live Space. But don’t worry. You don’t need to be an expert to use this awesome tool on your Space. It’s actually quite easy. Follow the simple steps below and you will have it made!  

Now comes the really fun part. Load up your Windows Live Space so you can create and publish your article to your front page. If you haven’t already used a HTML module, first you need to go to “Customize” up on the top, right hand corner of your Space.

Select “Add modules” from the dropdown menu. This brings you into “Customize Mode”.

Scroll down the next dropdown menu which appears on the left and click on “Add Custom HTML” You can see that I have already added all the HTML modules I can, so the option I get now is either “Hide” or Show”.

After adding your Custom HTML Module, it will appear on your page. Scroll down the main page to locate it. Now is a good time to drag the module where you would like it on your Windows Live Space. For a full front page article, I recommend dragging it to the very top or very bottom of the page and enabling “Full Width” for the module. Notice the blue line in the example to the left. This indicates that a module placed here can be used in full width.

Click on the top right hand side of the module to access the module settings. Click on “Settings”

Check the “Use full width” box and change the name of the module to whatever you like. Its a good idea to change the name of you module so that you know what the module is when you are in edit modes. 

Once you have made your changes, click "Save".           

Because you have changed the layout of you Space you now have to go back to the top of your Space and save the work you have done before you can edit your HTML module. Don’t forget to do this because it is very important.

Now that you have saved the layout of your space, you can now get down to inserting your media into the Custom HTML Module. Go back to your new HTML Module and click “Edit”.

You are now presented with the editing box where you enter your text and HTML code. When you are embedding an image into an HTML module its a good idea to start with that first. Remember how you saved the URL of the image you uploaded onto SkyDrive?

Right click the empty space inside the box and then click “Paste” from the drop down menu. You will see your URL inside the HTML box. You don’t have to paste your URL in there yet. Instead you can temporarily paste it into a notepad if you like.

But that’s not the way it is going to stay. If you have never used HTML before, don’t worry. Below, I have given you a template if you like. It is simple code and all you need to get started.

Read the simple instructions below. Copy and paste the code with your inserted image URL and size attributes into the HTML box.

<img src="Replace this text with your own image URL address" width="790" height="510" align="right" alt="Front Page Article"/>

<p>Write your article content here. If you want to have your paragraphs separated then just put <p> at the beginning and </p> at the end of each paragraph. Simple.</p>

Simply replace the red text in the first string by pasting the URL address you saved to your clipboard earlier on. If you no longer have it, go back to SkyDrive (or wherever your image is saved online) and copy the URL to your clipboard again.

Then, write your article underneath in the second string, in-between the <p> and </p> tags. You can change the height and width of your picture too. Just change the values in the first string to whatever you like.

Once you have edited the HTML string above, Copy & Paste the string into the HTML edit box and click “Publish”. Good luck!

Let me demonstrate for you how easy it is. Below is the same code above but with one of my own URL’s and some text in paragraph form.

<img src="http://4sagbq.blu.livefilestore.com/y1paNmCf5jyBRQ3izFcEQAaskYHyz3nYVNThWEM6V2rg8KOBtsfSiSbh2wqZ8maYC0n5JLYe_C33luNLR-F4tmw/demo.JPG" width="790" height="510" align="right" alt="Front Page Article" />

<p>
Here is another example of an article for your front page. I copied & pasted the code above into my Custom HTML module</p>

<p>
I replaced the red text in the first string with my image URL first, then I wrote what you are reading now in the bottom string.</p>

<p>
Each paragraph has the beginning and end tags < p > and < /p > so the paragraphs are separate when the HTML code is published</p>

<p>
Happy Spaces building</p>

Below is the finished product!

So, If you love playing with your Windows Live Space, this is a great fun way to create some rich content for your Space. The things you can do are endless. You don’t have to have to use your blog on the front page and you can change it whenever you like. You can use this technique to create banners, footers and headers for your page also.

Happy Spaces building,

Sean.

If you haven’t already read my previous Blog Entry here, I suggest you do that first before reading this. Also, you will find two links on how to use your HTML modules.

OK, big development for me here (God, I'm such a silly newbie).   Turns out, opening up links outside the “HTML Sandbox Gadget” (which is easily installed from the Windows Live Gallery), is possible after all. One must simply use the “Target=“ value to their href string. Adding the extra Target= string in the code, is all that is required for hyperlinked text & pictures to open up "outside the box", using "Sandbox" from Windows Live Gallery. In my previous blog entry, you will see that I have outlined the differences between the Custom HTML Module and the HTML Sandbox Gadget. These are two different HTML Modules that we can use on our Windows Live Spaces.

So, for a simple hyperlinked image using the "Custom HTML Module" (which is Pre-installed on you WLS), we only need the following string for the link to be opened in a "separate" page.

<a href=" [url of the place you want the link to point to when image clicked] "><img src=" [url of the image you want to display] " WIDTH=" [####] " height=" [####] " alt=" [your text displayed on hover, optional] "/></a>

But... for the "Sandbox", you need to add on the extra "target=" string into your initial "href=" entry. Below you can see the same string as above but with the extra "target=" string, inserted in blue.

<a href=" [url of the place you want the link to point to when image clicked] " TARGET=" [same as the first inserted url] "> <img src=" [url of the image you want to display] " WIDTH=" [####] " height=" [####] " alt=" [your text displayed on hover, optional] "/></a>

Some would say that in the above string that you would leave the “Target=” tag empty, but I find it better to give it a name. Its easier for you to track what you have done when you can see where you have been if you decide to edit your code.

Below you will see how I’ve inserted a table into my Sandbox, which has hyperlinked text and also, a hyperlinked image.  There is no reason why you can’t copy and paste the code below into your Sandbox with your own custom url’s to create a rich looking entry to your own Windows Live Space. Just remember to use tinyurl.com to make your urls nice and short so that you don’t exceed the character limit of the Sandbox.

Example:

<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://billytanart.com/" TARGET="http://billytanart.com/"> <h3 style=" color:#C00000"><b>Billy Tan's Home Page</b> </h3></A>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.billytanart.com/painting/" TARGET="http://billytanart.com/"> <h3 style=" color:#C00000"><b>Paintings</b></h3></A>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.billytanart.com/concept/" TARGET="http://billytanart.com/"> <h3 style=" color:#C00000"><b>Concept Art</b></h3></A>
</UL>
<img src="http://tinyurl.com/p7abe9" WIDTH="375" height="470" alt="Illustration by Billy Tan"/>
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

Result:

Hint: Copy and Paste the above code and edit your custom url’s in Notepad first. This will prevent Sandbox getting confused  by the format of the text.

So, I have figured out how to utilise the "Sandbox" from Live Gallery a whole lot better. This opens up many more opportunities for my Windows Live Space. Allowing me to add even more rich content to my Space, without having a page that takes forever to load up, keeping it all under the Windows Live canopy at the same time. 

There are still a couple of issues to be ironed out though.

1) Text still has to be formatted manually using Sandbox. The minor issue of the blue line appearing under hyperlinked text when I hover over the text. (I want the underline to be red, as it is in the rest of my page). I know I can overcome this, but it requires extra character strings in my code. I have to try and HACK the "Sandbox" to increase the character limit.

2) I still have the problem of a flaky module, that seems unable to decide what its size limits actually are. I have a sneaky suspicion that this may not be a problem, if I were still able to use the "Keyboard Accessible Version", when organising the layout of my Space. This option hasn't been available to me since the wave 3 updates. Yet another one of my favourite Spaces tools, snatched away from me with the last update! Hopefully Spaces will get a Wave 4 update, allowing us to better customize our Windows Live Spaces.

Happy Space building,

Sean.

NOTE:  I have provided links to sites, so if you have never used HTML (or associated Spaces Tools), you can find the information you need with ease.

Many of you who are familiar with using HTML will know that Windows Live Spaces has a “Custom HTML Module” that we can use on our spaces page. This module is a very handy tool when setting out and creating your Windows Live Space. It gives the user the ability to insert pictures and text with links. This module can be placed anywhere on the page. Unfortunately, The HTML Custom Module can only be used a certain amount of times. On my Windows Live Space, I am only allowed 10 of the default Custom HTML Modules.

So, what if that’s not enough? Well the answer is simple right? Go to Windows Live Gallery and download the “HTML Sandbox gadget” from Windows Live Gallery. Hey presto, you can now add as many HTML modules as you like!

Well this is true, and for someone who needs more HTML on there Space, it’s a Godsend. But… there is a catch!

The  HTML Sandbox gadget doesn’t have the same power as the default Custom HTML Module that is provided by Windows, on your Live Space. In fact, its fails in comparison. That doesn’t mean that  HTML Sandbox is a reject, because it’s still very handy, and has a few redeeming features. For detailed tutorials on how to use Custom HTML Modules you will find two good ones by fellow Spaces community members below.

1)  Dev Parikh’s HTML power toy tutorial. (Hack MSN Spaces)

2)  Docextreme‘s Banner tutorial.

Let me first list a few of the great features that the default Custom HTML Module possesses. From now on we’ll just call the Custom HTML Module, “Default module”, and the downloadable Sandbox/HTML gadget, “Sandbox”

1) Rich text formatting

When you use the Default Module (providing you still have the borders showing), you get the same “text size” and “font” that you’ve been using for the rest of your page. This is great because it keeps you page looking uniform and neat. This saves time, also, you don’t need to add extra code to specify what font particulars you are using etc, and this cuts down on the amount of characters that you have to use. Why is this so important? Well, the module has a character limit.

Rich text in default Custom HTML Module, example:

An easy to read Space requires uniformity. Your text needs to be the same throughout the whole page.

2) Links

All links created with the “ <a href ” code work very well with the Default Module. You can create them (so long as they are valid) and they will work. After saving the Default Module and clicking on your links, you will be taken to wherever the link is pointing. No Worries, no hassles. In the picture above you will also see the  darker text that are links. The colour of the text is uniform with the rest of the page.

3) Easy to read

No need to reset your “page size” or use the “zoom” feature to read the code and links your are creating.  When you click the “Edit” button on your Default Module, you get redirected to a new page, with a large box designated for you to play with your  HTML code. Being able to see the code you are creating is very important, especially when you need to add, delete, or modify your code.

Easy to read editing box example:

 Having a large edit box is great but having to wait for it to load is a downside.

4) High “Character limit”

The Default Module has a character limit of 2048. This isn’t too bad at all considering Windows live Spaces are free for us too use. If the character limit was undefined, I’m sure that plenty of people, groups, company’s etc, would be straight in there building their websites. There would be no real need to find a Host for their websites, as Microsoft would be doing it for free.

5) You can use “Full width”

Having the ability move your HTML module, whether using the Default Module or the downloadable Sandbox gadget, is a very nice feature. The Default Module however, has a very nice feature that allows you to use it in “Full width”. This is great for adding banners or articles on your front page. Simply drag the module to the very top or bottom of your Spaces page (in Customisation Mode) and remember to check the “Use full width” box in the module settings which can be found at the top right hand corner of the module.

All in all, this makes for a powerful and very well rounded tool for your Windows Live Space.  Two thumbs up from me.

"Full Width" example:

Using the “Full Width” feature to create banner headers and footers is essential to creating a professional looking Windows Live Space.

OK, now lets get onto Sandbox. Having explained a few of the features in the Default Module, we will see how Sandbox falls short.

1) No rich text formatting

Unless you have the ability to create more complex HTML codes, then you wont be able to get the same text as the rest of your page. If you do have HTML skills? Well, you will be sacrificing your time and using way too many characters in your code.

2) Links don’t work properly

For the HTML dummy like myself, whenever I create a link in my Sandbox, It doesn’t work the way it should. The link opens up but only in the actual Sandbox itself. This is no good, nobody wants to see only the corner of the webpage or picture in a small box. We want the link to be displayed in full, preferably on a separate page.

3) Hard to read

When you are editing your HTML code in Sandbox, The view pane is very small. Really, unless you have super vision, you need to adjust the page size. On the plus side, when you “manage” your Sandbox, you don't get redirected to another page, which allows for very quick adds and edits. You get to see instantly what the results for your HTML are! This is probably (in my opinion) the best feature of Sandbox. That, and being able to have as many as you like.

Too small to edit with ease, example:

One of the best features about using Sandbox is that you can edit your Sandbox HTML quickly and then preview the results instantly. Its a shame it’s so small. But… you can download as many as you like!

4) Low character limit

When managing your Sandbox, you are informed that you have a limit of 956 characters. Well this isn’t true, but, it is possible to increase the number of characters to about 600. If you want to know how, click here. Either way, the character limit is still very low, and even if you had the HTML skills to unleash its full potential, I’m sure you would find that you can’t really do much because you don’t have the required amount of characters to use (especially if your Sandbox contains "text" to be read by the viewer).

5) Full width?

Sandbox does indeed have a full width option but it is very temperamentle. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. One day it will look fine, the next you will have to refresh the page or re-save the sandbox settings for it to go back into full width mode. Sandbox just loves to revert to a smaller size, which in my opinion is just useless. ee below for more.

Another issue I found with Sandbox, is that its very temperamental. Sometimes (depending on where you place the gadget on your space!) it doesn’t show the whole image (even if you have the correct HTML code: width, height and alternate title etc), your image can get cut down if there are other images or lists nearby. This issue can often be fixed by moving the gadget to another place on the page.

UPDATED CONTENT:
Depending on what browser you are using, like Firefox or Google Chrome, Sandbox showes scroll bars around the border. A friend explaind to me that it is because Sandbox is basicly an iframe and they show Scrollbars by default. I tested the theory and found that no matter what you tell the Sandbox to do about the scroll bars, It just decides to disoplay them anyway when being viewd by Firefox or Google Chrome. Umm sorry Sandbox, you are now out for the count as a regular contender for me, you let me down too many times! You need an upgrade mate!

So, as you can see, Windows Live Spaces Custom HTML Module is far superior than the downloadable HTML Sandbox. So what do you do about this?

1) Be creative. Use your Default Module wisely because you have a limited number of them (10)

2) Try to use you Sandbox for images only (no links or text). If you check out my Windows Live Space – Sean’s Bloody Spot or Community Clubhouse, you can see how HTML modules can be used effectively to create headers, footers and titles for your Windows Live Space.

Here is an example of how you can use your HTML Modules creatively and wisely:

Remember that Sandbox may not be as good as the Default Module, but it’s still very handy for creating as many titles and image displays as you like! But remember, The scroll bars will show for anyone using Firefox or Google Chrome! Internet Explorer works fine...

In the example above, all the titles up the top are used with Sandbox, there are no links, just the image. On the right hand side (underneath “Random Crap” you can see where I have used the Default Module which has text and links which are uniform with the rest of the page. You cant use links in Sandbox because they don’t open up in a separate window, and the text won’t marry up with the rest of the page.

I hope this helps to clear up some misconceptions about our Custom HTML Modules. Cheers, and happy Space Building.

 Sean.