Today is Tech Thursday–my day to play in the technology of blogging and learn a new skill. My frustration was tested this morning as I experimented with ways to download documents from Footnote.com and develop Word documents around them, which could then be posted to my blog via Word. It sounded so simple, since I have worked to proficiency on each step. HA! I had to finally calm down and think like a teacher:

Remember to start at the very beginning, and read some directions.

First, update the blog address on file in the Word program. Go to publish from the Drop Down Windows box, and manage your blog account. The directions are easy to follow if one remembers to think like a computer.

Next, note that downloaded documents from Footnote are opened with Windows Photo Gallery. The image can then be right-clicked, copied and pasted into a Word Document.

Once this was done I had this image of my great-great-uncle’s Civil War enlistment papers.

This copy looks washed out and is difficult to read. I clicked on the image and got to Word Picture Tools, which includes a great “document reader” in the left hand tool box. Reducing the Brightness by 30% yielded this:

Increasing the Contrast by 30% yielded this effect:

Next I tweeked the image by decreasing the Brightness to 40% and increasing the Contrast to 40% :

Finishing touches were added by compressing the image a smidge and adding a nice border from the middle of the Picture Tool bar.

Publishing to my blog required saying yes to the Microsoft prompt “do you really want us to send this even though people might be able to see your username and password if we send this?”–several times.  But finally computer met internet and Voila!

What you see is what I sent!  It was simple after all.