Many of us have hobbies, or are experts in a certain are, and we naturally want to share our interests with the world. Maybe you are an expert cook and want to share some of your favorite kitchen tips and recipes with the world but are hesitant to do it in a blog format because you want the content to always be visible no matter when people view your site. Luckily, there is an easy way to do this using Windows Live Spaces! Your blog content can sit side-by-side with your more static content.
First, you will need content! This can be either documents, pictures, text files -- you name it! You may even have some HTML files you want to share. In order to share them with the world we're going to use Windows Live SkyDrive -- a great way to share and store files online.
In SkyDrive, you want to create a public folder w here everyone on the Internet can view your files and download the content. You can create as many folders as you want -- organize your files to suit your style!
Now that you have your folders, go ahead and upload your files and other content. You can give the files name, descriptions, etc. The one piece of information you will need to know to be able to share and access the files is the public URL of each individual file you upload. To find this out, simply find the file you want in SkyDrive and click on it. To the left hand side you will see the public URL.
Now that you have your files, let's go ahead and get them added to your Windows Live Spaces page.
From your Spaces page, click Customize and select "Add A Module". We're going to create a custom list, one of the easiest ways to display information of any type! You can have as many list modules as you want on your page -- and can arrange them in any fashion you want. You'll even find that Spaces provides some pre-built list types to help get you started, such as Book Lists, Movie Lists, etc. You can also find more list types that others have created in Live Gallery, which you are free to use on your own Spaces page as well.
Here is where we create the magic! You can change the title to whatever you want -- such as "Beth's Favorite Recipes" or "History of the National Tea Company". Whatever your interest may be! You can even add a description to give an introduction to others about what this list might be about and what people can expect to find on it. Once that is done, you can start adding your files, links or just plain text to your list. If you want to add your SkyDrive files, you will use the public URL we talked about above. If you are linking to another site, just enter the URL, or simply type more text if you are just talking about a concept or idea for the list item. Remember, you can have as many list items as you want -- so add as much as you feel like!
Here is what one of my lists look like; I'm talking about BMC Software's Control-M, a software package I use a lot in my professional work.
That's it! Once you have it created, simply move the module around on your Spaces page until you find a "home" for it. Then click "Save" and you are done!
Now, your "static" content will show up right alongside your blog entries -- people can always read up on your favorite recipes, your model railroading hobby, or whatever you dream up!
Want to see it in action? Just look to your left! All of the modules on the left side of my page are variants of custom lists.
