Vault Multimedia

It’s true, you can blog and have those blog post links post right to Twitter automagically.  Done.

MinistryVault.com was conceived in 1999 – a place to help churches make the most of their through education and sharing tech tools with them.  After a long silence, it will soon relaunch with a few areas of focus:

1. Leveraging Google Applications to save churches time and money.
2. Cheap church websites ala Wordpress – all the best practices.
3. Apple hardware and software… why you should switch immediately.
4. iPhones and iPads
5. Video and Audio podcasting…. inspired and informed from my other company: portablesermons.com

While the site will be a clearinghouse for USEFUL information concerning the above topics, it will also be a place to grab tutorials and training.  We will publish a monthly newsletter and host monthly meetups (William Jessup University has been a big help in this area!)

More to come  very … very… soon….

Are you using the Standard Edition of Google Apps? Upgrade to the free educational edition here:
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/request.py?contact_type=nonprofit

• No advertisements
• 2000 unique emails a day – verses 500/day with the standard edition

Well worth the trouble, I think.

Brief “ShowNotes” and Links for Feb. 9th Class at WJU

1. VaultMultimedia.com
2. Seeds4Sermons.com
3. PortableSermons.com
4. http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
5. http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/
6. MetroCalvary.org
7. http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=273632777
8. Subscribe to Metro Feed
9. Listen on your website
10. Listen on Portablesermons
11. A Word About FLASH
12. HTML5 is Coming
13. Rip a Disc in iTunes
14. iPod Mics: Here and Here
15. iPodcaStudio.com
16. iPod Touch! or iPhone
17. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
18. LAME Codec – a caveat
19. Audacity Manual
20. Naming tracks – ID3 Tags in iTunes
21. Uploading to your server (EX: PortableSermons)
22. Sneak Peak: New Portablesermons.com
23. Video Streaming! (Metro example)
24. Livestream.com
25. SD vs. HD
26. Camera Choice & Equipment / Lighting
27. Mac vs. PC
28. iMovie vs MovieMaker / Premiere Elements
29. Even Simpler Video : Trimming in QT X
30. H.264 – one codec to rule them all
31. Size?
32. Back to Quicktime X
33. Posting Video: Ustream, Youtube…
34. Bonus: iPhone Apps: Ustream Broadcaster, Qik
35. Video Podcasting? PortableSermons.com: Video coming soon.
36. iPhone / iPad App coming soon
37. $999 Get your own iphone / iPad App

Vault Multimedia and William Jessup University are partnering to offer a series of FREE workshops to help your church squeeze the most out of your website and online services.  All workshops are at William Jessup from 10am-12pm – Edrington Conference Room (up the ramp and to the left).

March 9: Leveraging Google Services
April 13: The Church & Social Media
May 11: Great Church Websites on the Cheap

RSVP HERE >>>

Vault Multimedia has been serving churches for years and brings a lot of knowledge to the table in the areas of websites, podcasting, Google services, consulting, and design.  Join us as we learn together. Read the rest of this entry »

You may know that podcasting is a passion here at Vault, so I decided to build an iPhone app that could help churches podcast using just an iPhone.  The first release is iPodcaStudio!  Check it out – it is on sale for only $.99 for the month of December, so get it while it is cheap!

If you are an iPhone user and have Google Apps as your email suite, you MUST start using Google Sync.  I was hesitant to do so – having gone through a bad experience with other contact-syncing services.  But this was completely different – it actually works!

Any changes to your email, calendar and contacts on EITHER your phone or Google Apps account will immediately be synchronized on the other device.  It does not require connecting your phone to your computer, this works real-time from anywhere you have data connectivity on your phone. Read the rest of this entry »

Writing Posts (the content in the Blog)

Using Pages (less time-dependent content)

Adding Images and PDF files

Using the Gallery

Pasting From Word and Advanced Editing Buttons:

Looking for more buttons in the WYSIWYG editor? You can Show/Hide the Advanced Editor Toolbar in the standard Wordpress installation and unlock a dozen or so extra buttons, including “Paste as Plain Text” and “Paste from Word”. When the Advanced Editor Toolbar is enabled, there is a toggle button available to turn it off. However, when it is off, you must use Alt-V (IE) or Shift-Alt-V (Firefox) to toggle the advanced buttons back “on”.

Shoot me a questions and I will add the answer for everyone!

Typetester.org is a fabulous site that helps you choose just the right font for your website.  There is a lot about fonts that you don’t want to know (trust me). This site removes the need to explain and just lets you compare and pick what you want.  There are three columns that you compare and contrast, and when you have decided, you click one button to get the actual code that your webmaster will need… copy…paste…email. Done!  You will love this if you have a creative eye, but need to “try before you buy”.  Enjoy.

Who do you trust? Who is the expert? How do you know if a web designer is worth his weight in salt? Here are a few questions you might ask to ensure your decision to hire a company or individual is a good one:

1. Do you build websites for a living, or on the side? How long have you been doing this?
2. Can I see six of your most recent websites?
3. Do you have references from clients past and present? May I contact them?
4. Can I get a copy of your hosting contract and your pricing list?
5. What platform or software do you you use to build your sites?
6. Will I get a blog?
7. Can I have multiple user accounts with different security roles?
8. Do you utilize all the recent web standards (HTML,CSS, XML, Accessibility, etc?)
9. Can I leave anytime and take my content with me?
10. How often do you back up all my data? Do I get a copy?
11. How often do you update your server software?
12. Do you charge per page or have limits on storage and bandwidth?
13. Do you support calendars? Photo Galleries? Web forms? Video? Audio?
14. What type of support do you offer? Phone? Email? On site? Do you have a SLA (Service Level Agreement)?

Can you think of other questions you would like to know?