Very easy way to post to Tumblr

This post details a nice and quick, easy and flexible way to post stuff to tumblr. Tumblr itself is a great blogging platform. Try it out! (nb: this post updates a previous one; please use the method detailed below - it is much easier). This system supports posting of texts, links, quotes, photos, videos and (soon) flash (SWF) files.

The system described here involves using a Google Spreadsheet as a kind of 'backbone' to your tumblr blog.

Why use this sytem?

• Much quicker if you're posting lots of things.
• Easier and quicker to manage tags.
• Saves your posts somewhere other than tumblr, for peace of mind.

Save the template

First make sure you are signed in to Google Docs, then click on this link to the spreadsheet template. Click on the box marked "Use this template" and save the spreadsheet.

Enter your settings

Go to the "Settings" sheet and enter your "Post to Tumblr" address. To find this, look under the "Goodies" section on yout Tumblr account.

Next, enter a few tags. These will be automatically reproduced on the other sheets - DO NOT edit the tags on the other sheets.

Enter some posts

Suppose you would like to post a photo to Tumblr, go to the "Photo" sheet and enter the URL of the photo on the second row (the row labelled "PhotoURL"). To assign the tag to this photo, enter a "1" in the relevant cell. In other words, the cell corresponding both to this post (i.e. where you entered the URL) and the tag itself. The beauty of this system is that you don't need to keep retyping the tag each time you'd like to add it to a post: you can just enter a 1 in the right cell.

Repeat

Repeat this process for each image you would like to post.

Send the posts to Tumblr

The cells in the top row will change to a "*" when a URL is entered. To post an image, change this "*" to a "1" and click on the star to run the script. It should automatically change the "1" to a "0" to prevent resending.

Wait

Tumblr sometimes takes a few minutes to process emailed posts, so go and make a cup of tea, come back and see if it's worked.

Problems?

Any issues with this process? Not sure what I mean in one of the steps? (Quite possible - it might not be the best wording!) Feel free to post a comment and I will try to get back to you.