How to upload your SPARK work to getsparked.org

Take a deep breath and try to upload your work. It may seem a daunting task at first, but I assure you it’s not! I’m happy to provide assistance, but remember that will slow down the process of getting your work onto the site. (i.e., It’s quicker for each of us to create one page than for me to create 75 pages!)

THANKS!

1. Make sure you have everything you need: Your response and the inspiration piece you worked from. (You either received this from your partner or you received a link from me—if the latter, you can copy and paste the text or right-click and save the image as a JPG onto your computer.)

Also be sure your files are formatted properly before you begin:

Formatting Prose: 12 pt. type (any font), single-spaced, no indents, aligned flush left. Double space between paragraphs. Do not bold or italicize the story’s title or the author’s name, and don’t surround the title with quote marks.

Formatting Poetry: 12 pt. type (any font). Use spacing and special formatting (itals, bold) as needed.

Formatting Images: Save in JPG format, no larger than 1024 pixels at 72 dpi. If your partner sent you a large JPG, you can resize it using any image program.

2. Log in using the User ID and Password sent to you via email.

3. To create a post, first click the “Post” tab in the lefthand sidebar, then click “Add New.”

4. In the title box (the long, thin rectangular box directly underneath the pushpin image and the words “Add New Post,” put your name and your partner’s name to look like this:

Your Name and Your Partner’s Name (i.e., “Amy Souza and Jim Doran”)

For those working alone, your “partner’s” name is the person who provided your inspiration piece.

5. Next, put your cursor in the main big text box area, then click the first icon next to “Upload/Insert” above the text box (the icon is a gray square inside a white square). In that pop-up, make sure the upper tab is “From Computer” and click the “Select Files” button. 

Find the image you want to upload—either your response image (if you’re a responding artist) or the inspiration piece that you worked from (if you’re a responding writer).

After uploading the image, while still in the “Add an Image” dialog box:

•	leave the Alternate Text, Caption, and Description boxes blank
•	under “Link URL,” click “File URL”
•	under “Alignment,” choose “None”
•	under “Size,” choose “Medium.”

Then click “Insert into post.”

Now the image is part of your post!

6. Once the image is in the text box, write the artist’s name underneath it, in bold. (If you have the work’s name and format information, type that in as well, bolding the title only.) Underneath the artist’s name, not in bold, please type “Response” if the image is your response piece or “Inspiration piece” if it is the inspiration piece you worked from.

7. Underneath that first image, you will paste the written piece.

Open the document (usually a Word file). Copy everything and paste it into a Notepad. Then copy it again and paste it into the Wordpress text box. (Otherwise, all of the Microsoft formatting remains, which causes big problems.)

Be sure to bold the story/poem title and author name. Underneath the writer’s name, not in bold, please type “Response” if the it is your response piece or “Inspiration piece” if it is the inspiration piece you worked from.

You will then have to do any special formatting of the written piece within the Wordpress text box. So, if there are words to be italicized or bolded, select them and use the buttons (“B” or “I”) to change the formatting. Note: You can’t change the typeface itself.

If you are a poet and need to add indents to your piece, try this trick: Type in as many periods (“......”) as you need to push the text right, keeping in mind that the page will display a bit narrower than you see. Then select those, and change the text color to white using the control with the gray “A” in it (right next to the control with the series of horizontal lines).

Hint: You can click the “Preview” button to preview your post.

8. Under “Categories” in the righthand side, please click the proper SPARK round. This ensures your work turns up in that round’s gallery.

9. At the bottom of your post, copy and paste this:

——————————————————
Note: All of the art, writing, and music on this site belongs to the person who created it. Copying or republishing anything you see here without express and written permission from the author or artist is strictly prohibited.

10. Hit “Save Draft” in the upper right of the page. If everything looks the way you want it to—formatting, etc.—you can click the blue “Publish” button. If not, leave the post as draft and
get in touch with me to help you finalize it.