The first step in creating Podcasts for your blog page is to author the audio or video multimedia file you intend to use. A variety of audio and video Podcast creation tools are available, including GarageBand, Podcast Factory, AudioExpress and others. Once you have authored your multimedia file, you turn it into a Podcast by clicking the "Add Podcast..." button. When the Podcast pane opens, drag your media file on top of the Podcast dropbox (found under the "Podcast" tab). When you publish your website, RapidWeaver will automatically export the file to your website as a Podcast.

Blog - Podcast: Podcast Dropbox

RapidWeaver directly supports MP3, MPG, MOV, MP4 (including M4V and M4A variants) and PDF file types for Podcasting. You can add any one of these file types to your Podcast simply by dropping the desired multimedia file onto the Podcast dropbox. However, you may also link to external multimedia files to create your Podcast rather than using the Podcast dropbox by using the "Override default Podcast settings" option found under the Custome RSS Tags tab.

NOTE: Podcasting is merely a specialized implementation of the RSS tag in your blog entry that points to the multimedia file you are syndicating. While MP3 audio files are most commonly used, you may attach other types of files to your Blog including images, movies , documents and more. However, only one multimedia file may be added as a Podcast per Blog entry.

Tags: the, first, step, in, creating, podcasts, RapidWeaver

When a Podcast is added to your Blog, RapidWeaver inserts any custom RSS tags defined in the your blog's Setup... area. You may override these RSS tags by using the Custom RSS Tags tab to customize any of the tags that RapidWeaver automatically inserts in your Podcast. Click the (+) button at the bottom of the "Custom RSS Tags" list and add any custom tags as required; to remove a custom tag, select it in the list and click the (-) button.

Blog - Podcast: Custom RSS Tags

You may also override the default Podcast settings on the Custom RSS Tags panel to link to external media files for your Podcasts (rather than using the Podcast dropbox), or to use multimedia types not directly supported by RapidWeaver. Click the "Override default Podcast settings" checkbox to enable these fields and fill in the URL to the media file, specify its size (in bytes) and its file type. When published, the file specified will be linked to your Podcast. For more details, see Podcasting with RapidWeaver in the Tutorials area.
When you are satisfied with your settings in the "Add Podcast..." pane, click the "OK" button to save your settings and close the pane. A dialog box will appear asking if you want to add a link to your Podcast in your blog entry.

Blog - Add Podcast Link

Click "OK" to add a text link to the end of your blog entry, and click "Cancel" if you don't wish to add a link.

Tags: podcasts, blog, RapidWeaver, RSS, tag

Before you can syndicate your blog or broadcast your Podcasts, you must first configure your blog to use RSS feeds, set your default Podcast tags and customize your blog page's options. Click the "Setup..." button in the lower right corner while you are in the "Edit" mode.

The Blog Setup area has six main tabs:

• General - Set Archiving, Permalink and Commenting options
• Categories - Enable and create blog categories
• RSS Feed - Configure the RSS feed for your Blog page
• Date Format - Configure the format of your time and datestamp in blog posts
• Podcast - Set the default iTunes tags and Custom RSS Channel tags for your Podcasts
• Ping - Enable weblog directory/tracking services to keep track of recent changes in your blog page.

When you first click the "Setup..." button, the pane will default to the "General" tab. Click the desired tab to expose the contents of its pane.

Tags: syndicate, blog, broadcast, podcasts, RSS, RapidWeaver

You may create default values for your iTunes tags and any custom RSS channel tags used in your Podcasts. The values entered here will become the default tags for all of your Podcasts, but you may override these values in any Podcast if desired by using the iTunes Tags and the Custome RSS Tags tabs in the "Add Podcast..." pane. When you click the "Podcast" tab in your blog's "Setup..." area, two sub-tabs will be visible: "iTunes Tags" and "Custom RSS Channel Tags". The default view is the "iTunes Tags" sub-tab pane.

Blog - Setup: Podcast: iTunes Tags

To set the default iTunes tags to be added to your Podcasts, click the "Enable Custom iTunes Tags" checkbox and edit the fields on the Podcast: iTunes Tags pane.

TIP: For more information about Podcasting and iTunes, including a complete list of the iTunes tags used by by iTunes, go to Apple's Podcasting and iTunes: Technical Specifications page.

If you wish to add default custom RSS Channel tags to your Podcasts, click the "Custom RSS Channel Tags" sub tab.

Blog - Setup: Podcast: Custom RSS Channel Tags

Use the Custom RSS Channel Tags sub-pane to add any tags not addressed using the iTunes Tags sub-pane, or to add any new Channel tags that may be added to iTunes in the future. As a rule, this should be unnecessary, but the ability to add custom RSS Channel tags remains available if needed.

Tags: RSS, iTunes, podcasts, RapidWeaver