Thanks to a comment below from Jeorg – I am updating this post with their suggestion of simply visiting http://www.youtube-mp3.org/ . One step – works well Thanks for the tip.

Read Below for a longer more complicated method

Recently a teacher brought to me a You-tube video and wanted to extract just the audio track.   This is pretty easy to do using keepvid.com (or video download helper plugin for firefox) and Apple’s Garageband.

Here is a 10 Step Tutorial below or you can Watch my quick Podcast on the process:

1.  Find the Youtube Video

2.  Copy the URL for the youtube video that you want the audio for.

3.  Go to http://www.keepvid.com

4.  Paste the YouTube Url into the URL spot on the keepvid’s webpage.  Looks like this below.

5.  Look at the the download links and if possible select the MP4 version.

6.  With the file saved on somewhere (Desktop is a good spot)  – now open Garageband.

7.  Create a new Garageband Vocal project and then drag the video MP4 file into Garaband.  It will create a new track that looks like this.

8.  Now simply highlight the audio track in Garageband and then select EDIT | COPY.

9  Click on FILE | NEW PROJECT and again select VOCALS. (Don’t need to save old project)

10.  On the New Project click EDIT | PASTE.  You will see only the audio appears.  Now turn off any effects over on the right hand side then click on SHARE | EXPORT song and you are done -

I recommend Exporting the song as a MP3 for the greatest compatibility among other programs and players.

Change to MP3 where it says Compress using

Here is a cool plug-in I came across that makes embedding an external web page into a WordPress post or page simple. The Plugin is called Iframe Embedder and can be downloaded through WordPress admin console or from here.  This plugin works with the latest version of wordpress 2.9.2 and is pretty easy to use.

Below I have a link to an external site.  Below this link using the Iframe Embedder plugin I have embedded this page -audio, flash and all into this post.

http://s8s3eks.edu.glogster.com/glogburnin-up/

To embed this content into the A Blog post you must activate the Iframe Embedder plugin and then in the post use the following syntax: You can adjust the numbers at the end to fit your specific blog theme.

Here is the syntax above working below but using our district website.  Notice that you can use the links on the page and it contains the website inside the frame.

*NOTE  Firefox 3.6 is still a little buggy – using Iframe works with Firefox 3.7 Alpha, Firefox 3.5.x, IE Explorer 6,7,8 and Safari.  Also works with the Beta Release of 3.6.1 which means this is just a temporary issue with Firefox

It is important to not get too carried away with embedding external webpages as this is not really a best practice in most cases.  But still this is a nice simplified way to add an external site when appropriate directly to you web site.

Here is a quick Podcast on Installing the Iframe Embedder and using it in a post.

Podcast Iframe Embedder and WordPress

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Probably the best overall aspect of using WordPress is its seemingly never ending library of plugins.  In a school setting with primarily Mac’s one easy way to capture Video (with Audio) is to use the program Photobooth – easy to use – fun for students and staff.  To post and embed one of these videos into WordPress is simple using the plug-in WordTube or the Add Video button.  WordTube works with the latest version of WordPress as of the time of this writing (2.9.2) and easily accepts movies from Photobooth.  You can download version 2.2.2 directly from Here – or better yet add it through WordPress directly – see Podcast Below.

First off the advantage to using WordTube is that you can resize a movie, embed it directly in a wordpress post/page and use a built in player to start and stop.  If you use the built in Add movie button in wordpress you will save time but the movie will open in a different windows and will appear only as a link in your post.

Here is a Podcast on how to get WordTube, convert – upload – and embed a movie from photobooth nicely into A wordpress Page.

Here content created from a teachers Macbook in Photobooth uploaded to WordPress.  Here is a sample movie from Photobooth Embedded into WordPress using the WordTube Plugin.  (I also embedded my screen podcast using this plugin as well).

When it comes to online documents, collaboration and storage most people probably think Google Docs right away. Without taking anything away from Google and its excellent selection of free services – I want to mention another cloud based system that offer better functionality in many respects.

One of the biggest complaints I have heard about Google Docs is its inability to import complex documents and its lack of features as a word processor. If you have shared these concerns I would suggest you check out Zoho.com. Zoho is very similar in functionality to Google Docs but just comes with a more full featured word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications.

In addition to offering full functional clones of Excel, Word and Powerpoint – Zoho offers a variety of online tools making it probably the most overall complete package in terms of providing a full suite of productivity tools online.

Zoho is a free service for individual use – Interestingly it has been rumored that Google is considering buying Zoho as a way of upgrading its current services.

With the eminent release of Office 2010 online – Zoho might find itself lost among the major players.  Still will an obvious technological advantage over Google Docs I would not be surprised to see the Zoho logo become a large G for Google.  (Easy way to catch up if Microsoft Online System is better)

Here is a screen shot of Zoho loaded running its Writer Application.  Notice the tabs across the tab – much better set of editing and formatting features than Google Docs.

Often I get emails in regards to file format issues.  A user downloads a FLV file and wants to import this into a Movie project and needs it in .mov or .mpg format.  Another frequent request is to convert a wps (Microsoft Works format)  or wpd (Word Perfect Document) and needs this to open in Mac Office 2004 or 2008.

For most conversions of this nature the online site www.zamzar.com works great.

With Zamzar you simply upload a file then choose which format you want it to convert it to.  Add you email address and click on Convert – wait a few minutes and you will be emailed with a link to the converted file.

Zamzar works well and comes with only a few restrictions.

Here is a feature list set,  for me the free version is more than adequate.  My only complaint with the service is annoying audio pop-up adds that come from time to time.