CapCut is an app designed to facilitate video editing using just your phone. Its wide range of features make it the ideal app for both beginners and experienced content creators.
Begin by downloading the CapCut application to your device. Upon launching CapCut, the app will ask for permission to access your device’s media library. This essentially means the photos and videos stored on your device.
There are 3 key components: the timeline, where media clips are arranged; the toolbar, which houses the editing functions; and the preview window which allows you to monitor edits.
To initiate a new project, select the New Project option shown by the ‘+’ icon. Select the videos or images you wish to edit from your media library.
To segment clips, use the split function shown by the scissors icon. This allows you to rearrange clips along the timeline.
Transitions such as wipes and fades can be incorperated between clips to allow for seamless visual continuity. These can by accessed via the icon displayed between two clips.
You can further enhance your video by adding text. This is marked by a ‘T’ icon.
Stickers and filters can also be added, marked by a stacked squares icon.
Background music from CapCut’s library or your own audio files can be added to your project by utilising the ‘Audio’ function.
Once you are happy with your project you can save and export it to wherever you need, such as Instagram Reels and TikTok.
CapCut is a tool used by many content creators across all types of social media platforms. It is an incredibly useful for small business owners to help promote products and services in a fun and practical way.
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If you are new to the app or are confused by some of the features then this blog post is for you. It is often difficult to decide what to post content as since there are many options.
Instagram offers Reels, Posts and Stories which each serve different purposes and knowing the difference between them is key to a strong marketing strategy.
Posts are likely the first thing that you will see when you open the app. Posts are permanent images or videos on your profile which can be captioned. They stay on your profle unless deleted and show in feeds based on Instagram’s algorithm. Users can engage with posts by liking commenting and sharing them. Recently Instagram have changed from a 4:4 dimension (square) to a 4:5 dimension which is longer but the same width. You can also pin up to 3 posts to your profile which will always show at the top when your profile is viewed.
Stories can be images, videos, text, stickers and interactive elements which last for about 24 hours, unless archived by adding to highlights, which will then appear under the bio of your profile. They appear at the top of the app above your feed and can be accessed by tapping on the profile picture icons, which should have an ombre ring around them. You can add music to them, ask questions and use polls which people can reply with using direct messages.
Reels are short videos which use audio or music. Effects can also be used and the videos are often edited. Reels stay on your profile like posts but are featured on the Reels tab. Trending songs are normally used on a reel and users can engage by liking, sharing, commenting and remixing. Reels are like the TikTok of Instagram.
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Making the switch from working in an office to working remotely is a process.
It entails setting up a suitable home environment, or finding a suitable setting for you to work in. This involves figuring out where you’re going to work, whether that’s your bedroom, a home office or even a cafe. The most important thing is to have somewhere available for you to focus. You also need to make sure that you have all the necessary equipment for you to complete your job, which essentially nowadays is a laptop and wifi for most of us. However, you may require less technological items such as pens and paper for you to be able to carry out your work, which we often forget about. You will also need to adjust the structure and routine that you had when working in the office, as you will likely no longer be commuting, which may allow you to have a more relaxed start to your work day.
The most noticable change is in communication. Instead of face-to-face chats and office banter, we rely on messaging, e-mails and video calls which aren’t always the most reliable methods of communication, especially if you face as many issues with Zoom as me and Claire do. Buffering and freezing doesn’t occur face-to-face but it is all too common in the world of remote work.
But, if you have a passion for your work and have friendly and respectful colleagues, transitioning to remote work can be quite simple.
I thank the universe every day that I exist in a time where we can work remotely. Whether that’s from the comfort of your own bed, stood at one of those free standing ergonomic desks that cost way too much, or sat at the kitchen island in your new uni digs – like me.
Going to university is a huge shift for so many people. There is just so much to do: you have to get to grips with a brand new campus and university, attend all of your lectures and seminars, read, learn, revise, revise some more, take exams. That’s without even attempting to be social through societies, sports and going out and meeting people. Remote and flexible working gives me the opportunity to try and attempt all of this whilst still being able to fit in work and earn an income alongside my degree.
The elephant in the room that I have so far chosen to ignore is that instead of living a humble 20 minute walk away from the Village Web Company office it would now take me a whole 48 hours to walk back to the office. Talk about a commute! We’ve seen global tech companies like Google and Meta employ people literally across the globe, particularly in the region of South East Asia. That could be a whole different blog post focusing on the outsourcing of labour in tech and media industries, going into the ethics and consequences of these practices. Nevertheless, if Google can reach someone across the globe I’m sure we’ll manage just fine – unless I start picking up the accent; then we might have some issues on the zoom calls.
There’s been so much push-back on remote working in recent years due to claims of decreased productivity and this corporate urge to get everyone back into the office. Of course working in person has so many great benefits, collaboration is much more feasible and communication can happen face to face instead of through emails. Many say they prefer having the physical separation between work and home, allowing them to compartmentalize the different aspects of their life and maintain a healthy balance between the two. There’s also just the pure human element of it, working somewhere and getting to know the people around you is sometimes the best part of the job. I met one of my best friends when she had to show me how to prepare the desserts at the restaurant we worked at. Stuffed into a storage cupboard with a mini fridge and a dream of making something edible looking, we clicked instantly and have been brilliant friends ever since. That is the magic of working in-person and I can’t wait to come back and visit the Village Web Company office and get to have those days together with Claire and Will.
I’m thoroughly excited to get stuck into my course at uni, get settled, find the best spots and the quickest routes and get myself into a routine that will allow me to experience as much as possible whilst i’m here! I also can’t wait to continue working on my projects at Village Web Company, writing these blog posts, building and designing sites and more.
August 25th, 2024 by Claire - Village Web Company CIC
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of delivering a family workshop on behalf of MadLab. I decided to teach the young people a little bit about building websites by showing them how to edit some HTML (Hypertext Mark Up Language) The children thoroughly enjoyed it and several asked for more information so that they could carry on at home.
HTML is the code that all websites are made with and although lots of things in web development can be difficult to learn, HTML is quite easy, especially compared to most programming languages.
Lots of people think that they need a top of the range computer and lots of complicated software to start learning web development, but that’s not true. To start learning HTML all you need is a web browser (eg Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Safari) and a code editor. We chose to use Visual Studio Code (also known as VS Code.) During the workshop, the families used laptops provided by MadLab, which already had VS Code installed and at least one web browser.
During the workshop, we gave the families a folder containing the code for a simple website. The website had no styling, no images and very little content. It was a very very boring website, but it contained everything they needed to get started.
1 HTML file called index.html
1 CSS file called style.css (which was not applied)
1 folder called images containing 6 image files (sweets.jpg, kittens.jpg, puppies.jpg, unicorns.jpg, picture.jpg and claire.jpg
1 image file called claire-and-wapuu.jpg
After introducing them to our boring website, I talked them through the basics of how we use a code editor to change the content on a website and view our changes in the browser.
The children then started to update the boring website by editing the content to change the main heading and include the details of their favourite foods and their favourite books or films. We then moved onto HTML comments. Their index.html file contained several lines of code which were hidden with comments, including a picture of me at a conference, stood next to a mascot.
Once the children managed to include the “hidden” image, we showed them how to change the picture for one of the others stored in the images folder.
By the end of the hour the children (and their grown ups) had updated a website and learned how to edit several HTML elements. The next step would be to give the children chance to edit some of the CSS styling, but it’s always much better to leave people excited to learn more than overwhelmed with too much content crammed into a short time.
I had a wonderful time with the families and will be sending them a tutorial shortly.
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We have had a great time here, learning new skills including, web design, Canva, coding, Tinkercad and much more. We hope to use these new skills in the future to be able to develop our future ideas. Thanks Claire!
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Throughout the past 5 months, I have learnt a lot that has helped prepare me for my future career. It has been a great experience working in a business and being involved in the work process.
WordPress
I have developed my WordPress skills significantly since I started, learning how to use appropriates themes and personalise them to suit my needs, and the functions of different plugins. Developing demo sites has massively helped me with experimenting what and what not to do when creating websites, and has given me confidence with creating my own website in the future.
These are a few of the demo sites I have worked on, which includes a construction placeholder website, a barber shop placeholder website which I worked on with Shahzaib, and my own personal coding course website.
3D Printer
Experimenting with the 3D Printer has been a fun learning experience, which we have built up our knowledge of it throughout the past 5 months. We have printed out different types of models, such as: cubes, flexible cats, phone holders, a dragon, and some models that are designed by us.
We have used different filament materials and colours throughout this placement. We have used colours such as: black, dark blue, pink, red, multi coloured gradients, and a shiny blue.
GitHub Websites
I have also developed HTML, CSS and JavaScript code during my time here for websites using Visual Studio Code and resources from the VWC GitHub. This involves ideas such as: a random website idea generator, website template downloader, and a WordPress helpful tips plugin.
I now feel much more confident with advancing my career in tech, as I have learnt a lot more of making websites and creating my own portfolio website. I have also seen how businesses run and how to manage and work with clients.
315 hours are now over, I’ve done a lot in that time and learned a ton. One thing I learned at the village web company is using a 3D printer, this caught my attention as I thought it was very interesting. The 3D printer allowed us to print virtually anything however we were unsure how to use it at first as Claire had only recently got it so she was still trying stuff out. We started off by trying small cubes that had X Y Z on them that were called ‘calibration cubes’ these were used just to test the 3D printer to see if it worked, once it worked consistently we could start downloading things to print off a website called Thingy verse. Once we found something interesting on Thingy verse and made sure it was the right size we downloaded it as an STL file and then sent it to a program called Cura which could download it into the 3D printer and then begin printing. We also started to make our own designs on Tinker cad, I followed different tutorials to make certain items like a chess piece and then did my own designs but they weren’t very good.
WordPress
Aside from the 3D printer, I also started using WordPress, before coming here I had only heard of the name but absolutely no idea how to use it or what it even really was. I got taught how to use WordPress to update client websites and make backups of their websites. I also learned how to create my own websites and use various different themes as well as different useful plugins, I experimented with a few but later made websites that were far better than what I’ve done previously.
This is the most recent one that I have worked on alongside Matthew, I made the logo using Canva which is another skill that I have learned as before I only briefly used Canva but upon coming here I used it more regularly. We set up a booking system, we added a contact page using ninja forms and added various copyright free images from sites like Pixabay and Unsplash.
I also made some other websites, one for a portfolio of stuff I’ve done previously and also bought my own web domain to put that portfolio on there (shahzaibawan.co.uk) , I’ve made a gym website that I customised regularly and I also made a garden website that was more of an example gardening site. I changed one website into a complete blank state only adding sample images and text and made sure that it was essentially a template website.
Github
I have used GitHub before at college however I did not use it much so I even forgot some of the features, however upon arriving here I started to use GitHub to fork repositories and upload different code files that I had made.
I have even made a plugin for WordPress that was based off HelloDolly, I made it so that it would display some tips for using WordPress instead of song lyrics.
Conclusion
I have enjoyed coming here as I have learned a lot of useful things such as using WordPress, a better understanding of GitHub and using the 3D Printer. I have also learned how to interact with customers as when we first started I didn’t know what to say to customers and what to do but by the end I could easily welcome a customer in, take their info and I could also answer calls for Claire. I would recommend this work placement as I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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At VWC, I’ve had the chance to work on several interesting projects. I’ve updated our websites using WordPress, making sure they look good and work well. I also put together a user testing document with Google Sheets to help us gather and review feedback. Additionally, I helped decorate the front window to make it more welcoming. I also tried 3D modelling with Tinkercad and successfully printed a 3D cube. Overall, it’s been a great learning experience!
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Hello, my name is Jacob and I am spending my work experience at Village Web Company in Romiley. I will be using Canva and be making blog posts. I am looking forward to learn new and useful skills from this placement.
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