Archive for January 2005

Starterup Steve’s 404 – it has audio, but I don’t know what the hey it says.

Actually, SHHH is already taken. But, I’m all for this campaign especially if you replace “Cell Phone User” with “Speaker Phone User.” My cubicle neighbor @(#$ me off. Part of it is the company’s fault as it no longer purchases head sets. So he would have to use his own money to buy a headset if he wants one. Yes, I talked to my boss about it and she can’t do anything about it because of company policy. Oh, what about tell him off? She said, “He’s part of a virtual team and needs to use it do his job.” Conference room won’t work as he has to work on the computer. I cringed almost all day today as he had it on a lot. Anyone want to make a donation?

Update: Yes, I’ve complained to the culprit on a few occasions. I wrote this entry because this is a common problem with cubicles not as fodder for gossip.

While you’re on ChangeThis, INA (information networks archives) is amazing. It’s not your usual manifesto. Instead it is a pictorial manifesto covering the arms trade, tobacco trade, government red tape, and others. Kind of scary.

If you’re a publisher who needs extra content, but no time to write it or money to pay others to do it, EzineArticles.com has many quality articles for republishing. The rules for publishers are posted. I’m not a horn tooter, but I was surprised to see my name in the latest Ezine-Tips.com newsletter. The link is not the actual newsletter that went out. You’re welcome to publish my articles as long as you include a byline and links.

A better subtitle for this is “Tips for Taming It with Macros.” The book begins with showing how to tweak the interface to meet your needs, one of the few hacks not requiring macros. For a long time, I never modified the interface beyond choosing the tool bars I wanted to view. I frequently used the word count feature and added that to the interface. Since then, I’ve learned to modify it based on my needs so I can quickly access the most often used features. Tip #1 is all about that.

Haven’t ventured into macros, or at least not much? Get a crash course on how to create and run macros so you can use those included in the book and venture on your own. Savikas explains the basics at the 30-foot level while guiding the reader through the steps of creating and running a simple macro. Many of the hacks use macros.

When clicking on a link to a .doc file from within a Web site, the file opens within the browser and editing it is difficult because many of Word’s tool bars are not there for your use. Hack #8 puts an end to this nuisance. In “Building a Better MRU” (most recently used), take the MRU file feature up a notch and pump it up with a form.

According to the book, most of the hacks work with Word 2000, 2002 (also known as Word XP), and 2003. It mentions some of the hacks work with the old Word 97, but the book focuses on 2000, 2002, and 2003. The last chapter, “Word 2003 XML Hacks,” begins on page 319 and is the only one specific to the newest version of Word.

The book follows the Hack series model making it easy to use as a reference. All the tips offered are listed in the table of contents. If you like what you find there and want something heavily focused on macros, the book will satisfy your needs. Those looking for a manual with help for getting around Word and discovering some of its power are better off with a different book.

It’s a great resource for anyone who is comfy with Word and likes to fiddle with something a little more advanced. Tackle a couple of hacks at a time to build up your Word repertoire. Soon, you’ll breeze through creating your own macros. Those who are macro pros might not glean much from the book. The book’s publisher’s Web site includes five sample hacks. Try them out to get a feel for what the book offers. The same page has a link for downloading code examples from the book.

Title: Word Hacks: Tips and Tools for Taming Your Text
Author: Andrew Savikas
Publisher: O’Reilly & Associates
ISBN: 0596004931
Date: October 2004
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Cover Price: USD: $16.47 CDN: 25.87
UK: 12.25

I can access the Marqui writer’s guide, but none of the other links on the Help page that opens when I click on Help from any page within the CMS. Tech support has been helpful, but the last time we corresponded—he asked me to call them. Well, I am lazy when it comes to making phone calls because of my hearing impairment. I prefer it when businesses offer an option to resolve issues online. I can send screen shots to show what’s happening.

Anyway, I can access the Writer’s Guide, which covers most of the CMS, but not the other items in the navigation guide. Back to the Writer’s Guide. It is logically organized. It starts by describing the purpose of the top level tabs:

* Console
* Web Pages
* Calendar Events
* Media Files

Control Panel is not included since this is targetted to the content writers, not the administrators.

A nice feature in the help file are the screen shots that have numbered pointers to each item, so you can refer to the notes below to find out what each does.

If you “turn the page” in the help file (click on the next item at the bottom), it progresses to the next item of the page. Or you can jump around using the left navigation. Each button has its own help page, which is excellent. No user should have to keep “turning” the pages to get the instructions for each feature or button.

I think the most challenging feature is the Web Page. These are the pages that you see when you enter a Web site, the home page, about us, and products and services. The help for this is probably the longest one and I think writers who aren’t HTMLers will understand it.

When first entering “Web Pages” help, it says, “Although this section is called ‘Web Pages,’ it can be used to modify content for a variety of publishing outputs and formats, including Web ready (HTML, ASP, CFM, PHP, etc.), print ready, PDA ready, or even electronic documents (Word, PDF), XML output, content syndication (RSS), and custom output. For a full list of formats, please speak to your administrator.”

Good description considering these are the writers, not the developers.

Version Control management is a nightmare. I’m a very organized person and even I get lost in my own version control management process. Marqui keeps a list of multiple versions, allows you to rollback to a previous version, and compare two versions. I am not easily impressed with version control management, but Marqui has figured out a way to make it a breeze.

I have never used the version Control Option until today and the help told me exactly what to do. Easy. This is the screen (pop up) where you select the two docs to compare, which takes you to this screen (pop up). You can compare each element by changing the Select Input Box.

Marqui has a slam dunk with its documentation.

Those who read the feed for this blog, I apologize if many old entries are showing up as new. I freakin’ got pingled—trackback spam. I refuse to let such pings and comments stay in my blogs, so out they go.

I talked to the creator of the timesaving and wonderful MT CloseComments plug-in about creating a CloseTrackback plug-in. He already responded saying it should be easy enough and he’ll try to do it when he has time.

Imagine my saying a few cuss words. Thankfully, no one is here. Some of you may be cussing me because I put Amazon ads in my feed. Please understand that I need all the help and support I can get after living on one salary for a family of five. I hope it doesn’t scare ya away from the feed, but I respect your rules if you avoid such feeds though it’s going to become more common very soon.

It’s a New Year. How about a cleaned up emailbox to go with it? Degunking Email, Spam, and Viruses helps you do that.

Those who know me recognize my penchant for an organized system for everything including the house, computer, and cubicle. Over the years, I’ve adapted various strategies for keeping my email box clean. Too often, I’ve had on occasions when I saw others’ email boxes and just squirmed at the clutter.

A few years ago (2000? 2001?), I reviewed my first CMS for an online magazine. It was overwhelming, but I researched CMSes in general because it was important to write about it from the company’s perspective and not my own as a single user with simpler needs. The CMS, at the time, was of good quality and any business whose requirements matched what the CMS offered would be satsifed customers.

This is 2005. Since then, many CMSes have come out. What makes a good CMS? It’s not easily disposed of for another product. A company can’t decide to dump one CMS and move to another. It’s a difficult and expensive task to make the change. You want to get the right one on the first buy.
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Those who know me recognize my penchant for an organized system for everything including the house, computer, and cubicle. Over the years, I’ve adapted various strategies for keeping my email box clean. Too often, I’ve had on occasions when I saw others’ email boxes and just squirmed at the clutter.

One person had a long list of folders. Another person had emails in the Sent and Deleted folders going back at least a year. My own husband is an email pack rat. I play armchair quarterback and nag him about the emails from me that he should’ve deleted once they were no longer relevant.

The marketing folks behind the book are creative geniuses. They sent a plastic drinking cup with SPAM on it, a can of spam (I donated it to a food drive—this is good spam, right?), and a little truck (Hot Wheels / Matchbox style) with SPAM on the sides of it. That went to the middle child, the Hot Wheels lovers.

Moving on to reviewing the book. Before reaching the title page inside the book, the first few pages quickly cover the 12-step degunking program with a list followed by 15-minute, 30-minute, one-hour, and three-hour to half-day steps for degunking email and viruses with time limitations. This section finishes off with top 20 tasks for clearing the email cobwebs.

If you’re overwhelmed at the thought of following a 12-step program and spending more than a day going through each step, the time limitations section should ease your mind. It’s a good way to start, baby steps. Don’t stop there, however. Make it part of a long-term program and pick up some of the habits it covers.

I’m amazed at how many of the tips I already do but it should be no surprise as obsessed with organization as I am. Though I have implemented many of the suggestions, the book provides value because it offers a process for cleaning up as well as tips I hadn’t considered. It took me years to come up with many of the tips covered. So don’t wait years to figure it out yourself when you can get it right now with one resource, this book.

Sure, it covers the usual, “have a firewall running” and “ensure your anti-virus program is running and up to date.” However, you’d be surprised how many people don’t have either in place. This book would be incomplete without these recommendations.

Though a majority use Outlook or Outlook Express for managing email, Duntemann discusses other clients including The Bat!, Thunderbird, Pegasus, and Eudora. Like many things in life, everyone has different needs when it comes to email. The author discusses four email profiles and mentions them throughout the book so whichever you are, follow the advice for that profile.

Like the other books in Paraglyph’s Degunking series, this one is easy to read and addresses the advantages and disadvantages of various tools. Anyone who gets the book and follows its steps will experience a leaner, cleaner email box and possibly a faster-running computer. Most users of all levels should benefit from this book. The only group that might not invest in it are those who know everything inside out about spam, viruses, malware, and adware and how to deal with them.

Title: Degunking Email, Spam, and Viruses
Author: Jeff Duntemann
Publisher: Paraglyph Publishing
ISBN: 193211193X
Date: October 2004
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
Cover Price: USD: $16.99
CDN: 26.59
UK: 12.59