Technology Toolbox

Winter-Spring 2012 Connect Sessions

2012-01-12T11:44:00.000-08:00

Below is the schedule for Web Development Connect sessions in the first half of 2012. Notice the emphasis on two areas: Google tools (Analytics, Docs, Forms, etc.) and slightly more advanced Working With Websites techniques (tables, multimedia, calenders). Those just starting to work with the CSU Extension Webpage Template are highly encouraged to attend these Working With Websites sessions.

Also included is a session on Prezi, a browser-based, non-linear alternative to death by PowerPoint!

2012 Connect Sessions:

Jan 18: Google Analytics
Feb 1: Using tables for web design (Working With Websites 6)
Feb 15: Prezi (an excellent alternative to PowerPoint)
March 7: Embedding Google Calenders on a web page (Working With Websites 7)
March 21: Google Docs
April 4: Multimedia on the web (Working With Websites 8)
April 18: Google Forms

Previous Connect sessions can be found at: http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/comptrain/co.shtml.

Previous Connect sessions relating to Working With Websites and the CSU Extension Webpage Template can be found here: http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/comptrain/co.shtml#wor

Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software

2011-12-30T12:27:00.000-08:00

Let's end the year on a fun note: Lifehacker recently listed their "Best of 2011"
posts of the year, and among them was "Superior Alternatives to Crappy Windows Software," available at lifehacker.com/384545/superior-alternatives-to-crappy-windows-software.

This post gives you free, fast, well-designed alternatives to bloated and frustrating Windows-based software such as Adobe Reader (use SumatraPDF), Windows Media Player (use VLC or Media Player Classic), Winzip (use 7-zip or J-zip) and much more.

It's a fun, and informative, article. Give it a read.

The entire year-end list of the "Best of 2011" Lifehacker posts is available at: lifehacker.com/5872033/this-is-the-best-of-lifehacker-2011

Happy 2012!

Pando

2011-12-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

Pando, at www.pando.com, is a large file sharing service that allows you to send packages of files and folders up to 1 GB. It's free, and simple to use; just drag and drop the files and folder you want to send (Pando gives you a running tally of the overall package size so you can stay under 1 GB).

A variety of ways can be used to send the files. You can directly send the files via email. You can post them on the web using the provided embed code. Or you can post the files on Facebook.

A few caveats: there is a small download involved (though it is quite small, about 5 MB). The person receiving your files needs to have Pando as well. And, most importantly, you need to choose "No thanks and continue" when it asks to install the insidious and incredibly annoying Weatherbug (ALWAYS say no to Weatherbug).

A screenshot of the easy-to-use interface is shown below.

Thanks, Angie Asmus, for the tip.

Windows 7 Logon Image Changer

2011-11-10T09:22:00.001-08:00

Most, if not all, of you know how to change the background image on your monitors, but it's a little tougher to personalize the initial Windows 7 logon screen image (shown below).

There is a complex and somewhat hazardous way of doing it, involving going directly into the registry and modifying it (instructions available here). Don't try this unless you know what you are doing!

A much easier method is to use the free Tweaks.com Logon Changer, available for download at http://tweaks.com/software/tweakslogon/. It's easy to use, doesn't require installation, and will automatically resize and recompress your images while leaving the original file untouched. You can preview any number of images before making your decision, or revert back to the original image with the click of a button. A screenshot of the Logon Changer in action is below; notice the easy-to-use 4 button tool panel at the bottom of the image. The only limitation is that the background you select needs to be smaller than 256KB.

Exporting Dreamweaver Site Definitions

2011-10-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

I recently switched computers, and needed to move all my websites and site definitions from one machine to the other. There are over twenty sets of usernames and passwords, which I was not looking forward to finding and re-imputting. To complicate matters, my websites would not be in the same place on my new machine.

Luckily, Dreamweaver has well-designed import and export tools. First step: on the old machine, bring up Dreamweaver, go to the Site menu and choose Manage Sites. Choose the sites you want to export in the left column (see below), then choose Export. To select multiple sites, use the Ctrl button. Dreamweaver will create a .ste file for every site you selected.

Copy the .ste files over to your new machine. Move your actual website files over to the new machine. Open Dreamweaver, choose Import, and browse to the .ste files (again, Ctrl will allow you to select multiple files). Dreamweaver will begin importing all the site definition information - including usernames and passwords, if you choose that option - into Dreamweaver.

Here's the best part: if your website folders and files are in a different spot on the new machine, as was the case with me, Dreamweaver will prompt you to browse to the new location to find both the root folder and the default images folder. Show Dreamweaver where the files and folders are, and that's it! All your websites are now defined on your new computer.

Converting docx, pptx and xlsx Files

2011-10-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

As most of you probably know, when Microsoft released Office 2007, the file formats of the documents it created changed: .doc (Word documents) became .docx, .ppt (PowerPoint documents) became .pptx, and .xls (Excel documents) became .xlsx. What this meant is that people with earlier versions of Microsoft Office were unable to open the new file formats.

There are many file format converters out there, but Microsoft probably created the easiest, most seamless one, with the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, available for free download at: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=3.

I like this converter (and use it on my personal laptop) because it converts the document all by itself. All you need to do is open the document in whatever version of MS Office you have, and the converter automatically recognizes the format as incompatible and converts and displays the document in a read-only version. You don't have to do a thing. The converted document can then be saved in an older file format (e.g. - .doc)

Some caveats: the compatability pack only converts Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents. And formatting choices that are not available in the older version of Office will be discarded. Overall, though, it is the easiest and cheapest way to convert Microsoft Office 07 and 2010 documents.

Firefox Add-ons Causing Browser Crashes

2011-09-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

When I recently updated my Firefox browser, it began to crash whenever I opened more than one tab. I tried all the usual suspects: reinstalled Firefox, ran a malware scan. It turned out the problem was not with Firefox itself but the compatability with certain add-ons.

If you are having problems with Firefox, go to the Tools menu, and choose Add-ons. The Add-ons Manager will appear (a screenshot is below). Disable everything (the Disable buttons are circled in the screenshot below). If Firefox starts working properly again, you can Enable them one at a time, until you find the one that was making Firefox crash. Problem solved!

Adobe Reader Icons

2011-09-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

Adobe Acrobat PDFs are the best way to distribute documents via a website, as, unlike Word documents, the Adobe Reader is free and already in wide distribution. It is important, though, to provide the end-user with a link to the free Adobe Reader (at http://get.adobe.com/reader/).

It is also nice to give the end-user the Adobe icon to help them identify the link to the Adobe Reader. Adobe has a page with three sizes of icons your can right-click and download at http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html.

Also on the page is a very useful list of Adobe's legal requirements for using the icon. They are all common sense requirements, such as not to alter the icon, or use it for the purposes of distributing obscene or pornographic images. Read the entire list by clicking on the link above. Then, download the icon and use it on your webpages!

Fall 2011 Connect Schedule

2011-08-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

The Fall 2011 series of Connect sessions will deal with two subjects: Working With Websites and Creating Video Podcasts.

On the first Wednesday of every month the Working With Websites sessions will explore the basics of managing a website, and is strongly recommended to those learning to work with the CSU Extension webpage template. Each session will end with a troubleshooting segment, where we open up the session to solving specific web problems and answering questions.

Webpage Template sessions:

Sept 7: Defining the site in Dreamweaver; Root folders; Making and uploading simple changes
Oct 5: Adding content (paragraphs, headers, lists, blockquotes); Adding new pages
Nov 2: SSIs (Server Side Includes): How SSIs work; Manipulating SSIs
Dec 7: Creating an engaging home page (tables and multimedia)

On the third Wednesday of every month Joane Littlefield and Jeff Wood will hold a series of Connect sessions on Creating Video Podcasts. They will take you through the entire process of creating your own video, from creating your storyboards and recording your narration to editing your video and distributing the final product.

Creating Video Podcasts

Sept 21: First steps, best practices / Working with titles
Oct 19: How to shoot / Working with sound
Nov 16: All about editing
Dec 14: Distributing your video

All sessions start at 9 a.m. and will last about an hour. Mark your calenders now!

OSSwin: Open Source for Windows

2011-08-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

The OSSwin Project, at http://osswin.sourceforge.net/, is essentially a very long list of links to free, open-source tools available to Windows users.

All of the most popular open source tools are here: GIMP (image editing), Audacity (audio recording and editing), Filezilla (file transfer, or FTP), Firefox (browser), Thunderbird (email), and Open Office (a office tools suite, similar to Microsoft Office). But there are more esoteric tools here too, from CAD software and zip compression to firewalls and anti-virus tools. All free, all open source. Take a look!

Embedding YouTube Videos Into PowerPoint

2011-08-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

You can embed a YouTube video directly into a PowerPoint presentation, so that it plays in a tidy little window on your presentation slide, rather than the YouTube site.

Go to the YouTube video you want to embed. Click the Share button just below the video.

Scroll down the page to the Embed button. Click it. Before you copy the code, make sure you check the "Use old embed code option" option (note: not all videos allow this option). Then click inside the embed code, right-click, and choose Copy.

Go into PowerPoint, and navigate to the slide you want to embed the video into. Choose Insert. Choose the little drop-down arrow just below the video icon (this will be in the upper right of your screen). Choose "Video From Web Site"

A dialogue box will appear. Paste your code into the box (right-click, choose Paste), then click the Insert button. A black box will appear on your slide, which you can resize by dragging one of the corner sizing circles (using the corners will keep the width-to-height ratio the same). When you go into Slideshow mode in PowerPoint, a screenshot of the the Youtube video will appear. Click the center of the screenshot to play the video.

Thanks to Gisele Jefferson for posing the question.

VideoLAN Media Player

2011-08-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

The VideoLAN media player (http://www.videolan.org/)is a free, open-source, cross-platform video and audio player that I've been using for close to a year now. It will play most DVDs, virtually all audio CDs, as well as web-friendly formats like Flash and the Windows .wmv format (a complete list is available at http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html). It has, in fact, played almost every media file format I've thrown at it, without requiring me to go online and find the applicable codec.

It's fast, and simple. It plays on Windows, Mac and Linux systems. It's a great alternative to Windows Media player, and I've made it my default media player for video and audio on both my personal and work computers.

Give it a try! You can download it here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/.

Four New Extension Websites

2011-07-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

Four Extension County websites have recently been converted to the new CSU Extension template. Stop by and take a look!

Chaffee and Park counties have a site up at http://www.extension.colostate.edu/chaffee/. Note the multimedia zone in the right column, and Kurt Jones' ongoing video series on Solar Energy.

Prowers County features pages for local events such as The Sand and Sage Round-Up and the Holly Gateway Fair on their navigation pane at the upper left. Visit them at http://prowers.colostate.edu/

Elbert County uses their 4-H page to keep all forms, newsletters, reports, etc. on one easy-to-find page. Their site is at http://elbert.colostate.edu/.

The Gilpin County page gathers information on Noxious Weeds, Small Acreage Management and Water Rights and much more, and references them on the navigation pane at the left so they can be easily found. Visit the site at http://www.extension.colostate.edu/gilpin/.

Does your website need a facelift? Drop me an email at jeffrey.wood@colostate.edu and we'll make it happen.

Free, Painless Website Upgrades!

2011-07-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

Do you have an old CSU Extension website you'd like to upgrade to the new CSU Extension template, but just don't have the time?

We'll do it for you!

Do you have no website, but would like a place to post newsletters, fairbooks, registration forms, and more?

We'll create one for you!

I can take all of your existing content (documents, forms, links, text, contact info), place it onto webpages, and post the entire website onto the web. In addition, I'll be offering monthly Connect sessions on how to maintain your pages, and will walk you through the process until you feel comfortable doing it yourself.

But wait, that's not all!

A customized graphical header that is consistent with other county Extension websites can be created for you. Your own logos and images can be used, provided the quality and resolution are sufficient. Please contact Darrin Goodman for assistance with this: darrin.goodman@colostate.edu.

So what are you waiting for? Contact me at jeffrey.wood@colostate.edu and let's get started!

Downloading .EPS Graphic Files

2011-06-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

The .EPS format is a type of graphic that can only be opened and manipulated by programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. It's an excellent format to work with in that .EPS vector graphics can be resized without losing resolution or pixelating. Unfortunately, because it is a proprietary format that can only be opened and modified with certain programs (such as Illustrator and Photoshop), it can be a bit tricky to work with if you don't have the appropriate program.

The good news: if you don't have Illustrator or Photoshop, you can still download and use .EPS files. Here's how. Left-click on the link and choose the Save As command to save it to your desktop or an easy to access folder. Now, browse to the file and look at it. If no programs on your computer recognize the .EPS extension, your browser may change the file extension to .PS. If that happens, here's the key step to remember: change the file extension back to .EPS. How? Right-click the file, choose Rename, and change the file extension (the part after the dot) back to .EPS manually. You may get an error message warning you not to change file extensions - generally a good idea - but it can be safely ignored in this context.

Then, to use the graphic in a program such as Word, PowerPoint, or Publisher, use the Insert>Picture>From File commands to browse to the .EPS graphic and insert the image into your document.

Thanks to the CSU Graphic Standards page for this information.

ACE/NETC 2011 Recordings

2011-06-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

The CSU Extension Tech Unit was lucky enough to be able to attend the 2011 ACE/NETC conference in Denver last weekend. Lots of excellent presentation on communications and technology, and some very exciting keynote speakers.

The good news for you is that much of the conference is now online. ACE/NETC has set up a site - http://www.acenetc.org/en/virtual/ - linking to recordings of many of the speakers and presentations.

A small sampling (these link directly to the presentations):

It was also our great privilege to hear Dr. Temple Grandin speak. Her funny, moving and challenging presentation can be found here:

Different Kinds of Minds, Dr. Temple Grandin

There are over 20 presentations available at the site. Please visit! I promise you'll learn something.

Sending Data From a Webpage Form Via Email

2011-06-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

Want to learn how to put a form onto a webpage so that the data is emailed to you after it is submitted by the end-user? Darrin Goodman (darrin.goodman@colostate.edu) has created a simple and easy to follow tutorial on how to do just that, at http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/cewebdev/formdata/.

Here are two screen shots from his tutorial. The first shows a sample form displayed on a webapge. The second shows an email sent to the webmaster, containing data from that form, as submitted by the end-user.

Thanks for the tutorial, Darrin!

Facebook Security Settings

2011-06-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Angie Asmus and Steven Lovaas both sent out emails today about Facebook security settings that I thought I'd clarify with a few screenshots.

First, go to Account in the upper righthand corner. Click the pulldown arrow to the right and choose Account Settings (below).

Scroll down until you get to Account Security (below). Click Change.

Check the box that says "Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible." While you're at it, you might want to consider also checking the box "When an unrecognized computer or device tries to access my account, send me an email." That's it!

Windows Snipping Tool

2011-05-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

Windows Vista and Windows 7 have a neat little gizmo hidden in the Accessories menu: the Snipping Tool. This very handy little tool allows you to take quick screenshots of any area of your monitor. The New menu pulldown (screenshot at left) allows you to take screenshots of your entire screen or a specific window of your screen. Yyou can also define the screenshot area yourself, creating either a rectanglar screenshot or a "freeform" screenshot that allows you to draw an irregular shape and take a screenshot of whatever is inside it.

To use the tool, go to All Programs, choose Accessories, and then choose Snipping Tool. Click the pulldown menu and choose either Free-form, Rectangular, Window, or Full-screen, and then define your screenshot area. Use the File menu to save the result as a .png, a .gif, a .jpg, or even an .html file.

Thanks to Ruth Willson for the tip!

Podbean

2011-05-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

Podbean (http://www.podbean.com/)is a free podcast hosting service that does for audio what Youtube does for video: it hosts the sound file, so you don't need to store it on your own server; it gives you embed code so your sound file can easily be embedded on a blog or webpage, and it gives you a slick looking playing for the end-user to use to play the file.

The process is pretty simple. Register for Podbean with an email and password. Record your podcast, upload it to Podbean, and then use their embed code to put the podcast on your website.

The free version of Podbean limits sound files to 100 mb total.

Joanne Littlefield and I co-hosted a Connect session on organizing and creating podcasts and using Podbean, available at http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/comptrain/co.shtml. In addition, there are several video tutorials on sound file formats, recording podcasts and using Podbean available at the video tutorial page, at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/vid_tutorials/index.html#pod.

Jotform

2011-05-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

JotForm (http://www.jotform.com/) is a form builder that allows you to quickly create customized forms using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) form editor so you can see the results visually as you create the form. A screenshot of a form in progress is below.

You can use standard Form Tools section to access tools like radio buttons, checkboxes and text boxes, use the Quick Tools for preformatted phone number and address fields, use the Survey Tools for matrices, scales, and "sliders" (see screenshot at left). You can even incorporate Payment Tools such as Paypal, Google Checkout, or Purchase orders.

The forms can also be configured to send both notification emails to you, and confirmation emails to the end-user. You can also send them to a confirmation page (or any URL you wish) after they've submitted the form.

Once you've created your form, use the Embed and Source Code options (see screenshot at right) to embed your form into a webpage or blog. The only limitation is that the free version allows 100 submissions a month, and 10 payments a month. For $10/month, you can receive 1000 submissions and payments per month.

Much thanks to Joy Bauder for discovering this easy to use tool.

10 Quick Solutions to Photoshop Problems

2011-04-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

The Photoshop learning curve can be steep, and fraught with frustration. What happened to my cursor? Where did the History panel go? My paintbrush isn't working!

How To Geek recently ran the article 10 Common Photoshop Frustrations (and How to Fix Them in Five Minutes), which shows quick solutions to common problems.

The problems they address:

Your Cursor Disappears or Changes Shape
Your Panels Keep Disappearing
Your Brush Tool (Or Others) Have Stopped Working
Clipboard Export Error When Switching Programs
Documents and New Files Always Open In Tabs
Important Image Files Aren’t Associated With Photoshop
No Control Over Automatic “Smart Quotes”
You Are Constantly Resizing Your Windows After Zoom
The Scratch Disk Is Full
Photoshop Runs Slow on Underpowered Machines

The article is succinct and the solutions are easy to understand and follow.

NoSquint

2011-04-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

This Firefox Add-on, available at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nosquint/, allows you to customize the text zoom level for every site you visit, and it remembers those zoom levels the next time you visit the site.

I LOVE this Firefox Add-0n. My eyesight has declined to the point where I now wear reading glasses, and I was having to continually change the zoom level on pages I was reading using Ctrl and + or -.

NoSquint remembers the zoom settings for every web page you visit. Set the zoom level (using whatever method you like, the Ctrl and + or -, your mousewheel, or the NoSquint zoom in and out icons, seen at left), and from then on, whenever you visit the page, NoSquint remembers your previous zoom level. So, in essence, you have a customized zoom level for every site you visit. For someone like me, who is continually losing his reading glasses, this saves time and hassles.

It has other cool features as well, like allowing you to choose your own font, link and background colors that override existing webpage defaults. Try it!

Cleaning Your Computer

2011-04-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

Has your computer been sitting under your desk for a couple of years now, quietly humming away, doing its job while you do yours? If so, it probably has gathered a lot of dust.

Lifehacker has a great, easy-to-follow tutorial at http://lifehacker.com/#!153409/geek-to-live--evacuate-pc-dust-bunnies on how to get rid of the dust bunnies inside your computer, and lube up your fan while you're at it. All you need is a Phillips screwdriver, some 3-in-1 mechanical oil, and a can of compressed air. Follow the link, and give your computer and fan a spring cleaning!

Thanks yet again, Loretta Lohman and Erin Pheil, for the suggestion.

IconFinder.com

2011-04-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Looking for a well-designed icon for your website or blog to help with navigation, links to social media, email, or applications?

IconFinder.com (http://www.iconfinder.com/) has an extensive collection (over 155,000) of icons for use by web developers and designers. You can search for individual icons, or matched icon sets that fit the design of your website. Most are free, though some are restricted to non-commercial use, and some ask that you credit the designer.

You don't even need to register. Just type what you are looking for into the site search engine, and once you find what you are looking for, download it. Again, be sure and respect the terms of the license.

Below is a screenshot of the results of the term "RSS feed." This shows only 6 of the over 700 RSS feed icons available at the site

WeTransfer

2011-03-17T11:20:00.000-07:00

With the demise of Drop.io, many of us are looking around for a free file transfer service. WeTransfer, at https://www.wetransfer.com/, offers a free service where you can send up to 20 people a selection of files up to a maximum of 2 GB in size. They’ll host the files for up to two weeks. The 2 GB file size limit is per transfer, so after sending the first 2 GB, you could start over and send another 2 GB of files out.

To use it, you don't even need to register. Just upload the files, input the email address the files are going to, followed by your own email address. You also hav the option to add a personal message to the email.

HelloFax

2011-03-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

I do not have a fax machine. To sign documents, I've always needed to print them out, sign them, and mail them via snail mail.

No longer.

A great, free way to digitally add your signature to documents, and then fax or email them, is available at HelloFax (http://www.hellofax.com/). You input the email or fax number you want to send to, upload the document, and add a signature by drawing one with your mouse, or uploading a .jpg of your signature (I actually drew it in Photoshop with my mouse, thn saved it as a .jpg). After you add the signature, you drag it to where it's supposed to go, and resize, if necessary.

If you register with the site, you can save your signature file there, and easily add it to any document you upload.

Only the first 20 faxes are free. However, if you are sending the document to an email address, which I generally do, you can use the srvice an unlimited number of times. For free!

Thanks to Slate's article Kill Your Fax Machine for the tip.

PrintFriendly

2011-03-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

The PrintFriendly website (http://printfriendly.com/) creates a print-friendly, text-only version of any web page URL you input into it, which can then be printed, emailed or turned into a PDF by the site. It does so by stripping out images, formatting, navigation and CSS styling, leaving only text and links.

My own computer applications page looks initially like this:

After entering my URL into the PrintFriendly site, it returned this page preview, which can then be printed, turned into a PDF by PrintFriendly, or emailed:

It also allows you to quickly delete large chunks of text by showing you a "click to Delete" link whenever you roll over a paragraph, allowing you to quickly edit the text from the web page and keep only what needs to be printed.

Save paper. Give PrintFriendly a try.

Thanks yet again to Loretta Lohman for the tip.

How to Get Rid of Windows Messenger in Windows 7

2011-02-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

Windows 7 automatically pins Windows Messenger (Microsoft's Instant Messaging service) to your taskbar. It takes up system resources, runs on startup and uses system memory. Plus, there are better IM clients out there (Digsby, ICQ, etc.).

It can be a hard program to hunt down and uninstall. Here's how to get rid of Messenger in Windows 7.

Go to the Control Panel. Select Uninstall a program.

Scroll down the list of applications. Select Windows Live Essentials.

Chose Uninstall (don't worry, this won't uninstall all of your Windows Live components, just the ones you choose).

Check the Messenger checkbox and click Continue.

That's it!

Setting Up a System Backup in Windows 7

2011-02-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

To set up a backup in Windows 7, open up Computer, right-click on your local drive and select Properties. Then click on the Tools tab and click the Back up now button.

Click Set up backup.

Choose your backup location. An external backup location is recommended; a network location is an excellent option (you might need a password to do so).

Choose if you want Windows to decide what to backup, or if you want to do it yourself.

If you decide to do it yourself, choose what you want to back up.

Review your settings. The bottom of this dialogue box also allows you to set a scheduled backup day and time (circled).

Set your schedule. After the schedule is set, click Save Settings and Run Backup. Be aware this could take over an hour, particularly if this is your first backup.

Wikispaces

2011-02-09T10:44:00.000-08:00

Wikispaces (http://www.wikispaces.com) is a free and painless way to set up a Wiki.

First things first: a wiki is set of easily created and edited, interconnected webpages that can be built by an individual or a group. At its broadest, it can be edited by anyone who visits the page (e.g. - Wikipedia). More commonly, editing is allowed only to invited Wiki members. Thus, you can create a Wiki about a specific subject, and invite group members to add pages or edit existing ones. It's a good way to gather and share information.

Wikispaces allows to to easily create new pages (by clicking the New Page button) or edit existing ones (by clicking the Edit button). Tools are clearly labeled, and a navigation bar to the left automatically add links as new pages are added. In addition, you can embed images, multimedia, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, PDF files, links and more.

A "cheat sheet" for often used commands is available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/2238100/Using-WikiSpaces-for-Your-Eportfolio. The screenshots are a little old, but the information is accurate.

Below is a screenshot of a hastily assembled demo Wiki gathering information on one of my favorite topics. Link to it here.

The Tableizer

2011-02-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

This free and fast little tool converts spreadsheet cells into HTML so they can be published on the web or embedded directly into a webpage as an HTML table. You copy-and-paste the Excel or Calc spreadsheet cells into the box, choose the font size, font style and header color, click the Tableize It! button, and it spits out the code and a preview of what the table will look like.

Try it at http://tableizer.journalistopia.com/

Thanks to Loretta Lohman and Erin Pheil for the tip.

Malwarebytes

2011-01-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

I've worked with a handful of anti-malware tools before, but the only one that consistently identifies and removes malicious software is Malwarebytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/).

It's free, though there are paid versions available. You can choose a fast scan (takes about a half an hour) or a full scan (which takes well over an hour).

It has saved my laptop from malicious software several times now (including once this week), and caught malware that other anti-malware programs didn't.

So if your browser has recently began performing slowly, or your home page has mysteriously changed, or your computer has been crashing more often than usual, or you begin seeing excessive pop-up ads (my symptoms this week included pop-up messages NOT from my anti-virus program telling me I'd been infected by malware), give Malwarebytes a try.

A more complete list of symptoms that you've been infected by malware is available at http://www.malwarehelp.org/symptoms-of-infection.html and http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=6390681.

Issuu Digital Publishing

2011-01-20T09:21:00.000-08:00

Issuu (http://issuu.com/) is a free, fast and easy way to publish documents digitally. You sign up for Issuu, log in, add a few keywords and give it a category, upload the document, and Issue automatically converts the document to a Flash format that can easily be read online. You can then send out the link directly, or use the embed code to embed your publication in a blog or website (as I've done below with a .pdf about Adobe Connect). The end user uses the navigation arrows to read your document, and have the option of displaying it full-screen by clicking the View Full Screen option that appears on rollover (see below). The end user can also, if you allow it, download and print the document, or simply read it online.

Document formats Issuu accepts include PDF, DOC, PPT, RTF, WPD, and more. You can customize the layout, add audio, add an autoflip option (automatically turns the page every 6 seconds), which page you'd like to start on, and many more options. Finally, it plays well with many social networking sites, particularly Facebook.

Open publication - Free publishing - More connect 8

5 Web-Based Alternatives to PowerPoint

2011-01-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

The site ReadWriteBiz has a great article this month on 5 web-based alternatives to PowerPoint.

Included is Prezi (we'll be having a Connect session on using Prezi next week on January 19), a free Flash-based alternative to PowerPoint that allows a much more non-linear approach to your presentation. A particularly creative example is embedded below. Click the forward arrow to move the presentation along.

ZK Framework on Prezi

Also mentioned in the article are Sliderocket (http://www.sliderocket.com/), a collaborative, Web-based application that allows users to comment and answer polls in real time, 280 Slides (http://280slides.com/), a web-based presentation tool that has the look and feel of Apple's Keynote, Google Docs (https://docs.google.com/), which allows you to create, store and present presentations online, and Zoho Show (http://show.zoho.com/), which allows live audio chat with presentees.

All are free (or have free versions), all are web-based. Give them a try!

Thanks to Loretta Lohman and Erin Pheil for the tip.

Google Books Ngram Viewer

2011-01-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

The Google Books Ngram Viewer, which Google created with the Encyclopedia Britannica and scientists from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, takes 500 billion words from 5.2 million digitized books and allows you to track their usage over time. The result is a database that shows when certain phrases, people, ideas and trends faded in and out of fashion, and gives the results in an easy to interpret graph. Best of all, the database has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning the results are free for you to use, as long as you include an attribution to Google. The datasets Google uses can also be downloaded and used under the same CC license.

The ngram viewer is here: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/

Here's how it works: you type in one or more words or phrases, separating them with commas, hit Enter, and the viewer returns a color-keyed graph of the number of mentions of those words or phrases from Google Books entire database of text.

Here's a screenshot of the number of occurrences of two words - "religion" in blue, and "television" in red - over the Google books database of all English text works between 1800 and 2010. The results are not scientific, in that you have little control over which books Google has or hasn't indexed. But they're pretty interesting.

More information about the ngram viewer is available at http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/info

2011 Connect Session Schedule

2010-12-30T09:24:00.000-08:00

Learn how to create a podcast, edit a video, hold an online meeting, and work with Prezi, a zooming presentation software that will thrill your PowerPoint-jaded audiences!

Here is the Winter-Spring 2011 Connect session schedule. All sessions start at 9, and will last less than an hour. Get them on your calender today!

Jan 5 – New features in Adobe Connect 8
Jan 19 – Creative Commons and online image databases (w/Joanne Littlefield)
Feb 2 – Working with Prezi
Feb 16 – CSU social media policies (w/Joanne Littlefield)
March 2 – Skype and Innerpass File sharing
March 16 – CSU Graphic standards and best practices (w/Joanne Littlefield).
April 6 – Working with Adobe Premeire video editing software
April 20 – Working with blogs
May 4 – Working with Audacity recording software
May 18 – Creating podcasts

Markup.io

2010-12-14T12:14:00.000-08:00

Markup.io, at http://markup.io/, is a free tool that allows you to draw and add text to any webpage, then publish the result to share with others. Best of all, there are no downloads necessary, no registration required.

Go to http://markup.io/ and drag the markup icon to your bookmarks menu. Then whenever you want to mark up a webpage, choose the bookmark. A toolbox will appear in the upper lefthand corner (screenshot at upper left), allowing you to add shapes and text to a page. In the example below, I've circled a link and added text saying the link doesn't work.

When your markup is done, you click Publish. You'll be prompted to move a slider from left to right. When you do, a URL will appear. Copy the URL, send it to whoever you'd like to share your markup with (see below). Fast and easy. v To see the markup page used in this example, go to http://markup.io/v/akcccc06gwe3

Thanks to Loretta Lohman and Erin Pheil for the tip!

Archiving Facebook Data

2010-12-09T09:16:00.000-08:00

Facebook has now made it possible to download and archive all of your Facebook data: status updates, messages, photos and profile information. It's yours after all, and provides you with a day-to-day history of your own life.

Here's how:

In Facebook, click Account, then click Account Settings.

Click on Learn more to the right of Download Your Information.

Click the Download button at the bottom of the page (you'll then get a second Download button; click that one too).

It will take awhile. Facebook will send you an email when the download is complete. It will be a .zip file (here are instructions on using j-Zip to open a zip file). The extracted files will include an html folder, an images folder, and a file called index.html, which you use to access the rest of the information. Open the index.html in your browser, and you will be able to access profile, wall, photos, friends, notes, events and messages from here.

Thanks to Darrin Goodman for the tip!

Zendit

2010-12-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

Just in time to replace Drop.io, which is being shut down this month, is Zendit. Zendit, located at http://live.zendit.com/ allows you to store up to 1 GB of data online, for free. There are no restrictions on file format.

The interface is drag and drop, which can be a little cumbersome, as a "browse for files" option would be nice. Still, it's 1 GB of storage for free, it uploads and downloads very quickly, so I won't complain. Zendit also has many social media features integrated into it, to allow you to easily share files and communicate with others. Personally, I use it for music and as a backup for Word documents.

Zendit is still in beta testing, so you need to request an account at http://www.zendit.com/. They will follow up with an email allowing you to join within a few days. The URL is somewhat customizable as well, in that it is based on your username. So, for example, if your username was ninja, the URL for your Zendit account would be www.zendit.com/ninja.

Give it a try. Did I mention it's free?

Uploading Files in Dreamweaver

2010-11-19T11:31:00.000-08:00

This is a question that comes up a couple of times a month for me (including this morning), so I thought it'd be useful to cover it again.

While you can publish a webpage using Dreamweaver's file pane (see illustration at left) it only shows you a limited view of your files, and you don't see a full picture of what is going on.

When you publish a webpage in Dreamweaver, it is best to first go into expanded view. You do that by clicking the icon at the very right of the file pane toolbar (it's circled in black in the illustration at left).

What this does is brings up your own local files on the right, and the published remote server files on the left (see the illustration below). At first, the remote server files area on the left will be blank. Connect to the server using the connect button (labeled 1), and the remote files will show.

Now, select the webpage file you want to publish on the right local pane. Click the Up arrow (labeled 2), and the file will be transferred from you own computer to the remote server. That's it!

If you want to download something from the remote server, reverse the process. Select the file(s) you want to download on the left pane, click the down arrow (labeled 3), and it will be downloaded into the root folder of your own local computer.

Adding a Facebook "Like" Button

2010-11-11T12:39:00.000-08:00

Want to dip your toes into the social media scene, and increase traffic to your website at the same time? You can add a Facebook "Like" button to your webpages, so that when the end-user clicks the "Like" button on your site, a story appears in the user's News Feed with a link back to your website. You don't even need a Facebook account! The "Like" button uses the end-user's account.

Here's how: go to the Facebook Developers page at http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like. Choose the layout, the font, whether you want to use the verb "like" or "recommend." A preview appears to the right of the dialogue box (see illustration below). When you have it tweaked to your liking. click the "Get Code" button, and cut and paste the code onto your webpages. If you like this feature, add the code to the template page you use to create new pages. Then, by default, ALL your pages will have a "Like" button on them.

The Demise of Drop.io

2010-11-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Back in 2009 I posted about drop.io, a free file drop and file sharing service that allowed access via email, conference calls, etc. I used it almost daily as a way to work on projects from multiple computers.

Alas, drop.io is no more. Facebook has bought the service, and as of December 15 all files hosted there will be deleted. No new accounts can be created, but if you already have a drop.io account you may continue to use it until mid-December.

So, if you have important documents stored on drop.io, I suggest you download them and store them somewhere else. Other options for file storage include Google Docs, Box.net, MediaFire, and Windows Live Skydrive. All are free, though the Windows requires a Windows Live account to use.

eXtension National Conference 2010: Social Media

2010-10-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

The 2010 eXtension National Conference: Symposium On Workjng Differently was held October 18-21. Video recordings of the presentations are now available at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/broadcasts/nevc/.

The overwhelming majority of these presentations concern the use of social media and networking sites to engage communities, and are being moderated by Extension professionals who are successfully using these tools for outreach.

If you are interested in using social media for the dissemination of Extension programming, I highly recommend these recordings.

Among the many topics discussed:

Becoming Visible in the New Media Ecology
Educating Others about Social Networking
Engaging Learners Through Social Media Outreach: Working Smarter, Not Harder
Assessing Impact of eXtension or Social Media Programming
Using a Blog to Reach Master Gardeners
3D Immersive Educational Opportunities in Second Life

PortableApps.com

2010-10-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

Their tagline is "Your computer, without the computer."

PortableApps (http://portableapps.com/) is a free open source platform that allows you to carry multiple applications around on a flash drive. The basic Portable Apps suite comes loaded with a web browser (Firefox), email client (Thunderbird), and office suite (Open Office), as well as calendar/scheduler, antivirus, audio player and more, all preconfigured to work portably. Just drop it on your portable device and you're ready to go.

A large number of optional applications are available as well - ALL free and open source - from digital Bibles to Audacity audio editing software and the GIMP Image editing program.

It allows you to carry around the files and documents you are working with too, so that, for instance, images you are editing using GIMP, or music you are listening to using Coolplayer, are stored on the same Flash drive as the PortableApps platform.

PortableApps takes mere minutes to set up, loads quickly, and is easy to use and personalize. A full list of apps it supports is available at: http://portableapps.com/apps.

Flash Drive Viruses

2010-10-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

The recent Stuxnet virus, which infiltrated large industrial control systems in China, India, Pakistan, and India, likely found its way into government computer via a Flash drive. Similarly, last year's Conficker worm got into the computers of the French navy and the city of Manchester, England, through infected USB disks.

Flash drives are becoming the latest gateway computer viruses and worms are using to infect computers. A recent Trend Micro survey found that 53.7 percent of newly detected computer viruses are being programmed to spread via USB devices.

Fortunately, there are several precautions to prevent your Flash drive from infection.

1. Keep work and personal Flash drives separate.

2. Always scan a Flash drive before retrieving files from it. Your anti-virus software should have the ability to scan a specific drive for viruses. Simply plug in your flash drive, set up a custom scan, and scan that drive. In Symantec, choose Scan for Threats, then Create a New Scan (see screenshot below), and checkmark the removable drive that represents your Flash drive.

3. Just like email, don't ever open a file with unknown origins, unless you are sure it is safe. Be particularly careful with Flash drives that are not your own.

4. Don’t allow the USB Drive to Auto Play after plug in. Choose cancel it (see screenshot below). Then browse to the Flash drive to retrieve the files yourself.

jZip

2010-09-09T09:47:00.000-07:00

WinZip is, frankly, annoying. It costs $29.95, and the free trial ends after 45 days. The interface is clumsy, the wizard is confusing.

jZip is a Winzip alternative that I've been using for the last year. It's free - no free trail period, simply free. It's small, fast, easy to use, and can create and open Winzip .zip files. It can also open and extract (but not create) .rar, .tar and .iso files.

The only downside is that it will install the dreaded Yahoo toolbar if you don't specifically uncheck the Yahoo toolbar option. Otherwise, it has performed flawlessly for me.

You can download jZip at http://www.jzip.com/.

Gmail Priority Inbox

2010-09-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

Google is rolling out a new feature in its Gmail accounts this week: Priority Inbox. If you choose the option (available in the upper right corner of the screen; see the screenshot at upper left), Gmail will create a "Priority Inbox" for you that will pull out what it sees as your most important email messages, based on keywords, who the email is from, and whether it is sent directly to you or to a group. Think of it as the opposite of a spam filter. This feature attempts to figure out what emails are most important to you.

Your other emails aren't disposed of, simply placed into two other folders: "Starred" and "Everything Else." In addition, you can train the Inbox to regard a specific email sender or subject as important or unimportant by clicking plus or minus buttons at the top of the inbox (below). Or go to Settings>Filters>Create a Filter to give Gmail specific rules (e.g. an email has an attachment) to decide whether an email gets priority.

To give it a try, click the Priority Inbox link in the upper right of the Gmail dashboard to get started. To see a short video explaining the feature, view Google's short video tutorial at http://mail.google.com/mail/help/priority-inbox.html

Fall 2010 Connect Training Schedule

2010-08-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

This Fall's Connect sessions on web development and computer applications begin next Wednesday, on Sept. 1st. All sessions start at 9 a.m. and are roughly 1 hour long. Look for an email explaining how to sign in, or email me directly at Jeffrey.Wood@Colostate.edu.

Sept 1 – What's New In Dreamweaver CS5.
Sept 15 – Working With Pixlr.
Oct 6 – Dreamweaver CS5: Widgets and Behaviors.
Oct 20 – CSU Graphic standards and best practices (w/Joanne Littlefield).
Nov 3 – Internet Safety (w/Darrin Goodman).
Nov 10 - Creative Commons and images (w/Joanne Littlefield)
Dec 1 - Using Connect, Improving Webinars,
Dec 8 - Working With Posters (w/Joanne Littlefield)
Jan 5 – Using Skype, Innerpass File sharing
Jan 12 – CSU Social media policies (w/Joanne Littlefield)

If you miss a session, they will be recorded and archived on the Computer Applications Training Page, approximately 2 days after the session.

Online Privacy

2010-08-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

A series of recent articles by Julia Angwin and others in the Wall Street Journal about online privacy revealed some disturbing practices. They used a clean computer to visit the 50 most popular websites in the US, accounting for roughly 40% of web traffic.

The 50 site visits installed a total of 3,180 tracking files.

About a third of these were rather innocuous "cookies," text files that might store a username or account details. Fully two-thirds, however, came from 131 companies that follow Internet users to create databases of consumer profiles that can then be sold. The companies that placed the most such tools were Google, Microsoft, and Quantcast Corp, all of which are in the business of targeting ads at people online.

The worst offender? Dictionary.com, which installed a stunning 168 tracking tools that didn't let users decline to be tracked.

The only site to install no tracking files? Wikipedia.

The series of four articles are linked below.

What They Know

Sites Feed Personal Details To New Tracking Industry

On the Web's Cutting Edge, Anonymity in Name Only

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets

Sharing Google Docs

2010-08-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

There are two strategies you can use to share Google Docs you have uploaded.

The first is to allow access to specific people, via email address, and then invite them to view or edit.

The second way is to choose the "Anyone with the link" option, which allows anyone you email the link to to view/edit the document without the confusion of having to sign in. This is the easiest method, and relatively secure, as you have some control over who is sent the link (you can also reset the link at any time, if you are worried about security).

Both methods start out the same. Upload the document, then click the Share button on the upper right, and choose Sharing Settings.

A new dialogue box will appear (below). If you choose Anyone With the Link you will see the option of allowing them to edit the document at the bottom of the box. Leaving this box unchecked will only give them permission to view the document.

A final dialogue box will appear (shown below) with the link. Cut and paste it into an email and you are good to go. Note the Reset Link option just below and to the right of the link. If you do reset the link, make sure you alert everyone involved of the new link.

To keep the document private, choose Private.

This will bring up a new dialogue box. You allow access to the document with an email address. To the right of the email text box you can choose whether they can edit or merely view the document.

Checking the Send Email Notifications box will automatically send emails to all those who have been allowed access.

If you would like to learn more about Google Docs, my own video tutorials are available on the Video Tutorials page, and Lynda.com tutorials available at lynda.colostate.edu. Sign in and choose Google on the Vendor drop-down menu.

Google Maps Widget

2010-08-05T15:44:00.001-07:00

Google Code has an easy to use Google Maps Widget wizard to allow you to embed a Google map of your workplace location (or any other location) into a webpage. The result can be searched and the end user can zoom and pan the embedded map.

Go to the Google Maps Widget site (www.google.com/uds/solutions/wizards/mapsearch.html). Choose a size, a zoom level, and the name, location and URL where you want the map to center on.

Give Google the URL associated with your Google account, and they will generate the code. Cut and paste it into your webpage, and that's it! A screenshot of the result is below.

Lynda.com

2010-07-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

The University Technology Fee Advisory Board (UTFAB) and CSU Libraries have licensed the entire library of the lynda.com online training materials. Just go to http://lynda.colostate.edu and log in using your CSU eName and ePassword. All CSU students, faculty and staff have access.

There are over 42,000 video-based tutorials, and you can sort them by subject, by software, or by vendor. Also included are the associated training files, so you can practice what you've learned.

These tutorials are available 24/7 and cover Adobe (Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Photoshop) Apple (Studio Pro, Final Cut) and Microsoft (Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Word) product suites. Also included: Google Apps, Drupal, audio and video editing, operating systems and much more. Tutorials contain up to 8 hours of instruction per subject area, split into 5-15 minute segments. They are well designed and easy to follow, and the short length of the individual tutorials allows you to learn at your own pace.

Google Voice

2010-07-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

eXtension has a great occasional series called 30 Minute sessions, usually at noon MST, that quickly provide an overview of various Tech topics. And it's during lunch, so you can watch and listen while you eat! If you aren't on their mailing list, go to https://www.extension.org/people/lists/learn to sign up. You'll need an account with eXtension. I strongly suggest you do so. It's a great asset.

This week's topic was Google Voice, yet another very cool (and free!) new gadget from Google. You can sign up, or simply learn more about it, at http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html.

Google Voice lets you consolidate and manage all your various phone services from one online service: cell, home, and work numbers. Google Voice provides a powerful suite of communications tools, including the ability to:

Forward calls from one or more phones, or directly to voicemail. Based on who's calling, you can select which of your phones will ring.
Consolidate all voicemail messages from various phones into one place, and allow you to listen to those messages online.
Receive text/email alerts when you get a call.
Transcribe voicemails, which Google Voice will send as email and/or text messages to your cell phone.
Share voicemails or transcriptions of voicemails via email.
Screen callers by asking for and recording their names.
Block annoying callers.
Vary personalized greetings by caller.
Record phone conversations and listen to them in your Google Voice inbox.

This really is a great tool, and my fast synopsis does not do it justice. Give it a look.

Recovering Deleted CSU Emails

2010-07-15T09:31:00.001-07:00

On CSU’s email system, emails are automatically removed from the Deleted Items folder 7 days after you delete them. During these seven days you can go to the Deleted Items folder near your inbox and restore them to the system (see the screenshot on the right).

After those first seven days they are removed from the Deleted Items folder, but not to worry (not for 7 days, anyway). In Outlook, they can be accessed under Tools -> Recover Deleted Items (see the screenshot on the left). On CSU’s system they are there for another 7 days.

So all in all, with CSU’s email you have 14 days to recover an email after you have deleted it; the first seven look in the Deleted Items folder, the next 7 in Tools -> Recover Deleted Items .

Thanks to Angie Asmus for the tip.

TinyURL

2010-07-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

You have likely seen shortened URLs with "tinyurl" in the address, such as http://tinyurl.com/28j5aoo. Mostly they are used in Twitter messages {tweets), since they have a 140 character maximum, and so space is at a premium. But short URLs are useful to anyone with a website, particularly if you are advertising a website on print media where a link can't be clicked.

They are very easy to create. Go to TinyURL (http://tinyurl.com/). You don't need to even register. Just copy-and-paste the URL you want to shorten, the site will instantly spit a shortened one back out. It also has a custom URL feature, where you can customize the name of the shortened URL (assuming it isn't taken). For instance, I just created an easy to remember tiny URL for the Computer Applications Training page using this feature: http://tinyurl.com/comappstrain

There are a few security concerns associated with them, such as clicking on unsafe links, or fears the company won't be around to redirect the link in the future. These concerns are addressed more completely in this Popular Mechanics article: http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/content/print_pop.asp?fid=2034.

ThisMachine.info

2010-07-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

If your computer is behaving oddly and you call the IT help desk to get some assistance, they'll likely want to know some basic information about your system. If you go to the site www.thismachine.info you can quickly find out:

1. your browser
2. your browser version
3. your operating system
4. your IP address
5. your user agent string

Bookmark it. That way, next time you call the help desk, you can have this basic information at your fingertips.

Thanks to Loretta Lohman and Erin Pheil for the tip!

New Template Header

2010-06-24T12:01:00.000-07:00

Darrin Goodman has designed an elegant new graphical header that can be easily incorporated into the CSU Extension Webpage Template.

More importantly, the header can easily be modified to incorporate both your county logo and/or local photos to give your website a personalized flair.

Three examples are at the top of this post, for Boulder County, Arapahoe County, and Jackson County.

Please don't try to customize the header yourself; there are graphic standards that need to be followed. We'll be happy to do it for you (and when I say we, I mean Darrin). Just contact Darrin Goodman at darrin.goodman@colostate.edu (970-491-2734), and let him know the graphics you'd be interested in including.

Windows 7 Expanded "Send To" Command

2010-06-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

Many of you may use a right-click and the "Send To" command to quickly send a file or folder to your desktop, a flash drive, a zip folder, or an email recipient. This option is available in all recent versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 7). A screenshot is below.

In Windows 7, however, if you hold down the Shift key while right-clicking on the icon, and then try the Send To menu, you'll see all sorts of extra options, allowing you to send documents to Contacts, Favorites, My Documents, etc. A screenshot is below.

Finally, if you want any of those to show up normally without holding down the Shift key, you can create shortcuts in the Send To folder. Just type the following into the location bar - shell:sendto - and then drag shortcuts to your preferred folders into this folder. In the example below I've dragged "Snagit 10" into the Send To folder.

Clearing a Printer's Document Queue

2010-06-10T10:28:00.001-07:00

You're trying to print a document. It's not printing. You check all the usual suspects. The printer has paper and toner, it's plugged in and on, there's no paper jam, etc. No dice.

You can first go to the printer icon in your taskbar (or alternately, go to Devices and Printers, go to the File menu) and cancel the job. Or right click it and delete it. If it deletes successfully, try printing the document again. You've probably already tried that too.

Here's what to do if the document stubbornly refuses to leave the Document Queue.

1 - Turn off your printer.

2 - Right click Computer (in the Windows 7 Start Menu) or My Computer (on your desktop), and click Manage.

3 - In the resulting dialog, expand Services and Applications, then click on Services. Scroll down the resulting list to find Print Spooler.

4 - Right click on Print Spooler and click on Properties

5 - Click on Stop to stop the print spooler. (You should leave this dialog box open.)

6 - Now, navigate to the folder c:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS. A quick way to do this is to click on Start then Run and then enter "c:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS" as the item to run.

7 - Delete the contents of this folder.

8 - Back at the Printer Spooler Properties dialog (you left this open in step 5), click on Start.

9 - Turn your printer back on.

10 - Print!

Find Large Files and Folders

2010-06-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

There is a fast and handy download available at Treesize that allows you to see at a glance how your hard drive space is allocated. If you sort the results by size, you can see which files and folders are unnecessarily eating up your storage space.

I recently used this tool after installing Windows 7 and discovering I only had 3 gigabytes of space left. This tool allowed me to find a folder called windows.old that was taking up an extraordinary 40 gigabytes of space. I deleted it, and presto, 40 more gigabytes of space were freed up.

Thanks to Angie Asmus for suggesting the tool to me.

CSU Extension Webpage Template lessons

2010-05-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Connect recordings for the entire 10 session class on working with the CSU Extension Webpage Template are now archived and available at http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/comptrain/co.shtml#temp. Each session is about an hour long, and the sessions lead you through the entire process of building and publishing a website using the template. If you don't have 10 hours to spare, note that Session 8 is a "Putting It All Together" session where you are led through the entire process in about an hour and a half. Included in each session is a link to a .pdf that documents the session.

Here are the topics:

Session 1: Basic concepts, downloading the files, tour of template components, tour of Dreamweaver CS4 workspace.

Session 2: Defining the Site, Directory Structure, Metatags.

Session 3: Content. Adding text, headers and images; creating webpage, document and email links; working with lists and bullet points; working with tables.

Session 4: SSIs. Working with the Server Side Includes (SSIs) for the top navigation bar, left navigaton bar, and footer.

Session 5: Creating an Engaging home page. Working with tables and linked lists, embedding slideshows, YouTube, Flash and Quicktime videos, and audio podcasts.

Session 6: Second level pages. Differences between a first level and a second level page; creating new second level pages; posting content from PDF documents, Word documents, Excel documents, PowerPoint presentations.

Session 7: Named Anchors. Used to create links to different parts of the same page. Thus you can allow end-users to easily navigate a long webpage of content.

Session 8: Putting it all together. Setting up a website, start to finish.

Session 9: Writing your own CSS. How to add your own CSS sheet to the existing CSS, how to build your own header style, paragraph style, a box to add visual emphasis, and a photo with a caption underneath.

Session 10: Google Analytics. How to register for the code, how to add the code to your website, and how to use Find and Replace to add it to every page on your site.

Facebook Privacy Settings

2010-05-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Facebook is notorious about relaxing your privacy settings to allow more people to visit your comments, photos, and personal information.

You can, of course, go into your privacy settings and manually change them. And you should. But there is a new, free tool called SaveFace (http://www3.untangle.com/saveface), by Untangle, that allows you to set all your privacy setting to "Friends Only" with a few clicks (for those unfamiliar with Facebook, a "friend" is essentially someone on your Facebook contact list).

Go to the SaveFace website and drag the icon provided into your Bookmarks. Go to Facebook. Go to your bookmarks and click the SaveFace Bookmark. It will automatically change all your settings to only let people to whom you've allowed access (i.e. "friends") to see your information. It takes less than a minute, and they keep no personal information about you.

Another open source app that does essentially the same thing is available at: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/

Office 2010 Beta

2010-05-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

Late yesterday Windows unveiled the beta version of Office 2010. It's free, and it's available here: http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx. The beta version will expire in October 2010.

Overall, it doesn't look too much different than Office 07. The ribbon is still there (though the Office button has been replaced with a File tab). There are some enhanced image editing features, such as color saturation and artistic effects. You can edit videos embedded in PowerPoint directly from the program.

The big difference is that you can save documents to the Web and share them with others on Microsoft's "Skydrive." Clearly, this is an attempt to compete with Google Docs and other Web 2.0 cloud computing options available out there. It allows you to save your documents to the web directly from the File tab, and you can invite others to view or collaborate with you on documents, as well as access them from any computer.

Yes, you can already do all of that on Google Docs. And yes, this free version expires in October, after which you have to buy it. But it's worth a look, if only to see how Microsoft will compete in the Web 2.0 arena in the future.

More information is available at the the Microsoft Office 2010 FAQ page.

Center for Plain Language Awards

2010-05-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

The Center for Plain Language has given out two awards this week for public websites that clearly and cleanly present information to the public. They are the US Department of Health and Human Services' Quick Guide to Healthy Living and the website for the City of Gresham, Oregon.

Both websites are worth a look as good examples of how to present content. They identify their audience and are written clearly for those readers. They make information easy to find, understand, and use. They omit unnecessary information and avoid dense, cluttered text.

Equally valuable are the criteria the Center for Plain Language uses to bestow these awards. You can also find Guidelines for creating plain language materials at their site. These are excellent resources for making sure your audience can quickly and easily find and understand the information you are presenting.

Load Time Analyzer

2010-04-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Most of you are probably aware of the 25 second rule: your web pages should load within 25 seconds, using a 56k modem. The 1 Hit Load Time Analyzer (http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.loading-time-checker.htm) will check your load time, and rate your site with a color coded report. The report breaks down the page by giving you file sized of each image, and the file size of your HTML. So, if your site comes in over 25 seconds, you'll have a list of files (usually images) that are taking the longest to load, and know where to start in improving your load time.

Two examples are below. The first is the CSU Extension Webpage template, clocking in at a respectable 14.7 seconds. The second is an Extension website, which will remain anonymous, that clocks in at a rather sluggish 32.3 seconds. One image on this site takes up 86% of the load time. Compressing this image alone could take the image down to under 25 seconds.

Fast site:

Slow site:

Website Readability

2010-04-20T07:55:00.000-07:00

Readability is an often overlooked aspect of website accessibility. In fact, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines require that documents are clear and simple. Ideally, your site should be easy for the end-user to scan for information.

Juicy Studios has three readability tests available at http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php: Gunning Fog, Flesch Reading Ease, and Flesch-Kincaid. These are reading level algorithms that can give you a good sense of how easy your text is to read.

The Gunning-Fog index returns a number between 6 and 30, with 6 being the level of TV Guide, and 15-20 the level of most academic papers (the website gives a more complete explanation of results).

The Flesch Reading Ease scale rates the text on a 100 point scale. Shoot for 40-70.

Flesch-Kincaid grade level attempts to measure how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content.

In addition, the readability test will return the average number of words per sentence, syllables per word, and more. The results of my own Computer Applications website are shown below.

Internet 2009, By the Numbers

2010-04-16T10:15:00.000-07:00

Fascinating article at the Royal Pingdom, running down the shape of the Internet, 2009, by the numbers. I had no idea Ashton Kutcher was so popular.

Highlights:

Email
* 90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
* 247 billion – Average number of email messages per day.
* 81% – The percentage of emails that were spam.
* 92% – Peak spam levels late in the year.
* 24% – Increase in spam since last year.

Social Media
* 126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
* 84% – Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
* 27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
* 57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States.
* 4.25 million – People following @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher, Twitter’s most followed user).
* 350 million – People on Facebook.
* 50% – Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.

Videos
* 1 billion – The total number of videos YouTube serves in one day.
* 182 – The number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (USA).
* 81.9% – Percentage of embedded videos on blogs that are YouTube videos.

Malicious software
* 148,000 – New zombie computers created per day (used in botnets for sending spam, etc.)
* 2.6 million – Amount of malicious code threats at the start of 2009 (viruses, trojans, etc.)
* 921,143 – The number of new malicious code signatures added by Symantec in Q4 2009.

Thanks to Loretta Lohman and Erin Pheil for the tip.

Aviary: Online Design Tools

2010-04-08T13:07:00.000-07:00

Aviary (http://aviary.com/)is a suite of seven free browser-based design tools: Phoenix (a Photoshop-like image editor), Toucan (a color picker and color palette generator), Peacock (a very fun visual effects editor), Raven (a vector graphics editor), Talon (a screen capture tool), Falcon (an image markup tool) and Myna (a multi-track audio editor).

While the bird related names for the various tolls might be a little overly cute, the tools are for the most part easy to use and well designed (my seven year old daughter figured out how to use the image editor in minutes). Each tool has an introductory video and many video tutorials. Talon, the screen capture tool, can be incorporated into Firefox with an add-on. You can store your work either on the Aviary "cloud" or save it back to your own computer when you are done (recommended; see the last paragraph).

While all the tools are free, registration is required for some features (username, password, email address). There used to be a $25/yr pro version, but now everything is free.

Two drawbacks that I found: any work you do can be used for display by Aviary, although you will be listed as the creator. For example, your art could be used as an image for a third-party news article about Aviary. Also, if you store your work online with Aviary, they will place a watermark in the lower left hand corner. This watermark can be avoided, however, if you download your work directly to your desktop, rather than storing it with Aviary.

Other than those drawbacks, it's a wonderful design suite. Aviary does most of the chores performed by the costly Adobe Creative Suite, does them online, and for free!

Thanks to Darrin Goodman for the tip.

New CSU Extension Logos

2010-03-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

Revisions have been made to the CSU Extension wordmark and other associated artwork. The new graphics are located online at www.ext.colostate.edu/logos/. The revisions include a decreased space between the CSU logo and the Extension "swoosh" underneath it, and the availability of an alternate shade of green. Contact Joanne Littlefield if you have any questions. You do not need to replace any graphics currently in use, but are expected to use the new graphics as you create new outreach materials.

Pixlr

2010-03-16T08:32:00.001-07:00

We have posted on this tool before, back in February of last year, but with so many people cropping, resizing and compressing photos for websites, I thought it deserved mentioning again.

Pixlr (http://www.pixlr.com/editor/) is a free on-line picture editor that allows you to crop, resize, compress, add filters, work with layers, and do pretty much anything you are able to do in Photoshop or GIMP. You go to the site, import the picture from your computer or a URL, and then use the toolbox and the menus to manipulate the picture. Cropping is done using the cropping tool in the toolbox (shown at left, cropping tool is circled in red). Resizing is done by choosing Image Size in the Image menu and changing the number of pixels. Compressing is done by choosing Save As in the File menu, where you can choose the format of your final image (e.g. .gif, .jpg, .png) and the quality of the compression.

If you are familiar with Photoshop, you may recognize these commands, as they are the exact ones you'd use to accomplish these tasks in Photoshop. You'll also recognize the workspace below, as it is quite similar to the Photoshop workspace. The difference? It's on-line...and it's free!

Importing Tabular Data Into Dreamweaver

2010-03-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

You can quickly import data from Excel directly into a web page in Dreamweaver using the Import Tabular Data command.

The first step is to save the Excel file as a tab delimited .txt file using the Save As Type pulldown menu(a screenshot is below).

Next, bring up your webpage in Dreamweaver. Go to the Insert menu, choose Table Objects, and then Import Tabular Data (shown below).

Browse to the file in the Dialogue box (shown below), define the size, in pixels, of your cell padding (space between cell wall and content), cell spacing (space between cells), and borders. That's it! Easy, huh?

CSU Social Media Policies

2010-03-03T13:38:00.000-08:00

CSU is currently in the process of finalizing their official Social Media policies (expected to be approved by the end of the semester), but there is plenty of information already available at the CSU Social Media Policy page, at http://socialmedia.colostate.edu/page/Social-Media-Policy.aspx.

Overviews and best practices while working with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and YouTube are available there. Also listed are links to sites discussing graphic standards, copyright information, website requirements and guidelines, and other applicable CSU policies.

In addition, you can find Twitter backgrounds, tips for creating profile images, a communicators toolbox, and all sorts of social media resources.

Also, a VOLUNTARY social media account application is available, so you can apply to have your social media accounts recognized by CSU.

Finally, if you'd like to weigh in on CSU Social Media policies before they become finalized, there is a link at the bottom of of the Social Media Policy page that allows you to contact them.

Using Google Analytics

2010-02-25T12:15:00.001-08:00

Google Analytics can tell you how many people come to your website, where they are coming from, where they go once they get there, how long they stay, and much more. You can chart these numbers over any given time period. It is an incredibly useful tool.

Here's how to set it up for your own website.

You need a Google account to start (you just need to provide them with an email address and a password). Then go to Google Analytics (https://www.google.com/analytics/). Click "Add An Account" (shown below, the link is circled).

Next, copy-and-paste in the URL of your site, give it a name, and provide your time zone (below).

You'll go through a couple more screens, asking for your name, and agreeing to their terms of service. Google will then give you a snippet of code (shown below) in a box. Click inside the box, and hit Ctrl+C to copy the code.

Open the code of your index page using Dreamweaver or Notepad. Go to the very bottom of the code and paste (Ctrl+V) the Google code just above the closing body tag. Save the page. Do this to EVERY Page page on your website.

And that's it! In 24 hours you'll have a snapshot of web activity on your site. It'll update every 24 hours. Go to the same analytics page (https://www.google.com/analytics/) to see it. The graph and numbers below it will give you a basic overview. The lefthand navigation allows you to look at specific metrics: traffic sources, browser capabilities, etc. A screenshot is provided below; click to enlarge it.

Free Image Databases

2010-02-19T11:08:00.000-08:00

Need images for your website or brochure?

There are many resources out there that provide free images for websites and print publications. Low resolution images are best for the web, as they greatly reduce file size and thus download time, and are typically 72 dpi (dots per inch). Print publications need much higher resolution, and require a minimum of 300 dpi.

Here is a quick rundown of five excellent free image databases. Please observe copyright notices and requests for credit lines.

The Bugwood Network (http://www.bugwood.org/)has lots of free pictures of, well, bugs and wood, but lots of other nature, agriculture, and whole ecosystem photos as well. Various Creative Commons licenses apply to different images, so be sure and check on the CC license of a specific image. You must register as member to get high resolution images, but membership is free.

Communications and Creative Services (CCS) Photo Resources (http://www.ext.colostate.edu/staffres/photos.html). Over 2000 images. Login is CoopExt, password will be provided by Help desk. The Asset>Information menu will provide you with the applicable credit line to use.

CREES (http://www.csrees.umd.edu/) has photos in all topic areas from Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service. Free and comprehensive.

Natural Resources Conservation Service (http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/) has a very nice searchable database. Requires a credit line in publication or webpage. Images may not be distorted or altered.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (http://www.nrel.gov/data/pix/) has a collection of photographs related to renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. Low resolution images - useful for the web - for free. High resolution images cost $42. Acknowledge DOE/NREL for all images used, and give appropriate credit.

W3C's HTML Validator and Link Checker

2010-02-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium, the guardians of webpage standards, has two tools worth noting to help you validate your HTML and check your links.

The first is a Mark-up Validation service (http://validator.w3.org/) that checks the validity your HTML against current web standards. It gives you the line number and a brief explanation of any errors it finds. If you pass the validator, you get a nifty icon to put on your website!

The second is a link checker (http://validator.w3.org/checklink) that looks for issues in links, anchors and referenced objects in a webpage, or on an entire website.

Also available on the site are HTML tutorials, HTML cheat sheets, and much more. Check them out!

Text Link Checker Tool

2010-02-03T12:16:00.000-08:00

Is your website in a bad neighborhood?

The Bad Neighborhood text link checker (http://www.bad-neighborhood.com/text-link-tool.htm) automatically scans the links on your website, and on the pages that your website is linking to, and flags possible problem areas. Cut-and-paste your URL into the box, and the site will examine the anchor text linking to the various pages, and check for parts of certain words within them, such as “adult”, “sex”, and “pharma” (among others). Obviously, not every site with those words is a suspect site, but the tool does help you ferret out potential problem areas.

Clarification of what the tool actually does is available at http://bad-neighborhood.blogsblogsblogs.com/2007/08/26/a-quick-clarification-on-the-bad-neighborhood-detector/

A partial screenshot of the results of my own site is shown below. Click to enlarge.

WAVE: Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool

2010-01-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

At http://wave.webaim.org/ you will find the easy-to-use WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool). There are several ways to use it: put in your URL, upload your HTML files, or cut and paste your code directly into a provided window.

What WAVE returns is your page with an overlay that tags both good accessibility practices and accessibility errors. Errors are noted with a big headline above the page. A screenshot is below, with various tags circled. Click it to see a larger version.

In addition, there is a button in the upper right corner that alows you to disable your CSS styles and see the basic structure of your site, sans CSS. Remember, An accessible document should be well-structured, meaningful, and readable without CSS.

Screen Reader Emulator

2010-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

A key issue in website accessibility is how well your site converts to a text-to-speech reader, used by end-users with visual impairments. Essentially, a screen reader "reads" a website to the end-user, noting links, headers, tables and frames.

There is a very cool add-on to Firefox called the Fangs Screen Reader Emulator. It strips away graphics and layout and allows you to read your site as it will be read by a text-to-speech screen reader. You can download it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/402.

Then, to test your website's screen reader friendliness, go to the Tools menu and choose Fangs. It will bring up your page in a screen reader emulator that translate your site to text only, listing exactly what will be read by the screen reader.

Here is a site as it appears in Firefox:

And as it appears in the Fangs Screen Reader Emulator (click to enlarge):

Things to watch out for (taken from the Fangs tutorial on writing for text-to-speech screen readers):
-Are there many consecutive table announcements?
-Are there long sections of uninterrupted text?
-Are the navigation links well labeled?
-Are the heading texts understandable? Is it clear for the user under which heading to look for specific content?

To learn more about writing for screen readers, go to the Fangs help site at http://www.standards-schmandards.com/fangs/help/index.php?l=en-US&v=1.0.7#about

Colorblind Web Page Filter

2010-01-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

A web accessibility tool after my own heart! Color-blindness is an oft-neglected but important consideration when determining web accessibility. There is a tool at http://colorfilter.wickline.org/ that allows you to see your website as a colorblind person would see it. The sight can replicate lots of different forms of colorblindness, from the relatively common red/blue color-blindness (8% of males) to total color blindness, or monochromacy (well under 1% of the population).

Just cut and past your URL into the box, and choose the type of color blindness you'd like to replicate. Some screen shots of the Extension template with the colorblind filter applied are below.

Our website in full color:

Our website as it would look to someone with red/green color blindness:

Our website as it would look to someone with monochromacy:

Using Dreamweaver's FTP

2010-01-05T09:09:00.000-08:00

Dreamweaver has a nifty little FTP (File Transfer Protocol) that allows you to easily upload and download files between your computer and the web server that houses your website. The key is to NOT use the File pane on the right (outlined in black in the illustration below; click to enlarge), as it is easy to get confused as to whether you're working in local view or remote view. The best way to transfer files is to toggle the File pane to expand it to the entire window. The toggle is located at the very right of the toolbar above the File pane (circled in yellow below).

One you click the toggle button, you'll see your local files (the ones on your computer) at the right (see below; click to enlarge). If you click the Connect button (labeled 1 in the illustration below) you'll connect to the server, and then see the remote files (the ones on the web server) on the left. To upload a file to the web server, select the file from the local files on the right, then click the Upload button (labeled 2). The file will upload from your computer to the web server. To download a file from the web server, select the file from the server on the right, then click the Download button (labeled 3). The file will download from the web server to your own computer.

Webpage Template Connect Sessions

2009-12-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

We'll be conducting twice monthly Connect sessions on working with the CSU Extension webpage template, starting on the second Wednesday in January, and continuing on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month.

We'll work with every aspect of the webpage template, from downloading the files and defining the site in Dreamweaver to publishing the site working with Google Analytics to see who is visiting your site, and why.

The complete schedule is below. Each session will start at 9 a.m., and run approximately an hour. Mark your calenders!

Jan. 13 – Walkthrough of template components; Walkthrough of Dreamweaver workspace

Jan. 20 – Directory structure, defining the site

Feb. 3 – Metatags; Adding text, images, links to the home page

Feb. 17 –Working with Server Side Includes (SSIs)

March 3 – Named anchors

March 17 – Micro-content (headers, links, lists, data definition lists, buttons, block quotes, boxes)

April 7 – Working with tables on the main page

April 21 – 2nd level page content

May 5 – Writing your own CSS

May 19 – Using Google Analytics

Connect Session Archives

2009-12-18T09:34:00.001-08:00

The session archives for Connect trainings (http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/comptrain/co.shtml) have been redesigned to make topics easier to find. Everything is now on one easily searched page.

Over 30 hours of computer Applications training are now archived there, including Connect sessions on CSS, Dreamweaver, Google Tools, Image Editing Using Photoshop and GIMP, Office 07, Online Collaborative Tools, Photoshop, and Writing HTML and CSS from the Ground Up. All sessions are between 30 and 90 minutes long. Please check them out!

HTML 101 Tutorial

2009-12-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

Darrin Goodman has put together an excellent HTML 101 video that succinctly explains the basic structure of the HTML tags in a web page. It's a great introductory lesson if you are just learning about HTML and web design. Check it out!

This video was created with free and open source software. The tools used: Ubuntu Linux, Firefox, Leafpad, and gtk-recordMyDesktop.

Another excellent tutorial on HTML and CSS is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwQMnpUsj8I. It shows you how to create a webpage from scratch using only a text editor.

The 25 Second Rule

2009-12-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

It is easy, if you have a fast internet connection, to be lured into the assumption that the rest of the world has one as well. But a significant percentage of the people looking at your website are using dial-up connections, and you need to keep them in mind when designing your web pages. The 25 second rule is a good one to keep in mind: make sure your web pages can be downloaded within 25 seconds on a 56 kbps (kilobytes per second) modem.

If you are using Dreamweaver, this is easy to check. Look in the lower right-hand corner of the document window (see below; click to enlarge) and you will see the download time of whatever page you have up in the window.

To change the connection speed, and see how quickly your page loads at different speeds, use the pull dowbn arrow just to the left of the download time (see below; click to enlarge). Click Edit Sizes. from, there you will be able to choose from a variety of different connection speeds.

Using Filters in Google Analytics

2009-11-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

If you use Google Analytics to monitor traffic to your website, it might be wise to exclude visits to the site by yourself and other site developers. You can do this easily, by adding a filter, so that certain IP addresses or domain names are not included in the metrics.

Log in to Google Analytics and select the site you want to add the filter to. Click Edit, toward the right side of the screen (see below, click to enlarge).

Go to the section Filters applied to profile and select +Add Filter (see below, click to enlarge).

This will take you to the filter dialogue box. Choose whether you want to exclude traffic from a domain, an IP address, or traffic to certain subdirectories, and then enter the domain, address, or subdirectory. In the example below we've used an IP address. Click Save Changes and you are done (see below, click to enlarge).

You can use the site What is My IP Address (http://whatismyipaddress.com/) to find your IP address.

To see a Connect tutorial on setting up Google Analytics for your site, go to the Connect tutorial page on Google Analytics (http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p28806841/)

Online Dreamweaver and Photoshop Tutorials

2009-11-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

Adobe has thousands of video tutorials up at Adobe TV (http://tv.adobe.com/channel/how-to/), in easy to digest five minute segments.

These tutorials cover the latest versions (e.g. CS4, in most cases) of all the products Adobe offers: Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign, Premeire, and lots more. Experience levels range from beginner to advanced. They are well thought out, and well produced.

Embedded below is a tutorial pulled from their site on defining a site on Dreamweaver CS4, the first step in working with any site in Dreamweaver.

Thanks to Darrin Goodman for the tip!

Microcontent

2009-11-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

People read books. They scan websites.

Keep this in mind when adding content to your own website, particularly your home page. Use short sentences, short paragraphs. Develop a clean, clear, simple writing style. Write like Hemmingway.

An excellent strategy to draw people into your site is use micocontent. Microcontent refers to small bits bits of text, formatted so they can be easily scanned.

Example include...

Headlines:

Links:

Lists:

Buttons (image links):

Boxes:

Blockquotes:

Google Search Tip

2009-10-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

It can be overwhelming to filter through the results of a Google search link by link. There is a new feature now, where you can sort the links by time, and thus find the most recent posts quickly. Click the "“Show options” link (the one with the little plus sign in front of it) below the search box. Lots of filtering options will appear on the left-hand side of your screen, so you can limit results to posts made in the last hour, the last week, or the last year. Lots of other options appear as well (shown at the left), including "Fewer shopping sites" to help ween out the folks trying to sell you something, and the "Wonder Wheel" to give you a graphic representation of related subjects.

There will be an all day Google Tools workshop in Pueblo on December 4th, where we will explore how to use on many of the amazing free Google tools available to you. Email me at Jeffrey.Wood@Colostate.edu for more details.

Thanks to Loretta Lohman for the tip.

Google Docs Presentations

2009-10-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Google Docs allows you to share a synchronized PowerPoint presentation with others using a shared URL. Combined with a conference call, you can offer an entire presentation in this manner. For free!

Upload the PowerPoint to Google docs. Then in the upper right-hand corner, click Start presentation, which will turn the presentation to full screen.

In the lower right-hand corner, click View Together. This will bring up the presentation with a chat pod on the right (shown below).

Just above the chat pod will be a URL to share with the others in the group. Email the link to the rest of the group. As they click on the link, their names will show up on the chat pod. When everyone has joined, simply progress through the presentation, slide by slide. The presentations on their screens will move with yours, so everyone wil quite literally be on the same page.

Google Doc Forms

2009-10-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is an incredibly useful tool I use so often, and suggest to others so frequently, I was actually surprised to realize I hadn't written about this already.

You can easily build an online form and have it write the resulting data to an online Excel document housed at a Google Docs account. The form can handle many kinds of questions: multiple choice, multiple answer, text, paragraph text, grids, and scales.

To create a Google Docs form, go to your Google Docs home page. Choose Create New, then Form.

Simply type your question text into the Question Title box, choose your question type, and type in your answer options.

If you like, you can add a customized confirmation message. The resultant poll can be emailed, published as a stand alone web page, or embedded in an existing webpage or blog (as I've done below). The data will be automatically written to an Excel form at the Google Docs site.

Here's a sample form embedded into this blog. It's a live, functioning form, so feel free to fill it out. I promise to read your answers!

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Publisher and PowerPoint Templates

2009-10-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

Much has been made of the Extension webpage templates, but there are other templates at your disposal as well, for brochures, reports and PowerPoint presentations. Also available are a wide range of loges, in different colors, sizes, alignments and backgrounds.

Template for Publisher brochures are available at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/logos/Communications%20Template-Instructions/. There are templates here for Colorado Living brochures, 4H brochures (one is shown below), and general Extension brochures. Also available here, inside the Photos folder, are a wide range of photos and images, cleared for use. The instructions for using all of these are resources are posted at the URL as well.

Templates for a wide range of press releases and reports are available at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/logos/Communications%20Template-Instructions/Report%20templates/. Many of these allow you to easily insert an image of your own to personalize the graphics (a letterhead with an blank placeholder for your own image is shown below). Instructions are posted.

Template for PowerPoint presentations are available at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/logos/PP_Templates/. One of the Master Gardener title slides is shown below.

Finally, a vast number of CSU, Extension, 4H and Master Gardener logos, in many formats, sizes, colors, and alignments, are available at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/staffres/bulletin/logos.html. Applicable graphic standards are posted here as well. The MG logo is shown below.

Excel 07: Table Formatting

2009-09-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

A cool new feature in Excel 07 is the automatic formatting options available for tables.

If you go to the Insert tab, choose Table, and select the data you want to convert, the Table tools and formatting options will appear in the ribbon.

By default, Excel will band the rows and columns for easier reading. It will also add pulldown filter menus to each of the column headers, a total row at the bottom, and a pulldown menu in the bottom right to quickly get a minimum, maximum, average or sum of your total row. Each of these options can be easily turned on or off in the Table Styles Options section of the ribbon (see below).

Pagination in Word 07

2009-09-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

Paginating a specific section in previous versions of Word could be a frustrating process, and I suppose it's comforting to know that some things never change. Here's a tutorial on paginating a specific section of a document in Word 07.

First, you need to create a separate section. Go to the Page Layout tab, choose Breaks, then create a section break (in most cases you'll want a "Next Page" section break). This is shown in the screen shot below.

Next, choose a Header, Footer, or Page Number option from the Header and Footer section at the upper left (shown below).

Now, the crucial step: disconnect it from the previous section. This can be done in the Design tab by clicking the "Link to Previous" button in the Navigation section, to toggle OFF the link (shown below).

From there, it's simply a matter of going to the Page Number command, choosing Format Page Numbers, and choosing which numbering style you want, what number to start with, etc. The previous section of the document can be formatted with the same dialogue box. Or, if you don't want the previous section numbered, simple choose Remove Header or Remove Footer from the Header or Footer tab.

Creating Masks in PowerPoint

2009-09-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you want to highlight a section on a graphic by masking out the rest of it with a semi-transparent mask. An example is below. Here's how you do it in PowerPoint.

1) Insert the graphic (Insert>Picture).

2) Use the drawing tool to draw a rectangle over the graphic (Insert>Shapes, then choose the rectangle tool and draw it).

Then, right click the rectangle, choose Format Picture and dial the transparency up to 25% or so.

It should now look like this:

3) Draw an oval over the bit you want to highlight. Use the Fill Color tool to make it a different color.

4) Select the oval, hold down Ctrl, and select the rectangle. Right-click, and choose Save as Picture. Name it "mask.png".

5) Delete the rectangle and the oval. Then insert the mask.png graphic you just made (Insert>Picture, and browse to "mask.png").

6) Click Recolor Picture. Select Set Transparent Color. Then click the oval. This will make it transparent.

To see a live demonstration of this process, and learn how to animate it so the mask dissolves in and moves from item to item, show up for next Wednesday's Connect session on PowerPoint 07, from 9 to 10:30 a.m.. There will be an announcement in Monday's email, or you can contact me at jeffrey.wood@colostate.edu.

ZScreen: Free Screen Capture Software

2009-09-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

I mentioned today in a Connect training session that I changed a Word document to a .jpg image by taking a screenshot of it, as Connect allows you to import .jpg's, but not Word documents. I did not explain how I did that. Personally, I use SnagIt (http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp) for these kind of screen captures, but it costs $50.

A free piece of open source software that works nearly as well is ZScreen (http://brandonz.net/projects/zscreen/index.html). You specify whether you'd like to capture the entire screen, a specific window, or a crop of your desktop. You can set the hotkeys for the capture to whatever you want (a screenshot - created with ZScreen - of that menu is below), choose what folders you want to put your images into, and whether you want to bring them up in a photo editor after capture.

ZScreen doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Snagit, but it is fast and fr`ee and good at what it does. If you bring your captures up in an image editor like Photoshop or GIMP to modify it, you can do anything Snagit can do.

Convert PowerPoint to Flash

2009-08-26T09:28:00.000-07:00

ISpring (http://www.ispringsolutions.com/)is a cool, free little add-on to PowerPoint that allows you to convert PowerPoint into flash files (.swf) so they can be inserted into web pages, Moodle, and any other platform that uses Flash content. It adds a tab (shown below) to the PowerPoint "Ribbon," or toolbar

It also allows you to easily insert Flash movies into PowerPoint slides, and YouTube videos as well.

An example is shown below. It is the the PowerPoint that will accompany the "Using Connect" Connect session on Sept. 2, from 9 to 10 a.m.. For more information about attending this session, contact me at Jeffrey.Wood@colostate.edu.

Reusing Slides in PowerPoint 07

2009-08-18T13:04:00.000-07:00

Slides in PowerPoint presentations get reused often. In older versions of PowerPoint, all you had to do was click Insert, Slides from Files, and then browse to the slideshow from you want to reuse a slide.

Oddly, Microsoft has made this commonly used command a little harder to find in PowerPoint 07, the latest version of PowerPoint. I've gotten several questions about it already. So, here's how. Click the dropdown arrow just under the New Slide button. Then go to the bottom of the dialogue box and you'll see the Reuse Slides command. Click it, browse to the slideshow you want to use, and you're done.

Joanne Littlefield and I will be holding a Connect session on using PowerPoint 07 on September 16th, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. If you're new to PowerPoint 07, or thinking of switching to it, be there. An email reminder will be sent out the week before.

If there are any specific topics you'd like addressed during the session, please email me at jeffrey.wood@colostate.edu.

Online IT Training on Facebook

2009-08-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

eXtension now has a presence on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/). Facebook is a social networking site that provides a "feed" from other people's Facebook pages. You essentially subscribe to another person's feed by becoming their "friend." Think "contact" whenever you see the word "friend" on Facebook and the whole thing will make more sense.

You can network with other Extension professionals there, share ideas, provide feedback and much more. Sign-up is easy; all you need to provide is an email address and a password. Other profile details are optional.

If you do a search for "Extension Online IT Training" (use the Search box in the upper right corner) you can join the Extension Online IT Training Group. Their next training is "The Basics of Working With Images" on Wednesday, August 19, from 12-2. Go to
http://slms.delta.ncsu.edu/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1247246047004 at the appointed time to attend the session.

Future IT trainings posted on Facebook include discussions of Twitter and Facebook. The more general eXtension Group on Facebook offers a calender of Connect sessions on working with keywords, the Ask an Expert widget, and much more. Become a Extension Online IT Training member on Facebook to learn more.

Excel 07 Page Layout View

2009-08-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Excel 07 - the latest version of Excel - offers a solution to one of the most vexing aspects of Excel: print formatting. In older versions of Excel, to format the printed version of a spreasdsheet, you needed to go to File, then Page Setup, then Print Preview, and then sort of hop back and forth between Page Setup and Print Preview and tweak the layout to get the correct printed page. Getting the rows and columns to break at just the right spot was a cumbersome and time-consuming process.

Excel 07 has a Page Layout view as the center icon at the lower righthand corner of the page (it's circled in the illustration to the right). It changes the view on the document screen (below) to how it will look when printed so that you can tweak it and see your changes enacted immediately. The row and column heading bars are moved to just outside the document, so you can resize rows and columns, hide columns, etc., just by working with the row and column bar options. You can also use the Ribbon commands to change font size and styles, hide or show gridlines, add border styles, all on the document pane, until you get the exact printed document you want. You can even add headers and footer by clicking directly on the page and typing. Page breaks, both horizontal and vertical, automatically readjust as you make changes to the document.