Warning all Blog Farmers!

Some people have "Blog Farms" -- hundreds of Blogger blogs created for the specific purpose of milking AdSense dollars out of random visitors.

Usually such blogs are forgotten parked in one remote corner of the Internet since it's not activately updated and cultivated.

NEWS: Blogger has recently stepped up deleting such blogs after a grace period.

What's happening is Blogger is inviting the owners of such blogs for a CAPTCHA verification. If you neglect typing in the CAPTCHA characters and telling Blogger to stop, your blog will be deleted before you even know it.

That's a good thing to keep the Internet free of blog spamming.

But the downside is, Blogger does that to perfectly legitimate blogs as well, like it happened to me. Since I do not spam and keep this blog updated on a regular basis that was not a problem with me.



What about you? Have you updated your Blogger blog recently? Don't be surprised if after a few months down the road you try to log in to your blog and Blogger informs you that your blog has been locked or deleted since you did not respond to their call to validate and prove your identity.

WORDS OF WISDOM

"Your time is limited; so don't waste it living someone else's life."

~ Steve Jobs

TOC with Thumbnail Page Sketches

I like this innovative way of presenting a TOC with the thumbnail sketches of the Chapter title pages. Good job, SitePoint!

"Consulting" too much...

The verb "consult" is overused in technical documentation.

Why say "if you don't have a TV signal, consult with your TV company" instead of "if you don't have a TV signal, call your installer or the TV company"?

We're not really "consulting." We're just giving them a call. That's all.

It gets worse when we tell people to "consult" with inanimate objects!

"If the parts don't fit, consult the parts list in your User Guide." Ugh!

I prefer: "If the parts don't fit, check the parts list in your User Guide."

CONSULT:

• get or ask advice from; "Consult your local broker"; "They had to consult before arriving at a decision"
• seek information from; "You should consult the dictionary"; "refer to your notes"
• confer: have a conference in order to talk something over; "We conferred about a plan of action"
• advise professionally; "The professor consults for industry"

Are you using your MySpace blog?

MySpace has a built in blog for every account. That represents a potential pool of 100 million readers.

1) Click the Manage Blog link on your Home page to display your MySpace Blog page.
2) Click the Post New Blog link under My Controls to open up a new post screen:



You can follow your post with any link you like. This can be a link to any product or service you offer, or an article which both shares information and invites your readers to click a link that leads to a landing page or a marketing offer.

Visit Sports Nut

I invite you to visit a new web site launched just today by my friend Al Porter.

SportsNuts of America was developed for the purpose of providing avid sports fans the opportunity to tell the world about their love of sports - to tell everyone they know and don’t know “Hey, I’m a Sports Nut”. The clever caricature of a SportsNut includes a symbol of each of the major four team sports in America (baseball, basketball, football and hockey) but a true sports nut is a fan of almost all sports, including soccer, golf, tennis, boxing, NASCAR and others.

I'm a basketball nut (great Celtics and Lakers fan from time immemorial) and I'm sure I'll keep visiting SportsNut in the days and months ahead.

Book Covers Created in Inkscape

Front Cover

Inkscape is a free open-source vector drawing program, similar to Adobe Illustrator.

I am aware that nothing can match the vast capabilities of the Illustrator. But for my own purposes Inkscape is doing just fine.

I have for example created the following book covers for my new report on Article Marketing, executed totally in Inkscape.

Click on the images to see a larger version.

Back Cover

I kind of like it. What do you think?

Would you like me to share some Inkscape tutorials with you here about how to design book covers and other graphics ?

Two Reading Factoids from New York

1) New York Times web site recorded 1 BILLION page views in October 2008.

2) Professional book group "facilitators" in New York City charge $250 to $300 a member annually for their services, which include making book recommendations to the group and facilitating the meetings.

How to Recycle Through Open Documents in NeoOffice?

Imagine you have 10 documents open on your NeoOffice. How would you recycle from one to the other?

One way to do it of course is to click the Window menu and select the document you want. But this gets very tiresome if for example you've got two or three documents open and you need to toggle back and forth constantly among them.

Here is a short cut:

If you press COMMAND (Apple) + TILDE (~) your Mac will toggle from one open document to another and save you untold amounts of time.

How to link an image to an URL with Image Map in NeoOffice?

1) Select the image and right-click on it to display the pop-up menu:


2) Select the Image Map to display the Image Map Editor:



3) Select one of the 4 image map buttons on the menu bar: Rectangle, Ellipse, Polygon, Freeform Polygon. My favorite is Polygon and I'll select that one for this exercise.

4) Draw the polygon you like around the image. The edges of the polygon will be marked with a dotted-line:



5) Finish drawing the image map by double clicking your mouse. A grayed-out area will mark your image map.



6) In the Address field, type in the web address to which you want to link:



7) You can select from the following Frame options:

Named entries: File opens in a named frame in the current HTML document.

_self: File opens in the current frame.

_blank: File opens in a new page.

_parent: File opens in the parent frame of the current frame. If there is no parent frame, the current frame is used.

_top: File opens in the topmost frame in the hierarchy.

I prefer BLANK to the others since it leaves the source window intact.

8) Click the Apply button (green circle with a check mark in it).

If you'd like to save this image with this image map you can save it by clicking the Save button (third from left -- the one that looks like a Mac hard drive).

9) Click the Close screen button (red circle with a X in it) and your Mac will prompt you if you'd like to save the changes. Click Yes and you're done.

NeoOffice Recovery Procedure

NeoOffice works pretty well on my MacBook. Actually I've finished a 30 page report on Article Marketing, complete with a full-color cover.

At some point NeoOffice just froze up. I force-quit the application. When I restart it, it presents this beautiful recovery window and recovers every document that was not properly saved when I force-quit. Great functionality. MS Word has it too but NeoOffice is free, including its frequent upgrades. Last time I checked, MS Word wasn't.

BTW -- to take the screen shot of any window, icon or image on a Mac -- press Shift + Command (Apple) + 4 and then hit the SPACE BAR and Mac will display a CAMERA icon. Place "your camera" over the visual element and click it! Presto. The screenshot is automatically saved on your Desktop. That's how I captured the screenshot you see above. You do not need to buy a screenshot software if you've got a Mac.

PRO-FORM for building rapid on-line tutorials

Here is a product that makes life a little bit easier for those of us who are trying to put together a product, service or educational tutorial without any fuss: PRO-FORM (Version 3) from the Rapid Intake company.

I went through their excellent tutorial and liked what I saw. Here are the highlights:

• Four Quiz Question Types

You can have four quiz question types. The following question types also allow you to add audio or images to any multiple choice question:

Multiple Choice Audio Question
Multiple Correct Audio Question
Multiple Choice Image Question
Multiple Correct Image Question

• Specific Feedback for Multiple Choice Questions

For any of our Multiple Choice question types (Multiple Choice, Multiple Choice Audio, Multiple Choice Image) you can add a feedback field for each specific option. That means that if a learner picks a specific answer you can control what ProForm will display. There is now an extra field for each distractor.

• Printing and Email Functionality Added to Quiz

When the learner reaches the results page they will now have an option to print or email the results. There is also an option to include the learner's name if the course is connected to an LMS. The email button allows an email to be sent to a predetermined email address, using the learner's default email application.

• Four Course Style Templates

You can choose from the following four course style templates:

Red Default Style

Glossy Soft Edges Style

Deep Black Style

Steel Style

• 6 New Page Templates

Step by Step Template. This template allows you to teach any step-by-step interaction. The steps are listed on the left-hand side. The learner can click on any step for more detailed instructions. This interaction supports up to 9 steps. If you have more steps that this, you can split it into two interactions for more effective instruction.

Video Template. A new template that uses a Flash FLV video.

Jigsaw Puzzle Template. The jigsaw puzzle template is a flash-based interactive template which allows you to change your own image into a jigsaw puzzle. Simply select the image, choose the number of pieces for the puzzle, and let ProForm do the rest! Users then drag and drop the puzzle pieces together to create the image.

Term and Definitions Template. This template teaches definitions to specific terms and then quizzes learners. In this two-step interaction, the first step allows learners to review. In the second step the learners drag the terms to their correct definitions with a drag and drop activity.

Image Rollover Template. This template allows you to present the learner with up to five images. When the learner mouses over each image it enlarges and provides more detailed information.

Certificate Page Template. This page allows you to provide your learners with a certificate when successfully completing a ProForm course. You can choose from two different certificate types or upload your own art. You can restrict the certificate so that it will not display until the learner has visited every page or passed a quiz. Along with other options, you can prompt the learner to provide a name or pull it from an LMS.

For more information on PRO-FORM, click here

OpenOffice Draw Functions

OpenOffice (OO) is such a powerful office suite but it's a shame most people are not even aware of its power and functionalities, which all come for FREE!

Here are some of the drawing features that are unleashed when you select File > New > Drawing from the main OO menu.

General Drawing Window:



Drop-Down List of Arrows:




Drop-Down List of 3-D Effects (you can transform any shape into 3-D object):



You can arrange the layering (front/back) of multiple objects relative to one another:



You can align the edges of multiple objects relative to one another or center them vertically and horizontally:



You can fill selected objects with photographic binary images:



You can fill your shapes with built-in gradients:



You can fill your objects with pen hatching marks:



You can connect your shapes with many different connectors:



OO Draw comes with built-in drag-and-drop graphic images and exploding stars, etc. (perfect for ads, certificates, etc.)



You can tear individual graphic tabs from the menu and use them all at once on the same drawing!



This is just a snapshot of the few capabilities of this free drawing program. Do you still think you need MS Visio?

The myths that masquerade as facts

The myth: The Width of the Space Shuttle's Fuel Tank is based on a History that Extends Back to the Roman Chariots!

Summary of the eRumor:

This story is a "We've always done it that way" tale.

It claims that the width of the Space Shuttle's fuel tank is only four-feet, eight-and-a-half inches and the NASA engineers could not make them any wider no matter how hard they tried!

Why?

Because the fuel tanks are transported by railroads and the standard distance between railroad rails in the U.S. is four-feet, eight-and-a-half inches.

Why?

Because that's what it was in England.

Why?

Because that's the gauge the tramways used before the railroads.

Why?

Because the tramways were built using the same tools as wagon-builders and that's how wide the wagon wheels were spaced.

Why?

Because the old roads in England had ruts that the wheels needed to accommodate.

Why?

Because the ruts were made by Imperial Roman chariots.

The Truth:

There is no evidence that we could find that this is true.

THE POINT: Everything you read or hear on the Internet is not true. Verify first. Believe later.

Use Google Calendar to Remember Birthdays, Anniversaries and Important Dates

I'm blessed with many family members and friends that I love and care for.

The downside is, I can't remember all their birthdays, especially when my extended family grows each year with the arrival of new beautiful babies.

So here is what I do: I enter all those dates into Google Calendar by clicking the Create Event link which displays the following dialog-box page:



In that screen I select and enter the date, hour, name, place, description etc. of the reminder.

I can also select whether this is a yearly, weekly, etc. or a one-time only event.

Google actually allows me to save as many reminders as I like.

So, the "absent-minded professor" that I am, I usually enter 3 reminders for each event: One e-mail reminder a week before the event; another e-mail reminder a day before the event; and a pop-up reminder just minutes before the event.

Google even let's me decide whether to keep the event as a private affair or make it public, in case I'd like to share it with others. You can share your reminder with others by entering their names and e-mail addresses in a field that is not shown in the above screen-shot.

Google is one smart company that makes my life easier and more productive. I'm not paid to say that but that's the truth and I don't mind saying it for free.

Google Gmail Rolls Out Skin Themes

THEMES tab in the Gmail Settings window.

Goodbye to good'old lain-vanilla blue-and-white Gmail!

Now you can select one of the 30 (and counting!) available skins for your Gmail page.



(Screenshot courtesy of Nirmal)

However, at this writing Themes are not available for every Gmail account. For example, I have it on one of my Gmail accounts but not on the other. If you cannot see the THEMES tab inside your SETTINGS window, be patient. It'll be there soon enough.

3 Universal Rules of Good Writing

There are so many different types of writing that it’s futile trying to list them all.

Yet, there are some principles that hold true in almost every writing situation. I’m tempted to call them “Universal Rules” of good writing, in ANY language.

Here are three such rules:

Brevity. If you can express an idea in one word, do NOT use two words. Shorter is always better unless you’re writing a poem or involved in some aesthetic experiment.

For example, “I did go there” is always better than “as a matter of fact, I did go there”. Eliminate the deadwood and allow your text to breathe comfortably.

Modularity. Break down long procedural descriptions into easily digestible short steps.

Chop your long paragraphs into shorter ones.

If writing for the web, don’t be timid to post each sentence on its own line, with white space in between individual sentences.

Headers. Break up your text with bold headers and sub-headers since most people will only skim through the headers.

Headers that contain the gist of the paragraph below increase comprehension and retention.

For example, here is a good one: “How G-30 suntan lotion reduces skin cancer rate”.

And here is a not-so-good header preceding the same hypothetical paragraph: “Suntan Lotion, Sun, and Your Life”.

MS Word - Assigning Autotext to a Hotkey and a Toolbar

Imagine you have a piece of text that you’d like to quickly add to your documents no matter which document you are in, and regardless of what’s saved in your clipboard.

One solution is to assign that text to a new toolbar button as Autotext.

Here is how to do it:

1) Select Tools > Autocorrect Options from the main menu to display the Autocorrect dialog box.

2) Click and select the Autotext tab.

3) Paste (or type in) your text in the Enter Auto Text Entries Here field.

4) Click Add to have your text listed in the list box below.

5) Close the Autocorrect dialog box.

6) Select Tools > Customize to launch the Customize dialog box.

7) In the Commands tab, select Autotext from the Categories.

8) Find your text in the Commands pane.

9) Click Keyboard button to launch the Customize Keyboard dialog box.

10) Again select Autotext from the Categories and find your text in the Commands pane.

11) In the Press New Shortcut Key enter a new shortcut for this autotext.

Try not to use those shortcuts already in use. For example if you assign Ctrl+V, you’ll be reassigning a very well know shortcut for pasting the content of the clipboard to pasting your custom text. That could lead to confusion.

12) Let’s assume you physically press Control key and then the K key. The shortcut “Ctrl+K” is automatically added as your new shortcut.

13) Click the Assign button and close all windows.
Now, whenever you click Ctrl+A, Word will enter your advisory test at the cursor. You don’t have to type it anymore.

Another method to retrieve your Autotext is to place it in the Toolbar:

In the Customize dialog box:

1) Click and DRAG your autotext to any TOOLBAR you wish.

The text will be inserted as a rectangle. Anytime you click on this rectangle, the associated autotext will be automatically inserted into your text.

However, you can replace this text-button with an icon as well.

2) Select the text-button and click the down-arrow at the end of its toolbar to display the pop-up menu.

3) Select Customize to display the Customize dialog box.

4) Select Autotext from the Categories and find your text in the Commands pane.

5) With the Customize dialog box still open, click the text-button on the toolbar to enable the Modify Selection button.

6) Click Modify Selection button and from the pop-up menu select Change Button Image to display the available icon images.

7) Select an image and then select Default Style option. Your text-button will be replaced by the icon you have chosen. Now every time you click that icon on the toolbar, your autotext will be inserted at where your cursor is.

8) To delete the icon from your toolbar, select Tools > Customize.

9) Click on the icon button and drag it out of the toolbar. This does not delete the autotext from the Customize screen but it’ll delete it from the toolbar.

Freelance vs. Corporate Employment for Writers

Which way should you go as a writer? Should you try to swing it out on your own or become an employee for a company?

Here are the pros and cons for each option:

Freelancing

PROS:

Freedom. You are your own person. You don’t need to listen to any boss figure. You “eat what you kill” and some people just love that kind of life.

Variety. Freelancers work on a variety of assignments, depending on client needs. Less chance for boredom.

Money. Successful freelancers earn more than their employee counterparts.

CONS:

Need to sell yourself. You need great social skills. You have to be an outgoing warm personality to win hearts and contracts.

Need to network constantly. You need to have a deep rolodex to keep in touch with decision makers and also with your colleagues for valuable references.

No benefits. You pay everything yourself and usually at a higher rate. Freelancers, for example, pay a lot more for medical benefits since they do cannot get group rates.

Corporate Employment

PROS:

High job security. If you do your job well, you don’t need to worry where your next paycheck is coming from.

Good benefits. Corporations lavish a number of benefits on their employees including medical coverage, paid holidays, and paid training opportunities.

No marketing. Once you find a full-time job, you do not need to market yourself day and night. Your job is there waiting for you every morning.

CONS:

Lower Income. Corporate writers, even if they are at a senior level, make less than experienced freelancers.

Lack of Variety. Some writing positions can become boring in the long run. Try writing assembly instructions for wooden garden furniture day in day out for 5 years.

Lack of independence. Your fate is tied to that of your company. When the company ship goes down, you’re out there without a job.

MS Word 2003 - How to Create Customized Letters with Mail Merge

You can easily create dozens and hundreds of letters each addressed to a different person and each including customized references.

For example, you can generate a series of letters that look like these:

LETTER 1:

“B. Smith, 123 Road, Boston, MA Zip1

Dear Bob, It was great meeting you on July 23, 2005 in Cincinnati. I’d love to do business with your company Iron Works General, Inc. …”

LETTER 2:

“Coreen Brandonty, 73 Office Tower, Los Angeles, CA Zip2

Dear Coreen, It was great meeting you on February 3, 2006 in Paris. I’d love to do business with your company Tantastic Lotions, Inc. …”

Etc.

This is how you do it:

1) Fire up your Excel, create an excel spreadsheet and save it. Each variable should be a column. Read across, each RECORD will represent all the variables that you need to customize in a letter.

For example, for the above sample letters, the columns may read Name, Last Name, Street Address, City, State, Zip, Date Last met, City Last Met, Company Name, etc.

2) Switch to MS Word 2003. Create a new blank document.

3) From the main menu, select Tools > Letters and Mailings > Mail Merge to display the Mail Merge SIDEBAR on the right side of your screen. Word will automatically display the Mail Merge TOOLBAR on top of your screen.

4) Click Next to go to the next sidebar screen to start your letter.

5) Select the “Use Current Document” radio button.

6) Click Next to go to the next sidebar screen and select your “recipient database.”

7) Click BROWSE in the sidebar to find the Excel sheet.

8) Click Open. Click through the prompt windows to select the appropriate table(s) and variables. Your spreadsheet should now be listed in the sidebar under the “Use an existing list” section.

9) Click on “Edit Recipient List” and then click OK in the “Merge Mail Recipients” dialog box.

10) Click Next to go to the next sidebar screen to start WRITING your letter.

11) Start typing your letter on the blank page. When you come to a VARIABLE that should change from one recipient to another, click More Items in the sidebar to display the Insert Merge Field dialog box.

12) Select the variable that you’d like to insert into your letter and it will appear as a place holder in between a pair of double-chevrons, depending on the way you have named your columns in the Excel spreadsheet.

13) Repeat Step 13 as many times as necessary as you type your letter.

14) When you finish, click Next to preview your letters.

15) You can now preview your letters one at a time by clicking the Front and Back arrows in the sidebar.

16) Click Next to complete the merge and print the merged letters. At this stage you can also edit the individual letters to add your own customized flourishes and notes.

And you are done! Congrats. Now it’s time to mail them.

You can create individual labels, envelopes, directories and even e-mails following the same steps and selecting options appropriate for the kind of mail-merge you have in mind.

This is one well-tested and bug-free MS Word feature that in my judgment beats OpenOffice’s mailmerge functionality which crashes often.