Category: Tips
-
Aug
20Google Voice As Office Phone
I just recently activated a Google Voice number, and wondered how I can start using it as part of my work. It's free (for now), it's easy to setup, it's super cool how they allow you to browse and choose from dozens of phone numbers in your area code - but it's tied to the computer. Or so I thought.
Read More -
Feb
08CSS3 in IE with PIE
Internet Explorer takes a lot of heat over the years (in the web building world) for its lack of support for CSS. It's gotten better with version 7 and version 8, but it still lacks support for the latest version of CSS (CSS 3). Some popular features that CSS3 introduces to browsers like Firefox and Safari and Chrome include rounded corners and drop shadows. These are both time-savers and filesize/bandwidth savers for web pages. Because of Internet Explorer's popularity, these new CSS3 rules have been largely ignored. Why use them if a majority of site visitors can't see them?
Read More -
Nov
18Don't Forget to Update Your Online Terms
I was just filling out a review of an online store, for a service called resellerratings.com, and I decide to briefly scroll through the Terms I was agreeing to, in order to post my review. Looks at terms of agreement isn't something I usually do, by the way, and I'm sure most of us do not. But something really struck me from their terms, located right at the top of the agreement:
Read More -
Aug
18Using Plain Old Text
When putting together content for your site, try to present your written words in plain old HTML-based text. This would seem to be the obvious choice, but it’s not always the case.
When gathering content together for a new or redesigned website, information is often created and/or found inside a variety of proprietary formats (e.g. Word, Power Point, Publisher, etc. ) and exported for the website as a PDF. Choosing the PDF format allows users to keep the same page layout documents were created in, without having to recreate it in a web page. It’s a quick and easy method to publish information online.
Read More -
Jul
20Software Roundup
Time for a quick roundup of some of my current favorite tools, starting with software. In future posts, I'll showcase some online tools and other useful utilities.
The overriding theme to these tools is that they are useful, cheap or free, and accessible wherever you go, by phone app or computer. You may have never heard of these, or they may be so obvious you've already moved on to the next thing. Let me know if you find them useful, have other suggestions, or comments on what I've found.
Read More -
May
26Is Dot-Com the only domain that matters?
When choosing a domain for your website, the first consideration is the name itself. Finding a domain name you want to use that's not already taken is a difficult task. One study has over 110 million domains registered as of 2009. More often than not, you will find that "yourdesireddomain.COM" is taken.
Read More -
Apr
19Thoughts about Amazon.com
I recently attended a talk by noted web usability expert Jared Spool, entitled "Revealing Treasures from the Amazon". Amazon.com is an icon, one of the most highly visited and well-known websites around, and it's often cited as a model for what others want in a website. "Do it like Amazon" is a mantra repeated over and over again by companies building or retooling their website. They seem successful, therefore we should just copy what they do.
Read More -
Nov
07Websites Acting Like Apps
While I've downloaded a lot of great apps since I've started using an iPhone (which was just this year), I'm also a big user of the Safari Browser on the iPhone. As a web designer, it's interesting to use a mobile device that presents websites as mini-versions of the real thing. (well, almost the real thing, there a few differences).
Read More -
Apr
16How to have more than one version of Internet Explorer
With Internet Explorer 7 out, a lot of Windows users are starting to update their browsers. But what if you want to keep Internet Explorer 6 around for occasional use? Windows doesn't make it easy to run multiple versions of Explorer on the same computer, but that doesn't mean there isn't a way.
Go to a site that has downloads of older browser versions, such as Evolt.com. You can find multiple versions of Explorer 6 and 5.5, along with other browsers, and it's all free to download.
Read More
