Animated Signs

Move it

A free collection of animated GIFs.



AnimationLibrary.com


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Short History of the Internet

8 minutes

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Blog Control

Scripts

Using CSS on Blogs is not difficult. Here is a site that shows how to do many things including using different background images for different times of day.

BloggerBuster.com


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Increase DLs

More bits

This is a registry hack that controls the number of downloads you can have at one time.

HowToGeek.com


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CSS Templates

Free samples and suggestions

"Solucija offers a selection of some of the most popular web templates available today. Whether you're looking for a free web template, premium one, or an inspiration - you'll find it here. All our templates are hand coded, standards compliant and can be easily used as a standalone templates or in combination with CMS to create a fully dynamic site."

Solucija.com


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Versionista

Web monitor

Versionista monitors web sites and alerts you by email of any changes. It also displays the changes visually on the page.
Here's one mention from the news:

Rachel Maddow

Versionista.com


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Blog Using Word

Easy Editor

Taylor Gibb explains how to set it up.

 Blog with Word


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How Google Works

Backstage

Here's what's going on behind the scenes.

• Googlebot, a web crawler that finds and fetches web pages.
• The indexer that sorts every word on every page and stores the resulting index of words in a huge database.
• The query processor, which compares your search query to the index and recommends the documents that it considers most relevant.

GoogleGuide.com


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Flight Status

Where da plane?

An easy way to find out whether Aunt Mable's plane is on time is to type the airline name and number into Google (or Bing).




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Search Google

Top 10

Tip #1 Fine-Tune Your Query with More Keywords
Tip #2 Search for Either One Word or Another
Tip #3 Include Stop Words
Tip #4 Exclude Irrelevant Words
Tip #5 Search for Similar Words
Tip #6 Search for Similar Pages
Tip #7 Search for exact Phrase
Tip #8 Use Google's Advanced Search Page
Tip #9 Search within Your Search Results
Tip #10 Search Google's Other Sites

Informit.com


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Is it Christmas Yet?

Ideas to consider

All right, when this was posted, November was just put to bed. Still if you are going to do something for the holidays, you might want to start now.

37signals.com has a good selection of suggestions, tutorials, and links the will help you decorate your site. Elves are extra.

37signals is here to help. In these pages you'll find dozens of ideas for improving the holiday customer experience at your site. Each idea is accompanied by examples taken from top retail sites (we've visited hundreds of sites over the past two holiday seasons seeking smart techniques).

Is your Site Ready?


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Head Blog

How to

Some instructions about how to make a header for a Blog or web page.
It talks about Photoshop, but other editors can do the same thing.

PaulStamatiou.com


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Ticker Tracker

Free Code

Create your own tracker graphic. It updates automatically.



TickerFactory


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Better Text

How we read

BookofJoe discusses a better way to read text on a computer screen.
A Better Way


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Hosting Info

Who dat provider?

Find out which provider a site is using.
Find out which internet providers are most reliable.
Find out which operating system is being used by which provider.
Find out . . .

Netcraft.com


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Google Searches II

Tips

Here's a link to a PDF file that shows how to maximize Google searches.

Parameters Cheat Sheet


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Fast Interchange

7 day URL

Go to http://cl1p.net and then:

Enter a URL that starts with http://cl1p.net.
example:http://cl1p.net/assuming/

Paste in anything you want.
Some text, links, etc. Click 'Save' when done.

On any other computer open a browser to the same URL.
You will find the information you entered in step 2.


Do more with CL1P.net. Just open any URL that starts with http://cl1p.net and you can...

• Create a notebook
  
• Have a conversation
  
• Create a community

Cl1p.net


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Character Codes

HTML and ALT+

Here's another table with the codes needed to insert characters that do not appear on the keyboard:

Keyboard Shortcuts


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CSS Coding

Put by the keyboard

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a simple way to define styles (e.g. fonts, colors, spacing) on Web pages.
Of course there is coding involved. Here is a printable cheat sheet you can keep close at hand.

LeslieFranke.com


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Scroll Text

Automated GIF

WigFilp.com


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No Home in IE

Blanked out

You can open Internet Explorer to a blank page.

Sometimes your normal home page may be too busy, or slow to load when you just want to pop out to a different location.

This trick will give you a blank slate to paste in a new URL.

1. Create a new Desktop shortcut
   (Right click an empty spot on the desktop and choose New>Shortcut)
   
   
2. Copy the following, and paste it as the target for the shortcut:
   
   
   

   "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" nohome

   
   
3. Name the shortcut something like Blank IE

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What's the Expression

FrontPage, we knew you well

Microsoft has retired FrontPage in favor of an application called Expression Web Designer.

It is part of four programs that will make up the Expression suite.

Channel9.MSDN.com has a series of videos on the quartet.

Here's the one on FrontPage/ Expression
Expression - Part Four: Web

Also:
Expression - Part One: The Overview

Expression - Part Two: Design

Expression - Part Three: Blend


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Color News

A multidiscipline subject

Here is a study about how color effects a reader's choice of concentration.

It was intended for newspaper publishers, but the same knowledge can be used in Web design, PowerPoint, or any other reporting application. Word and Excel will also benefit.

Color, Contrast, and Dimension in News Design

Color Project

The Poynter Institute is a school for journalists, future journalists, and teachers of journalists.
Poynter.org


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Cheap Certification

Bargain deal

Becoming certified can be expensive and time consuming.
Here's a way to be certified as an HTML Developer, or ASP Developer.

• Study and train for your certificates at no cost
  
• Study and train for your certificates when it is convenient
  
• Study and train for your certificates from your own computer
  
• Complete your studies in a few weeks
  
• Take your exams over the Internet

W3 Schools

Even if you don't take the test, the tutorials are free!


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Plan for Your Site

Outline then do

Always a good idea. Pre-plan and then do. Too often projects are started without a plan and too often plans are made and not carried through.

"When creating a website there are several different tools and methods available, but it is important to plan the steps. This guide will help outline the important steps required for website creation and promotion. Information in this document should help readers avoid many pitfalls and save time throughout the process."

1. Inception and Planning
   
   
2. Design
   
   
3. Construction
   
   
4. Promotion

CompTechDoc.org:
Website Creation Tutorial


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Update Excel on the Web

Auto Republish

You can save an Excel file as a Web page and makes it easy to update data in a worksheet that has already been saved to the Web.

Here is how to save an Excel file as a Web page and set it up it for automatic updates:

1. Click Save As Web page from the File menu. (click the Office logo in 2007+)
   
   
2. In the Save As dialog box, click the Publish button. (click Publish, Create Document Workspace in 2007+)
   
   
3. Use the drop down arrow beside Choose to select what you want to publish.
   
   
4. In the File name field, enter a file name.
   
   
5. Place a check beside Auto Republish every time this worksheet is saved. This way the data will be updated each time you make changes to the worksheet.
   
   
6. Select Open published page in Web browser to view the data in your Web browser after you click Publish.
   
   
7. Click Publish.

Lockergnome.com:
 Save Excel as Web Page

DevX.com:
 Four Ways to Use Excel on the Web

Penn State:
 Interactive Excel on the Web


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Unicode is Huge

More symbols and letters

This free download lets you see and select more characters in the Unicode set. The Unicode Character Grid shows all assigned characters and private use characters in Unicode 6+.



BablePad

Here's a blog covering Scripts, Unicode, Character Encoding and BabelStone Stuff
BableStone Blog


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Who dat

And Where

Let's say you wanted to set up a web site for your friend Bob, who lives in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Would you know that the root zone code was .ba and that the contact person has an office at:

Universtiy Telinformatic Centre (UTIC)
Zmaja od Bosne 8 (objekat 33)
Sarajevo 71000
Bosnia-Hercegovina

See:
International Assigned Numbers Association:
Root-Zone Whois Information

There is also a page that defines such top level domains as .COM and .NET.
Generic Top-Level Domains

BTW.
Sorry feline fanatics,

"The .cat domain is reserved for the Catalan linguistic and cultural community and is sponsored by Fundació puntCat"

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Relative Font Sizes

What size are your relatives?

Relative font sizes make websites more accessible and easier to read - but they're not much help unless the person using the site can find a way to actually change text size.

Here's a simple solution for text resizing:

Power To The People: Relative Font Sizes
Article by Bojan Mihelac

Original link from Lockergnome


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HTML Tutorials

How to HTML

Expression Web/FrontPage can quickly create good looking web sites. If you want more versatility and the ability to edit the underlying HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language ), look at these sites:

HTML Code Tutorial (NCSA )

And others:

FrontPage Solutions


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Animated GIFs

For use on the Web or PowerPoint

• Harry the cat.com
  
  3,000+ Royalty Free Copyrighted Animated Gifs for non-commercial use
  
  
• Fg-a.com
  
  Free Gifs & Animations, also editors, guestbook's, etc.
  
  
• Gifs.net
  
  1,500 FREE Animated Gifs and many other items (gifs, jpgs, letters, buttons, backgrounds, etc.)
  
  
• Web Developer.com
  
  There are more than 300 of them from which to choose.

 

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Test Your Web Site

How does your site score?

Here are a collection of tools that can be used to analyze your web site for validity.

Sorry, it doesn't check for source information reliability.

Readability Test

The readability test analyses a Web page to determine how readable it is.

CSS Analyzer

The CSS analyzer tests for basic accessibility errors such as color contrast and units of measurement.

Luminosity Contrast Ratio Analyzer (Beta)

Tests whether foreground and background colour combinations are sufficient using a new algorithm developed by Trace R&D Center.

Color Contrast Analyzer

The color contrast analyzer tests whether the contrast between the background and the foreground is sufficient.

Image Analyzer

The image analyzer tests Web pages to ensure that images have been specified properly.

Link Analyzer

The link analyzer lists all links on a page with an icon to indicate whether or not the link resolved successfully.

Juicystudio.com:
Quality Assurance


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Automated Newsletter

ASP and HTML

Pre-RSS, the predominate method of communication for members of a like minded group was through an emailed newsletter.

Word actually works fine with mail merge to email, but if you want to combine the data gathering and the distribution in a neat package, take a look at this tutorial.

Step 1 : Create a simple HTML Form where users can insert their email addresses and an ASP page which will receive the Form email address from the HTML page and insert it into the database.

Step 2 : Create a simple Access database to store user's email addresses.

Step 3 : A simple admin ASP page from where you can send email messages to all the users whose email addresses are present in the database.

Step 4 : An ASP page from where the users can delete their email addresses from the database if they later choose to.

Scripts20.com:
An ASP Tutorial to create your own News Letter


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Access-Excel-XML-HTML

Transfer data

XML makes data transferable between applications.
Here is a tutorial with downloadable files.

Some simple guidance of how to transfer data from Excel or Access into HTML web pages using XML data files. VBA programs can be used to export data tables from Excel or Access into simple XML files. There are several examples of using different methods to display the XML and XSL files on web pages in order to quickly share your data with others.

An introduction to Excel and XML data files

 Also:
Some nice photos and calendar layout:
Monthly calendar with photos


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CSS, PHP, and all that jazz

Collections of suggestions

Under the belief that more information leads to more understanding, here is a site that may help you round the corners of web design and function. Besides CSS templates there are PHP code nibblets.

In 2003 artypapers was created by R. Marie Cox as a springboard for ideas and a working space of technical implementation -- a place to test and build an extendable collection of core classes (alliteration!) that acts as an application framework for a diverse set of projects and applications.

artypapers.com

Also:
Links and Discussion About the Best CSS Resources Available on the Web.
CSS Help Pile


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30 Days Hath

One Day at a Time

Here's how to add a calendar to your web page.


Publishing Outlook Calendars on the Internet or an Intranet
(From THE definitive Outlook/Exchange site - Slipstick.com.)

Other methods:

Htmlgoodies.com
It's actually just a simple table with a couple of additions. (free)

HTMLCal
HTMLCAL is a Web calendar maker and editor that lets you maintain a group calendar for your Web site or intranet.
This software will let you maintain live calendars on your site that anyone can view or update from any Web browser. ($25)

Htmlcalendar.com
HTML Calendar Maker Pro was designed with ease of use in mind. Now you can type your events quickly and easily and they will be transformed into a customized and professional monthly calendar within seconds. Simply follow the on-screen tutorial to create your calendar and then place the finished web page on your site. It's perfect for planning for the weeks ahead or noting past historic events. ($26.50 +)

All about Calendars by:

Claus Tøndering


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Scripts you can use

DHTML, Javascripts, PHP

Dynamic Drive provides original DHTML & Javascripts to enhance your web site.

There is an extensive collection as evidenced by this TOC.

• Calendars
  
  
• Date & Time
  
  
• Document Effects
  
  
• Dynamic Content
  
  
• Form Effects
  
  
• Games
  
  
• Image Effects
  
  
• Links & Tooltips
  
  
• Menus & Navigation
  
  
• Mouse and Cursor
  
  
• Scrollers
  
  
• Text Animations
  
  
• User/System Preference
  
  
• Window and Frames

From

DynamicDrive.com


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Preview Resolution

Browser View

To see what your web page will look like in other browsers, go to File>Preview in Browser.




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Unicode and other Characters

Why's A 65?

Underlying the intriguing prose spread across the monitor screen are numbers and more numbers.

Joel Spolsky, a New York software developer has written a combination history/tutorial about this numeric-literary liason.

He calls it:

"The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)"

Unicode and Character sets


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Clocks - Time Flies Like an Arrow

Fruit Flies Like a Banana

• Human Clock
• Official US time

Here's a collection of clock sites.
There are also links to code to add a clock to your web site.

 Internet Clocks, Counters, and Countdowns


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Forms on the Web

Fill in the blank

As long as you have FrontPage extensions on your server, you can create original forms for your site.

(yoiu can also create forms wth Expression Web)

You can use forms on your Web site to:

• Retrieve contact information from site visitors (for example, guest books)
  
• Receive feedback about your Web site
  
• Accept orders and gather shipping and billing information
  
• Conduct surveys
  
• Provide online registration
  
• Offer search box mechanisms
  
• Prompt users to log in to your Web site

Expression.Microsoft:
Forms with Expression

Feedback Forms:
Feedback Forms for Your Website

Flash tutorial
Expression Web Forms


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More Cascading Style Sheet Help

Tutorials, Tools, and Links

"Cascading Style Sheets separate the presentation from the structural markup of a web site. By applying a CSS style you have the ability to keep the structure of your document lean and fast, while controlling the appearance of the content.

HTML was intended as the structural markup language. This language focuses on the roles that the different elements of a document have to play, not how they have to look. CSS has been invented and developed for the Internet. It is not an adapted tool from print or programming, but a means of enhancing HTML."

• CSS Creator site is a place for you to learn about and create CSS, Cascading Style Sheets. The CSS Forum is a place where you can discuss CSS page layouts, positioning, bugs and just about anything related to cascading style sheets. The forum is new, free and most of all needs people like you to create a community. Talk about CSS, ask questions, find solutions, and help each other learn at the CSS Forum.
  
  
• The original CSS Creator is a CSS generator, which you can use to create styles and test them on your site. If you are learning CSS have a look and see how changes will affect your site and generate the styles. The CSS Creator has been used tested on 5266 urls.
  
  
• The CSS Layout Generator will generate layouts with a flexible center column and fixed width left and or right column. All columns will be the same length, the layout can be centered on the page or full width and a header and footer can be easily added. 10545 CSS Layouts have been generated.
  
  
• A light weight multi level menu, which uses a very small JavaScript file for browsers with bad CSS support. The markup of the menu is simply unordered lists, it can support multiple levels and will degrade to a simple unordered list if CSS is turned off.
  
  
• A Useful CSS Links page has been added to the site and contains great links to CSS tutorials, tools, tips from all over the web.
  

CSS Creator.com


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Kahanamoku Keyboard

Surfboard - Keyboard

People ask you how to increase the font size in Internet Explorer?

"Oh, well, go to View>Text size and pick one between Largest and Smallest."

Here's another way:

Resize Text Size IE

Hold down CTRL key and move the wheel on the mouse.
The page text will enlarge or shrink.

Here are some others from Penn State University

Browser Tricks

Quick jump to Web Site IE

Type just the Internet domain name in the URL Address field and hold down CTRL+ENTER keys.
This will fill in www as the machine name and add .com

Presentation Mode IE

Select the F11 function key to enter Presentation mode (full screen).
Select the F11 function key to toggle back.

Page forward and back IE

Hold down SHIFT key and move the wheel on the mouse.
This will page forward or backward through the pages selected.

Page scroll using mouse wheel button IE

Push down on the mouse wheel button and slide the whole mouse up and down.
This will page up and down the screen.

Open a New IE Window with One Click

Hold down SHIFT and click on the link.
A new IE browser window will appear.

Page forward and back using arrow keys IE

Hold ALT button and use the arrow keys to page forward and back.

Get to Your Favorites with Keyboard Shortcut IE

Enter CTRL+I will bring up your left pane favorites.
Enter CTRL+I will make it disappear
Enter CTRL+B to organize your favorites

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku (1890-1968) is called the Father of Modern Surfing. There were others before him, such as George Freeth, who died in 1919, but Duke is the most widely known.

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Survey on Line

Test the wind electronically

Surveys can be used to appraise the sentiments of your audience, or just to gather data.

Here is a tutorial about how to use the Expression Web tools.

"Designing surveys is an art unto itself, requiring careful analysis, skill, and an absolute attention to detail. On the other hand, coding or developing a Web page that contains an electronic form that collects the data from a willing participant is often just as arduous.

Expression Web/FrontPage makes developing and publishing a Web form or survey a breeze. Moreover, it doesn't require that you know any programming or scripting languages that interactively collect and dynamically display results from a database as you will see in this tutorial."

Creating Online Surveys

by William C. Jeansonne


Also:

Survey Forms


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Border Magic with CSS

Consistent formatting

Cascading Style Sheets can be helpful in applying dependable format characteristics to web sites. Like Styles, CSS provides a reference point when a certain look is called for.

Stu Nicholls provides directions for "Fluid" borders:

"If you resize your browser window you will see that these borders are fluid and stay in shape. Resize the text and they will also stay in shape."

Even in this static shot, you can see some nice possibilities.

Fluid Borders to with CSS


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Web Magazine

The difference between a blog and a magazine is thin

Here's on online mag that collects information, direction, and designs for web sites

"A List Apart Magazine (ISSN: 1534-0295) explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on techniques and benefits of designing with web standards.

Steal our code? Copy our content?

ALA's content is protected by copyright shared jointly by the magazine and its writers, but our source code is freely available to all."

A list Apart


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More CSS

Can't get enough

Demonstrations, Layouts, Menus


This site provides a wealth of examples about how to use Cascading Style Sheets.

Poke around and then come back when your project calls for something different.

"Because my site deals with experimental CSS that is exactly what you get JUST CSS, no javascript or any other programming language has been used in any of the demonstrations."

CSS Play by Stu Nicholls


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History of the Internet

Time passes quickly

You can defend the Internet beginning in the early or late 60's. This link follows the history back to the invention of the "computer" in the 1700's to today.

Netcraft survey reports there are more than 74 million web sites online, while in 1993 only 130 web sites existed online.

A Computer History of the Internet Timeline

Also:
Here's a nice site:
The Living Internet

The Internet SOCiety:
History of the Internet

Also:
Internet History


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Web Queries

Do You Question the Web?

This feature can make data acquisition a lot easier than Copy-Paste-Reformat-Try again.

"Generally, though, people tend to overlook the option of using the Web as a data source for Excel, be that source the Internet, an intranet, an extranet, or a Web Service. But they shouldn't. Web queries are an easy, yet remarkably flexible and predictable way of bringing data into Microsoft Excel from anywhere on the Web. You can point a Web query at any HTML document that resides on any Web server - or even on a file server, for that matter - and pull part or all of the contents back into your spreadsheet...When you start using Excel's Web queries, you will realize they are almost as limitless as the Web is.

Well Kept Secret

On the menu bar, go to Data>Import External Data. (In 2007-10, Data>Get Extrnal Data>From Web). Then, select Import Data to use an existing Web query or select New Web Query to build a new one.



Also see:
Vertex42.com:
Excel Web Query Secrets Revealed

Integrate Far-Flung Data into Your Spreadsheets with the Help of Web Services

And:
Web Queries and Dynamic Chart Data


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Seniors Surf Too

No Internet age limit

You don't have to show a drivers license (expired or not) to wander through cyber space,but. . .





As the oldest Baby Boomers turn 60, marketers and the media are waking up to the power of older consumers. Unlike today's seniors, Boomers are dedicated Internet users and broadband fans. As they approach the next phase of their lives, they will challenge companies to keep up with their ever-demanding ways, both online and off.

Also see:
King County Seniors on line

Pierce County Seniors


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Hot Spot in Your Pocket

Or at least nearby

It'll cost about $1,000, but think about the bragging rights!

"I love the fact that more and more devices are sporting built-in Wi-Fi. The lone hitch: Wi-Fi is useless without a hotspot.

What if you could marry the short-range power of Wi-Fi with the huge coverage areas of high-speed cellular services such as EV-DO to create a portable hotspot?
Since EV-DO works at freeway speeds, you could even give Internet access to an entire road-trip caravan.

Now I can surf for as long as three hours without being tethered to anything but a cell signal. The project isn't cheap, but prices for the components and service are sure to come down in the next year or so. In the meantime, you can find me in the hills around Southern California. I'll be the one surrounded by PSP-packing hikers."

Popular Science:
Be Your Own Hotspot
By Mike Outmesguine


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Form Design

Fancy functionals

Here is a discussion about how to design a form for use on the web.

"Computers are supposed to make our lives easier, not more difficult. As usability-conscious designers, we can make our users' lives easier by thinking about the way people interact with our websites, providing clear direction, and then putting the burden of sorting out the details in the hands of the computers—not the users.

It's that last part that we're going to focus on here. We've all heard and read about big usability mistakes time and time again: "Don't use images or flash for navigation," "Don't use Javascript for links," and I certainly hope we're all applying those lessons in our work. It's often the smallest usability quirks, however, that create the biggest annoyances for users, especially when it comes to HTML forms. Follow these guidelines, and you'll be off to a good start."

• Use the right field for the task
  
• Give them room to type
  
• Shorten your forms and question "mandatory" fields
  
• Mark mandatory fields clearly
  
• Provide descriptive labels for all of your fields
  
• Let the computer, not the user, handle information formatting
  
• Use informative error messages
  
• Don't return users to an altered form

Sensible Forms
Brian Crescimanno


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RSS with Your Web Site

Roll your own

If you like the idea of building your own RSS feed, read on.

"Learn about RSS and how to programmatically create an RSS file for your FrontPage 2003 Web site. The download that accompanies this article contains a VBA project and an XSLT file that you can use to generate and display RSS feeds.

If you spend any time on the Internet, you have probably heard of RSS, and you may decide that you need an RSS feed for your Web site. An RSS feed is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file that people can use to keep up to date with the content on a Web site. RSS feeds are frequently associated with weblogs (blogs), but you can use them for any Web site.

If you have a Web site that contains content that you frequently update, such as articles or stories, you may want an RSS feed to help your customers keep up with your updates. This article explains the XML behind RSS and provides a Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) project that you can use to programmatically generate an RSS feed for your FrontPage Web site. The download for this article includes an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) file that you can use to display the RSS XML file in a browser."

Microsoft Developers Network:
Creating an RSS Feed for Your Web Site


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Photo Gallery

A CSS exercise

FrontPage had a Photo gallery template, and you can also save a PowerPoint show as a web page.

For another take on the problem, here are the instructions needed to create a gallery using CSS.

Click here to see what it might look like:



How to Create a Photographic Gallery Using CSS
By Stu Nicholls


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Internet 099

Basics and Beyond

A San Francisco company called Learn the Net has produced a basic on-line tutorial about the Internet.

If you need a fundamental primer, this might be a place to look.

It is not a series of scaled down "baby talk" lessons. You can drill down though the meaning of 403/404 error codes and links to WW3 Generic URI Syntax (RFC 2396) standards.

That is if you know how to drill down.

"Throughout Learn the Net--in fact on most web pages--you will see words that are in color and often underlined. By clicking on these words, known as hypertext, you jump to other places on the page, to other pages on the site, or to other resources on the Internet."

www.LearntheNet.com


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Graphics from the '50s

Remember it the way you want to

Original fifties clipart? Just in time for the holidays, some Ozzie and Harriet style pics.

"Most communities in the fifties had small town print shops that doubled as printers of local news and advertising papers. These printers could not afford graphic artists so they used stock clipart supplied by large companies who distributed common graphics for use in advertising sections of the papers. They were provided for the printer in lots of categories to meet any advertiser's needs."

Retrographix.com


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Java ans All That Jazz

Free code

One way to jazz up a boring web site is to use scripting to present random images or create interesting menus. You could learn to do it yourself, or borrow from the stars.

JavaScript-2.com is a source for free JavaScript Codes.

Find FREE JavaScript codes quickly and easily with the only search engine that searches all the top Java Script libraries, offering a total of over 8,000 free JavaScripts.


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Send the Viewer on Their Way

Move on

If you have an old site that people still address, or a web page that has been moved, see this code and the explanations.


<html>

<head>
<meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="3; URL=http://WWW.MiniByteTech.com">
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">


The operative line is:

<meta http-equiv="REFRESH" content="3; URL=http://WWW.MiniByteTech.com">

The value of content is in seconds.
The new location for this web site is WWW.MiniByteTech.com! You will automatically be redirected in 3 seconds. If your browser doesn't automatically load, click <a href="http://WWW.MiniByteTech.com">HERE</a>.

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PCMag.com:
Routing Your Web Site Visitors

Help2Go.com:
Redirecting a Web page

ISiteBuild.com:
How to Redirect a Web Page Using a 301 Redirect

This tools help you determine if the redirect you have created is Search Engine Friendly:

WebConfs.com:
Redirect Checker


See all Topics internet

Slide on a Web Page

Make it an Internet show

A little bit ago we talked about putting a live web page directly on a slide:
Web Page on a Slide.

This hint is about converting your PowerPoint show into a web presentation.

Here's a slide show on the web showing how it's done:

EllenFinkelstein.com:
Publishing a Presentation to the Web

Also:

Indezine.com:
PowerPoint 2002-2003 Web Options

RDPSlides.com has this article:
PowerPoint on the Web

Web and PPT 2007:
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Office.Microsoft.com:
Show slide animations during a Web presentation


See all Topics internet

Privacy and the Net

What happens on your computer, stays . . .

Here are some protection suggestions:

"Links to numerous pages on the Web where home users can find software and information relevant to Windows PC privacy and security.

It also contains a rudimentary "checklist" of basic steps that home PC users can take to enhance their privacy and security while using the Internet.
Finally, you'll find a set of resources developed by the author of this site to help you protect your privacy and security on the Internet, including information about Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and the Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG)."

Protecting Your Privacy & Security

by Eric Howes
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Also:
Microsoft:
Security at home

Also see:
Security and the Net


See all Topics internet

Pictures Toolbar

Control your graphics

You may have used this toolbar in other applications; you may want to get to know it even better.

These tutorials looks at the toolbar which includes several easy-to-use features to tweak, enhance and position graphic images after they are inserted into a Expression Web/FrontPage web page.


Pictures Toolbar

• Insert an Image from File also insert images from the Clip Organizer or obtain free clipart online at Microsoft's Design Gallery Live
  
• Text can be placed directly on a GIF image.
  
• Automatically create a thumbnail of a larger image.
  
• Position Absolutely
  
• Bring Forward/Send Backward
  
• Rotate Left/Right
  
• Flip Horizontal/Vertical
  
• More/Less Contrast
  
• More/Less Brightness
  
• Crop
  
• Line Style
  
• Format Picture
  
• Set Transparent Image
  
• Color
  
• Bevel
  
• Resample

See all Topics

Look at Yourself

Information on line

Here is a site that will test your connection speed, tell you your latitude and longitude, IP address and more.

They provide a one stop location to validate email addresses, locate the host server for a domain, plus trace, ping etc.

You can also find out what information your browser is broadcasting to the world.


Internetfrog.com


See all Topics

E-Mail Delivery Design

Don't look like spam

A discussion:

"Transactional email can be a website's customer service ambassador, but messages must first survive a ruthless selection process in the user's in-box. Differentiating your message from spam is thus the first duty of email design.

Email is one of a website's most powerful tools for strengthening customer service and increasing users' confidence and trust in the site. Confirmation messages and other automated transactional email can complete the user experience: they reach out to customers in ways that are otherwise impossible for websites, which must sit still and wait for users to approach."

From Dr. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox

Automated Email From Websites to Customers


See all Topics internet

Photoshop Blog Templates

Design suggestions

I haven't done any remodeling of this blog in awhile, but when I do I'll be looking at Jennifer Apple's site:

www.PhotoshopSupport.com

"Once you choose a blogging service and set up an account, you will be provided with a standard blog template. But this template will suffer from a cookie-cutter design, and if you don't personalize it your blog may become lost. To be noticed your blog needs to make a splash - as there are more than ten million blogs out there. So what we'll concentrate on here is working with some design elements that can help you add more zing to your blog."

Tips For Blog Templates & Blog Design In Photoshop

Here are a few of the link categories:

• Inspiring blog designs
• Free fonts for blogs
• Free photos for blogs
• Free blog templates
• Free blog backgrounds, tiles & patterns
• Free color schemes for blogs

See all Topics internet

HTML Character References

Display codes

Alan Wood's Web Site provides a lot of reference material. From over 1400 ingredients of pesticides¹ to Unicode and HTML resources.

In HTML, fonts and symbols can be generated from the numeric character reference or from the character entity reference.

–  or en dash

(&#8211; or &ndash;)

— or em dash

(&#8212; or &mdash;)

‡ or double dagger

(&#8225; or &Dagger;)

™ or trade mark

(&#8482; or &trade;)

∑ or n-ary summation, sum of

(&#8721; or &sum;)

√ or square root, radical sign

(&#8730; or &radic;)

HTML 4.0 Character Entity References


See all Topics

Security and the Net

Is any place safe?

This from PracticallyNetworked.com:

"One of the biggest misconceptions is that hackers will target only large companies. The truth is computers get attacked for a variety of reasons. Some of these include the following:

• Snooping: Reading private mail and other personal files.
• Destroying or corrupting computer data: Making files unusable, or making a whole computer unusable.
• Stealing computer data: Taking credit card numbers, e-mail addresses, company information and so on.
• Stopping computers from functioning properly: Blocking incoming traffic so that intended users cannot get access, etc.
• Misusing computer resources: Sending spam without you knowing it, etc.
• Pranks: practical jokes, breaking in just because it's a challenge.

The bottom line, don't think your network is safe just because you're not that important or well-known. Assuming that you aren't personally targeted, moderately secure networks usually cause hackers to attack elsewhere. Yet attacks can come from many different sources and your computer should be equipped to deal with each of these types of attacks."

CAN YOU EVER BE TRULY SAFE AND SECURE ONLINE

Check out your computers vulnerability at GRC.com.
(Gibson Research Corporation)

Also see:
StaySafeOnline.info


See all Topics internet

Alternate Bullets

High caliber

There are other images that can be used as bullets in Word, PowerPoint, and HTML.
Allan Wyatt's Word Tips:

Using Words as Bullets

StackOverflow.com:

Make Custom Bullets
Using CSS

Shauna Kelly:

How to control bullets in Microsoft Word
Bullets, Numbers, and Lists





Troubleshooting Bullets and numbering


Also see:
Beyond Bullets.com

Beyond Bullet Points, the book


See all Topics internet

Design Patterns

More suggestions


Martijn van Welie of Welie.com, has a collection of designs for web sites, GUI designs, and MobileUI designs.

Patterns

Some topics covered are:

• Site Types
  
• Ecommerce
  
• Navigation
  
• Basic Page Types
  
• Managing Collections
  
• Page Elements
  and
  
• Visual Design

See all Topics

Script Bling

Page spice

Would you like to add an animation to your web page but don't know how to script?
SimplyTheBest.Net has a nice selection that can be easily pasted into your code.

Here are a few examples:

Animated page title script

A script that lets you animate the page title in the browser.

Animated message page

This script displays text messages on an introduction page before redirecting it to another page.

Bouncing image script

A script with which you can make an image bounce across the page.

Circling images

A script that will draw a circle consisting of a set of images around your mouse pointer.

Dynamic animation

This script can be used to fly text or images onto the browser screen from different directions.

Falling images

With this script you can make images fall down and then disappear from your page.

Floating images

A script that will float one or several images around the screen.

Search light

This DHTML script creates a search light effect on images using a start/stop link.

Transition effects

A script you can use to create transitions between images.

Text animation

A script to animate and fade in and/or fade out with text.

See:
Daniel Eden: Animate CSS


See all Topics internet

Free Photos

and other graphics

Robin Good has compiled a list of places that provide royalty free images.

" Finding quality images and photos for complementing an important article, essay or news report is already quite a challenge for many. Imagine when the goal is not just too find good images, but find some that you could openly and freely use without needing to pay royalties or one-time publishing rights to someone."

Free Photographs and Other Visuals

A dozen sources are listed including:
PD Photo.org

"PDPhoto.org is a repository for free public domain photos. Unless something is clearly marked as being copyrighted, you can assume it is free to use. But if you intend to use an image you find here for commercial use, please be aware that standards for such use are higher. Specifically, you should assume no model release was obtained. And pictures featuring products or property should be used with care. The photos are here to be used, but I don't want you to get either of us in trouble over it."

Copyright Information


See all Topics internet

Jargon Translation

Tech Stuff for the Web

"There are many Web technologies, from simple to complex, and explaining each in detail is beyond the scope of this article. However, to help you get started with developing your own Web sites, beyond simple WYSIWYG designing of Web pages in FrontPage, this article provides brief definitions of the major Web technologies along with links to sites where you can find more information, tutorials, and reference documentation."

Introduction to Web Technologies

If you have seen or heard these terms, and want a definition with links to more background material, this maybe the place to start.

• Access
  
• ActiveX Controls
  
• Apache
  
• ASP
  
• ASP.NET
  
• C#
  
• CGI
  
• CSS
  
• Databases
  
• Ecma International
  
• FrontPage Server Extensions
  
• HTML
  
• IETF
  
• Internet Information Services
  
• Java
  
• JavaScript (JScript/ECMAScript)
  
• MySQL
  
• Oracle Database
  
• Perl
  
• PHP
  
• SharePoint Team Services
  
• SQL Server
  
• VBScript
  
• Visual Basic .NET
  
• Windows SharePoint Services
  
• World Wide Web Consortium
  
• XML
  
• XSLT

See all Topics internet

MS Groups

Web based Newsreader

We can't forget that, even with blogs and google, there are still news groups out there helping to solve common problems.

Microsoft has a site that organizes a number of groups and makes access easy on the web.

"The Web-based Newsreader allows you to participate in discussion groups directly in your Web browser; you don't need to install or configure anything. You can use the Web-based Newsreader to read, post, search for, and reply to messages in discussion groups from the part of Usenet that concerns Microsoft products and technologies."

Microsoft Discussion Groups

Help for the Web-based Newsreader


See all Topics internet

Copy Writing for the Web

Writing resources

..."the personal website of Matt Pfeffer. It is an experiment more than anything. An attempt to learn a thing or two, get some exercise, maybe have a laugh now and then.
Everything here is either trivial, or wrong."

ProvenanceUnknown.com


Principles of copywriting for the web

"The guidelines this document describes will tell you how to improve the user experience on your site. They apply to web copy generally - both marketing copy and navigational (or instructional or "guide") copy - and their value is indirect but significant: Observing them will improve your site's ability to do its job well. "

Web copy style

"This style guide seeks to serve as a resource for anyone writing or editing web copy, and to document some of the conventions that distinguish good writing, as published on the web, from writing published in other media."

Got Editing?

"I am glad to provide free editing help to nonprofit organizations and independent web publishers. The offer is generally for one-time edits of a web site, or of any reasonable amount of web content."

See all Topics internet

Favicons

Art in 16x16 pixels

When you link to certain sites, you might notice that a graphic is sometimes displayed instead of the IE logo. There are numerous sites that help to create and place these logos.

To add a Favicon, upload the file, favicon.ico to the root web directory of your hosted website Make sure the file is named "favicon.ico." When someone bookmarks your site with a browser that supports favicons, your mini-pic will appear.
You could also link it using this code:

<link href="favicon.ico" rel="SHORTCUT ICON">

MSDN.Microsoft.com:
How to Add a Shortcut Icon to a Web Page

Clickfire.com:
Place a Favicon on your Website

Michael P. Pierce:
MpP Favicon Gallery

Chami.com:
FavIcon from Pics

"FavIcon from Pics is an online tool that can generate a favicon from a picture, logo or other graphic of any size/resolution. It was also the first online tool that simplified the creation of favicons using a regular image without requiring manual edits."

Makiko Itoh:
Favicon

" Here's a roundup of some of the favicons that caught my eye. Please click through to the sites themselves, to see how the favicon works (or not) with the site. Maybe it will get you thinking about your own site's favicon."

Daniel Burka:
Favourite Favicons


See all Topics internet

The Well

A salute to our predecessors

Remember the acronym BBS? Remember the Whole Earth movement?

Before "Chat rooms" and IM, for 20 years there has been an online community of readers and contributors.

While it started in the Bay area, it is international in scope.

On the net since April 1, 1985, happy birthday to the Well.

From Well.com:

"There is nothing quite like The WELL, and the secret has a lot to do with its evolution. Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant founded the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link in 1985, starting with a dialog between the fiercely independent writers and readers of the Whole Earth Review.

This set the tone for the open but remarkably literate and uninhibited intellectual gathering that continues today. Over the years, WELL members have made fast friends, created enduring traditions, gathered casually face-to-face in cities 'round the world, and provided support to strangers.

They have founded organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Craig's List, and documented what was emerging in books like Howard Rheingold's The Virtual Community, John Seabrook's Deeper, and Katie Hafner's The WELL. They have gone into business together, fallen in and out of love, cultivated feuds, taken kickass vacations together and enriched lives.

Salon.com bought The WELL in 1999, and upgraded its servers to greet the century. These days WELL members enjoy access to Salon's remarkable independent journalist and the benefits of Salon Premium."

About the Well


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HTML/CSS Resource

"The Ultimate"

You may be put off by the home page for this site, but drill deeper.
Blooberry.com
Brian Wilson

The Author has compiled a very well arranged collection of references.

You might want to go directly to:

Index D O T HTML
T h e A d v a n c e d H T M L R e f e r e n c e

Or

Index D O T CSS
T h e A d v a n c e d C S S R e f e r e n c e

Brian is looking for volunteers to expand the authoring base for this site. If you would like to participate, here is a link to his email address:
Blooberry Email


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Googlr Tutor

User advice

Mark Fleming has started a new omnibus site/blog dealing with the vagarities and varieties that make up Google.

"In my discussions with other Google users, I am always amazed at how few of Google's tools they have heard of. For the most part, people are only familiar with the main search areas such as the web, news and images. And even in these areas, their knowledge of all the options that would allow them to better harness the power of Google is limited.

When I've told others of the vast features and formidable power of Google tools, they are quite frankly astonished. Compounding the problem of this unfamiliarity is the fact the Google does not make much of an effort to even tell us what's new and what's in public beta. You've usually got to hear about it somewhere else or just stumble upon it."

GoogleTutor.com
Google Tutor and Advisor

One entry, for instance, points to the Google Cheat Sheet

Also see:
Google Guide


See all Topics internet

Don't Check Spelling

Avoid the squiggles

Omitting text selections from Word's spell checking process

If you frequently include macro code listings or other chunks of cryptic information in your documents, Word's spell checker is likely to have a field day pointing out unrecognized words.

You can make Word's spell checker skip over code listings and other information that it is likely not to recognize by applying the No Proofing language setting.

1. Select the text you would like the spell checker to skip.
   
2. Next, select Tools>Language Set Language from the menu bar.
   
3. In the Mark Selected Text As list box, select the (No Proofing) option and then click OK.

From now on, the spell checker will skip over the text you selected without flagging any spelling or grammatical errors.
Alan Wyatt's WordTips site has a comprehensive list of spell checker links: Spelling and Grammar Checking

BTW: If you want to spell check Web forms and information boxes you fill out using Internet Explore, look at ieSpell:

"ieSpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of web-based text entry (e.g. web mails, forums, blogs, diaries).
Even if your web application already includes spell checking functionality, you might still want to install this utility because it is definitely much faster than a server-side solution. Plus you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications, instead of maintaining separate ones on each application."

See all Topics internet

Very Clever CSS Playground

I didn't know you could do that!

"This site documents my attempts at understanding and exploring the possibilities of CSS. From standard navigation links to my more bizarre experimental techniques.

All my examples are produced with JUST CSS, no javascript, or any other language, has been used in any of the examples. The demonstrations are designed to work in all the latest browsers, but, if you're lucky, some may also work in earlier versions."

Stu Nicholls' Navigation Gallery.
Here are two of the examples demonstrated:

Messing about in boats
Hover over a picture and it enlarges to 100%
Also:



The Streaker
A piece of animation done with CSS alone, no Java.
(I haven't figured out how to use situational CSS in a blog, so you'll have to go to Stu's site to see if the guy gets to the other door.)


See all Topics internet

CSS Crib Sheet

Information rich site

When you get serious about web design, CSS or Cascading Style Sheets will add flexibility to your toolbox.

Mezzoblue .com has a wealth of information including:

CSS Crib Sheet

"You will no doubt come across many quirky layout issues when building a site with CSS. You'll end up banging your head against a wall time and again. This is an attempt to make the design process easier, and provide a quick reference to check when you run into trouble."

And:

A Roadmap to Standards

"The old-timers had to figure out the hard way all the tricks and techniques we now take for granted; lucky folks who came in later (myself included) can benefit from their sweat and tears.

In the end, when your skill using standard-based design eclipses your skill using old-school table-based methods, you’ll look back and marvel at how much more sense it makes to layout a page with CSS."

The RSS link is here


See all Topics internet

Low Vision

Screen-magnification or zoom

Creating a Web site that accommodates people with low vision should be a goal of designers. Accessibility laws require it in some cases.

The online magazine AListApart.com, has some interesting articles:

Big, Stark, & Chunky

"[Participants] told us that they often copied and pasted material into Word where they could enlarge the font even more and make it bold, thus rendering it easier for them to see."

"We have not done a good job of catering to these screen-magnification or zoom users. Using CSS, it's easy to do, as we shall soon see. And moreover, using CSS to develop zoom layouts is almost exactly what developers of handheld and PDA browsers are doing in their quest for small-screen rendering of wide, multicolumn web pages."

Also:


Web Accessibility


See all Topics internet

gMail Print Selection

Obscure clicks

"I would like to know how to only print part of email, as all the parts of an email conversations are not necessary to print. I have tried by highlighting the part I want and then choose "select" on print menu - but the font is so small then (no matter which printer I use). I can select in the print menu which pages to print, but that is not always clear where the page breaks happens. I could copy and paste into a word document, but then the details are missing."

Here's how I do it:

Click on "New window"



Make your selection in the gMail document.
(Hold down the left mouse button and "paint")





Right click the selection and choose "Print Preview"




Find the layout and size buttons




Change to "As selected on screen" and about "150%".





You can also turn off the Header and Footer.

Now you can print the selection.




See all Topics internet

WiFi at Home

First steps

"You can use a wireless network to share Internet access, files, printers, and more. Or you can use it to surf the Web while you're sitting on your couch or in your yard. Plus, it's easier to install than you think."

There are 4 steps to creating a wireless network:

1. Choose your wireless equipment
   
   
2. Connect your wireless router
   
   
3. Configure your wireless router
   
   
4. Connect your computers

Set up a Home Wireless network (By Tony Northrup)

Wireless Security for Home Networks (PCMAg)

O'Reilly.net: Setting Up an 802.11b Home Wireless Network (Wei-Meng Lee)

About.com: Wired vs Wireless Networking (Bradley Mitchell)

HowStuffWorks.com: How WiFi Works ( Marshall Brain)

PracticallyNetworked.com: Securing your Wireless Network


See all Topics internet

More Java?

It's in the script

Here is a descriptive article from Microsoft's Office Online:


Jazz up your Web site with JavaScript

"Have you ever wanted to add a pop-up window to your Web site? Maybe you've wanted to add a hyperlink that closes the page or to display the current date and time. You can add all of these features and more by using JavaScript: A scripting language that can be used to add functionality to a Web page or a Web site, or to enhance the look of one. JavaScript scripts can run on any type of client or server computer."

Also:
JavaScript

Days Remaining in Year

Use this script to calculate the number of days between now and the end of the year.

Popup Checkbox Navigation Menu

This script opens a small popup window containing a checkbox navigation menu.

Form Field Help

Add a help link to each section in your form. When clicked, an explanation is given of what is required and a box is offered where the information can be entered and transferred to the form.

Image Viewer

Use this script to display different images without opening a new window. Click the links to change the displayed image right in the current page.

Random Password Generator

This script can be used to generate random passwords for improved password strength

JavaScriptKit.com

• Free JavaScripts
  
• JavaScript Tutorials
  
• Free Java applets
  
• Advanced JavaScript Tutorials
  
• DHTML/ CSS Tutorials
  
• Web building tutorials
  
• JavaScript Reference

Java and all that free jazz


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Dynamic Web Templates

DWTs

"FrontPage 2003 introduced Dynamic Web Templates, a new and sophisticated type of Web page template that enables you to share a layout among several pages in a site, preserve specific regions of content from unwanted changes, and save time when you begin to manage the Web pages on your Web site.

By creating a Dynamic Web Template, you can make regions on attached pages available for other authors to add and modify content, while preventing changes to other regions on the same page. This provides you with control to preserve the layout of the pages and the template itself. When you update the content in a Dynamic Web Template, you can update the attached Web pages simultaneously."

Microsoft:
Create a Web page layout
by using Dynamic Web Templates

Change the master page layout
by using Dynamic Web Templates
Also:

Dynamic Web Template Interchange Guidelines

"The Dynamic Web Template Interchange Guidelines have been established by a consortium of web designers and developers in an effort to provide webmasters using a third party DWT the ability to cross over from one design to another with relative ease. The goal of the DWTIG is not to standardize design; rather, to standardize the method in which the content is added to a DWT through Editable Regions within the design."

Expression Web:
Dynamic Web Template Packages



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