Da BLOGMOTHER

  • Da BLOGMOTHER
    is a collection of tutorials and informative posts about subjects of interest to me, many first published on Active Rain.

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May 11, 2008

The New Improved Microsoft Container

Have you recently purchased a Microsoft product, with the new improved "lifetime" package?  Be honest now, how long did it take you to figure out how to open it?

After a recent purchase of Microsoft Office Professional sat about unopened for several weeks, I figured it was time to search the internet for the answer of how to open the case.

First, of course, I had to plow through glowing press release recommendations of the "lifetime" container.

Then I found a fellow sufferer in an online forum.

Here now, for the benefit of future generations is my tutorial on how to open the freakin' thing:

First stand the container upright.  Notice the little red plastic ribbon tab.  Hopefully you will not have already destroyed that tab in a previous effort to open the container.

There will also be clear plastic tape sealing the top of the container.  If you try to pull the tape off, you may damage the Authenticity Label which just happens to be placed under the tape.  Instead, slice through the tape with a knife.

The inner container piece then pivots out towards the right.  If you have already destroyed the pull tab, you may need to use the knife to begin tilting the inner container outward.

The inner container is anchored to the outer container at the lower left corner.  It is supposed to remain anchored.  It should not be unattached from the outer container.  You tilt it outward just far enough to remove the CD and/or booklet, then you tilt it back in to close the container.

Shessh.  What Eistein came up with this one, I wonder?

YouPublish.com

If you write any kind of tutuorials, do info-videos, publish any kind of e-book, or whatever, Stop what you're doing right now (which is probably reading my blog) and check out YouPublish.com 

YouPublish lets you publish any file, so you can upload books, music, videos, photos, spreadsheets, CG files, seminar packages, software… whatever! And you can sell your creations — or share them for free. It’s up to you!

If I have some free time soon I am going to start pakaging up some of my tutuorials as ebooks, and I think I'll list them for sale there, too.

Anybody want to do a CMA on some of my past tutorials.  What should they sell for...in PDF ebook format?  $9.95 each?   $12.95 each??  Those are the numbers that first popped into my mind, at any rate.  Any thoughts, anyone?

(Note:  You split the sale proceeds with YouPublish 50/50 --- that's how they make some money.)

 

April 25, 2008

Designing A Custom TypePad Theme

To download a printable, PDF of this post, click here

A week or so ago, I posted about Modifying A WordPress Theme to accommodate the extra width needed to post a VFlyer.

Then in a conversation here, I mentioned how much easier it would be to accomplish the same thing in TypePad.

I thought I'd demonstrate just how easy.  People who are new to TypePad can follow along, TypePad regulars can go take a coffee break.  :-)

This post is going to be dreadfully long, because I've included lots of screen shots, and tried to break the process down into the tiniest baby steps.

First, you need the TypePad Pro or Premium account that allows you to have unlimited blogs and access to the custom design features.  (Pro is $149.50 per year, Premium in $299.50 per year -- remember that includes hosting.)

Click the Weblogs tab, then click Create a new Weblog

Name the new blog (I'm going to call it "test-01") and fill in the rest of the Form.  Note you can always "map" a unique domain name to the blog after you've created it.  If the blog is under construction, I usually answer "Make this weblog public?' with "No".  However, you do need to remember to change that when you're done with the construction.   

Also note when the new "test-01" blog is created, TypePad will also name the theme for that blog "test-01".  The theme exists separately from the blog itself.  When you've finished tweaking the theme as described below, you can then apply the new test-01 theme to any TypePad blog in the same account. 

Click Create New Weblog.

Before you do anything else, click "Compose a new post". 

Type in anything, you can delete it later.  When finished, click Save.

Now you're ready to rock and roll.  Click on the Design tab.  That will bring up the Current Design screen.  Click Change Theme.

Select the little radio button for "Custom Theme".  This is the doorway to the fun stuff.  The screen will change as soon as you select that button.  You are now at the "customize Your Theme" screen.  Under  the first item "General Page Settings",  click "Edit This Element".

When you click Edit This Element, a pop-up dialogue box appears. 

My project here was to duplicate the look of the Cutline WordPress theme that I modified for http://www.bobtaylorproperties.com/

So, here are the settings to fill into each item to create that same look:

General Settings:

  • Background:  FFFFFF
  • Border:  None
  • Border Color:  FFFFFF

Main Content Column:

  • Center Column:  Fluid
  • Background:  FFFFFF
  • Border:  None
  • Border Color:  FFFFFF

Right Column:

  • Right Column:  300 pixels
  • Background:  FFFFFF
  • Border:  None
  • Border Color: FFFFFF

Link Style:

      I left these all at the default setting:  Color 003366 for each item.

After you've edited all the settings in the dialogue box, click Save Changes, and the box will close, taking you back to the Customize Your Theme screen.

Move on to the next Element -- under "Page Banner", click "Edit This Element"

To use your own header banner, under "Optional" check "Use this banner instead of a text title", and upload your own banner image.  Note that you will tell TypePad to center the banner a little later, don't worry about that for now.  Click Save Changes. 

The dialogue box closes, and you're back to the Customize Your Theme Screen.  The next element is Weblog Posts.  Click Edit This Element.

Here are the Weblog Post Settings I used:

Date Header:

  • Text Font & Size:  Georgia Extra Small
  • Font Color:  006699
  • Tet Alignment:  Left
  • Style:  Bold
  • Border:  Bottom Solid
  • Border Color:  006699

Post Title:

  • Text & Font Size:  Georgia Large
  • Font Color: 006699
  • Text Alignment:  Left
  • Style:  Bold  All Caps
  • Border:  None
  • Border Color:  FFFFFF

Post Body:

  • Text Font & Size:  Georgia Small
  • Font Color: 333333
  • Text Alignment:  Left
  • Line Spacing:  Normal

Post Footer:

  • Text & Font Size:  Georgia Extra Small
  • Font Color:  006699
  • Text Alignment:  Left
  • Style:  Bold
  • Border:  Bottom Solid
  • Border Color: 006699

Note:  I'm not crazy about the Georgia font, but since the goal is to match the WordPress Cutline Theme, Georgia, it is.

Click Save Changes.

Now you're back to the Customize Your Theme Screen, with one final Element to edit.

Under Sidebar Items, click Edit This Element

Here we go with the Georgia again. 

Sidebar Title

  • Font & Size:  Georgia Small
  • Font Color: 006699
  • Style:  Bold All Caps
  • Border:  Bottom Solid
  • Border Color: 006699

Sidebar Items:

  • Font & Color:  Georgia Small
  • Font Color:  666666
  • Style:  none checked
  • Alignment:  Left
  • Line Spacing:  Normal

I left the defaults for  Sidebar Images and Sidebar Link Style

Click Save Changes at the bottom of the dialogue box.  Back at the Customize Your Theme screen, scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes again.

Now you're back to the Current Design screen.  Click Change Layout.

By default, the layout is set at Two Columns Right.  That's just fine.  Leave it there.  If for some reason, another layout is selected, click on the radio button for Two Columns Right and click Save Changes to return to the Current Design screen.

Stay with me.  There is one last step to building the framework of this theme.  At the Current Design screen, look at the last item in the list:  Edit Custom CSS.  Click there.

Don't worry.  You don't need to know a thing about CSS. Just copy and paste these two lines into the Custtom CSS box

#banner { background-position:center; }

.layout-two-column-right #container  {padding: 10px 5% 20px;}

Then click Save Changes.

The first line is telling TypePad to center the banner image.  The second line is telling TypePad to allow a little extra white space around the content -- 10 pixels at the top, 5% of the page size at the left and right sides, and 20 pixels at the bottom.

Back at the Current Design screen. click Republish Weblog, a Publishing dialogue box opens - Publish All Files shows in the drop down box.  Click Publish.

There you go:  http://cheryljns.typepad.com/propertytemplate/

The info in the sidebars was added with TypeLists.  I'll cover those another day if anyone is interested.

There is one big difference  http://www.bobtaylorproperties.com has some horizontal navigation tabs.  I added those by hand to the WordPress theme.  And on another day, I'll demo how to add them by hand to this TypePad design.

But I figured this was plenty for one day.

To download a printable, PDF of this post, click here

April 20, 2008

Government Work: Research Links

  • General GPO Access - One stop access to thousands of publications from the Government Printing Office.
  • General FirstGov - Web portal with information by topic for citizens, researchers, government employees and others.
  • Science Science.gov - a gateway to authoritative selected science information provided by U.S. Government agencies, including research and development results.
  • Census American Factfinder - Where you want to go for population and demographic information and anything to do with Census EXCEPT Genealogy.
  • Statistics Fed Stats - Numbers on nearly everything.
  • Congress THOMAS - current federal legislation
  • GAO Reports Government Accountability Office Topic Search - Nonpartisan reports on government operations browseable by topic.
  • CRS Reports Open CRS - Brings together reports on many topics of interest done by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.
  • Directory US Government Manual - Learn more about the structure of our government and locate government contacts.