Playing Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games as Bowser. Went to backhand in table tennis and totally smacked my hand into the fan.
The fan's okay, but my index and middle fingers hurt like hell – I'll spare you the photo.
]]>Jing lets you take screenshots or up to 5 minutes of video/audio and share them instantly via the web, IM, or email.
Jing is lightweight and easy to learn. Because its focused on instant sharing, editing capabilities from within the app are limited. However, files can be exported for more advanced editing.
But, if that's what you're looking for, then I would suggest two other TechSmith products – both easy to learn if you're already familiar with image files …
]]>Sharing and sometimes Protection are the usual suspects. I don't advocate changing these settings willy-nilly, especially if you're not familiar with how collaboration tools work.
But if it's a case where you know for a fact that these features may have been inadvertently enabled, by all means give the following a try….
In Excel 2003, click Tools and select Share Workbook.
In Excel 2007, click the Review tab. In the Changes group, click Share Workbook.
In the Share Workbook dialogue, click the Editing tab. If the "Who has this workbook open now" list shows moe than just you, this indicates a collaborative situation and you probably don't want to change anything in this dialogue.
If it's just you in the list, it may still be a collborative situation where you're the only one working with the file at that particular moment, but I trust you to know this... uncheck the "Allow changes by more than one person at the same time" box.
If the checkbox is unavailable, then the workbook or worksheet is protected.
In Excel 2003, click Tools and look at the Protection submenu. If the option to Unprotect Workbook is displayed, the file is protected. Click Unprotect Workbook.
In Excel 2007, click the Review tab and look at the Changes group. If Unprotect Worksheet is displayed, the sheet is protected. Click Unprotect Worksheet.
The Protect Workbook button does not change to Unprotect Workbook the way that Protect Worksheet does. If you click Protect Workbook and a Protect Workbook dialogue with options for Structure, Windows, and password is displayed, the workbook is NOT protected and you can click Cancel.
If you click Protect Workbook and nothing seems to happen, then the workbook was protected and is now unprotected.
In most cases, the user has clicked through a warning or two asking them to activate. It's okay - we've all done it.
In Excel 2003, click Help and select Activate Product.
In Excel 2007, click the Microsoft Office Button and click Excel Options. Click Resources and then click Activate.
]]>It was tough hunting mostly because I had no idea what keywords to search on, let alone the actual names of the features. Ultimately, I came up with a few tips that saved me a lot of hair pulling…
Want to lock column or row headings (or both) so that they are always visible, no matter how much scrolling is required? Then you want Freeze Pane.
Want to expand and collapse sections of rows or columns so you don't have to see them while you work? Then you want Grouping.
If you've ever tried copying data from your clipboard to a merged cell, you've probably encountered these two messages:
"Data on the clipboard is not the same size and shape as the selected area. Do you want to paste anyway?"
"Cannot change part of a merged cell."
Luckily, there are a couple of ways around this. After copying the desired data and selecting the destination cell, do one of the following:
It only takes 30 seconds of Google search to know that merged cells are a huge hassle. Not only do they make copy/paste a chore, but they interfere with things like sorting, grouping, and outlining.
If your goal is to center some data or text across a span of cells, then you want Center Across Section.
In Excel 2003 and 2007 this is accomplished by selecting the cell range, right-clicking and selecting Format Cells. In the Format Cells dialogue box, click the Alignment tab. Use the Text Alignment: Horizontal dropdown menu to select Center Across Selection.
I've worked with Office 2003 since, well, 2003. My new rig has Office 2007 and I've gotten really frustrated looking for commands that I used to be able to access blindfolded. Here's a handy resource I find myself returning to again and again. This site isn't pretty, but the info is clear and easy to get at.
]]>An important note: This site needs to promote events, not coordinate different users' calendars with "show availability" features.
The site's owner had recently moved from MySpace to Google for Gmail and Picasa, so Google Calendar looked like a contender because it's easily embedded and has some basic formatting options. It would have also meant one-stop-shopping for most of the info he needs to check and update regularly.
"It would have…" meaning Google Calendar fell way short of our expectations and our needs. The formatting options available with Google Calendar are very limited and I couldn't produce one that looked good with the site's dark color scheme.
The most significant issue is that Google Calendar doesn't wrap text on-screen or in print. Worse is that, even with thousands of help forum posts on Google and other sites, Google doesn't appear to be "on it" the way they are with other issues, like this recent Picasa nightmare currently plaguing me.
Of course, a little CSS could fix these issues, and those hosting their own sites can use php to pass style sheets to Google Calendar. But blog sites like Squarespace don't allow php (for reasons I fully appreciate).
And even if I could use php, the code is intimately linked with Google's CSS and JavaScript. Google seems to be on a mission to prevent customization because they change these file names frequently enough to be a pain. Definitely not a blogger's solution.
I'm not holding my breath, but maybe a future Google Calendar release will fix these issues and make this a web solution I can work with.
Next, I took a look at some flash calendars like the CoffeeCup Web Calendar. These are definitely a great solution for some, but lack the social networking features George needs. Bummer.
Late the other night, I stumbled on Spongecell Promote and finally found a real solution that is so complete and so simple, that I can see why people suspect Goggle manipulates search results to suppress gems like this.
First, it's free – although I would happily pay, it's that good.
One Spogecell account can have any number of calendars, and the event editor allows you to add an event to one, several, or all calendars by clicking a checkbox or two, or three. For George's project, I set up a calendar to serve as the master, and other calendars for band and venue specific events. This allows for the next thing I love…
Widgets! Spongecell has two great widgets – a monthly calendar with text that wraps, and a scrolling events list that only displays events for the current and future dates. Everything important about these bad boys – size, color, and link handling – can be customized.
The widgets have a slick look and feel – event details slide into view (no new windows) and there are fields for everything you might need to convey. If the location fields are used, the event details will automatically provide a Google Maps link.
And a little something I discovered today – the widget code you generate is saved and allows for editing and copying. I wish this feature had been a little more obvious as it would have saved me some time, but I am totally psyched to have found it.
While the on-screen event details are quiet enough, an event also links to a Spongecell event page that opens in a new window. The Spongecell event page is customizable for color, background image, and modules displayed. If you don't like Spongecell event pages, you can link an event to a page of your own design. Fan-friggin-tastic!
These mods include RSVP, comments, contact list subscription, RSS, the usual social networking links, Google Maps, and video embedding.
One tiny complaint is not so much that you cannot remove the Spongecell ad from event pages (the product is great), it's more that you can't change it's placement. It would have been the cherry stem on top to be able to move all the mods around. Such a small complaint, I almost didn't list it.
They also have a subscription form widget and contact management features I haven't begun looking at, but seem just as amazing.
musicalgeorge's calendars, widgets, and event pages don't take advantage of all available features. Even so…
Check out a Spongcell calendar here.
See an Spongecell events list here.
Go to Spongecell Promote to see stuff I haven't even mentioned (like "buy tickets" links and viewer reports).
]]>Here I've compiled two files with all of my notes about Squarespace buttons to date.
Squarespace Button Selectors (CSS)
Squarespace Button Methods (CSS)
The .button class targets all Squarespace buttons. With the help of the Web Developer toolbar (a Firefox plugin) I've narrowed down the selectors for the following buttons:
Discussion and Guestbook pages, as well as the Post a Comment form, use the following buttons:
I've tested three methods of working with Squarespace buttons:
Method 1: Repeat-X with System Text
This is the easiest method for targeting all Squarespace buttons. It allows you to customize font color and size, border color and size, normal and hover background images, and height. This method is the cleanest to implement because width continues to be controlled by Squarespace defaults.
Method 2: No repeat with System Text
This method is best when you want rounded corners. It uses the normal and hover background images for height, width, and border and allows you to set font color and size. The main problem with this method is that the image sets the width. What works for "Preview Post" does not work for ">>".
To understand the possible solutions to this dilemma, you have to understand some of Squarespace's quirks, which I give further down.
One work around is to confine larger buttons to the Content column and target with #Content, and confine smaller buttons to the Sidebar columns and target with #sidebar1 and #sidebar2.
Another solution is to target the longer buttons with the .button class, target "Submit" buttons with the .submit-button class, and target the ">>" button with the .queryButton class.
Method 3: No repeat with Image Text
This method uses a an image with text as a button. Squarespace does not assign unique selectors to all buttons. For this reason, the best and only use of this method would be as a simple way to replace ">>" with "Search".
Like I said, Squarespace does not assign unique selectors to all buttons. This is a problem in two places I've seen.
The Squarespace email form and custom forms both use the .button and .submit-button classes. This means there is no simple way to use a no repeat image with text (method 3) to replace these buttons. Bummer, I really wanted that button to say "Send Email".
While Squarespace assigns unique selectors to the "Create Post", "Preview Post", and "Confirm Post" buttons, the "Make Changes" button is stuck with just the .button class. This means when you want to use a no repeat image with system text (method 2), you will also have to use one of the work aorunds (or suggest another).
Good luck in your button endeavors!
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