C3 Design

I hate Microsoft Publisher.

I’ve hated it so long I can barely remember why I started not liking it. I think it comes down to the fact that back before it could export PDFs, there was no way to get your content to another format and have it resemble your original vision. Since then, Microsoft has added the export to PDF functionality, which has made my life (and the lives of those who used to send me Publisher files) easier. At least I can take a PDF and do some manipulation to it. But, what if you don’t have Publisher and can’t convert your files to PDF?

Enter Zamzar

Zamzar offers free online file conversion of various file types, including Microsoft Publisher. I have been using this site for a few years now and it has been very helpful during those times when I have to get a file converted out of Publisher.

Right from their home page, you can upload your file, choose the format you want to output in, and they will email you a download link when it is finished processing. It’s incredibly easy!

How are the results? For the most part, they do what I need, which is usually just getting the basic graphics and text out of the file. But, see for yourself:

On the left, the flyer has been converted from Publisher to Word. On the right, a PDF created from Publisher directly.

As you can see, it’s not a perfect process. Most of the issues stem from missing fonts on my system that the Publisher file uses. But, I can edit the document and I don’t have to type the entire form over!

If you can get a PDF from the original Publisher file, that is your best bet. But, if you can’t for some reason, look into Zamzar for your quick conversion.

I developed the website for the Llano Crawfish Open early in 2011. Their previous website was hand coded with almost no photos of their fun and exciting event and their menu navigation was a mess; you couldn’t even get to their Home Page by clicking “Home”! They were ready for a serious facelift and content reorganization.

We started with the existing content and built out a basic website. Once we had that, Marilyn and the other Open staffers were able to get us photos, marquees and new text to create a site that really showcased the event. This year we have added a few small features to the site, including a new basic mobile version of the website.

The Llano Crawfish Open is the Texas Hill Country event you don’t want to miss.  There’s great food, live music, a golf tournament and much more. It is April 20-21 in Llano. You can check out their website at llanocrawfishopen.com.

Go join them this weekend for a lot of fun, good music and great food!

This week, we would like to spotlight another one of the donation options from our C3 Standard website package – The Arc. They can be found at thearc.org.

The Arc promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Over the last 60 years, The Arc has grown and adapted to the changes that people with disabilities face across their life span. Through the decades, The Arc has seen several name changes, advocated for the passage of state and federal legislation on behalf of people with disabilities and established a broad network of  state and local chapters that range from small voluntary groups to large, professional organizations.

The C3 Standard package is not meant for every website, but it is a great fit for a lot of situations. So many times I see people get caught up in design or spending weeks on messaging or some “cool factor” feature they want on their website. In the meantime, they have nothing online and are losing potential business, readers, contacts, etc.

This is a short “case study” on one person who knew the value of getting something online quickly & cleanly and how fast you can have a C3 Standard website up and running:

On Monday, April 9, I received an email from a business colleague and friend, Marilyn McCray, letting me know that a colleague of hers, Karen Millican, might be interested in a simple and easy to manage website.

I emailed Karen to let her know I would be interested in helping her out. We scheduled a meeting for Wednesday, April 11. We talked through what she was looking for and the C3 Standard package sounded like a good fit. All she would have to supply is a Word document with her text and any photos/logos for the site. She already had most of it done, so that evening she sent everything she had to me. Her site went live Thursday, April 12.

We went from complete strangers to a full website in less than 4 days. Sure, the site needs some tweaks (which we will be doing today), but instead of a dead link when someone types in her domain name, she has a nice, simple website that will be easy to update and edit. More importantly – it is online now, not a month from now.

You can see her site at http://www.karenmillican.com

I’ve always been a fan of the concept of the paperless office. During my tenure at The Citren Group, my boss Kasee finally helped “seal the deal” in my love of the digital office and home. And I believe it is relatively easy to create a completely paperless environment (Evernote and a good document scanner can get you well on your way), until you factor in any interaction with others. What do you do when your digital business philosophy runs into the traditional analog world? More to the point of this article – can you digitize your business card and still effectively conduct business? Absolutely!

The first question is should you have digital business cards. Although this article is a little over a year old, I believe it explains why digital cards are a good idea quite succinctly. It lists the 6 reasons why you should replace your cards, which include my two favorites:

• Never run out of cards. Ever left your business cards at home or back at the hotel room? Started to hand out cards but didn’t have enough? Had to put a line through inaccurate information and handwrite in the new? Look through your pockets for a prospects card only to discover you lost it? Having an online card solves these problems.
• Remembering the place. The online version of your business card can tell you the location from where the card was received.

If this is something that interests you, you’ll need some sort of application to create and distribute your digital business cards. Cardcloud is easy to use and available for the iPhone and Android platforms. You can create different business cards with different contact information for just about any situation. Here’s how I use Cardcloud:

• Personal - For any friends, parents of my kids’ friends, church members, or just about anything where I need someone to have my personal phone, e-mail address, twitter and Facebook accounts.
• Business - For all current and potential clients, vendors, etc. This one includes my business e-mail, phone, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts.
• Scouting -This one includes my Scouting title, personal phone number, Scouting and e-mail address.

Now, when I’m out in the world and I run across someone I want to give my card to, I open up the iPhone Cardcloud application, tap the card I want to use and tap “Send”. I can then either have the recipient type in their e-mail address, or I can type it in for them. My business card, plus an attached v-card, are sent to the recipient. Cardcloud keeps a record of the e-mail address I sent the card to and a location where the card was given. It’s great and I automatically get a record of the recipient’s e-mail address to use later. And it’s all free.

I still keep paper business cards on me in most business situations, but having 3 different business cards on me at any given time makes sure I am ready for any situation, business or personal, to make sure I never miss a contact opportunity.

Cornerstone Builders Supply Custom Cabinetry would relish the opportunity to assist you in personalizing your home office, media room, study, library, powder room or any other living space. Our extraordinary design flexibility and endless variety allow you to put your own unique touch on each and every room.

Chad and the rest of the team at Cornerstone Builder Supply were great to work with. They came to us with a simple, but often repeated problem: they liked the design of their website, but it was incredibly difficult to keep updated. We kept their existing design, adapted it to fit WordPress, and added photo galleries not only showing their finished work, but also the wide selection of cabinet and door styles they have available.

Although their site is a work in progress (yes, there are a few pages that still need content from them), we are happy with how it turned out and hope Cornerstone Builder Supply’s online presence continues to grow.

You can see their website at http://www.cbsupply.net

Ronald McDonald House Charities – Provides comfort and care to children and their families by supporting Ronald McDonald Houses in communities around the world.

While Ronald McDonald House Charities cannot make medicine taste better or take away painful treatments, we can help lessen the burden and ensure more than 4.5 million families a year have the stability and resources they need to keep their child healthy and happy.

When my oldest son was going through some medical issues, we had to travel to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Every time we go, we pass by the Ronald McDonald House in the Texas Medical Center. We’ve never had to use them, but knowing they are there is a great source of comfort.

As part of our C3 Standard website initiative, we are offering to donate $5 of every monthly hosting payment to the charity of your choice, which includes the Ronald McDonald House Charities, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Humane Society, The Arc, charity: water, National CASA and Make-A-Wish Foundation.

I spent a little time earlier this week researching social media apps and ran across something that can help you make sure your tweets are being seen by the most followers by telling you when to post on your timeline.

Tweriod (http://www.tweriod.com) will analyze your Twitter followers and tell you what time of day the majority of your followers are posting on Twitter. Think of it as knowing your Twitter “Drive Time” hours. Their free service is fairly robust, but if you are looking for 7 day a week, 24 hour analysis, you can get that starting at only $2.50.

Using any content management system will make your website easier to maintain. But what about moving your site to a new host? It’s usually not that difficult, if you make sure you get your entire site.

There are two basic components to a content management website:

1. the site files
2. a database

The site files

This is the part of the website most of us are used to seeing. Before content management systems became commonplace on the internet, websites were done in “static” HTML for the most part. A website coder would use an editor to create individual pages for a website and upload them to a server for viewing on the internet. If you wanted to move to a new server, you would grab everything on the server and move it to your new one and you would be back up and running.

If you look servers running WordPress (my content management system of choice), you’ll notice a list of files with a “.php” extension, rather than the “.html” one of static websites. These PHP files contain instructions on how to create the pages you see in your browser, but do not contain the content itself; that is mostly in the database, which we’ll get to shortly.

If you copy everything visible on your server from your current host, you will get all of the php files, your custom files (themes, plugins, etc.) and some of your content (mostly images you have uploaded). These files by themselves are not going to allow you to recreate your website.

The database

The database is the real content of your website. This is where most of your text, links, website preferences and image references will be kept. With all popular content management systems, there is some sort of database and you will need a backup of it in order to move your website. You can not get to your database through your FTP account or web browser directly. You need to use a control panel for your server or a plug-in built into your existing website; this is not your “normal” type of file and will need to be exported/backed up differently than other files.

My favorite to use for WordPress is xCloner, which will back up both your files AND database in one ZIP file. You can then take that file to most web hosting companies or webmasters and they can upload your site with a minimal amount of effort.

Next time you need to change hosting companies, make sure you get all of your content and you’ll have a smoother transition for your audience.

Disclaimer

This is a fairly generic overview of the content management system structure and your website/server may have different structure.