While I haven’t read it for retention yet, I haven’t had time since I’m working on a book myself for MS Press (Expression Web Step by Step) and big surprise: it’s HARD to write a book, I did scan it and came across a term I’d never seen or heard before: Morgue File.

Apparently Morgue File is a fairly common term in the graphic arts community and print industry. There’s even a site by that name. It refers to a file of samples or pieces of old work, often used for inspiration or graphics research for new projects.

Jason was making the point of the importance of keeping one to assist Web designers in coming up with new ideas by looking at old stuff they’d done and references to sites they’d seen and liked, etc.

I think we all probably do this in an informal way, maybe with bookmarks, maybe a folder full of shortcuts like my friend Thomas Rowe does. Whatever the method, Jason’s suggestion got me thinking: How could a designer/developer (designoper) keep the best kind of morgue file? I didn’t have to think about it long and the answer was glaringly obvious: OneNote.

You may have read my previous article here about OneNote 2003, which was a darned good program, but OneNote 2007 leaves it in the dust with enhancements of what was great about its predecessor and new features that almost seem too futuristic to be real, things like the ability to search text in scanned in business cards and search for words in audio notes. That’s right: when you search for a word in OneNote 2007 it’ll actually look for the word(s) in PICTURES and AUDIO, not to mention handwriting!

For a morgue file these items might be of limited use, but what’s great is the ability to create a whole notebook dedicated to your “morgue” then divide it up into tabs, then add pages under those tabs. You’ve got a perfect environment to logically organize your morgue file.

Here’s how I see the work flow: when you’re on a Web page that interests or impresses you all you do is hit the windows key and the letter S on your keyboard to draw a screen clipping box over whatever you want to save, this will automatically save a picture of the item of interest on a fresh page in OneNote and insert a date/ time/ original location reference for you. Just type some text about the details that interested you and drag the page under the appropriate tab in your morgue file notebook and you’re set. When the time comes that you need something it’ll most assuredly be found quickly by a OneNote search. This is great for Web pages you happen across, templates you see when searching for inspiration, or pages clients like or want to emulate to some degree.

You can do the same thing with local image files too, but you’d probably be better off using a DAM (Digital Asset Management) program Like Expression Media (formerly iView) or any of the other DAMs out there.

Personally the whole morgue file situation with Web pages and designs is more important to me than cataloging every image file I’ve got. As long as I can find the page that gave me some pang of inspiration some time in the past, coming up with a new set of graphics is something I’d have to do anyway.

So there you have it: the coolest thing I thought of today. Shhhh… don’t tell my editor.

[tags]onenote, expression media, morgue file[/tags]

I had two reasons for this: first, I generally access my desktop from my laptop via remote desktop. I do this because I don’t like my office that much and I’m too lazy to go downstairs to the main machine. Remote Desktop works pretty well but I still have to go downstairs to see if anyone called me so It’d be nice to be able to access the phone while I access the desktop through remote desktop. Secondly I want to make some training videos with Camtasia. I’ve got some cool techniques for taking notes during phone calls, adding contacts based on a phone call log, making calendar entries that, when synced with outlook, become billable in office accounting, etc.

I searched and searched for something and only found using the mobile device to control the desktop through terminal server (remote desktop). after a few hours some mobile device MVPs turned me on to this: http://www.soti.net/ which is cool, but expensive and more than I needed. finally, I stumbled across this.

While not mentioned specifically, it works fine with WM5. Just download and run the software with your PPC cradled, make sure there’s not steps you need to do on the PPC screen. Run the app on your PPC (take the default settings), then fire it up on your desktop.

Voila! You’ve got a kind of remote desktop for your PPC.

[tags]ppc, pocket pc[/tags]

This is one of those very seldom cases. This thing I’ve found has the potential to bump Live Writer from the top of my “coolest things I’ve seen lately” list.

It’s called Popfly and it’s Microsoft’s way to try and bring the truly “bleeding edge” stuff like you’d find in Expression Blend, Silverlight, etc. to the masses. It’s truly impressive. It’s in a private Alpha build but you can sign into the site and get on the invitation list early so you can be among the first to use it when it goes to beta release.

I’m sure the team at Popfly can do a better job of explaining it than I can so here are some links for you:

• Screencast (WMV)
• Popfly Site
• Popfly Team Blog

• Popfly Discussions

It’s all so cool. Just another reason you can never get bored in the “Web business,” there’s always something just around the corner.

[tags]Popfly, Microsoft, alpha test, Web business[/tags]

I might do a little more in person work for my clients than most because I often come to their business places and take photographs and since I’ve got about a 60/40 split between local and out of town clients I just tend to be in my client’s offices fairly often.

One thing I decided early on was I would never give a client a bill in person.  It made sense to me.  It’s just basic Pavlovian psychology; when I come to see them I want them to be glad to see me.  I want the experience to be viewed positively from their perspective: something got fixed, they learned something, their inventory got photographed, progress was made, etc.
I don’t want them to associate seeing me with something unpleasant, like getting a bill, or even worse getting a bill while I stand around waiting for them to write a check.

The way I do it is I’ll go to the client’s place, do whatever they need, make a calendar entry on my Pocket PC (Verizon VX 6700), chat them up, prospect for other clients, then leave.

When I get back to my office I cradle the Pocket PC and all the calendar entries get transferred to my desktop PC (Outlook specifically).  Here’s the cool thing; Calendar entries can be marked as “Billable” in outlook if you’re using Business Contact Manager and have a connection set up to Office Accounting 2007 (formerly known as Small Business Accounting 2006).

It’s really a great set-up and you can try it out free if you have Outlook 2003, 2007 is better though because it uses a combined BCM/OA database:
www.ideawins.com (grab the free subset of OA)
www.Microsoft.com/Downloads (BCM Download)

By using this method you can keep track of who owes what, seamlessly move the billable information into Outlook, and have a nice atmosphere for YOU to work from.  The biggest benefit though is your bills just show up in the mail with all the other bills and your clients won’t develop an unconscious Pavlovian distaste for seeing you in person.

But, not all sites are simple and there’s never a case where one tool works for all situations.

When something in the “Heavy-Duty” CMS category is required there’s only one choice I can think of: InsiteCreation 2007.

It doesn’t hurt that the guy who made it is a 100% stand-up dude, it doesn’t hurt that they’ve got great support either.

This CMS runs on ASP.NET 2.0 and uses master pages and all the various .net 2.0 features.  The templates are easy to edit.  It’s a little tricky at first figuring out how to get the “Channels” to result in the navigation that you want but once you get it, you’re good. 

There’s virtually no chance that this CMS won’t fit the needs of even the most complicated organizational or institutional client.

Do yourself a favor and take 10 minutes to look at Insite Creation and bookmark it.  Next time you need to do a complex CMS system you’ll be one step ahead.

The only thing I don’t like about it is that it requires SQL Server (not the free one, the MS one).  I wish there was a way to make anything run against an Access database just for testing or light use.  Face it if it weren’t for stored procs most sites don’t need the oomph of an MS SQL Server DB.  Regardless, I found a place with good deals on ASP.NET 2.0 hosting and get this;
They’ve got a special package for developers that has ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 for…$2.95/mo.  Granted the traffic isn’t huge but it’s really intended for testing stuff out and I suppose it’d suffice for a low traffic site that just happens to need a SQL Server DB.  I was stunned by the deal when I found it.  Visit CrystalTech and check it out.

Nevertheless, it’s come to my attention that I actually AM BLOGGING. Not necessarily from writing articles here on Lockergnome, but I came to the realization while working on my project involving Office Live, Spaces Live, and other Windows Live facilities. There’s no doubt that “Spaces” articles are blogs (they title them as such) :-).

Not caring too much for the editor built into “Spaces” I went to the private MVP newsgroup for a better solution and came across this. It’s really a fantastic little application.

It’s so great and the UI is so damn good I think I’ll do a Camtasia screen video of it.

Believe my recommendation, I’m an editor freak. I built this live site editor, so I’ve got a special interest in content editors.

So, I got to thinking; If this application works so well with Live Spaces, wouldn’t it be great if it would work with entries on Lockergnome?

Well guess what? It works! I’m blissfully using this fantastic free blog editor right now to write this Lockergnome post. In a few seconds I’m going to click one single button and it will seamlessly log through the Lockergnome system and, voila! Done… right after I run the spell check. Maybe “Blogging” doesn’t resonate so badly with me…

[tags]Blog, Blogging, LiveWriter, Windows Live, Office Live, Lockergnome[/tags]

Don’t get me wrong; Expression Web has GREAT tools for easily manipulating style sheets, classes, and other CSS elements but with any program you use to develop anything, you’ll have these instances where you just want to open the source and edit it directly. While for my current purposes it’s annoying, it IS for the greater part, job security.

I don’t think there will ever be a development tool that can outperform, or more concisely, not need a human being to run it and think about the bigger picture. The other side of the coin is this; as the programs we use to develop webs, web pages, and web applications get better and have higher level capabilities available at the GUI level, they become much harder for new users to come to grips with. It’s just another instance that reinforces the fact that there’s no tool, application, or GUI that can take the place of experience, knowledge, and understanding. Even more than that it seems that bringing these tool capabilities up to the GUI level also makes those three human attributes more important for the user.

The web is changing, tools are getting much better, but the need for a real understanding is only growing. The days of an absolutely unskilled user cranking out a site with a tool like FrontPage are gone. It’s not just because the technology is changing and becoming deeper, it’s that the tools themselves, in an attempt to capitalize on the new potential are getting “heavier” and the user actually is in a position where they need to know a little about what they’re doing just to do it.

If you’ve groused in the past about people buying a tool like FrontPage and making their own site, even a weak one, instead of hiring you, you’re going to be seeing a complete shift. Sure the user can still buy a tool but now they’re going to need to learn a significant bit about the underlying technology. I’m more than sure that the people who didn’t mind investing a dozen hours into learning FrontPage, then maybe a few more to make a site aren’t going to be able to justify investing hundreds of hours into learning both the editor and the underlying technology that it build upon.

I think we’ll all be seeing a greater demand for “small sites” that users too often made themselves.

Chris Leeds, MVP, WPD
Chris Leeds is a longtime digital photographer and Web enthusiast.

Chris has recently developed and released a software product that allows Webmasters to create Web sites that can be edited by their clients with just a browser.

Chris also maintains and operates Northeast Digital Photo.

Chris has additionally had “Tips and Tricks” and numerous articles published, on Microsoft’s site and other locations, regarding various facets of FrontPage and recently served as a technical reviewer for the O’Reilly Press “FrontPage 2003 the Missing Manual.”

His latest writing project is in the role of author for Microsoft Press’ forthcoming “Expression Web Step by Step.”

[tags]Expression Web, FrontPage, Developers, Web Sites[/tags]

In this article, I’ll share a couple of little tips with you that we spent some time and money to figure it out. It was well worth the investment!

I’m of the opinion that every business that does any kind of advertising NEEDS a Web site. That’s right: every business that does advertising needs a Web site!

Why? Well, the fact of the matter is for a small informational Web site to augment or support other advertising such as print, radio, TV, etc. it’s a freakin’ bargain by comparison to the “main” advertising.

It has always blown my mind that business owners will spend hundreds of bucks per day on print advertising in the newspaper. Where, incidentally, they usually try to write too much in too small of a space and ameliorate their investment anyway. Yet they don’t want to spend a couple of hundred bucks on a nice Web site that is durable, provides virtually unlimited space for content, and truly bolsters every other form of advertising.

Rant paragraphs aside, one of the most obvious businesses that can immediately benefit from a nice Web site is a car dealer.

They almost always advertise in the classifieds of the local newspaper(s), usually for exorbitant rates. If you can convince the dealer to use their site to display photos of their inventory rather than spending money on lengthy descriptions or ugly B&W pictures in the classifieds they can usually pocket the entire cost of their Web site by reducing the amount of money they spend on classified advertising.

I have one car dealer to whom that made obvious sense. I built her a site and she likes it. Since she’s a good businessperson, she wanted to figure out what she could say in the classified ads to get the most traffic diverted to her Web site.

We tried all manner of wordings, watched the server logs, changed the wording, and checked the logs again. This process continued for about a month. The longer the text was that recommended the reader visit the Web site the better the response, but with diminishing returns. We were, after all, trying to reduce the size and cost of the ads.

After about a month of experimentation, we arrived on what was the best balance between length of wording and effectiveness: “See it at www.example.com” (where example.com is the URL of the dealer in question).

I think it worked better than just putting the dealer’s domain name at the bottom of the ad because consumers are so used to the URL being in an ad as a kind of default closing text without any images or information about the specific item the ad refers to.

So there you have it. It worked great for this particular dealer and the other few dealers that I take care of. Try it with your dealer clients and see how it works for you. Keep in mind though that ACTUALLY having a listing for the car and photos is a MUST, or it won’t do any good at all.

We also came up with a great trick for the salespeople to use, too.

When a customer comes in to the car lot one of the first questions the salesperson asks is, “Did you see the car on our Web site?”

Why is that? Well, primarily, if the customer says yes the salesperson knows they have a much more interested shopper. They have seen it online, they know the list price, and they have come to the location to get deeper into the buying process.

That is invaluable information for the salesperson to have!

Second, if the customer says, “No, I didn’t see it on the Web site,” the salesperson has just informed them, by simply asking a question, that there IS a Web site and then might say something like, “Yeah, we get a lot of action on the site, that car has had a number of inquiries.”

This is motivational and causes an increased likelihood that the customer can be moved toward making the purchase NOW.

There’s so much that a Web site can do for a car dealer that it’s not possible to enumerate here in this short article, but you’ve just picked up two great tricks and some good concepts that you can share with the dealers you either work for or want to do work for.

Nothing helps close a prospective client like having some specific knowledge of their business and a few well though out tips that they didn’t think of themselves.

Chris Leeds, MVP, WPD
Chris Leeds is a longtime digital photographer and Web enthusiast.

Chris has recently developed and released a software product that allows Webmasters to create Web sites that can be edited by their clients with just a browser.

Chris also maintains and operates Northeast Digital Photo.

Chris has additionally had “Tips and Tricks” and numerous articles published, on Microsoft’s site and other locations, regarding various facets of FrontPage and recently served as a technical reviewer for the O’Reilly Press “FrontPage 2003 the Missing Manual.”

His latest writing project is in the role of author for Microsoft Press’ forthcoming “Expression Web Step by Step.”

[tags]Automobile Dealers, Car, Cars, Chris Leeds, Advertising[/tags]

I’ve used Ulead’s PhotoImpact since version 6 and I’m a huge fan of SmartSaver Pro. I liked PhotoImpact because it didn’t have that Mac-ish feel that PhotoShop and all the products that try to emulate its GUI have.

In PhotoImpact (at least until more recent versions) you didn’t think of “layers” but “objects” with a stack order. I don’t know why but this concept is just easier on my brain. Unfortunately in PI 11 and 12 they’ve made a big deal about layers.

I think the version on my main machine is 8 and I’ll probably just continue to use it or maybe transition to Microsoft’s Expression graphics offering. As for SmartSaver, it’s simply the best program I’ve ever used for batch processing images for the Web; resize, compress, etc.

Today I found out that Ulead was gobbled up by Corel. Isn’t it amazing how all these little niche companies seem to get snapped up over time.

I’m still getting over the fact that Macromedia is gone.

Anyway, I guess this is all the more reason to covet my old copies of all these obscure programs I’ve collected over the year.

I can feel a DVD burning session followed by a trip to the bank’s safe deposit box coming.

Chris Leeds, MVP, WPD
Chris Leeds is a longtime digital photographer and Web enthusiast.

Chris has recently developed and released a software product that allows Webmasters to create Web sites that can be edited by their clients with just a browser.

Chris also maintains and operates Northeast Digital Photo.

Chris has additionally had “Tips and Tricks” and numerous articles published, on Microsoft’s site and other locations, regarding various facets of FrontPage and recently served as a technical reviewer for the O’Reilly Press “FrontPage 2003 the Missing Manual.”

His latest writing project is in the role of author for Microsoft Press’ forthcoming “Expression Web Step by Step.”

[tags]Ulead, Corel, PhotoImpact, SmartSaver, Chris Leeds[/tags]

Microsoft is about to move past beta with Office Live but their basic version is to remain free anyway. This is a pretty good deal considering that by signing up for the free service you get a free domain, free hosting space for that domain, and free email accounts.

I was floored that something free would be this nice. While you can use the online site builder you can also publish your work into the hosting space conventionally. The servers are super fast too.

If you want some hosting space to experiment with some .net stuff, this is a good place to start.

Needless to say; most of my friends and relatives have registered their names as domains with the service and are using their “personal” email addresses with the sort of pride that only newbies who’ve just stepped up to their own domain can muster.

This service is something that you, as a professional developer, might want to look at. Lets say you have a client who wants a basic site and some email capabilities. Why not set them up with an OfficeLive account. You can still make them their site how you normally would and to save you both some hassle, just let them use the online interface for email, that way you won’t have to worry about them setting up an email client on their desktop machines, and the hassles that go with it.

The online email interface is truly exceptional. I’ve been making webs and helping people with hosting and getting online for a long time. I’ve seen a great many online email interfaces and believe me, this one is the absolute hands down winner in both quality of presentation and usability.

How usable is it?

Well, the other day I shot an email off to my daughter’s email account on the system (her own name as a domain). I just wrote a quick email and sent it off as a test, then promptly forgot all about it.

About an hour later I heard the familiar Outlook “glonk” sound and went to my inbox to investigate. Much to my surprise it was an email from Nina. She’d actually seen the new email from me show up on her Windows Live home page I set up for her while she was playing “WebKinz,” clicked it and launched the OfficeLive email interface, read my test message and replied with “I love you daddy”.
Since Nina is only seven years old I have every confidence even our lowest skilled web development clients will have little problem using this system.

OfficeLive is definitely something that you should consider for certain clients, and something that’s a rare combination of both free, valuable, and of extremely high quality.

Check it out: http://officelive.com

Chris Leeds, MVP, WPD
Chris Leeds is a longtime digital photographer and Web enthusiast.

Chris has recently developed and released a software product that allows Webmasters to create Web sites that can be edited by their clients with just a browser.

Chris also maintains and operates Northeast Digital Photo.

Chris has additionally had “Tips and Tricks” and numerous articles published, on Microsoft’s site and other locations, regarding various facets of FrontPage and recently served as a technical reviewer for the O’Reilly Press “FrontPage 2003 the Missing Manual.”

His latest writing project is in the role of author for Microsoft Press’ forthcoming “Expression Web Step by Step.”

[tags]Free Domain, Free Email, OfficeLive, Chris Leeds, Web Development[/tags]