Web site usability is a somewhat nebulous concept to most entrepreneurs and small business owners. Web designers might know more about it, but usability is not a required subject for graphic designers, and few real studies on this subject have made it to the mainstream. When I worked at Microsoft as a technical writer, I participated in both user interface design and usability studies, so I have some familiarity with the subject.

There is one book that was brought to my attention recently which I bought and devoured. Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think” beautifully sums up the web visitor’s experience and provides guidelines for web designers and web site owners alike. Given that most people arrive at a site for the first time as a result of a search engine click, here are some of the questions that each site should answer:

• What is this? What is the purpose of this web site?
• What do they have here? Can I buy stuff, rent stuff, sell stuff?
• What can I do here? Get help, log in, go shopping, read an article?
• Why should I be here and not somewhere else? Did my search land on a page where the search result I saw is obvious?

All of these things must be obvious within the first few seconds of the visitor’s arrival, or they’ll just hit the back button and continue surveying the search results.

The book goes on to describe specific remedies for web visitor frustration, including keeping your navigation simple, keeping colors and fonts consistent, and making it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Keep navigation hyperlinks simple and direct, and make sure the link they click corresponds to a title on the page to which the link takes them.

I highly recommend this book for everyone who works on their own web site!

Webinar Date: April 9, 2008

In today’s webinar, we covered Cascading Style Sheets and how they replace hand-editing of text on a web site. We discussed the use of simple formatting tags like bold, italic, and underline. We also look at the now little-used FONT tag and talked about the problems associated with using it because of poor implementations in the browser.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) give us the opportunity to group text characteristics together into a single text file that we can link to on every page. We can specify that all paragraph tags use Verdana as the font, 12 pixels as the size, and blue as the color. Instead of applying those characteristics to every paragraph by hand, we specify it once inside the CSS file and all the pages respond accordingly.

The beauty of using CSS in our web pages is that if we decide to change the paragraph font color from blue to black, we can make that change in one file, and all the web pages update automatically.

CSS is also used for positioning text on web pages, but that’s an advanced activity that the average user usually leaves to their web designer. CSS can also be used to make pages more accessible to those of limited vision or dexterity.

Downloadable example files for this webinar can be found at http://www.pcpowertips.com/webinar/20080319/index.html.

Webinar Date: March 19, 2008

In today’s webinar, we talked about tables in HTML. Tables are one of the most used tag sets in the language; commonly used for overall layout as well as small arrangements of text.

The basic set is very simple: starting the table, ending the table, with row and table cell tags in between. What’s challenging and interesting is handling the combination of rows and cells when needed, then the positioning of text, and finally the proper use of color in borders and backgrounds.

Nesting tables one inside another is the next level of complexity, but it’s done quite often in web pages. The challenge is not to use too many tables in a page because the browser has to read through all the code first before rendering. The difference may be in milliseconds of load time, but tables are in fact slower to load than unstructured text, so you must use them judiciously.

We had two handouts for this webinar that make good practice documents. You can download them from http://www.pcpowertips.com/webinar/20080312/index.html. The second handout has 11 examples of the different formatting you can apply to a table.

Enjoy!

Webinar Date: March 12, 2008

In today’s webinar, we started our HTML lesson with a discussion of browsers and how they read and render web pages. HTML pages are plain text documents containing tags that control the appearance of text and graphics in the page.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sets the standards for the appearance of text and behaviors in web pages so that there are common outcomes when a page is displayed. If for example, a tag is broken or missing, browers revert to the default appearance of text (usually Times Roman) in the specified font size.

Next we looked at the basic set of tags required for a page to display at all. Then we added simple heading and paragraph tags to give the text some structure. Taking advantage of attributes that the tags offer, we could change text alignment (left/center/right), as well as “text decoration” like bold or italics. We also tried creating hyperlinks and adding images using those tags.  The demonstration files for these activities can be downloaded from http://www.pcpowertips.com/webinar/20080305/index.html.

Next week we’re going to cover tables, which are used for positioning text and graphics.

Webinar Date: March 5, 2008

In today’s webinar we talked about Web Design tools. When you’re first learning how to create web pages, the simpler your web editor the better. You want to be able to focus on the code itself, not be distracted by all the bells and whistles in the software.

HTML pages are plain text documents. Whatever tool you use MUST be able to save plain text files with no formatting. You can create web pages in Notepad — you don’t need anything fancier than that. We even started a web page in Notepad during the webinar. It’s nice, though, to have a tool that is meant for HTML code.

We looked at TextPad, a $32 tool that has some shortcuts for creating web pages. If you decide to buy that tool, however, be sure to download this HTML definitions file (HTMLTAGS.TCL) and replace the one that comes with TextPad. I adjusted the default TextPad HTMLTAGS.TCL file because it still uses upper-case tags and some tags that aren’t used anymore.

Next we looked at a well-featured, free web page editor called HTML Kit. I used this one when I took CSS classes at a nearby community college. You can download it from http://www.chami.com/html-kit. HTML Kit has both syntax coloring and syntax prompting, which help you visually as you work with the code.

Finally, we looked at FrontPage and Adobe GoLive as examples of full-featured, professional web design tools. They offer syntax coloring, syntax prompting, a built-in FTP tool for uploading files, and a structural file that organizes and tracks all of the files in a site.

• FrontPage and its successor, Expression Web, go to great lengths to shield users from HTML code by providing design layout views that simplify creating web pages.
• FrontPage has been very popular with users who are starting to create their own web sites because there are hundreds of design templates available.
• Adobe GoLive and Dreamweaver are advanced tools used in conjunction with other Adobe Products like Photoshop and Illustrator.

If your web design tool does not include the ability to immediately upload your files to your web server, you’ll need an FTP tool. There are two that I’ve used and/or recommended:

• CuteFTP  http://www.cuteftp.com
• VanDyke SecureFX http://www.vandyke.com/products/securefx/index.html 

In addition to web design tools, you will probably want to look into the following supporting tools:

• Color chooser/constructor: Amiasoft Color Pro http://www.amiasoft.com/colorpro
• Menu builders:
  • Ultramenu http://www.ultramenu.com
  • Deluxe Menu http://www.dhtml-menu.com/
• Creating and editing MP3 files for podcasting: Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio http://snipurl.com/pcpt_audiostudio 
• Creating and editing videos and DVDs: Sony Vegas Movie Studio http://snipurl.com/pcpt_moviestudio 
• Creating screen capture videos: Camtasia http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

There are more tools you can use, but these will give you an excellent start.

Webinar Date: February 27, 2008 

In today’s webinar we talked about the operational aspects of choosing a domain name, where to register a domain name and whether or not to use private registration. We learned how to look up the owner of a domain name (http://www.whois.net/ is one web site), and talked about establishing a PO Box or mailbox at a mailing center as the contact point for domain registry, to avoid using our home addresses.

We also talked about web hosts; the different types of plans, and how many domains could be hosted on a single server. I had a short list of features to shop for when choosing a web hosting plan:

• Registration types and cost	• Windows vs Unix/Linux hosting
• Monthly and Yearly Plans	• Single vs Multiple Domain plans
• Email Support	• PHP and MySQL Support
• Amount of storage space (in GB)	• Blog and Podcast Support
• Number of user accounts and access level	• Bandwidth allowances
• Type of Tech Support (email, phone, 24/7?)	• SSL Certificates
• Reputation (Visit their user forums to find out)

Dispute resolution is an important issue; will the web host shut your site down first and ask questions later? Or will they attempt to notify you first? You want to be sure that you can get a hold of someone if something goes wrong. Visit the user forums for your web host to see what other users are saying. Be sure you understand their privacy policy and dispute resolution procedures before you commit time and effort to a site on their servers.

Finally, we talked about the issue of control over your web site. When you’re deciding where to host your site, be sure you can set up accounts that allow your web designer access but not complete control over the site. You’re the one paying for it; you should be in control of it. If your designer refuses, then get another site over which YOU have control. You may choose to get another designer too, but that’s a separate decision. We’ll talk more about working with web professionals in our March 26th webinar.

Webinar Date: February 20, 2008

In Wednesday’s webinar we covered the somewhat boring but incredibly necessary task of documenting your computer hardware and software. These items are business assets just as surely as your desk, chair, and filing cabinets are. There are a number of good reasons for tracking these assets:

• Amortization: the process of taking a tax deduction over time for these purchased items. I’m not a tax preparer — you should consult yours to find out what you can deduct and how much based on the structure of your company.
• Data recovery: when disaster strikes, do you know where your installation disks are? More than that, do you know where your license keys are?

In the webinar I enumerated the items you should track for both hardware and software, and those who attended received a copy of my sample asset tracking sheets.

We also talked about “box” software and downloadable software. Downloaded software should be stored in a central “Downloads” directory somewhere on your hard drive so that you can return to it easily. You should also back up these program downloads to a CD for safekeeping. I also like to store in a Notepad file a copy of the license key so that if I have to quickly reinstall, I have everything at my fingertips.

When it comes to storing your “box” software, I suggested that you throw away the outer box (except the flap with the version number and barcode), and store the documentation with the discs in some kind of container. I have tried 4 or 5 different containers for my box software, but have settled on storing the software in a file cabinet. I use a plastic envelope with a “landscape” orientation, and a top flap with a Velcro closure.

I also use my Dymo labelmaker to print a nice label that I affix along the top edge of the envelope. That lets me find the folder and open it without removing it from the file cabinet.

I found these plastic envelopes at Jam Paper (http://www.jampaper.com). They’re not cheap, but they wear well, and they are by far the best solution I’ve found. I also use multimedia storage drawers for CDs that don’t have any other paperwork with them. These drawers I found at OfficeDepot.com, also not inexpensive, but very durable.

P.S: There will be no webinars on February 6th or the 13th due to prior commitments. I’ll see you again on Feb. 20th.

Webinar Date: January 30, 2008

Today we talked about archiving our data and some strategies for doing it successfully. The key to a sensible archive strategy is to realize that you must organize and name your files so that they’re recognizable, even memorable, long past the time you used them. The same principles apply to archiving that you used when you organized your data (see the January 9th webinar posting). Look at the way your business operates and organize your files accordingly.
 
Here are some examples:

• If you’re a consultant, file first by client then by project. Create a Client code or short name (8-12 characters) and use in the folder names. Create Project folders by completion date or date range (YYYY-MM[-DD]) OR by using a project name (8-12 characters).  Each Project File should include the project name then a good, descriptive filename
• If you create products, file by product name. Create folders by version or release date. Keep source files and a copy of the final output file (Word documents, page layout files). Put supporting graphics files into their own (\images) folder. If you quote other sources, include a list and confirmation of permission records. Keep the Final PDF/Audio/Video output (actual file distributed). Bonus: create a Text file listing the filenames required to reproduce the distribution file again (especially software or multi-source files like screen-capture video)

You probably also need to keep folders with corporate records, state & federal tax records, bookkeeping, etc. Name the folders with obvious names so you can find them again.

We also talked about the kinds of media you can use: CDs, DVDs, hard drives, and even magnetic tape. CDs and DVDs are commonly used, but their shelf life isn’t as long as hard drives or magnetic tape storage. External hard drives that are plugged in for the purpose of locating archived files will last you several years, provided they’re protected from dust and heat exposure. Hard drives that run continuously last only about 3 years, so if you’re going to archive to hard drive, disconnect the drives when you’re not using them.

Finally, I encourage you to purchase an external hard drive. Start the archive process by moving the files from your primary machine to your external drive (copy over then delete originals on the primary drive). It’s important that you commit to actually archiving the files rather than creating more duplicates. Use that external hard drive to organize and name everything, then unplug and store the drive carefully. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated: I use gallon-size Ziploc freezer bags because they’re a little studier and because they keep everything dust-free. I also invested in fireproof storage so that the really important data could survive even that challenge.

Webinar Date: January 23, 2008

Having gotten our files organized last week, we are ready to start regular backups this week. We covered the overall strategy and philosophy of backups: what to back up, where to send the files, and which methods to choose.

• Windows Backup works just fine and it’s simple to use and set up. I recommend not using the Wizard approach; using the “classic” view presents you with a Windows Explorer-like folder hierarchy. You simply click the checkbox next the files and folders you want to back up, then save your selections. After identifying the destination for your backup file, you set a schedule and let the backup run (preferably nightly).
• We talked about types of backups, including normal, differential, and incremental. Most people will use normal backups every night, but I pointed out the need to keep 2 or 3 backups in reserve, in case any one of them didn’t back up correctly.
• We also talked about equipment for backing up your files, including external hard drives and online backup services. If you decide to keep a backup drive on-site, you need to be sure that it is at least twice the size of the total number of files to be backed up. That way you have room for growth AND you can keep more than one copy of the backup.
• Online backup services use a slightly different method for backing up your files, and each service is different so be sure to read the description of the service.

Having a good backup strategy may mean combining methods so that your precious work is protected. Don’t wait to get started on your backups; the files you save WILL be your own!

Webinar Date: January 16, 2008

January is “Organize Your Technology” Month during my free webinars. In our January 9th webinar we talked about the 4 steps we need to take to start this process

1. Getting output files stored in a central location (My Documents)
   • By default most Windows programs store your output files (.DOC, .XLS, .PPT, etc) in the My Documents folder. Not all programs do, however, so you need to check the Options or Preferences section of your programs to ensure that the documents you create get stored somewhere in the My Documents hierarchy.
2. Removing Duplicates
   • When we’e in a rush it’s easy to temporarily save documents in random locations, but we end up with duplicates as a result. You can do a manual search for duplicate files, but there’s an easier way. I found a wonderful program called Beyond Compare that lets you compare files not just by filename, but “bit-by-bit”, at the most technical level. This program lets you set up files or folders side by side, and color-codes the differences so you can easily delete the duplicates. Visit http://www.scootersoftware.com/ for more information, and to download the software. It costs a mere $30 for personal license, but the software far more valuable in terms of your time saved!
3. Organizing the Remaining Files By Business, by Client, by Project, by Internal Function, etc.
   • Once you’ve removed the duplicate files, it’s time to organize what you have left into a consistent filing scheme. If you have more than one business or business emphasis, you can use that as a top-level folder idea. Perhaps you have multiple clients or multiple projects. If you store all the documents related to that project in one hierarchy, then it’s easy to archive documents later on. I also use a folder hierarchy for my internal documents: items related to my corporation, state and federal requirements, operations, marketing, etc. Your overall filing scheme will probably be a combination of all of the above.
4. Maintaining files using antivirus, Windows update, disk defragmenter, error check, and other maintenance tools
   • You may not think of antivirus software as a file maintenance tool, but it really is! You’re using antivirus software to protect the integrity of your documents; the same is true of disk defragmentation software. Keeping the operating system good condition by using Windows update means your OS is better equipped to store and protect your files properly. You get the idea.
   • 
   • UPDATE: I have been using the Diskeeper software that I demonstrated in the January 9th webinar for a week now, and I’m glad to report that I am very pleased with the results. My hard drive is persistently full, which makes defragmenting it using the built-in Windows disk defragmenter impossible because the Windows version requires 15% free space. Diskeeper can defragment with as little as 5% free. I can say that my hard drive is running faster, so I’m very pleased with the software.

Getting your files organized is the first step in preparing for backups. By removing duplicates and corrupted files, and defragmenting the remaining files regularly, backups will be smaller and take less time.

Webinar Date: January 9, 2008

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