John Charlton Web Design

Windows Calling

John — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:24:36 +0000

Just got a call from someone claiming to be from “Windows”. They wanted to let me know there was a problem with my computer.

They started by telling me to look for the Windows key on my keyboard. The one with the four flags on it, they said. When I told them there was no such key like that on my computer, they insisted there was. I said there wasn’t. …pause. But yes sir there is. I repeated there wasn’t. They repeated there was. To help move the conversation along, I asked why there would be a Windows key on my Mac computer? They said, Oh sorry sir, we are Windows only, and hung up.

It seems pretty obvious to me that this person’s sole intent was to extract login information, cash, or both from me. Don’t be fooled if someone calls you out of the blue to tell you that they have discovered a problem with your computer, bank account, credit card. This is a scam.

Never give your personal or login information to anyone that calls you. That goes for bank information, Facebook, anything. No legitimate company will ever call you out of the blue to ask for personal information. Give them nothing. Even if they call directly from Windows!

Finding Comfort and Understanding in Death

John — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:50:20 +0000

Sixteen years ago, Cami Renfrow was lying close to death beneath the weight of her overturned vehicle. Moments earlier, she had been flung through the windscreen of her car and hurled with great force face first against the side of an embankment. Her wrecked car, which she had just been thrown free of, landed first above her and then fell back down squarely upon her already battered body. The insult crushed her with such force few would have guessed that she might survive the ordeal.

Passerby’s arrived immediately and were quick to organize themselves to lift the vehicle off of her. Paramedics were soon on scene to pick up the shattered remains of her body and to whisk her off to intensive care. This in itself would make a good story, however what happened to Cami during and after this spectacular one vehicle collision is even more intriguing.

Cami experienced what is commonly referred to as a near death experience and while her body healed surprisingly, perhaps even miraculously quickly, it has taken her the last decade and a half to put what happened to her into words. Largely this is because words fail when trying to describe the indescribable.

Cami contacted me a short time ago through Flickr to let me know she was planning on releasing her story as a self published e-book called, “Dance Through It” and was interested in using my spider web photo to help illustrate some of the concepts explained in the text. I find it fascinating that an abstract photo I took of a spider’s web could be used to help convey such complex ideas as are considered in the book.

According to the text, far from being fearful, Cami’s experience was more sublime than scary… and above all else, life altering. While Cami did return to life, pain and eventual recovery, her journey to the other side and back changed absolutely everything for her, bringing new meaning to her life and the very concept of what it means to be alive.

This e-book will be of interest to anyone facing death or who knows someone facing death. Wait – that’s everyone. Okay, so this book will be of interest to everyone.

And for the cost of a $5 foot-long, it could change your life’s perspective too.

Check it out here: “Dance Through It”.

Free Ruler

John — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:21:04 +0000

Every once in a while I come across a tool that is so useful, it becomes an instant favourite. Free ruler for Mac OS X is a small utility program I came across quite some time ago and frankly I’m not sure how I would live without it. I use it almost every day.

Free Ruler was created by “a person named Pascal” and is a virtual ruler that can measure just about anything on your computer screen.

There are few controls to get in the way (everything is controlled through the menu items) and it does exactly what you’d expect it to. It measures in pixels, inches, picas and centimeters. There is a horizontal ruler and a vertical ruler which you can use independently or together.

I often use the ruler to measure space on sites I am working on. Need to nudge a header graphic over a few pixels? No problem. This measuring tool allows you to reach into any virtual space and measure it accurately and quickly. What more could you want?

Get it here: www.pascal.com/software/freeruler/

Oh, did I mention its free?

Embed a Flickr Slide Show

John — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:59:04 +0000

Flickr is a great place to store and share photos and flowing photos from your Flickr stream to your website couldn’t be easier.

One of the best ways to share photos from Flickr on your website is to use the embed code from a Flickr slideshow. Any page on Flickr that displays the slideshow icon above can be embedded. Below is a slideshow of my entire Flickr stream. Slideshows can be created from sets or photos with specific tags. The possibilities are endless.

Press the play button to start the slide show. Hover over the slideshow to reveal thumbnails and controls. Take your cursor away from the slide show to hide the controls.

The four arrows on the bottom right will expand the display to full screen. While in full screen mode, you can view more information related to the photo by clicking the Show Info button at the top right of the screen. The embed code is available from the Share button also available in full screen mode.

The only down side of the Flickr embed code is that because it uses Adobe Flash, it will not render on iPads or iPhones. For this reason it is probably best to keep it off of your front page.

Flickr is free to join and offers full service accounts for only $25 per year. Let me know if you would like your Flickr photos displayed on your website.

Cut, Copy & Paste

John — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 15:42:11 +0000

3 Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

Anyone who spends any time working on a computer should be familiar with the following three keyboard shortcuts. Cut – Copy – Paste. The amount of time these will save you compared to selecting them from the menu is immeasurable, as long as you can remember them. So commit these to memory and take your computer writing skills to the next level.

PC	Mac
Ctrl X = Cut	Cmd X = Cut
Ctrl C = Copy	Cmd C = Copy
Ctrl V = Paste	Cmd V = Paste

Keyboard Cheat Guide

So how do you put that into practice and what happens if you forget? Don’t sweat it. The answer is staring right at you from inside the menu that you are already used to using. To the right of almost any menu item is the keyboard shortcut that you can use instead.

Here is a screenshot showing Cut, Copy & Paste in the menu of a Mac. The keyboard shortcuts are plainly shown to the right using symbols that are marked right on your keyboard. So start using the keyboard equivalents as often as possible and if you forget, use the menu to remind you what they are. Before long you will be using these three keyboard shortcuts like a pro.

The Right Click Alternative

Now if you are the type of person who avoids using the keyboard at all costs, you can still speed up your Cut, Copy & Paste functions if you have a right click function on your mouse. Right click on anything inside your computer and a contextual menu will appear giving you options that relate specifically to the thing you clicked on. This applies to everything from a word or highlighted phrase inside a document to shortcuts on your desktop, even the desktop itself. We call it a contextual menu because the menu that appears will change according to the context or item that you right click on.

Give it a try. Right click on any word on this page. In the example shown on the right I have right clicked on the word “whatever” from inside the WordPress Dashboard. A contextual menu has appeared giving me several options including Cut, Copy & Paste.

The options that are available to you with a right click will differ according to the computer platform you are using, what program you are in and additional programs you have installed on your computer that can take advantage of right click functionality.

The advantage of using right click over going to the Edit Menu is that like using keyboard commands, you don’t have to leave the area you are working on to use it. The more you right click on things, the more you will discover what you can do with it.

So go ahead and start right clicking around your computer and see what comes up. You may find that this is a quick way to do all sorts of things such as look up a company name on Google or spellcheck that word which just doesn’t look right.

Linking a PDF in WordPress

John — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:25:33 +0000

Adding PDFs to your website is pretty easy, but if it isn’t linked properly, it won’t open properly or at all. The trick is to set the Link Url correctly.

To add a PDF, insert your cursor on the page or post where you want the link to the file to appear. Click on the Add Media button — the forth button along in the row of Upload/Insert buttons.

This will open the Add Media dialog box. Here’s a screen shot.

Choosing the correct Link URL in the Add Media dialog box is the key to telling WordPress how the PDF should open. You have three choices in the section Link URL

Choice 1: None – Clicking this button will remove any link that is currently in the box. If there is nothing in the box, there will be no link. The title of the PDF will appear, but it will not link to anything.

Choice 2: File URL – This is the one you want. The File URL is the web address of the actual file you have uploaded. Notice in the screen shot how hovering my mouse over the File URL button reveals the web address (file url) of the PDF. Choosing this option links the Title to the PDF.

Choice 3: Post URL – This option links the Title to a new page (post) which is not what you want. In fact, I can’t think of an instance when you would want to use this, but if you select it, that’s what it does.

Default settings: – The Add Media dialog box always remembers the last settings used, so you should always double check to make sure that the selection is correct for the current application.

Once your title is set correctly and you have chosen the correct Link URL, click on the Insert into Post button to insert the PDF. Don’t forget to click Update to commit your changes to the web.

Scroll to Top of Page

John — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:16:48 +0000

This morning I installed a neat little WordPress plugin on this site that automatically appears on long pages so visitors can scroll back to the top of the page easily.

It’s called Scroll to Top from Dynamic WP and you can see it in action throughout this site. The default graphic is replaceable and can be set to appear after the page reaches a set length. On this site, I have it configured to appear after you scroll past the icons in the right sidebar. The plugin takes under half an hour to install.

Getting Started

John — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:49:35 +0000

Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is getting started. To help my clients take their first steps in the right direction, I have created a Web Project Work Sheet which when completed is mailed to me so that I can get a good overview of where they are coming from and what they are looking for.

A few of the questions may send some running off to do a little homework. If you haven’t thought about what other people in your industry are doing on the web, you may have to stop and surf a while to get up to speed. Take your time. It isn’t a race, and the better you can answer the questions in the Web Project Work Sheet, the better your website will be regardless of who builds it for you.

If you are contemplating a new web site check out the lists of questions I have prepared in the Web Project Work Sheet. Answer them for yourself as much as for me.

A Typical Home Office Worker

John — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:53:50 +0000

Yesterday I got a call from Bob Leahy asking if I would sit for a photograph for the Warkworth Business Association. The WBA was looking for a typical small-office/home-office user to photograph for a strategic plan being developed in Trent Hills. So I said yes, and here is the result.

Now I don’t normally like being on the receiving end of a camera but the timing of this one was perfect as I have been looking for an image of myself to place on my new About Me page.

Thanks Bob. Hope I didn’t harm your camera!

Site Makeover

John — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:14:17 +0000

Hi Folks;

I am in the process of moving my website to new servers and should have things sorted in the next day or two. Thanks for your patience.

regards
John