Free Content for Individuals

Free Content for Individuals

by: Ron Tower

Free content added to Web pages using an HTML fragment is usually intended for Web sites. But why can’t individuals also use it? It will be useful for them as well as promoting the Web site of the content provider.

There is a lot of free content available. You can get headlines, weather, search forms, jokes, cartoons, a word or quote of the day, tickers, and much more. For examples of free content available as HTML fragments, see Free Sticky (http://freesticky.com). Webmasters can paste the HTML into a page on their site, but what can an individual without a Web site do?

One approach is to have a simple HTML file on your machine that acts as a container of the free content. For example, see the Free Content Container (http://www.sugarloafsw.com/ia/freecc.html), a simple HTML file that already includes some free content and explains how to add or replace that content with content you like. You can just save it to your computer and then access it from your disk to create your own very simple information aggregator.

Go to http://www.sugarloafsw.com/ia/freecc.html. Click on Modify Me to see how you can modify the file. Save the file to your computer using File Save As from your browser being sure to use the กHTML file onlyก option. Edit the file with a text editor such as notepad and you will see that it is a simple table. HTML from free content Web sites can be simply pasted into the file at the places indicated by the comments.

Once you understand the basics of your container, you can do searches on the Web for กfree contentก and create different HTML files with different content. You can use this yourself or send the HTML file to friends as an email attachment and they can also use what you found from their computer, no need for a Web site.

Another approach is to get an information aggregator that supports HTML fragments. The HTML fragments can be placed on personal portal pages along with other content such as RSS feeds. See http://www.sugarloafsw.com/ia/ia.html for more on the use of information aggregators to allow individuals to use free content.

The final approach is to take the plunge and get your own Web site. There are several free options available, such as GeoCities (http://geocities.yahoo.com). You can add your modified Free Content Container to your site along with your other content.

About The Author

Ron Tower is the President of Sugarloaf Software and is the developer of Personal Watchkeeper, an information aggregator supporting a variety of ways to summarize the Web.

http://www.sugarloafsw.com

This article was posted on December 08, 2004

by Ron Tower

Ordering Commercial Printing For Your Company Can

Ordering Commercial Printing For Your Company Can Be Indimidating

by: Robert Kennedy

กI went to see a printer today to get my companyกs stationery printed. They ask too many questions, I can’t answer!ก I feel kinda dumb.

How many times have you felt this way? Itกs kind of like going to the auto garage for a tune up and being told you need a new 02 sensor, your syncro mesh gear has a tooth missing and so on. You know you have to get it done but who can you trust to give you the best quality, price and service. There is a reason why I include all three กquality, price and serviceก

In the 80กs and early 90กs it used to be กquality, price and serviceก…pick 2. These days, with the internet as a resource, buyers and sellers alike can truly benefit from forming bonding relationships with their print and design firm of choice. Location is no longer an issue. In fact, I will bet money you can always find what appears, to be better than what you are getting. It can be overwhelming and too much information, which may lead to a regretful purchase. Neither the buyer or the reputable seller desire this result.

Here are a few tips on what you should figure out before you talk to your printer:

1) Decide how many inks colors you are going to print in. Here are a few links that will help you understand this:

Pantone color chart in RGB and html; http://www.weprintcolor.com/pantone_RGB_convert.htm

Convert from RGB color to CMYK color;

http://www.weprintcolor.com/rgb_CMYK.htm

Explain CMYK, RGB and Pantone Color; http://www.weprintcolor.com/pop_ups/Templ_modificatons_full.htm

2) Have a pretty good idea of the paper and texture of the paper you would like to use. Learn some ‘buzz words’ in your conversions with the printers you speak to. Here is a list of printing terms commonly used by people in the printing industry;

http://www.reprotechprint.com/printing_terms.htm

3) Have a general idea of the quantities you would like to purchase. If you’re not sure don’t be afraid to ask your printer to provide a quotation on several different quantities. In printing, the more you order the cheaper the per unit cost is. Here are a couple of examples of this:

Business Cards;

http://www.weprintcolor.com/businesscardscolour.htm

Postcards;

http://www.weprintcolor.com/postcard_index_4x6.htm

4) Will you provide a ‘print ready’ digital file? When I say ‘print ready’, it is important that you understand this. Many printers will attempt to print from a ‘none print ready’ file. This will sometimes lead to undesirable results. Here is a couple of links to help you with this:

Free digital file inspection; http://www.weprintcolor.com/upload.htm

Specifications for sending files; http://www.weprintcolor.com/SendingFiles.htm

Once you have gathered education with the terms us printers use you will understand , more clearly, what you are getting for your money. You will also appear more educated in your future purchases.The moral of my story? Buyers need to be more armed with knowledge to make an educated purchase and sellers need to be sharp, knowledgeable and willing to share this knowledge…Everybody wins.

About The Author

Robert is an online leader in graphic design and print. Online since 1999, Robert has spearheaded the success of http://www.weprintcolor.com by providing the finest online graphic design system on the web.

This article was posted on December 13, 2004

by Robert Kennedy

Tips to Protect Your Downloads or Products

Tips to Protect Your Downloads or Products

by: Radhika Venkata

1. Upload robots.txt file in to your root directory and include the folder name where you set your downloads.

More information on how to set robots.txt: http://www.webmasterscentral.com/wp/se/robotstxt.shtml

2. Set the permission of the download folder to 711 OR upload an index file to that folder. This makes that folder web inaccessible.

For example create a folder named ‘testก. Usually by default it will be chmoded to 755 or 777. Put some files like test.htm, test1.htm.

Now you type the URL of the folder yourdomain.com/test/

What will you see? You will see the folder /test with its files in it. Now upload an index file or chmod the folder to 711. Now access the URL. You will see index file or permission denied error.

3. Name the download folders something like กCDf54eSก. Not like กdownloadsก or กproductsก etc.

4. If your customer downloads your product once and don’t need or don’t have to access to your folder then you can set his access to expire for certain days.

For this you need a cgi script that controls your members access based on days, ip address or number of accesses. http://www.scripts4webmasters.com/ipppro/index.html This script also protects your thankyou.html pages and expires them after certain time.

5. If you have a membership site and you need to stop password abuse or sharing you can use scripts like:

http://www.scripts4webmasters.com/macpro.shtml

http://www.monstersubmit.com/sentry/

6. Protect your download links: Like if you keep …domain.com/downloads/product.zip, everybody knows the download URL. You can use cgi scripts that discloses the download path. http://www.cgiscripting.com/downloader.shtml

7. If you use If you are selling ebooks, you can use password protection to your ebooks. Once your ebook is protected, after your buyer downloads it, you can send it to him to open the ebook.

Some ebook compilers with this password protection features:

http://www.ebookeditpro.com/

http://www.ebookcreator.com/

About The Author

Radhika Venkata Subscribe to กEbookBiz Magazineก which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooksworld.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! http://www.webmasterscentral.com/

This article was posted on November 14, 2003

by Radhika Venkata

Online Auction Fraud

Online Auction Fraud

by: Steven Woodward

As the ecommerce industry continues to grow, so does internet fraud. Most people aren’t aware that the fastest growing segment of internet fraud isn’t identity theft but rather online auction fraud and itกs not just buyers who are being ripped off but sellers as well.

eBay sales may have grown 51% last year over the previous year, but general online complaints jumped by 66.6% over the previous year to some 207,000+ complaints in 2004. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), stated in its yearly report that 71.2% of all complaints received pertained to auctions.

Online fraud is a growing problem on the internet and the auction segment is far from immune. The IC3 reports that most complaints consist of late or no shipment of products, items that don’t match advertised condition and bogus payment or escrow services.

If you decide to offer กall items to be shipped within 24 hoursก, make sure you keep your word, and go to great lengths to honestly represent and describe the item in your auctions. Your bidders will appreciate your honesty and it will eventually show up in your feedback.

As consumer fears increase, there are a number of common sense ways to help protect you from fraud, as well as enhance your reputation as a trustworthy seller and set you apart from the crowd.

Watch Out for Bad Checks, Money Orders and Cashiers Checks

Years ago I had a buyer who complained rather loudly when I didn’t ship an item as soon as I received the check in the mail. In hind site it was a good decision to hold the shipment since the check ended up being fraudulent. Bad checks, money orders, and cashiers checks are rampant in ecommerce today. The simplest way to offset the danger of bad paper is not to ship the auction item until the check, money order or cashier check clears your bank for payment.

Overpayments

Never accept any overpayments for any item. One of the more popular scams today is for a buyer to send a cashiers check for an amount that is higher than the agreed upon final price. They then claim it was in error and ask the seller to kindly return the overage when the item is shipped. Off goes the item, the overage amount in good money, and the defrauded seller finds out too late the cashiers check was fake.

Use an Escrow Service for High Priced Items

The primary purpose of escrow services is to protect buyers and sellers from fraud. Basically what they do is to accept the money from the buyer and hold it until the buyer receives and approves the merchandise. Please note that fake escrow services are increasing on the internet. If a buyer contacts you after a sale and recommends an escrow service you are not familiar with BEWARE. At present eBay only recommends one escrow company: www.escrow.com. For information go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/paymentescrow.html

Records, Records, Records

Keeps a copy of every transaction detail from the original auction listing to the last email. You will need that kind of proof to validate your claims if you should find you need to file a complaint.

Protect Yourself by Being Educated

At the very least you need to be knowledgeable about your legal obligations as a seller and familiar with the fraud protections and policies for the auction sites and payment processing services you use. eBay and Paypal have extensive sections on their websites dedicated to fraud policies and protections. You should take the time to read through these or similar information pages for the sites and services you use on a regular basis and be very familiar with the material. A few of the key recommendations from Paypalกs Protection for Sellers section include:

Ship only to the address listed on the Transaction Details page

Use a shipping service with tracking

Check out the buyerกs reputation

Accept payment from only one Paypal account per buyer

Limit credit card payments

Enhancing Your Safe Seller Image

Here are a few tips that will help improve your image as a safe seller for your bidders.

Identify Yourself Make use of the about me pages to let your customers know who you are, how long youกve been in business and how much their business means to you. Be honest.

Feedback Ratings Auction buyers want to see 100% positive feedback.

Methods of Payment Make it easy for your customers to buy but consider convenience, cost and security in choosing any payment method you offer.

Full Disclosure Your auction listings should clearly state the condition of the item you’re auctioning, your shipping/insurance and return policies.

Bonding programs A number of bonding programs are available on the internet. One of the more popular is BuySafe (www.buysafe.com). In a bonding program the seller agrees to certain obligations such as shipping on time, representing the item correctly, and standing behind the transaction. In return the seller can display a seal on their auctions showing bidders they are honest sellers and providing transaction insurance in some cases up to $25,000.

Other programs you should be familiar with include:

IDVerify

SquareTrade

Truste

If You Become a Victim of Online Fraud

You need to know exactly what should be done in the event you are victimized. Make your plan now, before it happens. The most recommended steps to take if you are victimized are listed below but please keep in mind these are general recommendations and you should have you own plan based on your needs.

File a complaint with your auction site

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission

File a complaint with the IC3

File a complaint with the National Fraud Information Center

Contact your local and state law enforcement agencies

Contact the local and state law enforcement agencies in the perpetratorกs home area

File a complaint with the shipping company you used

If the perpetrator is a business and a member of the Better Business Bureau you should also file a complaint there.

Further reading

Paypal Seller Protection Policy (go to your Paypal account)

FTC recommendations http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/auctions.htm

To read the entire 2004 IC3 Internet Fraud Report http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/strategy/2004_IC3Report.pdf

More Important Fraud Links

Find Your Local Police http://www.usacops.com

FBI Internet Fraud Unit http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.com

FTC Internet Fraud Unit https://m.ftc.gov

USPS Mail Fraud http://www.usps.com/postalinstpectors/fraud/

About The Author

© Copyright 2005 Steven Woodward All Rights Reserved

Steven Woodward is the owner, editor and publisher of the Auction Sellers Network (ASN); a web site for individuals and companies who are serious about utilizing the online auction marketplace for their business. In addition to topical articles, ASN provides an extensive resource center, news feeds, member forums and classified ads. For more information or to become a member please visit http://www.AuctionSellersNetwork.com.

No permission is needed to reproduce an unedited copy of this article as long the About the Author tag is left intact and included. We do request that we be informed where it is posted and reciprocal links will be considered.

This article was posted on April 04

by Steven Woodward

Creative Suite The Underlying Integration

Creative Suite The Underlying Integration

by: Blur Loterina

Are you an Acrobat user and needs a complete tool for your print or web design projects? Read on.

A few months ago, Acrobat launched its main creative design packages including Photoshop/ImageReady, GoLive, InDesign and Illustrator. After a long period of silence, it came up with a much better package.

Adobe’s Creative Suite now comes in two new packages, the Standard Edition and the Professional Edition. The Standard Edition is composed of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and InDesign. This package contains most of the printoriented flagships. On the other hand, Adobe GoLive and Acrobat Professional comprise the Professional Edition, which focuses on web design.

Basically, these packages are combinations of the strengths each application offers. They are integrations of tools for handling colour management, screen display, type handling and more. They allow crossapplication, meaning any file done in one program can be opened to the other programs as long as the file was created on one of the programs that comprises the packages. When a file is transferred, all other options can be applied. For example, when you open an Illustrator file to Photoshop, that file will be opened as a Photoshop file.

Every creative application on the package uses PDF file format. Not just a PDF format, they use the latest PDF 1.5 format. PDF format allows you to import and export directly. You can embed vector PDFs from Illustrator and bitmap PDFs from Photoshop in a multipage InDesign PDF. This can also be exported for PDF web display or repurposed via GoLive.

Adobe Creative Suites has a new integrated file management system, which is essential in the software’s workflow and tight integration. Different components and versions of a project are hard to manage, especially when you are going to use a lot of programs, as in workgroups. But Adobe has a solution to this, the Version Cue. Version Cue, through the application of Save dialog, enables you to store all job elements and important version of your project. The Open dialog accesses visual thumbnails of the project file. You will also be warned if other users are using the same file. In other words, it provides file versioning and management.

The packages also contain XMP or eXtensible Metadata Platform standards. This allows you to search for files according to related information like keywords or authors.

Creative Suite applications are guaranteed excellent tools to provide you with your desired result. Think of these packages as the total of all these applications.

About The Author

Blur Loterina

You may wonder why I write articles. Besides from the fact that it’s my job, I used to write short stories when I was younger. I think it would be helpful if I said I’m a big fan of Zach de la Rocha and Rage Against the Machine. This would explain my own views about a lot of things. Their songs were about national issues, politics and human rights. They support the American Indian Movement and Che Guevara, the face you see on tshirts. Not that it concerns me. I only like their music and idealism.

I’m not an artist, I’m not a poet. I just love writing anything I want. I wasn’t born a genius, I just want to know and understand something I don’t. I like to find the difference between similar things. It’s like counting birthmarks on each identical twin.

For additional information and comments about the article you may log on to http://www.printingquotesonline.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 10

by Blur Loterina

The Dark Side of P2P File Sharing

The Dark Side of P2P File Sharing

by: Bill Paulk

P2P file sharing programs are free. Period. But there are P2P scam sites out there that want you to pay them instead. P2P scam sites are rogue companies that have set up shop to fleece unsuspecting music downloaders looking for file sharing programs by charging a fee for an otherwise free service.

No P2P file sharing software costs money. Exceptions would be a site asking members to make a monetary donation to help pay for bandwidth, hosting costs, and other administrative costs.

Some P2P file sharing programs offer กproก versions of their free software. But again, their basic service is free to the public. I want you to fully understand this, because paying a P2P scam site money can not only make your wallet a bit lighter, it can also make your computer vulnerable to dangerous spyware.

Thatกs right. These scam sites are only interested in making money off you. As well as actually taking your money by fooling you into paying them, theyกll make money off you by installing spyware on your PC, so that they can get paid by sharing your online habits and personal information with others.

For music download beginners, all of this can be very confusing. Why? Because these scam sites advertise all over the Internet. Search engines return results chockful of these scams alongside the real P2P file sharing programs; their banner ads riddle the Internet landscape; sites are promoting these scams to get their piece of your money.

Most real P2P programs don’t advertise much on the Internet. The reason is that they’re not money makers. It takes money to advertise, and who has more moneythe free P2P file sharing programs or the scam artists? You guessed it. P2P relies on word of mouth. The scam sites rely primarily on advertising.

How Can I Tell a P2P Scam Site?

This is the easy part, if you know what you’re looking for. P2P scam sites often use phrases like 100% Legal, which is absolutely untrue. This is a trick they use to prey on people interested in P2P file sharing programs, but who are worried (rightly) about Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) lawsuits. Keep in mind that sharing and downloading of copyrighted files is, at this moment, an illegal activity.

Another tactic is to use fake endorsements and recommendations from legitimate companies. Other cons are to use phrases like Direct Downloads!, Get Access Now!, Download Unlimited Free Music!, and other phrases that are promising you things they absolutely CANNOT deliver.

How Does It Work & How are They Doing It?

To be honest, I do not know the ins and outs of P2P scam sites. But I know this: all P2P file sharing programs are free. Think about it a moment. It is because music files are being shared free of charge (without artists receiving royalties) that organizations like the RIAA are mad and suing.

These P2P scam sites are merely taking your money, downloading a little spyware to your PC, then connecting you to one of the real P2P file sharing programs.

This is all convoluted by the nature of P2P, which is a series of servers networking files to one another. Unless you’re buying your music MP3 downloads from a legitimate company, either per song/album or through a monthly subscription, you cannot be sure where your music is coming from.

The legal status of P2P file sharing programs is confusing. We know that MP3 files themselves are not illegal. For example, itกs legal to possess MP3s, to rip your CDs to your hard drive, and to burn CDs for your personal use. But, by sharing and/or downloading these files, you are breaking copyright laws. To my knowledge, P2P scam sites are not actually breaking any laws. But why pay for something you don’t have to?

One of the most common techniques these scam artists use is to set up sites that are misspellings or derivations of popular P2P file sharing programs. KaZaA is probably the most hijacked name being used these days.

Other sites may not actually charge you anything at all, but theyกll กgive you the software for freeก if you give them your email address. This too is a scam. Because once again, they’re just sending you along to a proper P2P program, but after collecting your email address, they’re selling it to third parties. Don’t give these scammers any of your personal information!

If you’re on a website you trust, even this website, you may see ads by these scam artists, preaching their lies about 100% blah, blah, blah. For your own security, don’t click on the links. They’re still scams. (Many independent websites rely on ads to pay the bills. We don’t always have full control over what advertisements appear on our sites. Keep in mind that most online advertisements are arranged and distributed by thirdparty companies who pair up advertisements with appropriate keywords. So a page that discusses กmusic downloadsก is likely to have an ad from a scam site singing their own false praises.)

On this note, there are sites all over the Internet that actually promote P2P scam sites. Why? I have my opinions. First, these scam sites are paying large sums of money to affiliates who promote their sites. For example, a scam site may be charging you $29.95 for their nonservice. Well, they’re paying affiliates over half (Iกve seen the payout as high as 75%) of that just for getting you, the visitor, to their scam sites.

I Think Iกve Used One of these Scam Sites. What Do I Do Now?

Stop! Right now, stop using that service. If youกve got some type of monthly payment with them, stop paying them. Cancel your กmembership,ก contact your bank or credit card company, and stop paying them immediately! Secondly, your computer has probably have been infected by spyware, and you need to remove it right away. I recommend purchasing spywareremoval software like Pest Patrol because they do the best job at clearing out spyware parasites.

If youกve been pulled into a scam site, just rack it up to experience. Their ad copy is very convincing, and you just wanted to กbe legalก while downloading. Take heart in knowing that you’re not alone. But you’re better off now, with this information at your disposal.

In my opinion, this is another reason to consider not using P2P file sharing programs as a means to get your online music. I think that these P2P scam sites will increase in number, and will use more clever tactics to get your money and your information. Until the peertopeer communities are regulated in some way, I fear that these types of activities will get worse before they improve.

About The Author

A former financial advisor and NYC book editor, Bill Paulk blends these two experiences by helping people make sound buying decisions. His passion, building digital music collections through MP3 downloads, is the subject of his first website. http://www.mp3musicdownloadsscout.com reviews and recommends the best in legal MP3 downloads.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 12, 2004

by Bill Paulk

Create A Flash Presentation For Free With Open Off

Create A Flash Presentation For Free With Open Office

by: Steve Howson

The intentions of this short tutorial are not to teach you how to use Open Office, but rather to show you a quick and dirty way to create presentations and tutorials that can be exported as a Macromedai Flash file.
What is Open Office? It is a free, open source, cross platform office suite that has a lot of the same features as popular commercial suites.
Being that itกs cross platform means it can be compiled for just about anything, Windows, Linux / Unix, Mac, etc..
Using Open Office Presentation
Basically, if youกve ever used Microsoft Powerpoint, youกve pretty much used Presentation. Itกs a slide show (or presentation) creator that lets you create any style slide show you want.
You can have text, graphics, charts, etc… or any combination
It does not take much to figure out Presentation. You can add text or picture boxes, add designs, add tables and pretty much anything you can think of.
After you have created the presentation, hereกs where you convert it to Flash:
You simply go in to the กfileก menu and select กExportก.
A กsave asก dialog box will come up where you can choose the file name, location and the format you want.
From the pull down box you will see the กMacromedia Flash (SWF)ก option, thatกs the one you want.
Select the format, pick your location, name the file and press the Save button.
Thatกs it.. you now have a Macromedia Flash version of your presentation that you can include on your website.
Why whould you want this?
Macromedia Flash is pretty much a standard for multimedia on the web, as a result there is a plugin for almost every browser and most people already have this plugin.
This gives you the chance to put Flash content on your site without having to play for the Macromedia Suite.

About The Author

Steve Howson is the Webmaster for SG Network Technologies web hosting company.

http://www.sgnettech.com

This article was posted on May 31, 2004

by Steve Howson

Hot Multimedia Tips

Hot Multimedia Tips

by: Grannyกs Mettle

Some of Howwiredกs best web developers and designers have converged to share their techniques to create effective audio, video and animation in the web. Here are excerpts from the poolกs tips, tricks and wizardry to help you optimize your multimedia efforts.

• Use layers as often as you want to. Using a liberal dose of layers will make it much easier later when itกs time to reedit and animate. In addition, it doesn’t add much to the overall file size.

• Save copies of the file as you work when using Flash. This is especially helpful when you’re using a Mac. This will come in handy when you suddenly experience problems in opening a Flash file youกve been slaving your days with.

• Use color outline layers and guide layers liberally. Both are found under the layer pulldown menu. The color outline layers show a layer in its outline form great for getting quick and precise positioning particularly with scanned drawings. Guide layers are for positioning bitmap guides or for testing layers you may want to remove from your final version. They allow you to keep a layer from exporting.

• Mix and match programs and media to get better results. Experiment and try combinations such as flat color vectors with photographic bitmaps for an interesting and rich output.

• For additional depth and color to vector images, use gradients; but don’t overuse so as to avoid adding to the file size and speeds.

• Don’t overdo your media. Your audience will definitely get indigestion from your web site.

• Never make your audience wait. Downloading an image that takes millions of years to finish will definitely make your audience cranky. Theyกd probably clicked to another site even before your banner finished downloading itself. กIf people have to wait, be sure itกs really worth their while,ก says HotWiredกs resident interface designer.

• Design delays that cover the loading process. Flash features full attributes that helps in keeping the audience occupied while that giant sound file is loading in the background. Flashกs Bandwidth Profiler is said to provide a big help on this.

• Use the knowledge and wisdom of your friends and colleagues. A good multimedia comes from a diverse source of skills found in people. The adage that two minds are better than one definitely applies here. Talk to other multimedia designers or join groups and mailing lists to share ideas and knowledge. What you think is trash for you might be a goldmine for another artist.

About The Author

Grannyกs Mettle is a 30something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: กWriting gives me pleasure… pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine.ก

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 07

by Grannyกs Mettle

Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager – worki

Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager – working with text file

by: Andrew Karasev

Great Plains Integration Manager advanced programming, working with text files, aggregation, unionizing, VB scripting, translation

Microsoft Business Solutions main middle market ERP application Microsoft Great Plains has multiple integration options: MS SQL Scripting (stored procedures and views), ADO.Net programming, Microsoft SQL Server DTS packages. You certainly can deploy such SDK tools as eConnect. However here we would like to show you how to program the simplest user friendly tool: Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager.

Multiple times in our consulting practice we saw the need to integrate General Ledger transactions from one text file and here we give you this and even more complex case, when credit and debit amounts are present on the same line with their own account numbers. Let’s assume that we have tab delimited text file, GLSOURCE.txt. Here is how the line looks:

ก11242004ก (date) ก11020016000ก (debit account) 212446.68 (debit amount) ก15260005400ก (credit account) 212446.68 (credit amount)

Pretty challenging, isn’t it?

Let’s begin

First of all and this is probably easy – you need ODBC DSN, use Microsoft Text Driver, change default directory, select the file and switch to tab delimited type.

Next, open Microsoft Great Plains Integration Manager and create two new queries – one will be for the Header and the second for distribution lines in GL transaction. In both cases use Advanced ODBC type of text queries.

GL Header should aggregate by date, so in its SQL window enter this:

select F1 from GLSOURCE.txt group by F1

Now the lines – here we need unionizing and checking if amount is not zero:

select F1, F2, F3, 0 from GLSOURCE.txt

where F3กก

union

select F1 F4, 0,F5 from GLSOURCE.txt

where F5กก

The one above is the most difficult part of this article. Please understand it – we are splitting line into two by union, first we create debit part and then we attach credit part, plus we are weeding out 0 amounts.

Next – we need to link two queries – simply link them by F1 field (date). Do it in query relationship. When you are done with linking, right click on the arrow, open properties and in Select Relationship Type window change to:

There can be 0 or more records in the child for each record in the master.

This is important – we’ll have more than one line in GL distribution.

The rest should be familiar for IM consultant.

Select destination as GL Journal, assign transaction date and batch ID as F1 from Header query, switch to entries and select them from debit and credit parts of the lines query.

As additional tools in filtering your text query you could use VBA scripting and even translation.

Translation is the way to go when you need to replace account numbers from the text file with different or translated accounts in Great Plains.

Happy integrating! if you want us to do the job give us a call 16309615918 or 18665280577! [email protected]

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving Chicago, California, Colorado, Arizona, New York, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Canada, UK, Europe and Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 15, 2004

by Andrew Karasev

Defend Your Thank You Folders From URL Guessers

Defend Your Thank You Folders From URL Guessers

by: Robert Plank

If you sell downloadable products, you’re going to have a thank you page (a URL where the buyer is redirected after a sale). With just a couple lines of HTACCESS code you can make that folder airtight.

You shouldn’t be putting a buyer through a mandatory signup process to download the product. They already paid, just give them the file right away and offer a chance to optin for updates later. Otherwise youกll be getting lots of support emails from people asking where the product is they just paid for.

Itกs always smart to name your thank you page something with a number a name like postorder735.html or thankyou9987.html will do. You just want to make this impossible to guess.

When itกs possible I like to separate the sales page from the download, so I stash them in a folder called something like กdownloadก or กorder.ก Problem: If you have these separate folders, these URL guessers can see the contents of them.

The obvious solution is to put an index.html in the folder, which keeps its contents from being listed… but what if you have, say, 25 of these folders? Do you need 25 index.html files?

No, and thatกs where HTACCESS comes in. Open up a new text file in Notepad and put this text in exactly:

Options Indexes

Then save the file as: .htaccess (WITH that dot in front)

Upload it to the root of your web site. Now, if you try to view the contents of a folder thatกs missing an index.html file, your browser will show a ก403 Forbiddenก error.

Don’t worry, this won’t block out all files. It will simply keep a guesser from viewing a list of what files are in a given folder.

If you don’t want to see that ugly generic Forbidden page, you can supply your own by adding this line to that .htaccess file of yours:

ErrorDocument 403 /sorry.html

Now you can put your message into a HTML file (maybe it could be a link to the main page of your site), put it into a file named sorry.html and upload it. Now youกll have a friendly notice that says anything you want.

One last bonus tip for you. If your forbidden message is extremely short, you don’t even need to create a separate HTML document. If itกs possible for your message to fit all on one line you can remove that ErrorDocument line above from your .htaccess file and put in something like this:

ErrorDocument 403 กSorry…

Iกm aware that there is a starting quote and no ending quote. Thatกs just how you have to type it. If you put in a quote at the end there it would show up in your HTML document. I know it looks funny, but it works. Remember that กSorry…ก text is HTML so you could put in line breaks, links, bold tags, H1, H2 tags, and so on. Itกs all up to you.

About The Author

Robert Plank

Experienced PHP/JavaScript Tutor Solves 19 Of Your Most Frustrating Direct Response Sales Page HangUps

http://www.salespagetactics.com/Your_Clickbank_ID

The above article may be copied as long as this resource box is included, You may rebrand the above URL with your Clickbank ID however.

This article was posted on March 27

by Robert Plank

8 Effective Ezine Publishing Tips To Put You Ahead

8 Effective Ezine Publishing Tips To Put You Ahead Of The Game

by: Ken Hill

1. Swap sponsor, feature, or solo ads with other ezine publishers.
Your swaps will create a winwin situation as both you and the other publisher will successfully get profitable promotion at no cost.
Swap your ads for at least three issues in a row or three solo ads for three solo ads to get the greatest results from these swaps.
2. Provide your visitors with a bonus for subscribing to your ezine such as access to your membership site, ebooks, a complimentary ad, or something else that your visitors would find to be valuable.
Increase the value your visitors place on your bonuses by telling them how much they would be worth if they were to pay for them or by making them available for only a limited amount of time.
3. Write articles.
Your articles will help you to establish yourself as an expert in your field and get more of your subscribers to visit your site.
Your articles can also be used as a valuable promotional tool that increases your circulation.
Add a resource box that promotes your ezine or a line to your resource box that promotes your ezine in addition to your business and then get the word out about your articles.
An excellent way to do this is to submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and to other ezine publishers.
Also publish your articles on your site and let your visitors know that they can reprint your articles.
For a list of article directories, and announcement lists that you can submit your articles to visit:
http://netpromarketer.com/articlepromote.html
4. Have a privacy policy in place for your ezine. Let your visitors know that you will never rent, sell or give away their information to a third party.
Also let your future subscribers know that your ezine will have in house advertising and third party advertisements if you use your ezine to promote your products, affiliate programs, or sell advertising space.
Include this information on your site and in the email your visitors must respond to in order to begin their subscription to ensure that everyone that subscribes to your ezine is aware of this.
5. Add testimonials or endorsements for your ezine to your site. This will increase your visitorsก trust that your ezine will deliver quality information.
6. Submit your ezine to ezine directories.
Submitting your ezine to these directories will increase the number of people that subscribe to your ezine and also help you to find more people to advertise in your ezine or swap ads with.
7. Make sample issues available by autoresponder.
Pick a couple of issues that you feel best portray the type of quality content to be found in your publication, and make these issues available by autoresponder.
This will help you to get more of your visitors that are unsure about what your ezine has to offer to subscribe.
8. Promote your ezine in your signature file.
Your signature file will help you to get people that you come into contact with by email to subscribe to your ezine.
If you use email to answer questions or to network with people don’t neglect your signature file as a very viable way to attract more new subscribers.
If you post your tips and advice in moderated discussion forums also use your sig file to promote your ezine.
If you give beneficial, useful advice, people will be interested in subscribing to your ezine and youกll increase your subscriptions.

About The Author

Article by writer, Ken Hill. Learn tips and techniques to help you successfully start your own ezine. Visit http://www.netpromarketer.com for more articles and a great tutorial on ezine publishing.

This article was posted on May 22, 2004

by Ken Hill

Web Design Illustration Tips

Web Design Illustration Tips

by: Grannyกs Mettle

Pictures are worth a thousand words. So are illustrations and images on any web page. Your illustrations will either make your visitors stay and read on, or make them decide to skip and click on another web site.

For best results, you could apply the following tips for illustrations in your web pages:

• Use colors from a typical web palette for your illustrations. If you use solid colors for your illustrations, try to stick to the standard 216 colors of the web palette. The colors will have the same look on any type of computers and web browsers. If you want to use color gradients or blends, try it out first on your screen set to only 256 colors. This is to avoid having your colors look very muddied, unattractive, and hard to distinguish. If it doesn’t look good at this resolution, try a different color blend that is not as harsh. Furthermore, the colors in your illustrations should also match those used in other graphics of your web site layout. This includes the masthead, sidebar, buttons, icons, image maps, among others.

• Provide thick lines in your illustrations. Results in the printed image differ from images on your computer screen. Small lines that are visible in your printed image will show up more thinly or not at all on the screen. This is because the monitor has a much lower resolution than ink to a printed page. Remember to make your lines thicker and your illustrations will be seen more clearly by browsers, even to the most minute detail.

• Browsers should be able to download quickly. Speed is important for people who browse the internet. No matter that your illustrations are great and worthy of praise, visitors will definitely leave your site in a snap if they are too big in file size and difficult to download. A big file for an illustration takes a long time to download. Test first your illustrations at a smaller file size, either by reducing the amount of colors or provide them with less space on your screen. If they look good then provide a smaller version. Your visitors will be grateful and stay longer at your site.

• Your illustrations should attract attention. Your illustrations should be able to attract your visitorsก attention and make them want to read and click on to further pages. A very good illustration also adds perspective and character to your words. So make your illustrations speak for your web site.

• Illustrations are there to compliment, not control. Illustrations are made to compliment your web page and not to overpower other elements. They should be able to attract attention but not so much that visitors become distracted from the content. Allow for some breathing space. Provide white spaces in between images. Also, don’t overcrowd your page with too many illustrations. Place them strategically in the whole web site.

• Provide relevant illustrations to the web page content. Your illustrations are worthless if they don’t convey the message you want to send out. In addition to confusing your audience, they also take up too much time to download. They need to compliment your content. One look at your illustrations and the visitors should be able to have an impression of what they are about to read.

• Save illustrations in the proper file format. Save your illustrations in their proper file format, such as .gif and .jpeg. If you used mostly solid colors and lines, save your illustration as GIF files for it to look sharp. On the other hand, save illustrations as JPEG files if you used gradients or blends.

• Provide protection for your illustrations. Copying and downloading of images and illustrations are very common. Hence, it is important for you to protect your illustrations from unauthorized use. You could provide a copyright symbol with the name of your company or organization to your illustrations. If you want additional security, you could also subscribe to a digital watermarking service that allows visitors to see your name as author and copyright holder of the illustration. This kind of service also provides tracking of other sites in the web that displays your illustrations without permission.

About The Author

Grannyกs Mettle is a 30something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: กWriting gives me pleasure… pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine.ก

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 07

by Grannyกs Mettle