To save time searching for the answer on both sites I've build a Google Custom Search engine that allows for searching both sites at once. I find this to be very useful so I'm posting the search box here so everyone else can use it too.
Custom Search
Of course you can search directly on each of their own sites - but the above search could save you time.
If you are a website designer or graphic artist, its important your monitor is calibrated to ensure the colors you are using will display and print the same for other people. Most monitors include an "auto-adjust" feature, but this isn't enough.
Most website designers and graphic designers will use special hardware that will calibrate a monitor automatically - making sure that colors and pictures match perfectly.
If you can't afford the hardward monitor calibrators, there are some great websites that offer monitor calibration tests that you can use to manually calibrate your monitor.
One of the best test pages I've found is the Lagom LCD monitor test pages. There are a variety of test images for gamma, contrast, saturation as well as other features. And they've optimised their test images for LCD monitors, which differ to CRT monitors.
So take the time to calibrate your monitor - you'll be surprised how much better photos and most websites appear when you calibration is correct.
Now that the iPad has been released and web designers know what iPad limitations there are, a number of websites are already underway with their iPad website redesigns.
With all the hype that is surrounding the launch of the Apple iPad - the big question for website owners must be "Will my website work on the Apple iPad?".
If the iPad gets the same massive uptake by Apple fans and the public - there could be a lot people surfing the web using their iPads. If your site doesn't display properly on the iPad you could miss out on customers.
What is the screen resolution of the Apple iPad?
1024 x 768 is the current iPad screen resolution.
If you site was designed for widescreen monitors (6:9) you will need to check how your website looks in the old 1024x768 size (most old CRT monitors were this size). You can check by changing the your monitor display size and surf your own website to look for problems.
Does the Apple iPad support flash?
No. Just like the iPhone and touch iPods flash does not run on the Apple iPad. Website designers will need to take this into consideration.
Do you have an Adobe Business Catalyst website with a lot of customers you wish to Opt-In ?
You can request Business Catalyst to set the master opt-in on your site, so all existing customers are "opt-in" to your marketing emails. [Forum thread here]
Send a support ticket to Business Catalyst to have them turn on the master opt-in option for your website and ask them to opt-in your entire database at the same time.
What is double opt-in ?
When a customer signs up to a newletter list on your website, Business Catalyst automatically sends the auto-responder to the customer. The tag {tag_verificationurl} in the auto-responder email is replaced with a link the customer clicks to confirm they want to receive your newsletters. This is known as double opt-in.
What if the customer does not click the verification link?
If the customer does not click the link, they will not be receive your newsletters unless you force opt in for their account in the admin panel, or have used the bypass double opt-in feature in your webforms, or have the master opt-in turned on by BC support.
What if I've turned off the auto-responder for a form?
If you've disabled the auto-responder on your form, the verification link will not be sent to your customers. In this case you will need to either:
Business Catalyst uses double opt-in to comply with anti-spam measures and legislation, but a lot of websites have a Newletter Signup form or similar where customers are expressly wanting to join in to your marketing list.
By default all newsletter forms are double opt-in and there are a few things you can do to skip this process.
How to: Force Opt-in on Newsletter Subscription Forms
To ensure your customers are going to receive your newsletters when they subscribe, you need to add the force opt-in parameter to your form.
Edit your newsletter forms and add &OPTIN=true to the end of the form action ( <form action="..." )
All new subscribers will then be opted-in as soon as they subscribe to a newsletter using this form.
Business Catalyst already includes a great reporting tool - but Google Analytics is still my prefered report engine. You can gain so much information about who and why people are visiting your business catalyst site - more importantly it can help you figure out why sales or contact forms are not being completed.
Eventually this page is going to hold all the tips I have about using Google Analytics with Business Catalyst, but for now I have one tip and that is how to add the analytics tracking code to your templates in a way that works with Business Catalyst and the Dreamweaver plugin Triangle.
Business Catalyst (BC) has a habit of decoding the tracking code and breaking it. (Those "%3C" you see in the google code are actually "<" but they need to be encoded to work).
The problem comes in with this part of the tracker code:
Notice that I've pre-decoded the string, removed the call to unescape() and broken up the string.
The important part here is that you must break up the <script tag into something like <scr" + "ipt ... this stops the webbrowser from seeing the script tag until the javascript tells it to (with the document.write() ). If you skip this bit you google analytics code will still not work and you will probably get javascript errors on the page.
The emerging field of "Location Intelligence" brings the worlds of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Business Intelligence (BI) together. These capabilities are now available with SQL Server in a no-coding, user-driven environment provided by the Integeo (www.integeo.com) Map Intelligence product. SQL Server 2008 also introduces a number of spatial features to support the development and extension of spatial applications. In this session, you will see how SQL Server Reporting Services can be used to extend your corporate data to provide interactive, spatial analysis through dashboards, reports and .NET applications.
About the Speaker
Brad Culbert is the Lead Technology Strategist and Solution Architect at Bistech (www.bistech.com.au), the Performance Management experts. Brad has a wealth of experience deploying Performance Management solutions to a number of QLD?s largest corporations and is a leading expert in the field of Location Intelligence.
WHEN Thursday, 26th of November | 5:30PM for a 6:00PM start (finishing at approximately 7:30PM)
The QSSUG website can be found at www.qssug.org and contains a repository of materials from past meetings as well as details of upcoming meetings. Other Australian SQL Server related material can be found at www.sqlserver.org.au.
We have over 13 years experience designing and building websites. We can handle websites of all sizes, from a simple web presence to a fully customised database driven website designed to handle thousands of customers a minute.
We can create you a custom website from scratch - that meets your needs as a business. And we can update your existing website if you wish.
Our design services can produce stunning website, print and logo designs that will create a recognisable brand for your business and invoke customer loyalty.
Our aim is to increase your sales and increase your customers through brand recognition and targeted marketing
