Whole Web Impact & Making Every Rep Count LLC cordially invite you to celebrate the official launch of the brand new Making Every Rep Count website

on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 9:00 AM EST

The party will last for 24 hours from the start time. Please come and participate with us!

Jeff Brandes has over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry and is now officially launching "Making Every Rep Count" - offering in-home personal training services. He specializes in helping people who struggle with motivation and who have trouble exercising regularly to have a personalized routine and the right support to achieve their fitness goals.

Learn more about Jeff and Making Every Rep Count at the Launch Party.

 

What is a "Virtual Launch Party"?

The Virtual Launch Party is something I created for my clients to celebrate the unveiling of their new website or blog. All are welcome to participate with us! Stop by for some virtual refreshments :-) and to check out a new website.

To participate in the Virtual Launch Party

1. Visit http://www.MakingEveryRepCount.com anytime after the party starts (see date & time, above) and take a look around.
2. Go to the party page: http://www.wholewebimpact.com/clients/making-every-rep-count.aspx and submit a positive comment using the form which will be available during the party.

Please come and show your support for Jeff and Making Every Rep Count!

Whole Web Impact & Winning Through Pageantry™ cordially invite you to celebrate the official launch of the brand new Winning Through Pageantry™ website

on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 9:00 AM EST

The party will last for 24 hours from the start time. Please come and participate with us!

Rhonda Shappert started "Winning Through Pageantry™" to share her vast experience of pageant preparation with her clients, while building self-confidence, poise, and character, and teaching them how to present themselves both professionally and authentically - not only to the pageant judges, but in their daily lives.

Learn more about Rhonda and Winning Through Pageantry™ at the Launch Party.

 

What is a "Virtual Launch Party"?

The Virtual Launch Party is something I created for my clients to celebrate the unveiling of their new website or blog. All are welcome to participate with us! Stop by for some virtual refreshments :-) and to check out a new website.

To participate in the Virtual Launch Party

1. Visit http://www.WinningThroughPageantry.com anytime after the party starts (see date & time, above) and take a look around.
2. Go to the party page: http://www.wholewebimpact.com/clients/winning-through-pageantry.aspx/ and submit a positive comment using the form which will be available during the party.

Please come and show your support for Rhonda and Winning Through Pageantry™!

If you have spent any time doing web development or updating your blog or website using some sort of Content Management System,  you have likely come across the problem of converting MS Word files into HTML code. It seems like it would be a simple operation – Word does include a “Save As Webpage…” option, but if you take a look at the HTML generated you would be disappointed to see what a mess it is.

Cleaning up Word-junked content before using it online is very important for code compliance and decent, consistent display. Sure the simplest way to strip out Word garbage is to just copy and paste the text from Word into a basic text editor, then copy & paste it from the text editor to your email, blog, or CMS interface. The only problem is that this strips out ALL formatting, which you will need to painstakingly recreate for your online publishing. If you have long formatted documents, this will quickly become tedious and error-prone.

The other option is to seek out a “cleaning” or conversion utility, which would take either a regular Word Doc and convert it to compliant HTML, or would take a “Save As Webpage…” word-generated HTML file, and strip out the Word-only HTML crap. In general< i have found that these tools do a decent job of generating clean code that still includes the basic formatting tags that are necessary for proper display.

As a web developer who has been dealing with this issue for over a decade, I have certainly tried many solutions and have yet to find my “holy-grail”. The main problem I have found with conversion/cleanup programs is that they aren’t smart enough to convert Word-styled bulleted lists into properly formatted <ul>/<li> code. Believe me, the utility that can do THAT will be the winner in my book.

So, here are a handful of options for your Word-to-HTML projects.

Online Utilities

Recommended

Textism.com Word HTML Cleaner
http://www.textism.com/wordcleaner/
COST: Word files up to 20Kb are free, larger files require an inexpensive subscription (€5 - €20)
HOW-TO: Save a Word document ‘as Web Page…’ to your hard drive, then upload to the website
NOTES: Does a good job, but doesn't fix converted lists.

WordOff
http://wordoff.org/
COST: free
HOW-TO: Save a Word document ‘as Web Page…’ to your hard drive, then open it in notepad, copy & paste the HTML to the form on the website
NOTES: Does a good job, but doesn't fix converted lists.

Not Recommended

HTML Tidy Online
http://infohound.net/tidy/
COST: free
HOW-TO: Save a Word document ‘as Web Page…’ to your hard drive, then upload to website, or paste in some HTML from the saved Word doc
NOTES: For the "Tidy Settings" check "Clean" and "Word 2000" for best results. Doesn't remove Word styles (class="MsoBodyText", etc.), doesn't fix converted lists.

Microsoft Word 2000 HTML Mess Cleaner
http://www.algotech.dk/word-html-cleaner-input.htm
COST: free
HOW-TO: Save a Word document ‘as Web Page…’ to your hard drive, then open it in notepad, copy & paste the HTML to the form on the website
NOTES: Converts paragraphs using <BR> tags, which isn't ideal.

Desktop Installed Programs

Somewhat Recommended

Firefox Add-on: Html Validator
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/249
COST: free
HOW-TO: Save a Word document ‘as Web Page…’ to your hard drive, then open it with Firefox. Go to Edit > View Source..., click the "Clean up this page..." button
NOTES: Requires that you have Firefox web browser installed. Doesn't remove Word styles (class="MsoBodyText", etc.), doesn't fix converted lists.

Zapadoo Word Cleaner
http://www.zapadoo.com/wordcleaner/
COST: $99
HOW-TO: Drag-n-Drop or open Word Docs into the program, choose the appropriate conversion template and click a button
NOTES: Can convert many documents at once, very full-featured including the ability to customize your own "templates" for cleaning, though I was dissapointed that the included templates don’t handle lists the way I want. I haven’t been able to  configure a custom one to my standards after spending quite some time on it.

RTF to XHTML Converter
http://rtftohtml.com/
COST: $34.50 (€29)
HOW-TO: In Word, save as RTF file, browse to it in the program, set an output file path, click "Convert" button
NOTES: This program did properly convert lists to <li> tags, but it also added all sorts of extra <div> and <span> tags with useless style info. There aren't any options to exclude this sort of formatting, which would have made this program a winner. Unfortunately, it just doesn't strip out enough junk.

WordHTML CV
http://www.technoriversoft.com/wordtohtmlconverter.html
COST: free
HOW-TO: Drag-n-Drop your Word Doc onto the program window
NOTES: Doesn't remove Word styles (class="MsoBodyText", etc.), doesn't fix converted lists

Not Recommended

Web Code Converter
http://www.web-code-converter.com/
COST: $19.95
NOTES: I couldn't test this, since it opened with an error message. Re-installing didn’t help.

Atrise ToHTML
http://www.atrise.com/to-html/
COST: $25
HOW-TO: Drag & Drop your Word Doc onto the little program window
NOTES: Easy to use, but not recommended because it strips out ALL formatting, leaving only paragraph breaks. I would expect more functionality for $25.

Word2html LT
http://www.wordcnv.com/word2html-lt.html
COST: €40
HOW-TO: Browse to your file, click Open.
NOTES: Even though their website claims "Full support of bullets and numbered lists" I found that it wasn't the case. No <li> in sight. I was also unimpressed with its inability to figure out heading tags.

Convert Doc
http://www.softinterface.com/Convert-Doc/Features/Convert-DOC-To-HTML.htm
COST: free, as far as I could tell
HOW-TO: Browse to your file, set some options, click Convert.
NOTES: Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to do very much differently than Word's own "Save As HTML" option. If you have other file conversion needs, though (PDFs, etc) you might find this a useful program.

WordToWeb 2.5
http://www.solutionsoft.com/w2w.htm
COST: $299
HOW-TO: Uses a Wizard-like interface to browse to your file, set a gazillion options and finally Convert.
NOTES: This has a lot of options to create webpages from your Word docs, but as far as I can tell, it does a terrible job at cleaning the html produced - if anything it seems to ADD extra junk.

 

If you have a favorite, feel free to post a link in the comments.

Gary Vaynerchuk presented one of the best keynotes at the Web 2.0 Expo in NYC September 2008. I had planned to look for the video, but didn’t really get around to it until today. This is highly recommended viewing. He touches upon branding, passion, hustle and doing what you love.

 

 

All the Keynote Speakers Videos: Web 2.0 Expo New York 2008 - September 16 - 19, 2008, New York, NY

Gary’s Wine Library TV Site

In support of an article I wrote for my e-zine today, “The Problem with Flash” I have compiled a few sites that show excellent graphical design without being constructed entirely in Flash.

 

Examples of What Can Be Done Without Flash:

http://www.insuranceofcharleston.com/
Shows what can be done graphically with a traditionally conservative business industry.

http://www.keithkent.ie/
Click the links. You probably won’t believe this is done without Flash, but it is. Those effects are created using JavaScript and JQuery.

http://www.ndesign-studio.com/
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/
Gorgeous use of background images by talented illustrator and designer, Nick La.
(in case you can’t get enough - a whole gallery of these full-bleed background designs: http://www.webdesignerwall.com/trends/80-large-background-websites/

http://www.csszengarden.com/
A classic of amazing CSS design. (Click through all the designs in the right-hand menu.)

http://www.dantestyle.se/
Another portfolio that proves Flash isn’t necessary for sexy effects.

http://www.floggedmagazine.com/
Shows the limitless design options of HTML.

 

Galleries of Great Non-Flash website design:

http://www.cssreboot.com/

http://designshack.co.uk/gallery/layout/other/

http://www.cssimport.com/

http://www.cssbeauty.com/gallery/

An Example of a Hybrid Site

Lest you think I detest Flash in all its incarnations, a sensible example of using Flash elements in an otherwise standard website.

http://www.dev.bumpnetworks.com/
Only the top graphic of the logo and lizard is Flash on this site.

I love Content Management Systems and now always use them for my clients’ websites – no matter how “small” their site is. 

If you are thinking about moving to a CMS for your website, I say GO FOR IT! The flexibility it offers is totally worth it. There are a lot of options, both free (usually open source) and paid. If you want to research different ones, check out this site: http://cmsmatrix.org (ugly, but useful – though keep in mind that not all the listings are updated frequently, so you should check the CMS’s website for the latest info.)

The CMS I personally use for all my client’s websites is called umbraco (http://www.umbraco.org) My experience is with .Net (Microsoft) programming languages, which is why having an ASP.Net CMS is important for me, as a developer. This would be less an issue from a content producer’s/site owner’s view point.

The things I like the best about umbraco:

• free and open-source
• allows for ANY visual design (including those using JavaScript and Flash)
• extremely flexible and easy to develop for
• it’s very simple to build a site using search engine optimization best practices
• adding Google Analytics and other services is super easy
• can integrate any other .Net system in one way or another (most useful for more advanced applications)
• friendly and responsive community and core developer team
• attractive and “modern” looking backend (what the content producer and developer sees and works with)
• basically ANYTHING can be done with an umbraco site with some more advanced programming

The things that would be important to a content producer are somewhat different. Take a look here: http://umbraco.org/tour and click the big life vest (“For end users”) for some examples.

The only thing I would caution about umbraco, is that due to its flexible and customizable nature, setting up a website in it is somewhat more complex than some other “just install it” systems (and if you are not that technically inclined or want an exact conversion of a current website to umbraco, some professional developer assistance is required), but once your site is set up, it’s very easy for the content producers to use.

If you have a current website and plan to keep the same visual design and content layout, you will need to select your CMS carefully, since some of them have limited design options (frequently using a concept of “modules”, which is essentially little boxes of content), or insisting on 2 or 3 column design, or forcing you to use a certain “template” design which has limited customization options. So keep that in mind.

This is one of the big things I like about umbraco, since it doesn’t limit your design in any way and can produce web standards compliant code. (Which helps your site look similar in different browsers, and allows for better SEO indexing, etc.)

If you’d like to get an idea of the variety of sites that can be designed using umbraco, you can see sites I’ve done in it:

Generous Orthodoxy – a content-rich site I implemented for a minister

The Heart and Soul Fund – a non-profit website

Booker T Washington Learning Center – another non-profit organization website

Floyd Innovations - my consulting website

Whole Web Impact – my online marketing for independent professionals website

And also there is an international portfolio of umbraco sites by different designers.

Yesterday's On the Media program had a fascinating segment about the Associated Press cracking down on bloggers who post excerpts and link to their content. Here is a summary of the story. You can read the transcript or listen to the mp3:

Unfair Use?

July 18, 2008

When the Associated Press busted a little-known website for posting excerpts from AP stories, the blogosphere responded with indignation. After all, appropriating content with a link back to its source is common practice. Media scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan looks at the ongoing battle between blogs and the mainstream media.

Source: On The Media: Transcript of "Unfair Use?" (July 18, 2008)

So what gives? And should YOU be worried about blogging for your business? First of all, I don't think you should be giving up blogging just yet. You just need to be conscious of the best ways to go about it.

In regards to the Associated Press, perhaps your best bet is to link to the article in question in a smaller, local paper's website. These local newspapers are AP's customers and will appreciate the traffic your post will bring them.

The most important thing is to follow the basic blogging best practices as elucidated in the OTM story by their guest Siva Vaidhyanathan, the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity, and a professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia:

You pick up enough text to get to the gist of the story to which you’re referring. You pick up the controversial part of a statement that you want to criticize. You make sure to embed it within a larger conversation of commentary. And all of that is classic fair use.

So most bloggers in most situations are actually, whether they know it or not, behaving according to the core principles of fair use. And that’s because fair use really does ultimately depend on common sense industry standards.

So, some quick tips:

1. Don't copy & paste and entire story - Not only is this considered copyright infringement, but it makes for a really dumb blog post. You are supposed to be adding something to the conversation, or just pointing out something to your readers. There is no benefit to reposting content available elsewhere.
2. Always include the relevant links back to source articles - so you needn't worry about #1, above.
3. Include appropriate credits when applicable - the source, author, etc, can all give context to your citation.
4. Have something meaningful to say that relates the content to yourself or your business - your readers are reading YOU for a reason. They will get more value if you can make it relevant to them.

So, keep blogging!

 I just read this little article about some new studies about choice (emphasis is mine):

New research shows that such daily decisions eat up limited mental resources, ultimately rendering our self-control into mush. Which means making too many decisions might be why many people can't stick to a diet, finish a big project or even complete simple daily tasks.

"It's a strange paradox because human beings are drawn to choice," said study co-author Kathleen Vohs, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "We love having more choices, but at the same time the human psyche is easily overcome by them."

So, how does this relate to your business website? If you don't yet have a business website, or if you are dissatisfied with your current site, quite possibly the reason you haven't made any progress on this important project yet has to do with the number of choices you face: 

• HOW to get your site up (DIY, Sitebuilder software, professional developer...)
• WHAT your site should look like and contain
• HOW it should be organized
• HOW to promote it effectivly

Each of these choices requires huge amounts of mental energy, research, comparison of this option vs. that option. These are not simple choices and frequently include a feeling of permanance - once you make a decision, it is expensive and difficult to change it - if possible at all.

No wonder you haven't tackled this yet!

If inertia is gripping your business website project and keeping it from getting off the ground, I hope you will consider contacting me. I want to help you understand the various options in simple terms, without any research on your part, and guide you through a step-by-step process that will take your big website project and reduce it to very do-able easy actions. 

The article's conclusion:

Choice strategies

Vohs said deferring decisions you don't really care about to someone or something else is a good idea to reserve brain power to stick to your guns on things you do care about.

"If you're on a diet, follow a dietary plan to limit your choices. If you don't care what you do with your significant other this weekend, politely defer that decision to them," Vohs said. "Putting the burden on someone else seems might seem mean, but if a goal is really important to you, it's a fantastic idea."

Now, doesn't that sound like a good idea?

Source: Daily Decisions Make Mush of Your Mind | LiveScience