Doric Web Design

2011-08-23T17:00:00.000+08:00

CMSLight reseller

Terapad reseller

devhub designer

Blogger designer

Google Sites designer

webs designer

Webstarts designer

Webnode designer

Weebly designer

Wix (Flash) designer

Wordpress designer

Yola designer

e107 designer

Commercial Websites

2011-08-23T11:57:00.000+08:00

I introduce small companies and individuals to the world of blogging and try to get them up and running with the goal of them handling everything once they get on their feet. My clients have responded best to following:

- Wordpress
- Windows Live Writer
- Feedburner
- Google Analytics and 103bees

All in all, those tools seem to have the shortest learning curve and can help blogging newbies get going as quickly as possible.

What's the difference between a business blog and a normal website? Do blogs offer a business significant advantages?

2010-12-31T17:56:00.002+08:00

Five tips for finding a cloud solution that's ready for your users

2010-12-09T16:41:00.000+08:00

Date: December 8th, 2010
Author: Sundar Raghavan

Cloud computing is here to stay. It has quickly earned a reputation as a powerful business enabler, based on benefits such as scalability, availability, on-demand access, rapid deployment, and low cost. IT-savvy users in development and test functions have adopted the cloud model to accelerate application lifecycles. And with recent innovations in self-service access, users in consulting, training, and sales demo areas are also becoming the direct consumers of cloud services.
As these mainstream users adopt cloud services, many companies find “infrastructure-oriented” cloud services to be intimidating and difficult to use, since they were designed for IT pros. To be of value to functional users, a business cloud solution must be simple and self-service oriented, much like iTunes. This is especially important because many companies do not have sufficient IT resources to help set up, code, and customize cloud services.
A business cloud solution should be usable — not just codeable –from day one. Here are some steps you can take to determine whether a cloud solution is usable for your business.

1: Verify that the cloud directly addresses your business problem

What business problem are you trying to solve with the cloud? Having this type of focus can help you avoid the technology trap. If you’re evaluating a cloud solution for multiple functional users, including support, training, or business analysts, be sure that the cloud solution addresses their needs. A cloud that offers pure infrastructure will make it hard for functional users to accomplish business tasks without a UI framework to guide the workflow. If you are moving to the cloud to enable better collaboration across the team, ensure the cloud service provider offers a granular user access model that enables teams to assign rights to users based on their roles.

2: Focus on usability

Today’s enterprise business users need a simple self-service cloud solution that enables them to implement new ideas and collaborate with customers. Usability includes requirements such as configurability, self-service access, collaboration, visibility, and control. Ask yourself these questions:

Can the cloud be easily configured for different use-cases?
Does it deliver team management capabilities to enforce policies and role-based access?
Can your employees collaborate with prospects, customers, and partners and work on parallel streams without being constrained?
Does the cloud provide detailed usage reports and control mechanisms?

These are key requirements to enable business agility no matter the size of your organization or the technical maturity of your team. These capabilities will be applauded by your business users, as they don’t have time to build new IT skill sets and sit through hours of cloud training.

3: Determine whether the cloud runs existing applications without any rewrites

Most users are already familiar with the business and technical applications they use today, whether it’s email, training, or sales demo applications. Clouds that power these applications without any changes will deliver immediate value across your organization. Over the years, we have learned firsthand that business users won’t wait for IT to build or rewrite applications for use in the cloud. Time is money, and neither the business user nor the IT department has any to waste. As a result, the ability to run existing applications without any changes is a key factor in determining whether a cloud is easy to use.

4: Assess whether the cloud aligns cloud operating costs with business value

Cloud services do not require an upfront capital investment, but a usage-based pricing model can lead to sticker shock. To ensure that your cloud costs are in alignment with business value, see whether the cloud provider offers a service that measures the value you receive on a per-user basis. You can also ask whether the cloud provider offers distinct pricing for users at different levels. This can help you avoid paying the same fee for light and heavy users within your organization. Find out whether the cloud allows you to apply quotas to individuals and business units to cap usage at soft or hard budget limits. You will also want to ask whether you can automatically suspend resources when they are not in use to avoid the overuse of the cloud and resulting costs.

5: Pay special attention to responsive support

Successfully adopting new technologies, such as cloud computing, often requires a responsive support organization that can attend to your needs. Find out whether you can call a cloud provider directly or whether you must work through an online form or email inquiry to communicate about a cloud service. Also ensure that the support team will respond to your inquiries within a few hours versus a day or more.

The payoff

By following these steps to determine the cloud solution that’s right for your users, your organization will be well equipped to drive business agility, reduce costs, and accelerate your key business activities.

Sundar Raghavan is chief product and marketing officer at Skytap, a provider of cloud automation solutions. He is an industry veteran with an 18-year career in product and marketing roles at Google, Ariba, Arbor Software (now part of Oracle), and Microstrategy.

The most popular Windows Blog tips of 2010

2010-12-09T16:39:00.000+08:00

Date: December 7th, 2010
Author: Mark Kaelin

While 2010 was the first full year of Microsoft Windows 7, the previous versions of that operating system still have an integral role to play in many enterprises. Consequently, many of 2010’s most popular Windows Blog tips deal with Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Product key

The one topic that TechRepublic members never seem to tire of is the Windows Product Key. Of the top 10 or so Windows-related tips appearing on TechRepublic, regardless of year published, three deal with this topic.
In the 2003 article, A workaround to XP installs when the product key is missing, we explain how to discover the Product Key using an application known as ViewKeyXP. The amazing thing about the popularity of this article is that the ViewKeyXP application no longer works as of SP2.
An updated explanation was published in 2006, Find a lost Windows product key. In this article, Jason Hiner explains how to find a lost Product Key using several different methods. My preference is the Belarc Advisor utility.
In 2009, I wrote an updated Windows Blog post on this topic, How do I change the Product Key in Windows XP? (Updated). This post explained how to use a tool from Microsoft that allows you to change the Product Key associated with a Windows installation.
This should go without saying, but from the emails we get during the course of a year it apparently does need to be said in no uncertain terms. All of these Product Key applications are for the legitimate and necessary maintenance of a VALID, AUTHENTICATED, and PAID FOR installation of Windows. TechRepublic does not condone the use of pirated software, so please don’t send me an email asking for a Windows Product Key.

Recovery disk

In 2008, Greg Shultz wrote a blog post with the title, Creating a Windows Vista Recovery CD. In it he explained how a website, Neosmart Files, provides ISO images of Windows Recovery CDs. Greg’s blog post concerned Windows Vista, but Neosmart has other ISO images available.

Bootable USB drives

Another perennial favorite topic and one of the more popular Windows topics in 2010 was the bootable Windows XP USB flash memory drive. Two articles on this topic made the 10 most popular tips for the year, Illustrated walk-through: Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP (2007) and SolutionBase: Boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive (2005).

File extensions

When I first wrote this article in 2007, I did not expect it to generate much interest, boy was I wrong. The title, How do I change file extension associations in Windows Vista?, seems very fundamental for Windows users, but apparently there is a continuous need for an explanation on how perform this maintenance task.

Remote desktop

Another surprising article was popular in 2010, Launching remote desktop from the command line in Windows XP Pro. There is an extraordinary interest in how to script a remote desktop connection. Windows XP’s remote desktop connection has an executable file that can accept command line parameters and be run from a batch file.

Windows 7

The most popular Windows 7 tip of 2010, was Put the Classic Start menu in Windows 7 with Classic Shell. It appears there a many TechRepublic members who prefer the old look and feel of Windows XP and not the default configuration of Windows 7. Change, especially with something as integral to our professional lives as the PC, can be traumatic. However, I greatly prefer Windows 7 to any previous version of Windows and I have adapted to the new user interface without too much difficulty. I wonder if this tendency to look back at XP for a preferred interface is merely a passing phase.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT TO START YOUR OWN BLOG

2009-06-12T11:33:00.003+08:00

There is some point when someone wants to start his own business in the internet that requires him to buy a hosting and a domain name. There are a lot of free hosting services in the internet if you want to search. Domain names are the same. A lot of free domain names available for free in the internet. I always recommend for first timer to search and try free services available in the internet, like free blog at blogger.com or wordpress.com. Even Friendster also offers a free blog service.

There are free domain names available in the internet like .co.cc or .co.nr. I still remember the first time I use .tk as my domain name. All of those free domain name and web hosting are cool and worth to try, but like I said at some point we will need a paid service.

There is a good Website Hosting service called Pickaweb. While originally it is UK hosting company but it also gives service globally. The most important thing you will look for if you choose a web hosting service is the support (choose those who has 24×7 support via phone, chat and email), uptime guarantee (no company can guarantee 100% uptime, but the more the better). The other factor like price and features can be compared among the other services and it depends on what you need.

ADVANTAGES OF FREE BLOGGING SERVICES

2009-06-12T11:10:00.005+08:00

Are you new to blogging? People often ask me about how to start from the very beginning. Should I buy my own domain and look for a paid Web Hosting service to start blogging or just sign up for an account in a site that offer free blogging service. Well, there are two kinds depend on what your aim in the future. Here below are the advantages and disadvantages between those two.

The advantages of free blogging service:
It is easy to set up. You even no need to set up. Just sign up for a free account and your blog is ready to go.
Free blogging services are usually easy to use.
They are completely free, no need to pay for a domain name and hosting service.

The disadvantages:
The features to customize your blog are usually limited. You have to follow the terms and conditions of service from the company which provides the free blog service.
The URL is not as good as your own domain. Usually you will get yourname.blogsite.com while with your own domain you can have yourname.com.
It looks less professional.

But whatever you choose is depend on what your purpose in making a blog. Which one is better is according to you.

Here are the sites that provide the free blog service:
Wordpress, Blogger, Blogsome, Lifejournal and much more.

Web CMS Applications

2009-05-22T14:52:00.008+08:00

I've been a fan of AppAppeal all this year and found the vast majority of reviews to be excellent and helpful. Of the top four CMS [Content Management Site-ala Website builder/hosts] Devhub suits my information sites the best to monetize. I find that each has features that recommend it to a type of website.

Devhub’s main competition comes from other web-hosting solutions such as GoDaddy, Bravenet, and Google Pages, as well as from blogging platforms such as Blogger and Wordpress. The main difference between Devhub and the other free or low-cost web hosting platforms is the instant monetization and extensive reporting capabilities offered by Devhub. Devhub also offers a more complete CMS solution than the other sites. Blogger and Wordpress have been used by many people to create monetized websites, but this often requires more knowledge of HTML and other web languages in order to produce a professional-looking site. Devhub’s site editing tools are easier to use than any of the above-mentioned sites.

Competitors to Weebly include Jimdo and Blinkweb. Both of these sites offer similar features to Weebly, with a basic account being free and an upgraded membership with more features available for a reasonable cost. Both sites give the user the ability to choose from a number of different templates, add pages or blogs, and utilize a variety of widgets. The main difference between Weebly and these two sites is that Weebly is much easier to use – the site editor used by Weebly is among the easiest on the web yet user’s can build a professional-looking website with it.

Snap Pages is an online application which makes it really easy to build websites. Of course there are plenty of different website editors, however this one is very simple and works online. It’s possible to use snappages to create a site by doing nothing more than dragging and dropping things around your screen. Not only are the websites really easy to create, but they are also very attractive and very professional. Too many similar systems make amateurish looking sites, however these are pretty nice. Users can easily select a variety of different themes, or they can customize the themes to create more unique sites. There are also many additional tools included such as photo management and calendar tools.

Yola offers a number of differences over other online web designers. This service offers free hosting and it’s possible to create websites by doing nothing more than pointing and clicking. You can then easily upload this site to your own hosting account, or host it for free on their servers. The whole system and process is very easy to use, you don’t need to know how to build websites, all you need to do is point, click and drag objects around to create your site. There’s no need to use expensive tools, or spend time learning complicated programming languages.

Weebly Review

Create a free website or blog in minutes by using a drag and drop interface.

DevHub Review

DevHub is a free website builder and publishing platform with full monetization capabilities.

SnapPages Review

SnapPages provides a suite of online applications for creating and maintaining your own website.

Yola Review

Yola allows you to build your own website quickly and will provide you with free hosting for your website.

Blogger Buster: Tabbed Sidebar Navigation for Recent Posts, Labels and Archives

2009-04-23T19:16:00.000+08:00

These past few weeks, many readers have requested a tutorial for tabbed sidebar navigation, including integrated widgets for recent posts, labels and archives. This customization is a useful and stylish method to organize widgets in your sidebar (or other widgetized area of your blog template): it reduces the space used in your sidebar, and offers readers easy access to the information they may need about your blog.

So in this tutorial I will explain the method I use for tabbed navigation in Blogger Buster including all the code and CSS styling so you can customize your own tabbed widget to match the theme of your blog.

via Blogger Buster: Tabbed Sidebar Navigation for Recent Posts, Labels and Archives.

Nice (Link) Titles

2009-04-23T18:47:00.002+08:00

NiceTitle is a relatively simple script that creates a div-container which pops up when a link (with the title attribute) is hovered. This container shows what is written in the title attribute, plus the URL the link directs to.

Installation

1. As a first step, you should download the script and upload it to your own server. The JS file can be found HERE.

2. From your Blogger Dashboard, go to Layout>Edit HTML (if you’re not a Blogger user, simply go to your HTML-edition section).

3. Before , add the following line:

Customization

1. Right before ]], add the following CSS code (if you’re not a Blogger user, simply add it to your global stylesheet):

div.nicetitle { background-color: #A38531; color: #fff; font: bold 13px "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; padding: 4px; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; text-align: left; width: 25em; z-index: 20; }  div.nicetitle p { margin: 0; padding: 0 3px; }  div.nicetitle p.destination { font-size: 9px; padding-top: 3px; text-align: left; }

a) div.nicetitle{} is the main div container that pops up when the link is hovered. You can change the background (color or image), the font and border properties, and the width.

b) div.nicetitle p is the paragraph inside the main container. There aren’t too many things to customize, but you can apply some padding and margins.

c) div.nicetitle p.destination is the URL displayed belowed each link title. You can either opt to reduce the font-size there, or simply not displaying it (display: none;).

2. Do not forget that for the script to display this container, you should add the “title” attribute to (certain) links. A simple example here:

title="Text to be displayed">Some text here

Moving Widgets

2009-04-23T18:39:00.001+08:00

The most common problem at the time of uploading a new template is that we “lose our widgets”. Is there a way of installing a new template without having to get rid of our beloved (and sometimes unnecessary) widgets? The answer is yes, and yes, it’s simple :).

What we should do, then, is simply go to Layout> EditHTML and without checking the “Expand widget templates” box, look for code:

section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>

Under that line we will find our template’s widgets; we’ll see something like this:

widget id='BlogArchive1' locked='false' title='Archivo del blog' type='BlogArchive'/> widget id='Profile1' locked='false' title='Datos personales' type='Profile'/>  [...]

Now, we copy those widgets and keep them save (wherever :D).

We upload the template.

Blogger will warn us that our widgets are going to be deleted. Obviously, we do NOT continue. We go to the same code where we took our widgets from:

section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>

And paste the widgets we copied. Right after the line above, and before:

section>

In the end, the whole code should look like this:

section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>  widget id='BlogArchive1' locked='false' title='Archivo del blog' type='BlogArchive'/> widget id='Profile1' locked='false' title='Datos personales' type='Profile'/>  section>

That’s it!

SOLUTION FOR BLOGGER XML ERROR MESSAGES

2009-04-03T22:16:00.003+08:00

What to do:

1. Download the template you want to upload

2. Get the XML file and open in a WordPad (right click --> Open With --> WordPad).

3. “Ctrl + F” and in the search box type widget id

4. In every widget line it will display something like this : , replace that number for a any other one.
Example, if the widget says 1, erases it and place number 2 instead.
So you will have something like this now:

5. Do this to all widgets you find in you XML code. When you finish SAVE(Press CTRL+S)

6. Go to Blogger --> Layout --> HTML

7. Upload --> Preview / Save

Done! Enjoy it.

Tip: Rather than changing the number '1' into '2', and so on, change '1' into '11', '2' into '22'...or any other number you'd like. Higher value=better.

Klodian - Johan Ronsse

Deluxe Templates

HOW TO INSTALL NEW TEMPLATES WITHOUT LOSING WIDGETS?

2009-04-03T22:02:00.004+08:00

It's frustrating to install a new template on your blog if you lose all your widgets. Here's how to avoid this problem and keep your old widgets on the blog when you install new templates. Don't worry, there's no coding involve. You just have to know where to copy and paste codes in your old template into your new template file.

1. Save your current template first
This is a must. Save the old one first just in case something screws up and you need to get back to the old template.

2. Use a text editor
Don't do any coding in the Blogger Editor; it's too easy to mess things up. Get a text editor to do any code tweaking on your computer. If you have no idea what to use, just use Notepad++. Download the latest Notepad++ Installer.exe file. It's free and it makes it easier for you to do your coding.

3. Open up the old and new template XML files in the text editor
Open them up because you'll need to copy some codes in the old template and paste them in the new template files. These codes that you'll copy and paste are basically the codes for your widgets. You don't have to understand what's going on inside the code; you just have to know where it is and what widget it is for.

4. Find out where the codes are located
Look at the image below. See the tag? Click on the image to make it larger. All the codes above this tag are mostly CSS, the type of code that controls the appearance (colors, fonts) of your blog. You don't need to copy/paste anything in this section.

The codes below the tag is the main XML code for your blog. Basically, it's the part that controls the layout (where the sidebars, widgets, headers are) and controls the data flow from Blogger into your blog. This is where all the codes for the widgets you want to save are located.

All your widgets are coded within the tag ... . All the tags must be located within the ... tag. The structure looks something like this:

The above is a sample code on how a widget code looks like in a template XML file. The main location of the widget is identified with the div id label. In this case, div id=sidebar-wrapper. Below the div id is the b:section tag. All widgets must be located within this b:section tag. You don't need to worry if you don't understand much about the div or b:section thingy. The important tag you have to know is the b:widget tag. Note that you can put as many widgets as you want inside the b:section tags.

Here's an actual example of a widget tag embedded inside a b:section tag. The location is sidebar-wrapper, meaning that the widget is placed inside one of the sidebars in the blog. The widget is an image widget, as you can see it being labeled id='Image1'.

The most important thing to note is that the widget code starts with the tag and closed with the tag. This is the single most important thing you have to know when copying/pasting later on.Remember also that the widget is placed after the tag and closed with the tag.

Here's another example. The widget is a Linklist widget. You don't have to know the codes inside the widget tag because you won't have to change anything in there.

5. Copy and paste the widgets into new template file
Identify all the widgets you want to keep in your blog after template installation. Locate their codes in the old template file. Remember, these are the codes within the tags and must be close properly with . Copy the codes for a widget that you want to keep and paste them in the new template file, within the tags at the location of your choice. Make sure the b:widget and b:section tags are closed properly.

If you don't know the div id location you want to paste them in, just put them in any div id, but must be inside a b:section tag. It'll then show up as a widget in the Layout > Page Elements page (as in the image below) and you can then drag and drop the widgets to any new location.

6. Upload the new template as your new blog layout
Once you've pasted all the widgets you want into your new template, upload the new template into your blog using the upload button shown below.

7. If not sure, test this technique on a test blog first
If you're not sure whether it'll work out okay, try it first in a test blog. Create a test blog with a few junk posts (lorem ipsum), create some widgets, and then try changing into new templates using the technique above. See if you can make it work.

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OBT

Our Blogger Templates