EAVB_KPOULXYNCN

With that said they have created the Gantry Framework was created by the Rocket Theme design team as a way to consolidate their extensive set of custom template functionality into one framework.  The framework started showing up in their themes in the back half of 2009. The framework allows the ability to set module positions, control and edit site features such as copyright, scrolling, text sizing, and more.  Gantry is an impressive feature that gives the developer a lot of one touch control of how the site is to be laid out. 

Also starting in late 2009 Rocket Theme standardized their Module Positions form most of their current themes.  This is a great feature that allows you to move from one theme to the next without having to spend a lot of time repositioning content.  They have over 60 collapsible positions. For example, they have a Header position, with the ability to set it Header A – F going right to left across the top of the page. 

A typical Rocket Theme has many download options that include the theme as a stand alone, a “Rocket Launcher” bundle that comes with both the theme and the most current Joomla! version.  Users can also download source images for backgrounds, logos, and any images.  Another great option is that most themes come with a variety of fonts that can be installed.  Finally they also have a tutorials section for most all themes.  Their site forums area also offer timely and effective help.

Memberships are very reasonably priced. 

• 60 Day, 1 Entitlement = $60
• 180 Day, 2 Entitlements = $75
• 1 Year, 3 Entitlements = $90
• 1 Year Renewal, 3 additional entitlements = $60
• Developer 1 Year $300, $240 Renewal

Rocket Theme also has a modest number of extensions that range from a shopping cart, weather, stocks, and news/content display.  Their extensions overall function well.  Load time however can sometimes be a bit of an issue with extensons and template rendering.

Rating:

• Module Positions: 5
• Support: 5
• Cost: 4
• Quantity of Themes: 4
• Source Downlods: 5
• Extensions: 4
• Total Score: 27

(rating scale by section is 1 being the lowest, and 5 being the highest; total score is 30)

1. Use the “site:” operator to limit searches to a particular site. I use this one all the time, and it’s particularly handy because many site’s built-in search tools don’t return the results you’re looking for (and some sites don’t even have a search feature). If I’m looking for WWD posts about GTD, for example, I could try this search: GTD site:webworkerdaily.com.

2. Use Google as a spelling aid. As Rob Hacker — the WWD reader I profiled last week — pointed out, entering a word into Google is a quick way to see if you have the right spelling. If it’s incorrect, Google will suggest the correct spelling instead. Additionally, if you want to get a definition of a word, you can use the “define:” operator to return definitions from various dictionaries (for example, define: parasympathetic).

3. Use Google as a calculator. Google has a built-in calculator — try entering a calculation like 110 * (654/8 + 3). Yes, your computer also has a calculator, but if you spend most of your day inside a browser, typing your calculation into the browser’s search box is quicker than firing up your calculator app.

4. Find out what time it is anywhere in the world. This one’s really handy if you want to make sure that you’re not phoning someone in the middle of the night. Just search for “time” and then the name of the city. For example, try: time San Francisco

5. Get quick currency conversions. Google can also do currency conversion, for example: 100 pounds in dollars. It only has the more mainstream currencies, though — if you’re trying to see how many Peruvian nuevos soles your dollars might buy, you’ll be out of luck. If you would like to convert minor currencies, be sure to be specific about the country. So, if you want to find out how many nuevos soles your dollars might buy, you could try: 100 dollars in Peruvian nuevos soles.

6. Use the OR operator. This can be useful if you’re looking at researching a topic but you’re not sure which keywords will return the information you need. It can be particularly handy in conjunction with the “site:” operator. For example, you could try this search: GTD OR “getting things done” site:webworkerdaily.com

7. Exclude specific terms with the – operator. You can narrow your searches using this operator. For example, if you’re looking for information about American Idol but don’t want anything about Simon Cowell, you could try: “american idol” -cowell

8. Search for specific document types. Google can search the web for specific types of files using the “filetype:” operator. If you’re looking for PowerPoint files about GTD, for example, you could try: GTD filetype:ppt

9. Search within numerical ranges using the .. operator. Say, for example, you want to look for information about Olympic events that took place in the 1950’s, you could use this search: Olympics 1950..1960

10. Area code lookup. Need to know where a phone number is located? Google will let you know where it is, and show you a map of the area, too. For example: 415

While I was waiting at the Dallas airport last month on my way home I picked up a copy of inc. magazine.  Inside I read a blog that gave me some inspiration. I hope it will carry me further than my last attempt.  At the current time I cannot recall the bloggers name, but it was actually a farewell blog.  It gave a great overview of how the blog was created to talk about him, his company, or really even his products; instead it centered on the niche market his company served.  It talked about what was going on in the industry, new ideas, and how to take things to the next level.  To put it simply: He became the expert in his industry.

I am hoping this blog will do a couple of things for me going forward.  First, I want it to help define more clearly what our company is really about.  Both Doug and myself have always been interested in helping small businesses use the net to grow.  It is time we focus our efforts in a more direct effort, and not be quite so scattered. Finally, I want this blog to be a place our clients or anyone listening can go to find out how the internet can do two things for them: grow and serve their customers.

It only seems rational that I start to define what it is we do.  Our focus comes in two main industries: Newspaper publishing and Real Estate.  Recently we have also been working with a Local Union to develop a CMS site that will suit their needs.  Furthermore, we have come to focus on using open source products, specifically we have been focusing most of our efforts on using Joomla!

With any luck… more to come…

1. Blogs really can help a website.  A blog is a much more personal approach to providing clients with information about the web.  When creating traditional site content there is a lot of time put into web site copy, how it is written, and what it says.  Blogs really are casual way of communicating thoughts and ideas.  They can provide a nice balance to a website.

2. Blogs and help promote a company.  By using Word Press as the source to write my Blog I will potentially reach more people that simply creating articles and posting them on my site.  Now not only are my blogs listed on our company website, they also appear in Word Press searches.

3.  Blogs help Link people. Not only can a site post it’s own Blogs, but also Blogs from other people.  This can help clients see a variety of view points, and easily obtain additional information.

These are just a few ideas of why I should Blog.  The important things are to make sure you know what it is you want people to learn from your Blog.  It could simply be who you are, and what you believe in, or it could be a means to teach other people about things.  Whatever your reason it can be a relatively easy way of adding content to your site.  Now, If I can only think of a topic…

Currently Microsoft has been trying to put together a product to challenge Google.  Arguably Google is maneuvering itself as the heavyweight.  In the beginning it was thought that whoever had the dominating web browser would eventually be at the top of the web.  As the web became very tangled and complex Google emerged with the most user friendly search environment.  In 1998 Microsoft unveiled MSN Search.  In 2004 Microsoft got on board realizing how important search technology was going to be and developed their own algorithms to search the web.   In May of 2009 Microsoft launched Bing, it’s 4th (MSN Search, Windows Live Search, Live) search effort in 5 years.  It has yet to put a search product out there that is compelling to the average internet user.

This comes on the heals of the Chrome web browser from Google.  Google has quietly built a line of products that include Blogger, YouTube, Chrome, Picassa, Google Earth and many more (Google Products).  What threatens Microsoft is that each of these products are being developed in a way that does not require them to be run on the Windows Operating system.  These products are designed to run on new generation platforms like Cell Phones, PDA’s, and other non desktop platforms.  The web is changing the way people think of using a computers. We are integrating computer technology into everything we use. Imagine a Range Oven that has the ability to connect wirelessly to your home network and retrieve cooking instructions from an online recipe.  The most popular phones on the market right now, Blackberry and the iPhone, do not use Windows Software out of the box.

All of this has led to a sense of urgency with the release of Bing.  Everything starts with the search.  For that oven to follow the recipe it must first find it.  It is too early to tell if Bing can start cutting away at Google. However, for the first time in a long time Microsoft has a real threat on it’s hands with the innovation needed to unseat them.

As per the Open Office website (http://www.openoffice.org) the software has been in development for over 20 years.  It was originally derived from Star Division’s Star Office.  Star Office was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999.  Open Office, in it’s various forms, has struggled to gain any footing over the years.

In the early 90’s there was a race to see what Office product was going to become the standard.  Corel had what was arguably the best Word Processor in Word Perfect;  Lotus had the dominant Spreadsheet in 1-2-3.  Microsoft may not have had the best single product, but they had the best integrated product with all desktop publishing (Excel, Word, Access, and PowerPoint). When Office 97 hit the market neither Corel nor Lotus was able to put together a product that could compete as a whole.  By the time Office 2000 was introduced the market share was being dominated by MS Office.  It was about this time that Star Office could no longer compete Sun Microsystems in an effort to keep up with Microsoft acquired them.

In 2000 the source code was released to the public in an effort to try and gain market share and take some of the dominance away from MS Office.  The original versions of Open Office were simply not able to compete with MS Office.  I was starting to hear that the new Open Office was turning into a nice product.  I decided to give it a try for myself. 

The first thing I had to find out was weather it was able to open all of my existing MS Office files.  In all instances that I tested it was able to open all documents.  To my surprise everything seemed to work just fine.  There were no errors in any of my spreadsheet formulas, and all of my documents opened just as they would in Word.  I am not a big PowerPoint user, but what files I had seemed to open just fine. 

Open Office has 5 basic tools.

• Writer: Word Processor
• Calc: Spreadsheet
• Impress: Create Presentations
• Base: Database
• Draw: Create artwork, plans, designs, and images.  (Cross between an advanced Paint and Publisher Program).

I have not spent a lot of time with anything other than Writer and Calc.  Those are the tools I use most often for my business needs. Open Office has been able to meet all of my needs so far that I am looking for in a office suite.  

Although Open Office functions the same as MS Office, there are a lot of differences when it comes to the user interface and layout.  It is very much like making the switch from IE to the Mozilla or Chrome browser.  It’s not that the other browsers don’t work, or that they are not user friendly, they are just not as familiar.  I often use other browsers, but I find myself moving back to IE because it is what I am most used to.   On top of that, there is no significant reason for me to change.  The truth is that weather I am looking at most web pages in Firefox or IE it doesn’t make a difference.  They will both allow me to see what I want to see.  Moreover, I found that when I am working with Calc my Excel files take a long time to process any changes and to open them. This does not happen when I am working with a file that is in the Open Office format.  I am a little leary of converting all of my files over because I am not 100% sure I will make the switch.

There are many pro’s though to making the switch, especially for small and mid size businesses.  I you feel you have employee’s that are savvy enough to deal with changes in the user interface and layout, then Open Office could save you a ton of money.  There are not any worries about licensing fee’s or having to pay for any upgrades.    In addition, Open Office is very easy to update when needed.  You can have the program loaded onto as many computers as you need, which may help productivity. Also, there is a lot more support available now than there was a few years ago.  In the end, if you can get past the  the initial change of using something different, this really is a good product.  Best of all, it’s free.  I would recommend downloading the software and giving it a trial run.

However, one big thing occurred to me the other morning when I realized how quickly I had become to relay on reading the NY Times, WSJ, and other news in the morning on my Blackberry.  It is an easy way to scan through the headlines and look for bits of information.  Moreover, I realized how much I rely on my laptop and Blackberry to know what is going on in the world.  For the most part I am no longer a consumer of TV News or Newspapers.  I was the local news from time time, but that is about it. 

The internet and PDA’s are really changing how people read news, especially when it comes to Generation Y and the iGeneration (sometimes called Generation Z).  This is not in itself shocking news.  I know this, because I have been reading about it on my Blackberry.  Utilizing the resources available to people such as a laptop, Kindle,  Blackberry or other piece of technology you can really see why this method is fast becoming the standard.  This is true even when it comes to other media such as video. 

The fundamentals of what it takes to write a good story stay the same.  A headline to catch the readers attention and a first paragraph to draw the reader in.  One could argue that new formats are less forgiving than a traditional newspaper as there are so many headlines available.  If a person get’s lazy, and skips the basics the reader will simply move to another headline, or newspaper. 

That brings me to my final point.  When news in published online it is crucial that the editor understands news needs to be delivered quick and to the point.  There are literally hundreds of headlines the reader may browse through.  Don’t make it more difficult for them by providing a three or four paragraph intro before the reader can find the read more button.  If the reader wants to read more they will.  Too much text before the read more link can make it seem like the editor is trying to hard.  If you follow the basics, the readers will come, and the page views will pile up.  Most of all it’s a pain to have to scroll further and further down the page.  If the first paragraph doesn’t catch their attention they may become bored by the third, and move on to another site.

Keep this in mind as you publish your news.

http://www.google.com/chrome/

ICC is very proficient at the ins and outs of the use of the Joomla CMS.  Although we use the platform to build a variety of sites it is the foundation of our news site offering.  To view a news site Joomla program in action visit the Big Sky Business Journal. Or visit the Joomla website.