November Tieline article on Dispersed Environments

The November 2007 issue of the STC Tieline has an article on getting participation in chapters with "dispersed environments." The article talks about several options for overcoming this, and eventually ends up with a solution similar to ours (virtual meetings!) Seems pretty obvious, but still a good read.

http://www.stc-cdx.org/tieline/2007/11

-Holli

Vista and Word 2007

If anyone is running the new Vista operating system and using Word 2007, you might find this article in the STC Atlanta CommLink newsletter interesting. Go to http://www.stcatlanta.org/newsletters/STC_July07_small.pdf. It may take a minute or two to download the file.

I was visiting with a friend over the weekend who recently purchased a new computer with both Vista and Word 2007, and she said the changeover is difficult at best. After reading this article, I think I understand why she is having problems transitioning to Word 2007.

Personally, I just think Microsoft thrives on making our lives miserable when every new product comes out. Their philosophy seems to be sell it and wait for the customers to tell us where the bugs are in the application; then, send out patches and fixes to make the customer happy. I'm glad to be spending most of my day with Adobe products these days.

Our Blog Temporarily Disappeared

Our blog postings are archived every month, so if you open the blog and nothing is displayed, it looks like you have to post a new comment for the archive to be displayed.

New STC Dues for 2008

Hi All,

By now I'm guessing you've all seen the new dues for the 2008 year. Yep, international increased their dues by 15%, then added the chapter and SIG dues on top of that for $25 and $10 respectively. They've eliminated the limited membership for next year, but created a couple of packages that will save you a little money. I've heard many of you say that at those prices you just can't afford to remain a member. I'd love to hear more thoughts from Montana members. I can assure you that your concerns about the jump in cost represent the concerns of many members beyond STC Montana. Have questions about the new process? Let me know.

Thanks,
Lori

PDF Prototypes: Mistakenly Disregarded and Underutilized

We are all familiar with PDF documents, but I found this article in Boxes and Arrows very interesting. It has never even entered my mind to create a clickable PDF to prototype a new design concept. The article talks about adding dynamic elements to a PDF, using a PDF to mimic Ajax-like functionality to prototype a page-based application like a check out form, and including multimedia in a PDF. The author even goes on to provide the "how tos" for the reader. Check it out at http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/pdf-prototypes. You have to scroll down the page to get to the article. It looks like the Web page isn't displaying properly. I hope you learn something new as I did.

Content management

Hi Holli.
I have been in the same boat for several years. I have loads of general and project descriptions in word files but no database. I was initially encouraged by one product, RFP Master. It was part of a very expensive suite of proposal software. I am not a fan of "create an instant proposal" software because I do not think they work for my services. But the RFP Master was to provide a location to which you could upload word descriptions and then search through the data. And the price was not terribly bad for the one piece. Unfortunately, it does not behave very well (without the mother ship$$ I imagine) and I am having a heck of a time getting around things. I gave up as it was taking too long and the search was not returning anything. My plan is to create my own database (in time hahahah). Please let me know if you come up with a good plan.Ruthmeri

Content Inventory- Where to start?

One of the biggest items on my list of projects is to organize my company's files into some sort of system. Initially, they told me they wanted to "go paperless." After asking some probing questions, I realized that what they really meant was "get organized." I'm still figuring out what exactly to call this project: Document Control System, Content Management System, or something else? Once I get a grip on what type of information we have and how we use it, I'll have a better understanding of what we need to do to make work flows more efficient. Maybe then I'll know what to call the project.

Has anyone else started a similar project from the very beginning, as I am, surrounded by thousands of crazily named files in multiple unorganized versions?

Google "Street View" Online Maps

Have you heard abaout Googles "Street View" online mapping tool? Read about it at http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/06/01/google.candid.camera.ap/index.html. I think it's icky too. It wreaks of invasion of privacy, and I think we have enough of that already.

Hey, John, is that you I see on the street corner in Helena eating that Big Mac and fries! I thought you said you were on a diet. Oh, and Lori, is that you putting a nasty note on the car parked too close behind you. I saw you kick the tires! And, Susan, I saw you and Ron sipping a beer at that outdoor restaurant in Kalispell. I hope you didn't get in your car and drive home.

PULEEEEASE! Someone stop the madness.

The Helvetic Hegemony: How An Unassuming Font Took Over the World

You have to go to http://www.slate.com/id/2166887/ and see this slideshow about the Helvetica font. Veeerrrryyyy interesting... I'm switching to Helvetica for everything now.

Distorted Word Puzzles Commonly Used To Register on Web Sites

Have you ever wondered what they call those distorted word puzzles you have to type in when you go to a Web site? Well, they are called CAPTCHAs, short for "completely automated public Turing tests to tell computers and humans apart." Computers can't decipher the twisted letters and numbers, ensuring that real people and not automated programs are using the Web sites. Now researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered a way to enlist people across the globe to help digitize books every time they solve these simple distorted word puzzles. These researcher say that instead of wasting time typing in random letters and numbers, we should be using the 150,000 hours every day to type in snippets of books to speed up the process of getting searchable texts online. To read the complete article go to http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/05/29/blather.to.books.ap/index.html.

Pet Peeve: E-mail without a Subject Line

I can't count how many e-mails I receive in a day without a subject line! When you receive 30+ e-mails every day, you need a method for determining which ones need to be responded to right away and which ones you can let sit for a while. Without a descriptive subject line, prioritizing e-mail can be a problem. So I have a rule: no subject line, no response.

"And another thing, buster...." I don't know why people think that they can throw all of the grammar, punctuation, and spelling rules out the window when they write an e-mail. Don't they know that e-mail can be used in a court of Law, so they had better take as much care with their e-mail as they do with any other litigious type of correspondence. Just ask Jeff Skilling and the rest of the Enron executives.

As protectors of the English language, let's unite against e-mail abuse and at least force our coworkers to include a subject line. Create a rule in Outlook to let the senders know that you require a subject line. We can deal with the content of the message later.

Help Stamp Out the Colon Epidemic

Susan's monthly news brief about the colon epidemic hit the nail on the head. I have also seen colons in the most superfluous places. I was told once that writers of all kinds are "the protectors of the English language." If anyone has any other examples of the colon placement problem, post them here. Let's have fun with this one: shall we! Oops!