I recently had a client who asked for some business cards using Avery Template 8371. Although the images showed up fine on my Windows 2008 for Mac saved as a .docx file, when saved as a .doc file for the clients pc version of word, the images changed to black boxes.
"Humph!" I said scratching my head. I saved them as .jpgs, high enough quality to be printed on their own office printer. What could possibly be the problem.
I did a little research and this is what I found:
Word doesn't like .jpgs saved from a cmyk photo documents (like photoshop)
So I went back into my photoshop image, changed the image mode to rgb, resaved as a .jpg (and unchecked the "embed color profile". I then reinserted the images into the word document and VOILA it looked and saved just fine.
Need a business cards with your website and logo? Give Flying Change Webs & Graphics a call!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Black Boxes in Place of Images in Microsoft Word
Friday, September 4, 2009
Like the carpenter whose house is never complete ...
I often feel the same about my own website ... I never feel as if it is really complete because there is always something more I want to add. More news. More articles. More samples into the portfolio. More search engine optimization (SEO) tweeks. But as a dedicated website designer specializing in getting small businesses up on the web, I always put my clients first.
Today I took a few minutes to make a few new additions to my own website and performed my own SEO "check up". I searched for the general term "small business web design". I intentionally did not put a state or region in order to see where I was on the Google result for such a general term. Here is the result:
Yes, that is a first page placement with the second position!
The primary key to this success? Patience.
Nearly two years ago, which I started Flying Change Webs & Graphics, this sort of positioning was only a dream. Now, with some hard work, dedication, and PATIENCE, I finding myself happily busy doing what I love and reaping the benefits.
Are you ready to give your website a new look - or just put your business on the web? Check out my updated Web Design Portfolio page and then give me a call.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Listed First and Second in Less Than 3 Months!
This past Spring, I worked created a logo and website for Lisa Madison and Rocky Coast Seminars. It launched at the end of April. Today, in a Google Search for "seminars in Maine for educators" I was pleasantly surprised to find the following results:
The correct use of keywords, clean coding, and attention to the design aspects is the primary difference between this site and many of the competitors. Congratulations Lisa! Your first seminar hasn't started yet and you're already on your way to success!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
To Skype with Love …
The most wonderful thing has happened! Well, it’s wonderful when you are a techno geek like me with a hubby who travels …
My husband finally has a laptop that he can take on these long, round-the-world trips to Australia (he is currently on his 4th trip around the world since January 1, 2009). The difference is ... he's discovered SKYPE!
I'm sure you've heard of Skype the video phone call made from your computer … a FREE video call from your computer. Keyword being FREE ... especially since international cell phone calls are quite expensive!
Now I’ve held business conferences using skype before and it is especially wonderful when we are hoding the conference between multiple time zones - Germany, France, and various zones here int the USA. But this time …
This time ….
It was my hubby.
- We cooked dinner together
- My daughter got to show him her muscles
- I ‘gave him a cookie’ (showed him the cookies my daughter made)
- He showed the wave pool outside the hotel – which my son loved!
- We all got to “hug” him (or pretend we did)
So I realize this little story isn't about business or websites ... but I wanted to share it with you because I DO LOVE MY GADGETS!
If you don't have Skype, perhaps you should download it FREE and try it for your next business conference call. It will change the way you work - and play.
Look me up. My Skype handle is "flyingchangewebs".
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Yahoo Mail & Firefox
I was recently informed by a client using Yahoo Mail with Firefox on a PC that he was unable to link to send an email from my contact page link. I use both a PC running IE 7 and Firefox and a Mac running Firefox and Safari with email clients outlook, entourage, and mail. I was unable to recreate the problem he was having, so the problem only seems to apply to the Yahoo Mail and Firefox on PC combination.
I pride myself in looking after my clients, so I found the following general information about using Yahoo Mail and Firefox on the PC:
- There has been a long list of problems in the last 2 years with this combination.
- The troubles have ranged from error messages saying "Yahoo Mail doesn't support your browser" to not opening an existing email link at all. (This is what happened to my client.)
- Unable to send links within emails.
- Email not sending at all.
- Inbox not loading completely.
If you have your own website, you may consider switching all your email to the personal email account - like you@yourdomain.com and use a mail client like outlook, thunderbird, or even webmail to access your email.
Hope this helps anyone who may have this problem.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
As a website designer, I am often asked what are the best methods for better search engine optimization. There are a few simple steps anyone can take to improve their website performance: clean coding, using proper tags, clean coding, keywords, and did I mention clean coding?
The following video says it all - and is fun to watch, too!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
You learn something new every day!
Within the past week I've had 2 projects that required resizing over 100 photos for a photogallery. The originals were all high-quality digital photographs, thus rendered at over 1000 pixels wide. My image area was only 450 pixels wide. I envisioned DAYS of resizing, until I discoverd this new trick. Actually, its not "new" but it is new to me.
Photoshop Image Processor Is My New Best Friend!
Adobe Photoshop is the program I use for most of my image work and within that program, there is a wonderful tool called image processor. I use CS3 and this is how it works (for anyone who might need to use it and didn't know it exists):
- Open Photoshop and click File > Scripts > Image Processor
- In the Image Processor window, select the current folder in which you have your images
- I suggest you save the resized images to a different folder - so choose that folder (or create it if you haven't already). Even if you choose to have the resized photos in the same folder, photoshop will place them all into a new folder called "JPEG" so it doesn't overwrite what you have.
- File type is JPEG and quality of your choice (5 good, 10 is best).
- Since I am resizing my images for website use, select "Resize to Fit" and enter the desired dimensions. My photos were all different heights, so I used a set width of 450 pixels and an arbitrary height that I knew would cover any photo I had. The nice thing is the aspect ratio is kept if the photo is shorter than the dimension entered.
- Click Run and Photoshop will start the processor. In a matter of seconds the photos are all resized!
Saturday, April 4, 2009
"How did you do it" asks L.L.Bean
After reading my last blog about the SEO success of Hola Amigos, an employee and friend from L.L.Bean, Inc. - who runs a large part of the L.L.Bean website - asked "how did you do it". My response:
"... basic techniques – using the right wording, <title> codes, using the <h1>, <h2>, etc, linking keywords to other parts of the site, and keeping it NICE AND CLEAN in the coding overall."
Basic search engine optimization doesn't have to be complicated - unless you have a complicated site like L.L.Bean and other large corporations. Working with small business websites typically has a much more focused target audience, so even a small tweek can bring big success.
Read more about SEO with these articles:
Your New Website - Getting Started with Keywords
SEO Basics: Beyond the Keywords
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Small Business SEO Success
When I first started Flying Change Webs & Graphics, it was to help get small businesses online at an affordable price. Many of my clients don't have the budget to pay for large-scale SEO. Most of the clients want to be found on a local basis.
There are so many small yet significant steps that I can help them take so the search engines, like Google, will find them on the web. One such business is Hola Amigos!
Hola Amigos! is owned by my friend, Suzanne Rouhana. Suzanne was one of my first clients. Her target audience were parent's of pre-school children, so the website was designed with primary colors and with the feeling of having "fun". We were both excited about the results.
Today I checked the ranking on Google - as I do with on a regular basis with all the websites I design. Hola Amigos! came up on the FIRST PAGE in the FIRST POSITION!
It doesn't get any better than that!
Saturday, March 7, 2009
I love the Apple Store!
These days, with the economy thrashing around like a fish out of water, customer service has come to be a big part of "making it" - whether you are a small website design company in Maine or a big corporation like Apple. Let me share with you my great experience today at the Apple Store.
As you may have read in this blog - last May I traded in Asus laptop PC for a MacBook Pro. It wasn't "true love" at first, but the transition was quite smooth (like a "Flying Change") and I soon came to love and depend on it.
In recent weeks I had started to experience some troubles: the technicolor ball show up with nearly every application; fonts were rendering very strangely, and the base was warped. Yes - I said the base was warped. So into the Apple store at the Maine Mall I went. The Genius took one look at it, said he didn't want to fix it and within seconds handed me a box with a BRAND NEW MacBrook Pro.
That was justification enough to me that this little baby of mine is worth every penny. Customer Service will win - and keep - clients better than anything else. Try it!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Work & Play while on our way to LA!
As I type this blog I am in the car heading out of Arizona and to LA, CA to ride as many roller coasters as we can cram in to 4 days.
My son is a roller coaster enthusiast (you can see the little roller coaster website I set up for him) and since the relatives we are visiting in Scottsdale, AZ do not have the week off, we are taking the kids further west to hit 3 coaster parks in 4 days.
OFF TO LA, CA! That's about a 5-6 hour drive just to ride roller coasters. Yes, we are A BIT NUTS. But we love to have fun!
And what does this have to do with website design, you ask?
As a small business owner, going on vacation 10 days doesn't really mean total vacation. But with mobile technology, I have the best of both worlds! I can work (or play) in the car with my mobile broadband card and my laptop. The 5-6 hour drive from Scottsdale, AZ to LA, CA used to be boring as h*ll. But now I can do this:
As the kids are listening to ipods, hubby driving, I can take a break from updating a website and snap a family photo! I took the above photo using photo booth on my MacBook Pro.
Mobile Technology is just the coolest thing to me. I can catch up on projects, check my facebook, show photos of our trip immediately. It's amazing and allows me to keep my clients and my family happy. Using this otherwise useless time in the car as time well spent.
My family loves this new technology too. The teen can use video chat to keep in touch with friends at home so she doesn't feel she's missing anything. And my son has been checking the park maps to plot our strategy as we enter the parks. Speaking of which .... My son says these are THE coasters we are going to ride:
Six Flags Magic Mountain
Viper
X and X2
Superman the Escape
Goliath (shown in the video at the end of this blog)
Revolution
Batman
Scream
Déjà vu
Riddler's Revenge
Tatsu
Knotts Berry Farm:
Ghost Rider
Pony Express
California Adventure:
California Screamin
So work a little work and a lot of play ... it's working! BRING ON THE COASTERS!
Thursday, January 15, 2009
An Adventure Into The New Year
I can't believe that 2009 is here! It came upon me so fast. And already, two new websites have launched in 2009.
First was 30 Day Marriage. It launched just days into the new year. It is a the start of a series of books being written by Susan Gentile-Hackett of Falmouth, Maine. The book is an interactive diary that helps couples explore their relationship. This site has a FABULOUS new feature ... an online marriage test that calculates your score online. Go ahead, take the test!
The second site of 2009 was a total redesign for Equine Veterinary Service. Dr. Tom Judd, Dr. Lila Solomon, and LVT Vicki Coffin now have a site that meets their goal of providing education to their clients on equine health as well as promoting their services.
There are many others coming up for 2009. It's the perfect time for small businesses to take hold of their business and find their home on the web.
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