Last week I expounded on PDF files, the Portable Document Format that saves file size space on the hard drive and when emailing, so files can get through more easily. This is a great tool to use, but there are a few other things to keep in mind when emailing attached large documents and files. Since most Internet service providers only allow file sizes up to five or ten megabytes, you may run across a situation where it's best to zip it up.

Once upon a time, a long time ago as far as computers are concerned, it was seemingly impossible to share documents with anyone. If their computer had the same program (and usually the same version) of software as yours did, there wasn't too much problem. But if you created a really cool drawing with some illustration software you had on your computer but nobody else you knew had the same software, well then you might as well fold it up and mail it "snail mail" style. But then the folks at Adobe realized that sharing files was becoming a problem as the whole computer world grew, and came up with a nifty program called Acrobat.

Happy New Year! There seems to be a lot of that going around this time of year. Our standard greeting is replaced by this special only-once-a-year wish for those we meet. Does it seem more heartfelt this year? In this down economy when so many are hurting, the hope brought on by a new year seems much more of a necessity than when times were really good. For me, that's what I love most about a new year: the hope that it brings with the clean slate.

Ah Christmas time! That special time of year! For some, Christmas is the time we celebrate Jesus' birth, and reciting the story from the book of Luke in the Bible brings memories of trembling and fear in front of the whole congregation. So while we quoted the angel's message, "Do not be afraid," we were, in fact, trembling in our boots.

Though I think the title is clever (in my humble opinion), it probably doesn't convey adequately the topic I want to discuss in this blog, which is copywriting. I know I wrote about this recently, but the question came up in a conversation (a great source for blogging ideas) as to the value of using a copywriter for your website content. Though you may know the value of a copywriting service, you may not appreciate the great impact it can have on the website, website development, and search engine optimization until you use the services of these wonderful wordsmiths.

Do You Hear What I Hear is the title of a Christmas carol, but also seems appropriate as it pertains to a recent discussion we had regarding sound on websites. We were in the process of remodeling Project Complete's website, and found some really cool, what-we-thought-was-appropriate music to play a soothing tune while our web visitors browsed our site. Then I read a timely comment from one of our Twitter followers, who proclaimed that there is very rarely any reason to have music on a website, unless your point is to anger (he used a different word, but I'll keep it clean here) your visitors. We joked about how he must be one of those geeky types, who doesn't feel graphics are appropriate for websites, and the only thing he'd want to see on a website is HTML code. But then we thought again....

Our tag line is "delivering your message with impact." We think it's a good way to let you know that you only have a few seconds to capture the attention of your audience, whether it's on the web or in print, so we know that whatever you produce, it has to be catchy. On the web, one good way to grab attention is with Flash, that animated movement of some object or objects on a page that draw the visitor's attention and make them want to stay and find out more. It adds sparkle. It adds pizzazz. It's just downright impressive. But you might want to keep a few pointers in mind when considering the use of Flash on your website.

Experts urge small business owners to "brand" their businesses with a set of consistent promotional materials. With that in mind, it begs the question, "Is your stuff up to snuff?" Take a look at some of the reasons why it's important to put a premium on your ads, brochures, newsletters, logo, business cards - wherever and whenever your company's name is out there.

Though we're almost a week past Halloween, it still seems appropriate to address web crawlers or web spiders. Like the insect of the same name, some are dangerous, but most are harmless. Sometimes you want them around, but most of the time we're glad we don't see them.

 Where to begin? At the beginning, of course! That's the easy part. The hard part of any task is finding the best place to begin. Sometimes our tasks seem so overwhelming, it makes our brain hurt just thinking about it. Designing a website is a big project, one you may wish to hire a project manager to accomplish. Most people do. Only the project manager is called a web designer, and they can lead you through the process step-by-step, from the beginning to the completed website.

Every so often you run into a website that looks "off." You know what I mean: the colors don't look just right, things aren't aligned properly, and basically, it looks like it was designed by an amateur. Take heart, there's hope for some of these situations, although there are a lot of websites out there that truly are designed by amateurs! Sometimes all you need is an updated web browser and that's usually a free fix.

Last week we were expounding on breadcrumbs, a navigational system used in websites. So, in keeping with the food theme, we thought we'd delve into the topic of cookies as it pertains to computing. Frankly, cookies are among my favorite things, but you've probably guessed correctly, that it's the chocolate chip variety rather than the bits of information stored on a user's computer by a web browser.

Remember the story of Hansel and Gretel? To refresh your memory, they are the children of a poor woodcutter in the Grimm's fairy tale by the same name. The woodcutter's wife (probably an evil stepmother) fears starvation, can't feed the kids anymore, and convinces the dunderhead of a husband to lead the children into the forest and abandon them so there's more food for the woodcutter and his wife. We're not told where Hansel and Gretel get their smarts from, but they leave a trail of pebbles from their house in order to find their way home. (They must have suspected their parents' intentions.) Since they find their way back home with the pebbles leading their way, they are led into the forest farther this time, but are only able to leave breadcrumbs from lunch to find their way back. The story progresses from there, the birds eat the breadcrumbs, they get lost, an evil witch (we presume even more evil, and more hungry than the wicked stepmother and dunderhead father) lures them to her candy house so she can eat them, etc. (And these are the stories we tell our children?!) But I digress... I always think of this story when I hear the word "breadcrumbs," and it helps me understand their function when it comes to websites.

Last week we talked about whether you have to get a new domain name if you switch web hosting companies, and we said that, no, you don't. Many times, the company who holds the domain name can also be the web hosting company. A lot of people seem to be very happy with a popular web hosting company in the Valley that offers very reasonable rates, and while the bottom line is extremely important, we wanted to make you aware of some other considerations when selecting a hosting company for your website.

In the course of several recent conversations, various questions have surfaced regarding the creation or re-creation of websites. So it seemed best to use them as content this week in order to benefit the vast audience that read my blog. The following are a few questions that you may have asked yourself, as well as some (hopefully intelligent) responses that will be meaningful to you.

There are tons of acronyms in the business world, and websites are no exception. One you'll hear bantered about is CMS, which stands for content management system. As it implies, it is a system to manage content, in this case, of a website. Why do you care? I'm glad you asked, because content management has a number of advantages that traditionally developed websites don't offer, so you might want to become aware of those benefits.

When designing your logo, the most important rule to keep in mind is the tried and true KISS principle: Keep It Simple and Short. That may not be the original definition of the KISS principle, but it works really well for logo design! A logo can be just the name of your company in a specific font, or it may be a symbol that represents your business, or it could be a combination of both.

Sometimes when I'm having one of those indecisive days, I'll go into my closet and change clothes several times before I finally decide on the right look for the day's activities. Until I see what it looks on me, until I'm sure that I won't feel out of place, or that it won't look stupid, I don't really know whether I'll feel right wearing it or not. Hence, the recurrent changes. Your website design can be like that too. You need to feel like it's the right look for your company's branding, but changing "clothes" for a website can be expensive.

You don't get a second chance to make a good first impression. Have you heard that one before? It's true! When you're meeting someone for the first time, you want to look your best. The same holds true for your marketing materials. The first impression of your company may be your business card, your newsletter or a brochure, and you want to make sure that whatever you produce that represents your company makes a good first impression.

When you want to tell the world about your company, who is better qualified to write the content for your website than you are? You’re the one who knows the “ins and outs” of your business better than anyone, and yet, when it comes time to supply your web designer with what you want to say on your website, you have trouble finding the right words that clearly and effectively get the job done.

You decide to put up a website, and the next decision is what to call it. Most people would want to use the name of the company; after all, they’re proud of it and want to advertise it. Before you grab all the .net, .com, and .org domain names associated with your company name and every variation of it, you might want to reconsider.

Back in the olden days, cowboys would lasso their cattle, tie them up, throw them on the ground, and apply a hot branding iron to their backsides. The branding iron would be a special shape that was unique to the ranch it belonged to. It permanently marked the animal as the property of that ranch. The custom has changed somewhat, but the function is the same: Making sure everybody knows the identity of that little dogie.

Most companies would love to be at the top of the Internet search engines’ organic lists because 70% of people who search Google, MSN or Yahoo (the top three) go immediately to the top of the list to find what they’re looking for. You know this; you’ve done it yourself. Are you going to spend the rest of your day going down the list to check out all 360 million matches? No! You want to find the answer and you want to find it now.

An early Emperor of the Xia Dynasty in China (about 4,000 years ago) said, “A picture speaks a thousand words.” The adage may be old, but the words still hold true today.

Do you need to post to an external site from your DotNetNuke site? Here is one simple solution.

If you have a "techy" side to you and are curious about how we create our websites, read on.

If you're new to the DotNetNuke content management framework, the CSS stylesheet hierarchy may be a bit confusing to you. If this is the case, this blog will make it as easy as ABC ASAP.

“When it rains, it pours” doesn’t make you think of precipitation, but rather Morton salt. A good tagline, or slogan, will capture the essence of what your company offers in a brief, memorable phrase. It will embed your brand or message in the minds of your audience. If you hear, “Just do it,” you’ll picture the Nike swoosh – automatically. And that’s what you want your tagline to do: make your company come to mind when people read or hear the words.

Have you ever gone to a website and wondered, "What in the world were they thinking?!" It looks like a ransom note or a third grade cut-and-paste art project. In a word, it's just plain unprofessional. All that can be avoided with a little planning.

Think that email "blasts" are cold and impersonal? Think again...

Remember in the old westerns when the good guys wore the white hats and the bad guys wore the black hats? Those terms have now found a new use within the realm of search engine optimization. The good guys practice "white hat" SEO.