• Intro
  
• Article - Ready to Launch Your Online Business? By Judy Vorfeld
  
• The Office Corner
  
• Grammar Question of the Month - Possessive Puzzle
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans - Outlook and Access
  
• Tech Corner
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Word of the Month - in situ
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  

Thanks for your patience as I juggled a number of commitments, business and otherwise. Here's to good communication!

Are you ready for your grand opening? If you've spent lots of time studying what works and what doesn't, in terms of customer expectations and search engine essentials: go for it! Before you launch, however, why not go over your check list one more time?

DOMAIN NAME
You bought your own domain name and have a good Web hosting service. You've made it as easy as possible for people to relate the domain name to your business. If you couldn't get the domain name you wanted, you'll brand your business so people will have some point of reference.

TEXT
Your site has readable text. You avoided dark text on a black background; too small a font size; big blobs of bolded text; bulky paragraphs; underlined text that is not actually hyperlinked; and putting the text too close to the edge of a box or table cell. You don't have unusually wide lines of text, strange fonts for your body text, or too many italics. You made sure that link text can be read, easily, when it's on top of any block of color.

GRAMMAR
You have excellent punctuation, spelling, and usage. Your words clearly define the reason for your site, and you worked hard to create powerful sentences and headings. You use "its" when it means possession, and "it's" when it means "it is" or "it has." You use "their" when it means possession; "they're" when it means "they are"; and "there" when it means "in (or at) that place." And you capitalize the proper noun, "Internet."

CONTACT INFORMATION
You offer clear contact information, including a mailing address. You've placed your business name, address, and phone and fax numbers, plus your e-mail address, at the bottom of every page.

GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION
Aware that you have just a few seconds to hook visitors into remaining on your site, you optimized all your graphics so they load quickly. You've visited enough sites to know that graphics must enhance, not overpower, both visually and in terms of loading time. You avoided animation, knowing that it detracts from the text. And you--wonderful you--didn't use the dreaded marquee feature and scrolling status bar text!

A FLASHY SITE
You may use Flash in your design, but very carefully. You've visited many Flash-based sites where loading time was excessive, and you left, never to return. Plus, all-Flash sites hold no interest for most search engines.

MISPLACED HUMOR
You have a terrific sense of humor, but you avoided trying to be cute or clever by using phrases like, "heh heh" or "hee hee" on your site. Best of all, you didn't use ONE smiley emoticon! :)

ABOUT YOU
While you didn't give your life history, you revealed who you are and why you have your online business. You want potential customers to know that you have a legitimate business and hope to build a long-term relationship of trust and respect.

PRIVACY POLICY
In line with building trust and respect, you offer a good privacy policy.

NAVIGATION AND SITE ORGANIZATION
Visitors can move seamlessly from one page to another on your site, because you sat down and effectively organized your site's hierarchy . . . um, make that "outline" or "directory." You also put text links of your most important pages at the bottom of each page. And since some pages are necessarily long, you inserted "top" anchors and "top of page" hyperlinks for ease of navigation.

BARRIERS: CALLING OUT THE RESOLUTION, BROWSERS, & PLUG-INS
Way to go! You avoided telling visitors what browser, resolution, and plug-ins they must (or should) use. Instead, you designed for the widest possible audience, using at least three major browsers for testing; checked your pages using a good site validation program; and fixed what didn't work. During this phase, you asked several people to test your site, including some who use AOL, WebTV and a Mac. And you get a gold star for not using an "under construction" graphic on unfinished pages.

CONCLUSION
Lots of people upload unfinished business sites, and then scamper around the Web applying for every possible award. Do you wonder why? Some hope they'll get free ideas for site improvement. Others hope to impress their visitors with their lists of awards. But you decided to put the horse before the cart. You worked hard, had a good checklist, tested carefully, and are ready to open for business.

Sure, you'll make changes. Every website is constantly under construction. You plan to study those professionals offering solid advice for online businesses, or hire someone who can do that for you. Or both. You stand out, because you offered the best you had at the beginning, rather than opening with a weak, skeleton-like framework that you'll fill in when you find the time. Congratulations!

Now get out there and network. Locally and on the Internet. Let others get to know you and your business.

1. DATEDEX: Lists the event calendars of many of the world's countries, organizations, religions, sports, etc.
http://www.datedex.com/results.asp

2. AD DISSECTION 101: Do you create ads for your employer or business? Learn from high school students. They take on the roles of scientist and media consultant to learn about advertising and how a print ad can affect and persuade readers. Students then apply their knowledge to design an ad to help consumers (and their classmates) recognize manipulation.
http://website.education.wisc.edu/rla/ADSITE/index.htm

3. OfficEtiquette BY RUTHANN CLEMENS of The Rouse Company Have you ever received voicemail messages that you couldn't return because you couldn't understand the phone number? If good communication is important to you, I recommend the following procedure:

Place a card near the phone. Have the following outline on it:

SPEAK SLOWLY!!
MY NAME (if your name is unusual, s l o w l y spell it out)
MY PHONE NUMBER (pause briefly between each series of numbers)
MY REASON FOR CALLING
REPEAT PHONE NUMBER BEFORE CLOSING

Q. Please help me punctuate this sentence properly: "It was once an orchard between Jason's and Jessica's homes.

Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, University of Chicago Press, says (7.24) that closely linked nouns are considered a single unit in forming the possessive when the entity "possessed" is the same for both. In such cases, only the second element takes the possessive form. When the entities are different, both nouns take the possessive form.

Examples:
    My aunt and uncle's house (same entity)
    My aunt's and uncle's specific talents (different entities)

OUTLOOK
Specifying an Order for Page Printing
Make A Fresh Start
By default, Outlook starts with the Inbox folder displayed. You may want to see a different folder when you open Outlook, such as Outlook Today or the Calendar folder.

To change this setting in Outlook 2000, 2002 or 2003, follow these steps:
    1. Go to Tools/Options.
    2. Select the "Other" tab and click "Advanced Options"
    3. Under "General Settings" you will see a drop-down menu next to the
        "Startup in this folder" field. Make your selection, click OK twice,
        and restart Outlook.

Suppose you want to start Outlook in different folders, at different times; or say you occasionally want to start Outlook in a folder other than the default you have chosen? For these situations, use a command- line switch. For example, to start Outlook with the Calendar folder open:
    1. Select Start/Run
    2. Enter "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\Outlook.exe"
        /Select outlook:calendar (ensure a space after "select")
    3. Click OK

The path to the Outlook application may not be the same as the above line. However the /Select switch works with all versions of Outlook from 97 through 2003.

ACCESS
Linking Excel
You are probably aware that you can link to tables in other databases. But, did you know that you can link to an Excel spreadsheet? The data must be organized in database format with columns as fields. When you have established the link to an Excel spreadsheet, any changes you make to the data in Access will also be made to the actual Excel spreadsheet, so be careful.

You will recognize a linked table or spreadsheet by the black arrow and the icon that indicates the type of application for the original data (in the Database window).

To link to an Excel spreadsheet, select File/Get External Data/Link Tables. In the Link dialog box, browse to the appropriate folder and be sure to update the "Files of type" control to Microsoft Excel (*.xls). Select the spreadsheet file you want to link, and click the Link button. This will launch the Link Spreadsheet Wizard; simply respond to the wizard's questions.

Terence Kierans
Cyberspace Virtual Services
tkierans@virtualservices.com.au
http://www.virtualservices.com.au/
We keep your project on the boil, while you sleep

1. FIX YOUR SITE WITH THE RIGHT DOCTYPE! By Jeffrey Zeldman If you've done all the right stuff, but your site doesn't look or work as it should in the latest browsers, a faulty DOCTYPE is likely to blame. Thanks, Serenata.
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype/

2. SANS: Internet Storm Center Cooperative Cyber Threat Monitor and Alert System. Gathers more than 3,000,000 intrusion detection log entries daily. It's rapidly expanding in a quest to do a better job of finding new storms faster, isolating the sites that are used for attacks, and providing authoritative data on the types of attacks that are being mounted against computers in various industries and regions around the globe.
http://www.incidents.org/

3. TECHNORATI: Want to know what's being said, right now, about every Weblog or Web page that has something worth talking about? Type in a URL, keyword or phrase above and search the World Live Web.
http://www.technorati.com

1. BOOKLOCKER.COM is now publishing color-interior POD books, including children's books. Booklocker.com, Inc. is co-owned by Angela Hoy, an advocate for freelance writers' rights and the owner of WritersWeekly.com.
http://www.booklocker.com/p/mar/color.html

2. A LESSON FROM "THE APPRENTICE" THAT CAN MAKE YOU A MASTER: article on copywriting by Karon Thackston.
http://www.marketingwords.com/articles/articles_apprentice.html

3. THE DANGERS OF PUBLISHING YOUR WEBSITE IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE: by Gerry McGovern.
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2003/nt_2003_11_10_language.htm

Main Entry: in si·tu
Pronunciation: (")in-'sI-(")tü, -'si-, -(")tyü also -'sE-, -(")chü
Function: adverb or adjective
Etymology: Latin, in position
: in the natural or original position or place

*By permission. From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary at www.m-w.com by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.

1. AUTOSHOP101: Automotive training support for automotive technicians, students, and teachers. Electrical practice tests, technical articles, online tutorials, etc.
http://www.autoshop101.com

2. AGROPOLIS-MUSEUM: A Science Center dealing with topics such as food, nutrition, agriculture, with a historical approach on a worldwide scale. It has three online exhibitions. Visitors will find a global perspective of agriculture and the foods consumed by people in different nations.
http://museum.agropolis.fr/english/default.htm

3. PLAYING WITH TIME: Takes visitors on a journey to the unseen world of natural change and shows events that happen too fast or too slow for humans to perceive. See amazing movies, check out a "time activity," or come up with an interesting idea that shows change over time and they will lend you a digital camera to make your own movie.
http://www.playingwithtime.org/index.html

Recently a friend and client asked if he could be considered an "adopted son." What a nifty request. Especially considering the fact that I wasn't an ideal mother when my children were growing up. My most trusted guide was Dr. Spock. No: the one who wrote The Book. And while I watched Father Knows Best and Ozzie and Harriet, I related more to Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Burnett.

It may not be any easier to be a parent in the 21st century, but it IS the information age. Parents aren't nearly as isolated in terms of "how to." Our society probably offers every kind of support group one could need for good parenting. There's probably even one for parents of children who won't eat liver and onions. I can relate to that!

One of the best things about life is that we can change if we see the need. I may have a similar personality to the young mother of yesteryear, but I am a different person. Self-improvement is on my daily "to do" list. Okay, okay: sometimes it's on my hourly "to do" list. At the base of this is my desire to improve my communication skills in every area of my life.

Welcome constructive change in every aspect of your life, personal and business. Be aware of the inside of the box, but also try to think outside the box. THEN make your decisions. THEN do the final draft of your document. THEN send that important email. Always, always, consider the person at the receiving end of your communication.

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Questions, comments, recommendations?
Contact Judy Vorfeld at judyvorfeld@ossweb.com

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