EmployMentality

This is a great resource of online videos that run through the various aspects of setting up and managing a WordPress blog. Go to http://wordpress.tv/ …now.

File Menu

The File menu in Word 2003 is used to create new and open existing Word documents. You can also save your Word document as a Web Page (in bloated HTML code containing numerous lines of formatting information – refer to “Cleaning Word 2003 HTML Code with DreamWeaver” – article coming soon).

To create a new Word document, select File > New. You are presented with the options of creating either a new Blank document, an XML document, a Web Page, or creating a new document from an existing one.

Selecting a new, blank document presents you with a blank page and a blinking cursor. From this blank canvas you can enter and format your text as desired.

If you prefer to use an existing document as a template, you are better off selecting From existing document… from the New menu options that are presented once selecting File > New. When you select From existing document… the New from Existing Document window displays. You will need to browse to the location of the existing document to use, select it and then click Create New. A copy of the existing document displays, which can then be revised and saved.

Another option available to you when selected File > New is to create a new XML document. You are once again presented with a blank page and a blanking cursor, but this time your blank canvas on which you will work is an XML document.

You can apply XML elements to a Word XML document. In order to do this you will need to first select a Schema by going to Templates and Add-Ins. Click the Templates and Add-Ins… link in the XML Structure window that displays when you select to create a new XML document. The Templates and Add-ins window displays, defaulted to the XML Schema tab. You can also access this window by clicking Tools > Templates and Add-Ins and selecting the XML Schema tab.

Refer to “Advanced XML in Word 2003″ (article coming soon) for details on the Word XML Organizer, Schemas, Transformations, etc.

To create a web page (an HTML page) in Word 2003, select File > New > Web Page. Refer to “Creating Web Pages in Word 2003″ (article coming soon) for details on creating HTML in Microsoft Word.

Templates are also provided in Word 2003 as a quick way to create many commonly used documents. You have various options for selecting a template once you have selected File > New. You can select a template by either searching online, selecting from templates on Office Online, selecting from templates on your computer, and selecting from templates on your web sites.

Here is a great reference from Idratherbewriting.com regarding how to open a minimized help window in a Flare project. It requires tweaking the default.js file. I’m sure I’ll need this information sometime soon, so I thought I’d send out props and get this linked – http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2009/01/08/flare-context-sensitive-help-%e2%80%93-focusing-the-minimized-help-window-back-on-top/

Microsoft Word is the most commonly used Word Processor in business. Word comes bundled as part of Microsoft Office. This particular series of tutorials will cover the Word 2003 version.

We will first become familiar with the Menu Bar in Microsoft Word. When you first launch the program you will notice several different menu options running across the top of the program window.

• File
• Edit
• View
• Insert
• Format
• Tools
• Table
• Window
• Help

If you have Adobe Acrobat installed, you may see additional menu options, such as Adobe PDF and Acrobat Comments.

File Menu

Once you have set up your email account(s) on your new Blackberry, you will quickly realize you are not only communicating with family and friends, you are also serving as a Blackberry disciple, sending free advertisements for RIM in each of your email footers. Trailing each email message you send from your Blackberry will be the words “Sent from my Blackberry”.

If you want to publicize the fact that you are not at your desk, then keep the default signature file intact. On the other hand, if you want to give the illusion of being deskbound while you’re actually on the golf course, you will want to change your signature to match your regular one.

To change your Blackberry signature, visit one of these locations, based on which carrier you use:

https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=sprint – Sprint

http://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=mycingular – Cingular / AT&T

https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=vzw – Verizon

http://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=rogers – Rogers

https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=earthlink – EarthLink

If you do not see your carrier listed above, go to http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&suggon=0&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&q=site:bis.na.blackberry.com&start=0&sa=N for a Google search for all the different Carrier pages that the Blackberry site has to offer. There are well over 100 carriers available.

Once you have accessed the Blackberry page for your carrier (per the links above) you will need to log in. Enter your User Name and Password and click Log In.

Once you have logged in, the Email Accounts screen displays. Each email address that you previously set up on your Blackberry is displayed in alphabetical order.

NOTE: In addition to altering the Signature for your email accounts, you can add additional email accounts from this screen. To add additional email accounts to be used by your Blackberry, click the Set Up Account button and follow the on-screen directions.

To change the signature for an email account, click the Edit icon to the right of the desired email address. The General Settings screen for the selected email account displays.

Highlight the default “Sent from my Blackberry” text in the Signature field and delete it. You can now enter your new signature. It is recommended that you copy your existing signature from your desktop email account so that your Blackberry signature is identical.

TIP: To quickly pull up your existing email signature from your desktop email program, simply click New to start a new email message. You can then highlight the signature in the new/blank email message and press Ctrl+C on your keyboard to copy the signature to your clipboard. You can then paste it into the Signature field of the General Settings screen by pressing Ctrl+V on your keyboard.

Once you have revised the Signature field, click Save. A message displays “Email account successfully updated.” Click OK to dismiss the message.

You may now test your revised signature settings by sending a test email to yourself from your Blackberry. You should now see your updated signature in your test email that is sent, rather than the free advertisement for RIM. Now you can email with confidence, whether you’re on the golf course, in the bathroom, or even if you do happen to be sitting at your desk.

Flare is an online help creation tool by MadCap Software. Flare web projects generate output in XML and HTML, which can be edited in any regular text or HTML editor. We will detail how to add, edit, and remove content from a web-based run book using a text editor.

To begin, it is a good idea to have a grasp on the output structure architecture that is generated by Flare. A typical Flare help output will contain an HTML file as its starting point titled ApplicationHelp.htm. A good example of a Flare help system is the System100 online help which is available at http://www.system100.com/demo/help/ApplicationHelp.htm (which I also happened to author).

The ApplicationHelp.htm file, when opened in a web browser, will open the help system and pull in the needed stylesheet, web pages, XML, etc. The ApplicationHelp.htm file is located in the parent directory for the help system. In addition to the parent directory, three main subdirectories are found inside the parent directory. These three subdirectories are:

• Content
• Data
• Skin

We will cover these subdirectories later and help you understand their usefulness. For now, we should mention additional support files that are also contained within the parent directory, which include:

• Default.js
• Default.mcwebhelp
• Default.xml
• Default_CSH.htm
• Default_Left.htm

Deafult.js
This JavaScript file contains instructions related to the starting point/default topic of the help system. It also contains notes (which have been commented out in the code of this file) pertaining to the ID, Skin Name, Search Query and First Pick of the run book.

NOTE: If you rename the default/starting point of the help system, you must revise a line item in the Default.js file to match the new name. The specific line in question in the Default.js file is line number 54, which displays as:

var gHelpSystemName = “Default.htm”;

So if you were to rename the default starting point of a help system from Default.htm to index.htm, you would need to edit line number 54 of Default.js to read as follows:

var gHelpSystemName = “index.htm”;

Save your changes to the Default.js file.

Default.mcwebhelp
This is a MadCap WebHelp file which should not be edited.

Default.xml
This XML file contains instructions for setting the starting/default topic whenever the run book is first launched. It also specifies the location and file name for the Table of Contents, Index, Concepts, Glossary, Search Database, Alias, Synonyms, and Skin.

Default_CSH.htm
HTML file containing settings that should not be edited.

Default_Left.htm
This HTML file contains the code for the TOC which appears on the left side of the online help system and is used to navigate from topic to topic by clicking on individual TOC listings.

Now that we have introduced the various files in the parent directory, let’s turn our attention to the three subdirectories that were mentioned earlier:

Content Folder
The Content folder contains the HTML files of each of the individual topics of the help system. In addition to these HTML files, the Content directory contains Resources (Images and Stylesheets), SkinSupport (editable JavaScript files which support the help systems skin, and a Glossary file.

Data Folder
The Data folder contains files related to the Data in the help system. This data is used to build and display the help in a usable fashion. One such file located in the Data folder which is of importance is the Toc.xml file. You can make changes to the TOC (Table of Contents) of a help system by altering the Toc.xml file. We will cover revisions to the TOC in later topics.

Skin Folder
The Skin folder contains the files which are used for the Skin of the help system. A Skin defines the colors, fonts, and graphics involved in the presentation of the help system. In addition to the Skin directory, there are Skin related files contained within the Data and Content folders.

Up until a couple of years ago, if you wanted to create an online help system, you were likely to use RoboHelp. That has all changed now thanks to MadCap Flare. One of the nice things about Flare is that the output it creates is XML based. This means that once you have a Flare project or help system built, you can make revisions in a simple text editor.

The implications of this are profound. All you need is a basic online help system that was created in Flare to use as a starting point or template. From there you can do many things to create an entirely new help system, all without owning a license of Flare. There are certain features and hacks that are so time intensive that it would be worth it to just purchase the Flare license at some point (such as indexing a help system for search). But for basic functions, such as adding new topics, adjusting/reording the TOC, and turning various features on and off in the Flare help system, you can do all of this if you know what you are looking for.

This series of topics will go into various MadCap Flare Hacks, which will enable you to build a help system of your own without owning Flare. These articles will be useful for those that have a legacy help system but do not have access to Flare, and simply want to make basic updates and revisions to a help system.

1. Log in to your blog by entering your Username, Password, and clicking Log In.
   
   NOTE: Your Log In page should be in the /wp-admin subdirectory off of your blog. For example: http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin. Once you have located your blog’s log in page, save it to your Favorites in your browser. You may also wish to check the Remember Me checkbox on your log in page so your Username and Password is automatically filled in for you in the future.
2. After you have logged in to your blog, click the Write tab or the Write a New Post button.
3. The Write Post screen displays. Enter a Title for your new blog post.
4. Enter and format the entry into the Post field. You can use the formatting icons to perform basic formatting functions, much like in a word processor.CREATING LINKS IN A POST  

5. To create links in your post:
   1. Highlight the text that you wish to turn into a link in the Post field. With the text highlighted, click the Link icon. The Insert/edit link window displays.
   2. Enter the address for the link in the Link URL field.
   3. Click the Target dropdown and select either Open Link in the Same Window or Open Link in a New Window.
   4. You may add a Title to the link in the Title field.
   5. Click the Insert button. The browser returns to the Write Post page with the newly created link now in the Post field.
6. To embed a YouTube video into a post:
   1. Click the HTML tab on the right side of the Post field. The Post field changes, displaying the HTML code of your post. Don’t worry about understanding what this code means. Simply move your cursor to the very bottom of all the code. It is from this place in the code you will be embedding the YouTube video code.
   2. Open another browser and locate the desired YouTube video. Be sure that the desired video you are wanting to embed starts to play correctly on YouTube. You will want to highlight the code from the Embed field of the YouTube video.
      NOTE: You can customize the Embed code to do such things as to disable displaying related videos at the end of a video clip by clicking the Customize icon to the right of the Embed field. Clicking Customize drops down additional selections.Once your customization of the code is complete, highlight the code in the Embed field and copy it to your clipboard (as detailed in the next step).
   3. With the Embed code highlighted, copy the code to your clipboard by either pressing Ctrl+C on your computer keyboard or right-clicking your mouse and selecting Copy.
   4. Return to your new blog post window and remember to place your cursor at the bottom of all of the code before proceeding.
   5. Paste the Embed code that you previously copied to your clipboard by either clicking Ctrl+V on your computer keyboard or right-clicking your mouse and clicking Paste. The Embed code now displays at the bottom of your Post.
7. Scroll down and enter keyword tags in the Tags field. Separate each tag with commas.
8. Once all Tags have been entered, click the Add button next to the Tags field. The screen refreshes, displaying the list of tags you’ve just entered for the new post.
9. Select the appropriate Category (or Categories) by checking their respective checkboxes.
10. Click the Publish button (located to the right) to publish the post to your blog.NOTE: Instead of publishing immediately, you also have the option of clicking Save to save a draft, which you can then publish to your blog at a later time.
11. Once you have published your post, a message appears stating that your post has been saved. From there you can click View post to preview your post or Edit post to make edits to your post. (Refer to the next section on how to edit a post). If you click View post, your blog displays with your newly published post displaying at the top.

Editing a Post

Once a post has been published, it can be edited at a later time by a blog administrator. To edit a blog post:

1. Once you are logged into your blog, click the Manage tab at the top of the screen. The Manage Posts screen displays. The Manage Posts screen displays your blog posts in chronological order. Notice the new blog post we just created is listed at the top of the screen. To make an edit to this post, click its Title.
2. Clicking a Title displays the selected blog post in the Write Post screen.
3. It is easier to make edits to your Post by clicking the Visual tab so that it displays like a Word Processor instead of dealing with the HTML code.
4. You may make changes to the Title, Post, add additional Tags, delete Tags (by clicking the X to the left of the desired tags to delete), change Category selections, etc.
5. Once all changes to the blog post have been made, click Save. The updates will be published live to your blog.

Deleting a Post

To delete a blog post:

1. Click the Manage tab to view the Manage Posts screen.
2. Click the checkbox to the left of the desired post to delete.
3. Click the Delete button. The Manage Posts screen refreshes, with the selected post now deleted from the list and deleted from your blog.

I am proud to announce the launch of EmployMentality.com. This site provides free, web-based software training that will help you get or keep a job. Improving your job skills is of the upmost importance during this economic downturn.

My focus is on enhancing your computer skills, providing you with beginner, intermediate, and advanced tutorials for MS Word, MS Excel, Outlook, WordPress, Blogger, and other popular software titles. All topics are authored by Mike Wheeler, a freelance Technical Writer and founder of DocuMentality.com.

I will be updating this website with various topics as time allows. Feel free to leave a comment if you have suggestions for topics to be covered. I look forward to providing useful documentation that will help you along the way to improving your computer skills.