Sent: 18/11/2009 easisites newsletter#18 November 2009 Hello all, Two things... ===== I promise not to twitter on - as I did in the last newsletter. But I will share this with you (prompted by a conversation this afternoon with John Tobutt of www.meophamfruit.co.uk)... Be aware that if you are uploading a Microsoft Word document to your website as an "Extra", there is a distinct possibility that (some) other people will not be able to open it. Not everybody has Microsoft Office (of which Word is a part) on their computers. Even if they do, they may not have the latest version (I don't) - and so won't be able to open documents created by later versions. So, if you have a document created in Word that you want to upload to your website, you can: 1) upload it anyway and hope that people who want to look at it have a sufficiently contemporary version of Word; 2) save it as a Rich Text Format document (rtf) (Save as... Save as type: Rich Text Format) - and then upload it; or (my favourite)... 3) convert it to PDF - and upload that. Converting a Word Document to PDF This is straightforward if you have OpenOffice (NOT Microsoft Office). If you don't have OpenOffice (there's no reason why you should; it's free, but it's big), it's still relatively straightforward. Just go to www.doc2pdf.net, scroll down the page to Convert this document and click Browse... Find the document you want to convert on your computer, double click (or click Open) and click Convert document. It takes a couple of seconds. When it's ready, click to open document, then go to File.. Save a Copy... (You'll then get a message about Adobe reader. Just click OK.) And save it. Then upload it to your website. Simple. The beauty of PDFs is that they are read only, which means that people cannot edit them when downloaded, the content remains your content. ===== Alt and title tags You may have noticed that I've added a section on alt and title tags to the easisites Help, and put a note on the Extras picture page. In case you haven't noticed (there's no reason why you should), here's what it says in Help: = Alt and title tags provide alternative text for non-text elements. Search engines cannot read pictures, only words. So we use alt and/or title tags to provide the words. Unfortunately, with easisites, alt and title tags can only be used for "Extra" pictures placed in Freestyle text areas. The code for implanting an Extra picture into a Freestyle text area is of the form . The code for an Extra picture with an alt tag is of the form . If you wish to add a title tag the form is . ===== It's approaching that time of year again so, if I don't talk to you before, please let us wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous new year. Remember, if you have any seasonal specials on offer, let people know about it. ===== Your feedback, as always, would be welcome. Any comments or questions, please get back to me. Best Wishes. Regards, -- Glyn Debnam Director Ekos Consulting Limited www.easisites.co.uk Telephone 01622 716591 Ekos Consulting Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with Company No. 3793888 VAT No. 724 7815 20 ===== The object of this newsletter is to keep you informed about what's going on. However, if you do not want to receive any further copies please, let me know.