A graphic that’s worth a thousand words

The other day, @KathySierra tweeted about this website. All I can say is ‘Wow!” What a terrific use of a graphic to explain the differences in size between small, common objects (e.g. grain of rice) and things such as human eggs, viruses, etc. Use the slider on this web page from the Genetic Science Learning Center at the Univeristy of Utah (http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/) to get the full effect.

Euphemism for the sack

Yesterday I was editing an annual report for a small company, and came across these sentences in the “People” section:

Some business restructuring also occurred across [the organization] to manage costs in response to the economic recession leading to an increased proportion of non-voluntary turnover on previous years. Management is closely monitoring turnover in line with our objective to maximise commitment and retention of our people.

Um, hello? Isn’t ‘non-voluntary turnover’ a euphemism for the sack?? And if management forced some people to lose their jobs (i.e. sacked them), surely they have a hide to state that their objective is to ‘maximise commitment and retention of our people.’

There’s nothing like a few ‘non-voluntary turnovers’ to make those that remain more committed and more likely to be retained. NOT.

And that paragraph was then followed by this one, which is a nice gobbledegook, ‘weasel word’ one, if ever I saw one:

As [our] systems for capturing employment data improves so too will our ability to monitor and report on voluntary versus non-voluntary turnover and consequentially [sic] to improve management response strategies.

Huh?

Still supporting multiple versions of IE?

If you still have to support multiple versions of Internet Explorer, then you’ll want to take a look at this Smashing Magazine article about how IE 6, 7 and 8 treat various elements of CSS: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/14/css-differences-in-internet-explorer-6-7-and-8/

And for those who scoff at the idea of anyone still using IE6, I’m currently working for a large global corporate where they’ve only *just* changed from IE6 to IE7. And some people there are still on IE6.

[Links last checked November 2009]

Captivate: Change the autotext for captions

One small thing that’s annoyed me about Captivate ever since I started using it to create software demos is the default text. It starts off being a proper sentence, but doesn’t have closing punctuation (e.g. Select the [blah] menu). I’ve never bothered to investigate if I could change it — as I said, it’s a small annoyance.

However, I’ve found out how to change it, based on a tweet from R Jacquez at Adobe. And it’s really simple.

1. Go to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Captivate[version#] (or wherever your Captivate program files were installed).
2. Find the RDL file for your language (e.g. CaptureTextTemplates_English.rdl).
3. Make a copy of this file — just in case! Perhaps call it CaptureTextTemplates_English_original.rdl.
4. Open the RDL file (not the backup copy) in a text editor.
5. You can change the text inside the quote marks after Template= in any of the Event entries. However, do NOT touch the variables (e.g. %s).
6. Save your changes and close the file. The autotext for your captions will now use the text you modified.

Captivate RDL file -- before making changes

Captivate RDL file -- after adding periods

[Thanks to R Jacquez from Adobe for tweeting about this solution.]

Word: Quickly moving between headers and footers

Scenario

You have a long document, or a large one filled with lots of big images, a mix of landscape and portrait pages, lots of section breaks, etc. You need to do stuff in the headers and footers (add/remove text, shift tabs, insert page numbers, adjust page margins etc.), but skipping from one header/footer to the next takes longer than you’d expected.

Solution

Hide the main document while you’re working in the headers/footers. You should find that you can skip between them really quickly once you do that. Turn on the document display after you’ve finished making your header/footer changes.

Here’s how:

Word 2003

1. Double-click in the header or footer to open it and display the Header Footer toolbar.
   

   Word 2003 Header Footer toolbar

2. Click the Show/Hide Document Text icon to hide the main body of the document from view.
   

   Show/Hide Document Text icon

3. Use the ’skip’ and ’switch’ icons to move backwards and forwards through the headers and footers, and to quickly switch from a section’s header to its footer and back again.
   

   Skip and switch icons

4. When you’ve finished making your changes to the headers/footers, click the Show/Hide Document Text icon again, then return to your main document.

Word 2007

1. Double-click in the header or footer to open it and display the Header Footer Tools > Design tab.
   

   Word 2007: Header Footer Tools > Design tab

2. In the Options group, clear the Show Document Text check box icon to hide the main body of the document from view.
3. Use the Navigation group icons to move backwards and forwards through the headers and footers, and to quickly switch from a section’s header to its footer and back again.
4. When you’ve finished making your changes to the headers/footers, select the Show Document Text check box, then click the Close Header and Footer icon to return to your main document.

Has this tip helped you? saved you time? saved your skin? You can thank me by clicking on the cup and buying me a coffee. (An E-Junkie shopping cart page will open where you can pay for my coffee via PayPal.)

Short list of website testing tools

There are plenty of tools out there that can help you test your website. But perhaps you’re overwhelmed for choice. If so, then start with this short list of tools: http://www.testing-web-sites.co.uk/testing-tools/

This site lists testing tools in these categories:

• Validators and Accessibility Testing
• Browser Compatibility
• Link Checking
• Site Performance Testing
• Stress or Load Testing
• Usability Testing
• Split Testing
• SEO Tools

[Links last checked September 2009; thanks to @sue_sd for tweeting this resource]

Quotable quote

Recently tweeted by @ellispratt and others:

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

Priorities

@africankelli tweeted this the other week — I couldn’t agree more!

Our libraries, not our Wal-marts, should be open 24-7.

Canadore College Education Center Library

Three terrific writing How To’s

No, not how to write the great [insert country of choice] novel or how to correct grammar errors.

These three recent How To’s all involve writing but they focus on quite different aspects.

How to write a cover letter that gets read (by Jason Cohen at WorkAwesome). Jason’s advice:

1. Cite external recommendations
2. Don’t use a template
3. Research the company you’re applying to
4. Be personal, not formal
5. Give reasons why you should be hired
6. Show something you, yourself, actually did

How to create a great tutorial on anything at all (by Harry at Men with Pens):

• If You Teach It, They Will Learn
• Layman’s Tongue
• Accessible Organization
• Impressive Presentation
• Crucial Content
• A Good Teacher?

How to write with a knife (by Michelle Russell at copyblogger). Michelle’s advice:

1. Find the spine of your content and stick to it
2. Cut the first paragraph
3. Don’t over-spice your words
4. Watch out for “creep-in” words
5. Cut exaggerations
6. Find a more precise word
7. Reuse the leftovers

[Links last checked September 2009]

Word: Superscripts and subscripts

Here are two quick keyboard shortcuts for formatting selected text as superscripts or subscripts:

• Superscript: Ctrl+Shift+= (e.g. ft³)
• Subscript: Ctrl+= (e.g. H₂O)

See also:

• Replacing text containing superscript and subscript characters

[Link last checked September 2009]

Has this tip helped you? saved you time? saved your skin? You can thank me by clicking on the cup and buying me a coffee. (An E-Junkie shopping cart page will open where you can pay for my coffee via PayPal.)