Jarid's Log

Adding & displaying documents, powerpoints and pdf to your website.

2009-12-21T06:36:00.002-06:00

Whether you are a small organization carrying a minimum amount of server space, a blogger or a cost-conscious entrepreneur, document management is often a challenge. Documents create a specific challenge for several reasons:

Server capacity - Documents, especially pdf files can take up a large amount of storage capacity. If you are a smaller organization, you may not have adequate server space to support the long-range
storage of your documents. As a result you may find yourself forced to constantly monitor and delete what documents you have stored. Additionally, if you are using a free hosting solution as a blogger or individual entrepreneur you may not have document hosting capabilities at all.
Upload capacity - Many organizations, including mid-sized companies often have maximum-sized downloads in order to control costs. 2mb is the typical maximum which creates a particular challenge when wanting to add large pdf files to your site.
Security - Although free hosting is available on many sites such as google, security concerns may prohibit use of such sites within an organization.

In the past I have used numerous free hosts, such as Google Sites or Google Pages (now Google Sites), to assist in storing and hosting large documents. However, as a consumer, I have always had one problem with internet downloads: I like to know exactly what I am downloading. There is nothing more frustrating than having to download 3 or 4 different documents from a single site to locate a single page I was looking initially looking for. However, one document handling site provides a free solution that I absolutely love.

SlideShare allows you to upload and share Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and PDF files online for free. The business media site offers an incredible solution for the small organization or individual entrepreneur. SlideShare offers a large storage capacity, integration with social networking, a built in community for promotion, and customization of presentations. Unlike other platforms, the site offers outstanding privacy controls for free and enhanced services.

More importantly, is the embed option. Unlike free hosting solutions, Slideshare converts your document into a viewable, downloadable and printable slideshow. As a result, you have the option of embedding the document on your website and allowing visitors to view the document prior to downloading or printing. As a business, Slideshare offers services that are currently unmatched. As a consumer, Slideshare offers the ability to view and locate the proper document without having to guess what you are downloading.

So Magazine Article Dec 2009

View more documents from The Hope Institute .

Easy Add - Facebook Share and ReTweet Button To Blogger

2009-11-20T10:58:00.006-06:00

To add Facebook Share and ReTweet buttons to your blogger blog. Follow the steps below.

1. Open up your blog dashboard and click on layout
2. Click on Edit Template and check the expand widgets box
3. Find the <div class=’post-header-line-1′/>
4. Insert the following code below the line of code.

For Small Icons

<span id='tweetmeme-blogger-gadget' style='float: right; margin: 5px; vertical-align: middle; background: transparent;'><script type='text/javascript'>tweetmeme_url = '<data:post.url/>';tweetmeme_style = 'compact';tweetmeme_source = 'advancinghope';tweetmeme_service = 'bit.ly';</script><script src='http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js' type='text/javascript'/></span><span style='float: right; margin: 5px; vertical-align: middle; background: transparent;'><a href='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php' name='fb_share' type='button'>Share</a><script src='http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share' type='text/javascript'/></span>

For Buttons with Icons

<span id="tweetmeme-blogger-gadget" style="float: right; margin: 5px; vertical-align: middle; background: transparent;"><script type="text/javascript">tweetmeme_url = '<data:post.url/>';tweetmeme_service = 'bit.ly';</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js"></script></span><span style='float: right; margin: 5px; vertical-align: middle; background: transparent;'><a name="fb_share" type="box_count" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php">Share</a><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script></span>

Final Step - Important
Change the tweetme source= from advancinghope to your Twitter ID

For more information on how to install Facebook and Twitter buttons visit:
Facebook Share or Tweetmeme for Blogger

About & removing the NavBar from Blogger

2009-11-18T06:16:00.007-06:00

The NavBar at the top of Blogger is a useful tool for your site. The Navbar can help increase your traffic through the random blog link, allow searches of the content of your site, and allow quick and easy editing directly off the front page of your site. But with the advantages the NavBar also has a major disadvantage: The Flag Button.

The Flag Button is simply a way that readers can easily contact Blogger if your site is either a Spam Blog or contains Objectionable Content. Unfortunately many individuals without familiarity with blogger may accidentally flag your blog without understanding the consequences.

So what are the consequences? Simple: If too many flags are thrown up then your blog will be suspended pending a review. As a result, in past years many political blogs were shut down when individuals with opposing views ran blogger searches and flagged any blogs they disagreed with.

Does Blogger Allow You To Remove The NavBar? Yes, although they discourage it, Google has unofficially stated that it is not in violation of your TOS to remove it. However, Blogger has the right to amend their TOS at any time, they make the rules therefore they can change them.

How Do I Remove It?

Their are dozens of different codes that can be used and inserted into your html that will work. The simplest I have found is to:

Click On The Layout Button
Click On The Edit HTML Button
Insert The Following Code:

Where?

<!--Remove NavBar --><style type='text/css'>#b-navbar {height: 0px; visibility: hidden; display: none;}</style><style 
type='text/css'>#navbar-iframe {height: 0px; visibility: hidden; display: none;}</style>

Go 6 to 8 lines down in your html and insert between the "head" line and "b:include data='blog' ..." line.

WARNING: I strongly urge everyone to back-up their html before making any changes to the code. Once you have inserted the code, DO NOT SAVE, instead preview the blog to make sure that the Navbar is gone. The above code may not work on all templates.