Last weekend I ventured back to BlogWorld & the New Media Expo and Las Vegas WordCamp.  The great thing is that all three conferences were consolidated in the Las Vegas Convention Center.  I closed out WordCamp with a Session on How to Design a WordPress Theme in Minutes.  The video from the event is not yet available, but the slides are below:

This was an expanded version of the ‘Intro’ level presentation that I provided a few weeks ago at WordCamp Birmingham. 

The big difference is that I demonstrated how to use multiple themes in a single WordPress configuration.  Multiple themes that anyone could design and later iterate modifications themselves.  I also highlighted a few of the techniques that I utilized to build our strategic partner’s site at Grass Shack Events & Media.

Here is the basic code that I utilized to create and call a default header as well as alternate headers based on an if then else selection:

<?php
//
// example of using header file based on pages
// note that you can either use page ID, Page Name or Page Slug
//
// this one uses page title

if (is_page()){
    include(TEMPLATEPATH.’/header-business.php’);
}
else {
    include(TEMPLATEPATH.’/header-default.php’);
}
?>

 

This month I will also create additional step by step video tutorials to share with people that were unable to attend this session.  Alternately, if you would like me to speak at a conference or event in your area, please contact me to discuss availability.

Note: Cross posted from Softduit Media.

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Screenshot, Screen Capture or Screencast Software Tools

Links: 1-a-Business Tools.mmap

Camtasia

Does offer a free trial

or use Jing for free

related: Jing Project

Cost $299

Links: http://www.techsmith.com

Jing Project

Links: jingproject.com

Free version or

Pro version costs $15 / year

owned by TechSmith makers of Camtasia

related: Camtasia

Snapz Pro X

Mac only software

free trial yes

Cost $69

!Quick Screen Capture

Cost about $25

Buy Now: http://www.regnow.com

!Quick Screenshot Maker

Cost about $39.95

Buy Now: http://www.regnow.com

AAA Screen Capture

Cost about $25

Links: http://www.regnow.com

Extra Screen Capture Pro

Download Trial Here

Links: Download_ExtraScreenCapture6.exe

Cost about $25

Amor Screen Capture

Amor Screen Capture is a tool for capturing any part of your screen. You can make professional screen shots and save them as bmp, png, pcx,tif,gif or jpg files.Amor Screen Capture can capture the entire screen, a window, program menus, scrolling windows, DirectX sources, DOS screens, digital camera images, and any on-screen activity.With this useful software, you can make screenshots, edit picture, print image and copy the snapshot of screen to clipboard. Amor Screen Capture is the must-have, all-in-one screen capture utility.Amor screen capture will help improve your message by visually communicating your thoughts and ideas.Amor Screen Capture’s easy-to-use capture options will quickly increase your productivity by allowing you to spend more time creating and less time explaining!<p>

Download Trial Here

Links: Download_screencapture.exe

Screenflow

Mac only software

free trial yes

Cost $99

Screen Capture to Animation GIF

Cost about $30

Buy Now

Amic Screen Capture

Download Free Trial Here

Links: Download_ScreenCaptureSetup.exe

Cost About $39.95

Buy Now

SnapIt Screen Capture

Cool Screen Capture

Power Screen Capture

PCHand Screen Capture

Fox Screen Capture

Download Free Trial Here

Links: Download_foxcap.exe

Palmersoft Screen Capture

Super Screen Capture

Easy Screen Capture 2

Screen Capture Pro

Versadial VScreen (Screen capture)

Paraben’s Screen Capture

CaptureXT Screen Capture

Download free trial here

Links: Download_capxt.exe

Every Wednesday, we are sharing a mindmap of useful business tools.  You can view the map from the image, or download the actual mindmap if you like.  If you notice any tools that I have missed in the map, please leave a comment with the name of the tool and a link to it.  Many of these tools are going to be free or offer free trials, but many also do cost.  The purpose is not to provide a laundry list of freebies, but offer up some useful tools in an organized way.

If you do offer an update or addition, I will also update and re-upload the new mindmap file.

Screenshot-Screen-Capture-Screencast-Software-Tools-mindmapScreenshot, Screen Capture or Scre
encast Software Tools.mmap

Every Wednesday, I’m going to share a mindmap of useful business tools.  You can view the map from the image, or download the actual mindmap if you like.  If you notice any tools that I have missed in the map, please leave a comment with the name of the tool and a link to it.  Many of these tools are going to be free or offer free trials, but many also do cost.  The purpose is not to provide a laundry list of freebies, but offer up some useful tools in an organized way.

If you do offer an update or addition, I will also update and re-upload the new mindmap file.

Search Engine Systems For inclusion in a website.mmap

Note: Cross posted from Softduit Media.

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I’ll make more more materials available later today, but here is my initial slide presentation for WordCamp Birmingham.  This is just the opening remarks for the actual mentored demonstration.  Hoping to add video of the meat and potatoes of this presentation after its done.

The main goal of this presentation is to help everyone give this a try, and if possible design their own theme, while I guide the audience through the process.

If you want to follow along during the presentation, I recommend downloading the free trial software from Artisteer or Cnet

1. Go to Artisteer &amp; follow the instructions to download the free trial via Cnet (Mac users navigate to the News tab, scroll down and download the Mac OSx version of Artisteer)

*If you are using a Mac with Snow Leopard 10.6, there is a early beta (download trial beta) that is workable for most users so far, that early release by Apple has the team at Artisteer working over time like so many other companies I suspect.

2.  Install the free trial software (works on PCs or Macs) &amp; generate your theme.

For more information on the Theme Design Contest . . . see -&gt;

Enter the WordPress ‘License to Design’ Theme Contest 2.0

Note: Cross posted from Softduit Media.

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Between now and the end of BlogWorld in mid October, we are going to run a WordPress Theme design contest for new designers or people that want to learn how to design a WordPress theme for the first time.…

Note: Cross posted from Softduit Media.

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Every Wednesday, I’m going to share a mindmap of useful business tools.  You can view the map from the image, or download the actual mindmap if you like.  If you notice any tools that I have missed in the map, please leave a comment with the name of the tool and a link to it.  Many of these tools are going to be free or offer free trials, but many also do cost.  The purpose is not to provide a laundry list of freebies, but offer up some useful tools in an organized way.

If you do offer an update or addition, I will also update and re-upload the new mindmap file.

Code Hosting and Version Control.mmap

A friend of mine that is learning how to use both WordPress and Artisteer, the theme design software, sent me a question about what appeared to be a broken sidebar option within WordPress. 

John of TransformativeLifeCoaches.com asks

I am wanting to install an Aweber autoresponder Sign Up Box (for a Giveaway report and a series of autoresponder emails) on our site. 

I believe the best way to do that is to put the Sign Up box in Sidebar 2 which doesn’t appear to be activated on our TLCoaches site. 

I went  to Widgets on the WP control panel to drag the &quot;text/HTML&quot; widget onto Sidebar 2 but it wouldn’t drag nor do any other widgets. 
Can you tell me the best way to get the autoresponder box on every page of our site?

In reality, WordPress and the sidebars on the site were not broken.  Here’s a quick snapshot of the site as of the date of the question.

This particular site only has 1 sidebar programmed into the theme.  With Artisteer (as of Sept 2009) at most you can design themes with 2 sidebars.  You can add more than 2 sidebars to the themes after export but that is another topic for a different day.…

Note: Cross posted from Softduit Media.

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Somewhere between receiving the email, jerking around (its slang but the best description) with Gmail contact sync which is possibly the worst contact management system in the world, and then dealing with a new Palm Pre that died after 2 days, I lost the email from Palm that had the magic link that allows you to sync up your Palm Pre to Outlook, once.

There does not appear to be anyway to get that link back again, even though I never used it.  I feel like I have been ripped off a little bit frankly.  I paid $300 + for the Palm and I can’t even get my free ride through Outlook land with it.

There is a service that you can pay for outside of Palm from Chapura, but frankly, I want my freebie(expensive as that was).  Palm’s absolute disregard for customers on this particular area is frankly amazing.  The phone is excellent, can’t say enough good things about it, but with all of the amazing brain talent that went into perfecting this 3G phone, you’d think someone would have been able to call out the turkey that made the three biggest mistakes in the Palm Pre

1. Lack of Outlook sync capability
2. Flaky 1 time sync with outlook which seems to have self destructed (almost literally) in my case
3. Forcing people to use the crappy Gmail contact sync, seriously Google should pay people to be forced to use this!
1. Note the facebook integration kicks butt

There’s that old office joke, its hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys.  In this case, it seems like the eagles on this project were all tied to a big fat turkey on the ground that was staked to some weird anti outlook dogma.

Someone asked me the other day if I thought maybe version 11 was getting ready to come out.

I do not have any inside information on this one way or another.  However, I have worked in product pricing in a past career, and I would hazard to say that it would appear that this recent price drop is either one of two things

1. Amazon is selling the product at very discounted levels with or without the permission of Nuance.

2.  Nuance is not coming out with a version 11 anytime soon. 

I think the second option is more likely.  I find it very doubtful that Nuance would sabotage the perceived value of Dragon Naturally Speaking by selling version 10 at prices one half the amount the product sold for originally.  Doing so would fill a lot of demand, demand that might not be willing to shell out more money for a version 11 upgrade.

I’m guessing that version 11 is probably at least a year away, and Nuance is simply trying to squeeze out more sales during a very tough economy for software sales.  Version 10 launched into the very start of the economic crisis last fall.  From my own experience with an extremely modest affiliate account on dragon (might get a referral per month these days) I saw sales go completely flat in October last year, only 2 months into the launch of Dragon Naturally Speaking version 10.  That didn’t pick up at all until after the beginning of the year and since then, things have been anemic at best.

Now, it would also appear that Nuance is letting their affiliate channel move forward on auto-pilot.  Pricing for Dragon Naturally Speaking through the affiliate program still sells at full retail price through the Nuance site, even with Amazon running these amazing deals.  Maybe Nuance doesn’t want to sell produt through their own site?

That may sound crazy, but if for some reason they actually packaged up a large number of units and Amazon has them sitting in a warehouse (no idea why they would have a JIT solution in place) but in that case, it might make sense for deep discounts at Amazon even at the expense of direct sales.

UPDATE – Amazon prices have gone up slightly since this all time low on July 20, still an amazing discount!

Right now you can buy Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 for $29.99!  For your average user, that’s all you need!  If you want to have the extra ability to utilize an MP3 voice recorder (I use a Sony) you can get the Preferred version for as low as $117.99 and the ‘wireless’ version for $155 (that’s bluetooth wireless, I personally use an after market 2.6ghz wireless logitech headset that will work with any version).

You could buy the basic version for $30 and an $90 logitech clearchat wireless headset for a total price of $120 or just jump to Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 bluetooth wireless at $155.

No matter what these are great prices.  Typically the lowest prices you will se are about $80 for Basic, $150 for preferred and $250 for bluetooth wireless.  The best part about this is that at $30 for Basic, this is a great price for a first time user to get in and see just how great this software is these days.