Will Sansbury

Welcome to Atlantica-WP!

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:10:14 +0000

This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla neque ipsum, rhoncus eu euismod sed, ullamcorper a urna. Aenean ut nibh odio, vitae mollis odio. Maecenas faucibus auctor interdum. Nam commodo vehicula sapien sit amet aliquam. Nam eu diam ac dolor volutpat consequat vitae at neque. Ut at tortor nisi. Aliquam sit amet sapien nibh. Vivamus quis tellus id eros volutpat condimentum sed ac ante. In vel tortor ac nibh sagittis pellentesque eu a est. Phasellus at libero massa, non mollis mauris.

This is a Subheadline

Aenean tincidunt pharetra leo. Curabitur euismod sollicitudin elit. Donec faucibus lacus nec sapien. Aliquam ipsum nisi, scelerisque et, commodo nec, consectetur vel, tellus. Cras ipsum diam, hendrerit id, accumsan sit amet, fermentum vel, dui.

Sed congue, dui vel tristique mollis, libero elit convallis eros, vitae interdum libero dolor eget leo.
Morbi eget sem. Nam mollis. Donec sed velit ut tellus fermentum interdum.
Etiam a odio in neque egestas consequat. Pellentesque posuere, orci id interdum.
Suspendisse id magna in libero porta faucibus. Vivamus sollicitudin.

Here’s Another One

Mauris vulputate metus eu nisl. Praesent placerat. Mauris vitae erat id ante viverra sodales. Proin tincidunt porta velit. Sed a ligula id felis rutrum placerat. Curabitur et lorem non urna tristique pharetra. Nullam luctus tristique dui.

Etiam egestas scelerisque purus. Ipsum diam, hendrerit id, accumsan sit amet, fermentum vel, dui. Morbi blandit commodo tellus. Aenean tincidunt pharetra leo. Curabitur euismod sollicitudin elit. Donec faucibus lacus nec sapien. Aliquam ipsum nisi, scelerisque et, commodo nec, consectetur vel, tellus. Cras ipsum diam, hendrerit id, accumsan sit amet, fermentum vel, dui.

Whoa! Ultra Readable Text

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vivamus nibh mi, commodo eu, pellentesque ut, blandit rutrum, ligula. Praesent ultricies urna a urna. Quisque massa. Cras ipsum diam, hendrerit id, accumsan sit amet, fermentum vel, dui. Morbi blandit commodo tellus. Aenean tincidunt pharetra leo. Curabitur euismod sollicitudin elit. Donec faucibus lacus nec sapien. Aliquam ipsum nisi, scelerisque et, commodo nec, consectetur vel, tellus. Cras ipsum diam, hendrerit id, accumsan sit amet, fermentum vel, dui. Morbi blandit commodo tellus.

Vivamus nibh mi, commodo eu, pellentesque ut, blandit rutrum, ligula. Praesent ultricies urna a urna. Quisque massa. Cras ipsum diam, hendrerit id, accumsan sit amet, fermentum vel, dui. Morbi blandit commodo tellus. Aenean tincidunt pharetra leo. Curabitur euismod sollicitudin elit. Donec faucibus lacus nec sapien. Aliquam ipsum nisi, scelerisque et, commodo nec, consectetur vel, tellus. Cras ipsum diam, hendrerit id, accumsan sit amet, fermentum vel, dui. Morbi blandit commodo tellus.

Praesent ultricies urna a urna. Quisque massa. Cras ipsum diam, hendrerit id, accumsan sit amet, fermentum vel, dui. Morbi blandit commodo tellus. Aenean tincidunt pharetra leo. Curabitur euismod sollicitudin elit. These are some more words to lengthen the line.

Another Sample Post

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:10:00 +0000

Sed congue, dui vel tristique mollis, libero elit convallis eros, vitae interdum libero dolor eget leo.
Morbi eget sem. Nam mollis. Donec sed velit ut tellus fermentum interdum.
Etiam a odio in neque egestas consequat. Pellentesque posuere, orci id interdum.
Suspendisse id magna in libero porta faucibus. Vivamus sollicitudin.

Here’s Another One

Whoa! Ultra Readable Text

Atlantica Test Post

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:25:36 +0000

Sed congue, dui vel tristique mollis, libero elit convallis eros, vitae interdum libero dolor eget leo.
Morbi eget sem. Nam mollis. Donec sed velit ut tellus fermentum interdum.
Etiam a odio in neque egestas consequat. Pellentesque posuere, orci id interdum.
Suspendisse id magna in libero porta faucibus. Vivamus sollicitudin.

Here’s Another One

Whoa! Ultra Readable Text

Cooper + Agile

Will Sansbury — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:21:40 +0000

I’ve been a fan of Alan Cooper and of agile development for a while, but I’ve never been able to connect the dots between the two. At this year’s Agile Conference, Cooper himself tried to connect the two in the closing keynote of the conference.

Here’s his slides and speaker notes. I’m not sure I’m completely sold, but this got the gears turning.

Change of Pace: Demo Video

Will Sansbury — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:54:31 +0000

Yesterday, a coworker and I released a video overview we produced for a product that’s in our technical preview program now. The new product is fairly expansive, so we wanted to produce something that would help users to understand the product a little more quickly. With that goal in mind, it’s not extremely technical or detailed–definitely more on the marketing level, and definitely in the quick-and-dirty camp.

It was nice to switch gears for once. I haven’t done anything that leans creative in a while.

You can see the video here.

Introducing Lucy Cora Sansbury

Will Sansbury — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:22:13 +0000

My daughter, Lucy, was born on Thursday, 3/27, at 3:10 pm. Early the next morning, at her routine pediatric checkup, we learned that she was born with a congenital heart defect called transposition of the great arteries. She underwent open heart surgery yesterday, 3/31.

I’ve written much more about Lucy and the rough road she’s traveled in her few short days at my personal blog, blog.willsansbury.com.

If you pray, please remember Lucy in your prayers.

Visual Structure workshop sound bites

Will Sansbury — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:29:25 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write up Jean-luc Doumont’s excellent Visual Structure workshop that I attended at STC Atlanta’s Currents 2008 conference.

With the birth of my second kid looming, I know I won’t find time, so here’s some sound bites from my notes.

Fight against sequencing.
The only cross-cultural issue that matters to doing business: what does “yes” mean for all cultures involved?
When faced with a design/layout problem, resist the urge to add ink. Adding ink will not solve the problem.
Too much freedom is bad for you. Design requires structure and rules.
If people notice/comment on the design, it is doing a disservice to the content.
“I have found that all the ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful.” –Oscar Wilde
Tables of contents work best with only two levels at the front of the book, then an additional two levels in another table of contents at the chapter level.
Do not let your software help you. Intentionally set all options related to design (especially sizing issues).
Round bullets throw off alignment. Use square or right-pointing triangles instead.
Seven-plus-or-minus-two is based on outdated research that was not specifically examining groupings in documents. Doumont says 3-5 is better (3 optimal, 5 maximum).

Automatic e-mail link with topic information

Will Sansbury — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:22:58 +0000

This javascript automatically creates a mailto link with information about the topic in the subject line. Include this in your help systems for a quick and dirty response mechanism.

This script works by parsing the innerHTML value from the first H1 tag on the page, so it needs to be placed after the first H1 in the document.

Author-it: Expand TOC completely when Web help is opened

Will Sansbury — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:08:39 +0000

This one comes in response to a question on the Author-it users’ forum from Kathi Bruce, who asked:

Is there a way to change the default to have the TOC expanded on open? We would like smaller books (with fewer Chapters and topics)to open with the TOC expanded, but to open larger books with the TOC collapsed. We currently publish to XHTML using the DHTML User Guide template with a custom frameset, and are still using AIT 4.5.

It can be done by adding a little extra Javascript to the dhtml_toc.js template file. Here’s how:

Step 1. Add this function to the dhtml_toc.js template.

function expandTOC()
{
   //	Expand all TOC links if ExpandTOC variable is set to true
   var expandall = ;

   if (expandall == true)
   {
      var aSpans=top.TOC.document.getElementsByTagName('span');
      for (i=0;i

Step 2. In dhtml_toc.htm, add a call to the new function in the onload section of the BODY tag.

If you have multiple functions in the onload, separate them with semicolons.

Step 3. Create a List of Values variable named ExpandTOC. This variable will serve as the toggle switch on books that determines whether or not the book’s TOC should expand by default. This variable should have two values, true and false, with false as the default.

Step 4. Assign the ExpandTOC variable to a book and publish!

Author-it: Tracking down duplicated HTML file names

Will Sansbury — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:09:04 +0000

When two topics have identical HTML file names and are included in the same book, Author-it generates a completely blank, zero-byte file by the shared file name.

There is no method within Author-it for tracking down these duplicate file names (the HTML file name field is not searchable).

However, if you’re using SQL server, you can create an Excel spreadsheet that can help track down duplicates when the dreaded blank topic files appear.

These instructions are for Excel 2003. I’m sure it can be done for other versions, but I haven’t done it.

Open Excel.
From the menu bar, select Data > Import External Data > New Database Query. The Choose Data Source dialog appears.
- On the databases tab, select sqlserver, and then click OK. The SQL Server Login dialog appears.
- In Server, enter or select the SQL Server that is used by Author-it. This should take the form of \ or \. For example, 192.168.3.35\authorit.
- Select the appropriate authentication method for your database. If you are uncertain, select Use Trusted Connection first. If that fails and you do not know the database Login ID and password, contact your SQL administrator.
Click Next. The Choose Columns page of the Query Wizard appears.
Under Available tables and columns, expand TOPIC_OBJT.
- Select the OBJT_ID, HEADING, H_CONTEXT_ID, and HT_FILENAME columns and add them to your query by clicking the > button. After each column has been added, click Next. The Filter Data page of the Query Wizard appears.
Click Next. The Sort Order page of the Query Wizard appears.
Click Next. The Finish page of the Query Wizard appears.
Select Return Data to Microsoft Office Excel, and then click Finish. The Import Data dialog appears.
Select where you want to put the imported data, and then click OK. The data is imported and inserted into Excel.
From the menu bar, select Data > Filter > AutoFilter. A sorter is added to the top of each column in the spreadsheet.

To find all topics using a duplicate file name, click the down arrow in the HT_FILENAME column header and select the name of the file that is publishing as a blank page. The list updates to show ever topic that has that same file name.

Once you create this spreadsheet, you can save it and reuse it every time you encounter a blank topic from duplicated file names. Data should update automatically, but I usually select Data > Refresh Data just to be sure.

This is completely safe. You can import the data into Excel from SQL, but you cannot use this method to modify the data in SQL. It’s one-way, so very useful and safe for reporting.