I’m using the Thunderbird mail client on Ubuntu today and have extracted my Cpanel backup to ~/Downloads, and this may require some command line use to accomplish.

First navigate to the email directory of the backup for the user mailbox you’d like to restore. In my case it is ~/Downloads/backup_folder_name/homedir/mail/.noreply@sprisemedia.com; make sure you have hidden files visible and be looking for the email address of your choice. There was no new email on this account so the command to run is this:

cd ~/Downloads/backup_folder_name/homedir/mail/.noreply@sprisemedia.com/cur

Take a look at the filenames, each file is an email and will need to have the “.eml” extension. If your files do not have the .eml extension (such as in the below image), you will need to add it.

At this point Ubuntu does realize these are email files but Thunderbird does not handle them properly. So let us run this command and add “.eml” to all of these filenames:

find . -type f -exec mv '{}' '{}'.eml \;

Now they should all have the proper extension. To get them all imported you will want to install Thunderbird Import Export Tools, simply download the file and follow the simple instructions on the prompt.

The last step is to now go to Tools > ImportExportTools > Import All Messages From A Directory and point it towards your dir full of .eml files. Hooray!

function mytheme_form_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id) {    
    // Set default language to English 
    if(strrpos($form_id,'_node_form')) {
        if(isset($form['language']) && $form['language']['#value'] == 'und') {
            $script = "<script type=\"text/javascript\">
            var l = document.getElementById('edit-language');
            if(l.value == 'und') l.value = 'en';
            </script>";
            
            $form['some_text'] = array( '#markup' => $script );
        }
    } 
}

Simply add the above to your template.php (and replace mytheme with your theme name).

Color Gamut of Print vs Screen

While the color output of your website ultimately depends on a user’s monitor/device, generally it will be quite good and in the “millions of colors” capacity. Gamut is the technical term that describes the range of color produced as well as what colors are rendered well if at all. The gamut of the average screen is pretty good, and being that monitors are light emitting devices, they can really make things “pop” even using subtle textures and changes of color. Gradients for example can look great on monitors!

But you may notice that when going to print that same website or image, things flatten out a bit. Colors can get muddy, or the overlaid design element that was “just right” on screen is now almost invisible. What gives? The fact of the matter is that printing is a very technical and variable process, and rarely does printing the exact web design (at print resolution) produce a piece that “looks just like the website”. Every single printer will have a different gamut and it is part of the designer’s task to built the piece so that it will print well, and even then it may require many test prints and print checks on-scene at the final hour. Typically printers (be it desktop or professional) use the standard four colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and blank “CMYK” to build all the hues for the print. This produces a wide gamut for the money but will not produce every color of the rainbow! Perhaps the easiest to see example of the shortcomings of the CMYK gamut is a bright green or purple.

To address your color gamut problems from web to print: choose an excellent printer early on, make many test prints on your laser or inkjet, and when necessary be prepared to spend a little extra to get a spot color (separate ink, eg bright green) when it is important to do so.

Color Consistency

Here is one area where print design can thoroughly beat the pants off of webdesign: every piece that comes off the press is going to have the same color. Contrast that to walking into the computer or television store with all the screens facing the aisle, and inevitably they all look slightly different. A monitor can be tweaked to be brighter or darker, more or less contrast, and can be set to look more or less red, blue, or green.

A light yellow page background may look brown on a different computer, and be all but invisible on another. Short of doing the best possible to make it look acceptable on a variety of displays, there is really nothing you can do to control the situation 100%. And you wouldn’t want to, as each user needs to be able to adjust their display to fit their eyesite, location, and preference.

But a printed piece is different. A business card or promotion held in your hand (off the same print run) will have the same color in Scottsdale Arizona as would another in Madison Wisconsin. If bright green lawns are the sales pitch, everyone is going to get that bright green mailer!

Designing Collateral for the Website

In summary, when designing a print piece for a website you must keep in mind that your color gamut is going to be a bit more restrictive. Add to that the non-glowing medium of ink on paper, and those test prints are going to be critical in making adjustments to your colors. You will probably have to make subtle gradients and transitions much more pronounced so that they show up effectively. You may be disappointed to see that the richness of some colors or combinations is not as rich when reproduced in CMYK and no longer as attractive. Don’t despair though, you can print with spot colors (find the PANTONE number for the color & paper you want to reproduce) or simply create a new look for the print work that is similar but not exactly matching the website. There is no rule that full-width high color websites need promotional material that is the same. And frankly, unless you have a good printer who can work with you, there is a real possibility of being disappointed in the finished piece. Maybe their press color is running hot (high on Magenta) and your “beach volleyball” is going to become “lobster volleyball”! But hey, at least it will be consistent across all 10,000 fliers, right?

There are a couple of steps to fix this:

1. Change the method add_menu in $wp_admin_menu->add_menu to add_node. For each add_action call in the cforms plugin, you will need to change $wp_admin_bar->add_menu to $wp_admin_bar->add_node.
2. Put the add_action(‘admin_menu_bar’, $func) calls into the main cforms.php file, rather than the other library files they are in. This is very important. Just cut and paste the add_action() calls and the add_item() function below the other add_actions() of cforms.php. Your Cforma II admin Save links should be showing up again!
3. Now you just need a little conditional magic to make sure they only show up on the Cforms plugin admin page. Wrap your add_action(‘admin_menu_bar’, ‘add_items’); with a conditional such as this:
   if(strrpos($_SERVER['REMOTE_URI'],’cforms’)) {
   add_action(‘admin_menu_bar’,'add_items’);
   }

There now, that wasn’t so bad, you can stop pulling your hair out over the upgrade.

Social Media Icons

Businesses using social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc) are strongly encouraged to add links to each of their profiles on their website. The new convention, going by the trend, is to add these links as a set of style-matching icons to the header or footer of the site’s design. This trend has created a predictable place to find social media connection links, as well as established a pattern a set of small icons. You can find many sets of icons for the popular networks for free online in various styles and shapes (glossy, round, sketchy, etc).

The typical exceptions to the header/footer icon trend are sites with widgets & organizations with few social media outlets. Websites making use of the available widgets or API functionality will typically have a leaderboard of their Facebook friends or a ticker of their latest Twitter tweets. Friend/follower widgets are almost always used in the sidebar, whereas a Latest Tweets is slightly more flexible and can be styled to fit a variety of applications – though the default plug & play variety will also tend to be on a sidebar.

Single (or Social) Sign On

Single/Social Sign On allows users to perform logged-in activities on your website without having to create and remember a special account just for the site. SSO is extremely convenient for blog commenting since the user does not need to create a new account with the website to participate. They may have concerns about security or remembering a litany of username/password combinations, and with SSO systems such as Gravatar, Disqus, and Twitter Oauth they are far more likely to jump into the discussion. The added bonus of a SSO for blogs is that the user’s name, avatar image, and URL can be utilized. Your comment sections are instantly more personable!

Graceful Degradation

Web designers and developers can sometimes be heard grumbling about certain pieces of software that are long-outdated but just won’t die. You can help them wish Internet Explorer 6 a happy 10th birthday, and then start a conversation on how your website can degrade gracefully.

“Graceful degradation” describes the decline in quality (of design or user experience) for browsers that are substandard. There was a time when it was practical to expect your website to look basically the same on everybody’s computer, and designers and developers would use workarounds and certain techniques to ensure consistency. But today’s browsers are vastly superior and more consistent (compared to each other). We now have new ways to achieve the same effects that are faster, smarter, and more extensible. The new challenge is to make the experience GREAT for modern browser users and GOOD for those people who are unable to upgrade their systems (usually because of old infrastructure).

Real-world examples of graceful degradation:

• For Flash or video content, offer an explanation and descriptive image for non-Flash devices (or those incapable of seeing the video).
• Allow certain design features or non-critical functionality to be lost on older browsers.
• Be prepared for your preferred fonts to be unavailable, aliased (jagged), or the wrong size on some machines.

All of the above examples are within the lines of graceful degradation.

If you are a Scottsdale business in need of a website or looking to revise (or revitalize) your existing web pages, please drop us a line or request a quote.

Sprise Builds Websites Locally in Scottsdale, Arizona

As a local Scottsdale business, we look forward to working with you on your next web project. Sprise is a fully local web design shop, we do not utilize contractors from the far corners of the world. By keeping our talent Arizona-based we are able to make a larger contribution back into the community that most directly impacts our lives.

“When you shop locally owned businesses, your money is re-circulated over and over and creates up to 75% more tax revenue to our community and state.”
- LFA

Contact Sprise Media today for your next creative project, freelance work inquiry, or website consultation. See special offer for new clients on our Local First Arizona listing!

What’s happening now in Arizona’s real estate market is interesting to watch and learn from if you are able to do so. While some real estate professionals are going hungry and looking for other jobs, there are many who have turned up the dial on their websites and online marketing instead of backing down in the face of market conditions. They know that houses will always need to be bought and sold and they know that people are turning to the internet for everything, from cancer to condos.

Here are three lessons you can learn from the Realtors of Arizona and their web marketing strategies.

Choose a narrower target audience than you would have in prior years.

It’s not just local firms vying for keywords like “arizona real estate” – brokerages all over the world are trying to get a piece of the US and AZ real estate market! The most generic keywords in any industry are more challenging to rank for, and with the boom of interest in capitalizing on Arizona’s housing crisis, the competition makes general terms cost prohibitive. Similarly with so many firms to choose from it has become more important for the Realtor to appeal to a more niche market. While the broad-spectrum approach doesn’t alienate, it also doesn’t resonate deeply with buyers.

Examples of target markets for a real estate website:

• Canadians looking for winter condos
• Relocations
• Renovate and sell investors (“fix and flip”)
• Rental investors
• Horse properties

Use your website to provide a service first, and promote yourself second.

Providing a free online service to the world at large is a great way to put your name on the radar to folks who aren’t even interested or able to buy yet. They may not be at the stage of choosing a Realtor yet, just checking out the geographical area. Many Phoenix – Scottsdale Realtors have created blogs about the locale they serve and rather than reposting the same old MLS listings, they post about what’s new and hot in the city. They broaden their website’s visitor base by providing restaurant reviews, new business openings, city projects, and local news. They have their websites built in content management systems (e.g. WordPress) and do the updates themselves.

Case Study:

Who doesn’t like to chuckle and think they could have done it better? AZ Realtor Leif Swanson turned his everyday sea of sad MLS photos into a fun “fail blog” of real estate. Readers from around the world tune in to see Christmas trees up in July, million-dollar cluttered kitchens, and the occasional perfectly-preserved 50′s kitchen. The Ugly House Photos blog also has a nice series of posts about homebuilding trends in the Phoenix area throughout the decades. The website’s design is a tongue-in-cheek reflection of its contents.

Be aggressive with organic SEO and web marketing, especially in stiff competition.

It’s not enough in the real estate field to optimize a website and then leave it. Too many competitors are making frequent and targeted updates to their own sites, trying to get a piece of the action. A firm that doesn’t put time or money into their continued online success will become buried by more active competition in the search results.

Continually make additions and efforts with your target audience in mind. Remember at all times that the market has changed and no longer allows for complacency. The techniques that served your company well in the earlier part of the decade may no longer apply, and if you don’t adjust course there are many professionals who will gladly take your future business. Don’t try to sacrifice your advertising and marketing when business is slow – instead, push harder. If you can’t hire an expert, ask your web professional if they can create a site for you to update personally. Remember, your online competition is very hungry!

Cost Savings

Hiring a freelancer can save you money on your project! Think about it, there is no expensive office to furnish and maintain. Their business will be without many expenses that an agency or design studio would incur, and their own travel/commuting expenses will be lower. Work that would typically be billed $65-$100 per hour in an agency environment is significantly cheaper when you contract that job to a skilled freelancer whose operating costs are a fraction of the agency.

Having said that, there is one caveat. If your prospective web designer’s rates look too good to be true, then it probably is. Your freelance web designer still has to do his or her taxes, pay for insurance, meet their own bills, and do all the tasks usually delegated to a bookkeeper, salesman, and marketer in a traditional company. Certainly they will work hard for you, their client, but there is time set aside each day for these afore-mentioned “non-paying” tasks. You want to be able to call up your web professional to chat about your project and ask questions, don’t you? A good freelancer will be glad to assist you, while the underpaid one will be unable to break from their work to take your call (or worse yet they have farmed out the work to another country).

Hiring a web designer freelance (instead of employing an agency) can also be a great savings to you because the threshold for entry-level projects tends to be lower. Remember “No job too small”? Many agencies start their web pricing at $3,000 and up with no accommodations for smaller jobs. Your freelancer should be able to custom-fit their quote to your exact project needs, not the other way around.

Custom Packages to Suit Your Needs

Freelancers work with a variety of industries and types of clients. We know that one size rarely fits all, and a good webdesigner won’t try to force fit your project into a standard package that is over your budget or misses your needs. Most freelancers are happy to draft a quote uniquely tailored to your project and are more likely to make this-for-that substitutions so that the website you purchase is exactly the website you need.

Flexibility in general is greater with freelance web designers than with agencies, since you will be dealing with a person. One professional, knowledgeable, and pleasant person whose main objective is to bring your ideas to life. They know that all the success and prosperity they bring your way is a direct reflection on their expertise and abilities, and so they work hard for your success – not just your signature on the check.

Freelancers Have Many Friends

Since your freelance web designer has to wear many hats – sales, marketing, bookkeeping, courier, copywriter, proofreader, developer, photographer, consultant, to name a few of the possible many – they have to network with the graphic, creative, and technological communities in their area. They come to know professionals in different areas and with skillsets outside their own. When you need to find a professional in another field, ask your freelancer if they have contacts. If they do, you can review the pro’s they refer you to and enjoy the same benefits of a freelancer and promoting your local economy all over again.

By choosing a freelance designer or website professional you will save money and gain favorable terms and flexibility for your website project. You will be promoting the creative community and local business within your area, and can get access to a host of other types of freelance-rate service providers that you may need down the line. Your freelancer and their professional friends can save you money on this project and the next!

Web design has evolved greatly from its early days, and in that time, a few patterns have solidified into convention. To follow these patterns is to give the user an easy experience, with the website’s elements roughly in the places they expect them to be. Breaking from these website conventions will make browsing and interacting with your site more difficult and – at worst case – turn away your customers.

Don’t make your website difficult.

For artistic or personal preference reasons, some website owners elect to ignore web convention and make their users think hard when they are on their site. Certainly there is a little bit of artistic license lost by following the norm, but the gains far outweigh the loss. Consider how the following tasks would be more arduous if conventions were not established:

• Getting around in a foreign airport
• Driving a rental car off the lot, of a model you have never sat in
• Taking a photograph for a stranger

In each example there are patterns established by builders and manufacturers that allow us to do the above tasks while hardly giving a second thought. Universal pictorial signage, standardization of car features, and a large button on the right side of the camera body have decreased the amount of thinking and guesswork that goes into our everyday life. Why wouldn’t we design our site to give users the same level of convenience?

Website Logo Position

The logo should go on the web page’s top left corner and when clicked, link back to the home page. Your company’s (or entitity’s) logo should always be among the first visual items on every page. This convention is perhaps the most important and when compared to traditional media (print), it is different because the logo-on-top web design rule really cannot be broken. Unlike the cover of a book, you will never be able to control what size your page is shown at. Did they see the whole page, or just the first 700 pixels? Occasionally there is a design where the logo is top center or top right – these are much less common but can be acceptable so long as the identity of the site is clear.

Navigation on your Website

The website’s main navigation should be clearly visible without scrolling down the page. The navigation typically occurs as a horizontal bar across the top or a vertical column of links on the left or right side of the webpage. It can be of whatever color and styling the designer likes, but it needs to be legible and in one of these places – visible immediately when the site loads.

A secondary navigation area of lesser-used links can occur away from the top of the site. This additional navigation could be placed in the footer, on a sidebar, or in another strategic place. It should be clear by the site design that this block of links plays a “supporting role” rather than the “lead role” in the page’s design.

Design Consistency Across the Site

Aim for consistency in design across the site, with deviations occurring as necessary for clarity. At no point should your user question if they’ve clicked off your site! Unlike multi-page printed materials (such as a booklet or annual report), your website should have a set of elements that remain constant throughout all pages. A common header, content layout, navigtation, and styling of text can be employed to make your site experience clear and memorable.

Designing a new site in accordance with these design conventions is just one more way you can provide an easy and enjoyable web experience for your users. You will give them the information they need, in the way that they are accustomed to receiving it. By sticking with the conventions of the web, your website will do its job more effectively and communicate more clearly.