I've not posted for a long time on this blog (or any for that matter). As with many people I seem to always have an excuse for not posting on here but then I see the trend setters of the internet able to post every day about something pretty cool. I reflect on this and wonder why I don't find something useful to post about or even have anything to say on a regular basis. I am going to write a bit more and hopefully it will be interesting and useful!
Is your site mobile friendly?
Picture this:
You are sitting on the bus, your commute is 45 minutes long so you whip out your iPhone and start browsing Twitter. Your friend posts a link to this awesome article on social marketing, you follow the link and then sit for the next 15 minutes frustrated with:
- waiting for the page and all it's ads to load
- not being able to read the content because you keep having to pan back and forth on the screen.
This tends to happen to me a lot. There are VERY few sites out there that seem to understand that today there is a need for a mobile version of a website. Sure, you can get an app for your favourite site on your iPhone, Android, Symbian or Palm powered phones but these apps usually don't offer the website content or experience. The modern mobile OS and browser technology allows most websites to load and operate just as they would on a laptop or desktop but the experience is poor. With limited screen real estate, I want to execute my tasks quickly and effectively. I don't want to pinch or zoom on anything other than a map!
Two sites that have provided excellent mobile versions are:
- Amazon - who understands user behaviour better than the users themselves, provides a slick, easy to use interface which makes shopping a breeze
- Wikipedia Mobile - utilizing a minimalistic design, Wikipedia provides quick, relevant information on the go, no matter what your screen real estate!
These are just a couple examples but there are countless businesses and website owners out there who choose to ignore the tremendous mobile market to be tapped. Wake up people, it's 2010!
Posted in Browsers, Business, General, Mobile, Thinking Tagged Browsers, mobile phones, user experience, web Leave a comment
Open multiple windows in Excel 2007
Some of the design choices in Office 2007 really baffle me. Some simple tasks just cannot be completed without jumping through so many hoops. I can't understand why this isn't on every website in the entire world! But, I hope this helps some of you out:
- Go To: My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > File Types
- Choose XLS (Repeat for XLSX)
- Click Advanced
- Uncheck "browse in same window" in advanced window.
- Then highlight Open
- Click Edit
- Make sure in the Action box it says &Open
- Make sure in the application used to perform action it says: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\EXCEL.EXE" "%1"
- Check the box next to use DDE
- Remove anything that is in DDE Message box
- Remove anything that is in DDE Application Not Running box
- Make sure the application box says: EXCEL
- And in the Topic box it says: System
The original tip can be found:
This allows you to have multiple independent Excel windows open. Very handy if you have multiple monitors.
This has been tested on Windows XP and Excel 2007.
Tick, Tick, Tick
Be strong,
The waves vibrate
And message delivered.
Fear abandoned,
The source is I.
Posted in Personal, Random, Talking Leave a comment
IE 7/8 PNG-24 transparency issue
We came across an error today with our drop down menu system that uses a PNG-24 semi transparent drop shadow image around the border where the transparency would appear black in IE 7 and IE 8. After searching and trying all possible fixes we found the solution to the problem and it was quite simple.
Our menu system uses jQuery (doesn't everything these days?), and had a nice fade in and fade out transition. jQuery handles the fade transitions by setting the opacity which IE does not like very much. So using the fadeTo() functions in jQuery is a no-no in IE. The solution, use hide() and show() instead. It's not as elegant but the transparency issue was fixed on all modern browsers.
Other solutions to the problem include:
1. Using a background colour instead of transparent on the style so you would do:
.my-transparent-stuff{background: #fff url('image.png') repeat-y scroll left top;}
instead of
.my-transparent-stuff{background: transparent url('image.png') repeat-y scroll left top;}
2. Using PNG-8/transparent gifs (hey, it's a solution)
3. Forcing IE8 into IE7 mode by adding the following meta tag:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" />
I still can't understand what Microsoft is doing!
Posted in Browsers, ColdFusion, Design, Javascript, Programming Tagged Browsers, CSS, Development, Javascript, jQuery 2 Comments
