class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/facebook-memology.jpg?323f2c" alt="" />The end of the year is the list lover’s favorite time. The year is ending, and many networks and websites are publishing their top (something) lists for 2011. We just finished reading Twitter’s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/twitter-releases-year-review-highlights-top-topics-2011-news/">top stories list, and now Facebook has released their href="https://www.facebook.com/facebook?sk=app_271705986210152">2011 Memology – the very top trends and memes on Facebook during 2011.

As on Twitter, the most colorful global topic of 2011, seemingly unrelated to other news items, is Charlie Sheen, which sits confidently in fourth place. First place goes to the death of Osama bin Laden, followed by Packers win the Super Bowl in second and Casey Anthony found not guilty in third.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/facebook-memology-2011.jpg?323f2c" alt="facebook-memology-2011" width="510" height="526" border="0" />

The death of Steve Jobs, which apparently wasn’t as exciting as Charlie Sheen, lies in fifth place. The list, along with the monthly graph beneath it, show a pretty interesting picture – there is no chronological order to the list. Some items from the beginning of the year stayed very strong even at the end of it.

Facebook has also released top status trends by country, which include 14 different countries, and a list of fastest growing Pages and most popular media in 2011.  The top trends for countries range from lms (like my status), the Royal Wedding and planking to Steve Jobs and the death of Amy Winehouse.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/facebook-top-trends.jpg?323f2c" alt="facebook-top-trends" width="532" height="434" border="0" />

You can also check out this href="https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150391956652131">blog post from Facebook’s blog for some additional information on top trends, as well as some graphs describing top memes.

What were your top trends of 2011? Does this list reflect your world, or is it completely off target? Share in the comments.

Source: href="https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150391956652131" rel="nofollow">Facebook Blog

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image63.png" alt="" />If you have a new Google+ Page, you can now also have a Google+ Badge. As you probably know, Google recently launched href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/brand-pages-finally-google-news/">Google+ Pages, so brands, companies, websites, etc. can also have a Google+ presence. But as it is now, this presence is not very easy to find. To the rescue comes Google+ Badges.

Google+ Badges are similar to what we already know from Facebook and other social sites – it features the page’s name, a +1 button, an “Add to circles” button and the number of people who’ve already +1ed the page. The badges are here to make Google+ Pages more accessible to users, to make it easy for companies to connect their actual websites to their Google+ page, and of course, to make it easier for people to +1.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/google-badges.png" alt="" width="334" height="329" border="0" />

When you get the badge for your website, you will also qualify for Google’s new service, Google+ Direct Connect. This feature makes it possible for users to type +site_name in Google search and jump straight to the corresponding Google+ page. To get your Google+ badge, sign up to the Google+ href="http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/platform-preview/">platform preview group, then visit the href="https://developers.google.com/+/plugins/badge/preview">configuration tool and choose what size of badge you want for your page.

Badges will certainly make it easier to add pages to your circles. Of course, you can always add MakeUseOf to your circles href="https://plus.google.com/u/1/112975774125810216140/posts">right here, and maybe win an iPhone 4S!

Source: href="http://googleplusplatform.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-badges-drive-engagement-with.html" rel="nofollow">Google+ Platform Blog

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/googlebanspromotionsthumb.jpg" alt="" />For businesses, social networking is all about engaging customers in the hopes that they’ll remember the next time they’re in the supermarket. As it turns out, one of the best ways to engage people is to tempt them with free stuff, which is why contests and giveaways are so popular.

Google, however, has decided that it wants nothing to do with online promotions. The content policy for href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/brand-pages-finally-google-news/">Google+ Pages states that “you may not run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions directly on your Google+ Page“.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/googlebanspromotions.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="224" />

Page owners don’t need to panic, however, because the prohibition applies only to activity on the page. Linking to an offer that is hosted somewhere else is acceptable. Here at MakeUseOf, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/join-makeuseof-google-page-running-win-iphone-4s/">we’ll be giving away an iPhone 4S on November 15th to one random follower of our page. Since we only link to this giveaway here on MakeUseOf, it’s within Google’s guidelines.

This could be an important difference between Google+ and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/facebook-work-nuts-bolts-technology-explained/">Facebook for some page owners, as Facebook does allow promotions – if they’re contained within apps and entrants agree to absolve the social network of any responsibility.

Google+ does not have any similar policy for individual accounts. However, the policy for pages exists because of the risk of liability to Google should a contest go wrong, which suggests that trying to side-step the policy in that way would not be wise.

Source: href="http://mashable.com/2011/11/08/google-plus-contests-and-promotions" rel="nofollow">Mashable

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefishlogo1.png" alt="create web pages fast"/>Although it has been decades since the first web designer opened up a text editor to create the very first HTML document, the tools of the trade haven’t really changed a whole lot.

Sure, websites are now powered by blog platforms like WordPress, or WYSIWYG editors like Kompozer, but the bottom line is that most hard core web designers will always find it necessary to pop open a text editor to tweak the style a little bit here, or to realign the template a bit more there.

I think that text editors are going to be around in the world of web design for a very long time, at least for those web programmers that are always neck-deep into improving and optimizing professional websites. So, it stands to reason that text editing tools would evolve that are more powerful and smarter; Tools created specifically for the needs of those hard-core web designers and web programmers.

Bluefish – The Text Editor for Programmers

For years, I was very adamant about sticking with Notepad, no matter what everyone else started using. In my opinion, WYSIWYG editors just padding way too much garbage into the code (particularly MS Word’s silly save-as-HTML feature).

I was very tempted to try Notepad++ when I first heard about it. Then, after reading Simon’s article on href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/sublime-text-the-text-editor-youll-fall-in-love-with/">Sublime Text, I was tempted yet again. I’ve always been hesitant to jump on any bandwagon until a good, solid winner takes root.

This year, I have to confess that I’ve finally found a code editor that I can’t resist – it’s called href="http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/index.html">Bluefish.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;"src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish1.png" alt="create web pages fast" width="503" height="389" />

When you first setup Bluefish, you’ll see the first reason I like it so much – it is designed to handle a huge assortment of programming languages, from straight HTML and PHP to Java, VB and even ASP. The kind of flexibility is a nice thing to have in a code editor, especially if you often have your hands into many different programming languages.

And Bluefish does programming well. But before we get to that, I wanted to just show you how cool this program looks. Up to this point I haven’t found a coder’s editor with this kind of aesthetic coolness on the front end – with the most important, easy-to-find tools and tabs right at your fingertips on the main screen, depending what code you’re focused on at the moment. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish2.png" alt="free web page editor" width="578" height="526" /> /> As you can see, file navigation is right there on the left – no need to flip back and forth between Windows Explorer and your editor. Do all of your file exploring from right within the application itself.

That includes all of the usual things you can do with a file explorer, like moving or renaming folders and files. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish3.png" alt="free web page editor" width="542" height="500" /> /> When you launch a new document from the file menu, if you choose template you’ll see that Bluefish has a few pre-built program templates available. This is especially useful if you write a lot of web pages, for example, and don’t want to recreate the same generic XHTML or PHP structure. Instead, just launch Bluefish’s template and you can immediately get into creating the content. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish3a.png" alt="free web page editor" width="472" height="503" /> /> The pic below is the standard HTML template with the header, title and body tags pre-built for you. As you can see, lines are numbered, and while you’re typing the application has a feature where it will auto-complete tags for you. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish3b.png" alt="web page editor" width="475" height="438" /> /> As you can see in the menu bar, there are also pre-built code snippets available under each program language. For example, HTML has standard code for web forms, and PHP has standard code snippets for how to connect to an ODBC or MySQL database. /> class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-89084" style="border-width: 1px; border-color: black; border-style: solid;" title="bluefish4" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish4.png" alt="" width="577" height="361" /> /> This can save a lot of time if you’re the kind of person (like me) that often forgets the exact syntax to do some of the most basic things. To complete the code snippet for you, the program will ask you for the details. In the case of making database connections, it’ll ask you for the data source and the login details. Then it’ll basically write the code for you. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish7.png" alt="web page editor" width="423" height="359" /> /> The same is true for a whole list of HTML tasks – making this app a web designers dream. You can code the same web page in half the time using Bluefish. Just tap the element that you want, provide the dialog box with a few details, and the code gets typed up and inserted for you. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish8.png" alt="web page editor" width="563" height="501" /> /> It isn’t WYSIWYG, but in my opinion it’s ten times better. You know what you want to do in the code, you just don’t have time to keep checking your reference book for the right syntax – so Bluefish lets you cut the headache.

More programming aids are available from the top menu as well. If you have an HTML file open, click the “Tags” menu and you’ll see dozens of quick code functions available to choose from. Create a web form with a fraction of the effort. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish9.png" alt="" width="535" height="420" /> /> As though the programming aids and tools weren’t enough, don’t forget to check out the “Tools” menu where you’ll find the ability to organize your code by joining/splitting lines, indenting, or using a filter to strip all empty lines from your code. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/bluefish10.png" alt="create web pages fast" width="580" height="577" /> /> At the bottom of the main window, you’ll also find an output variable area for coding in languages like PHP or C++, useful to see whether your code is really doing what you want it to do.

I think it’s safe to say that Bluefish has won over my heart when it comes to “intelligent coding” rather than just hacking away in Notepad. So, give Bluefish a try and let us know whether it simplified your programming experience at all. what do you like about it? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/createweb-pages-faster-bluefish-editor/">Create Web Pages Five Times Faster Using the Bluefish Editor [Cross-Platform] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/0_bolt.jpg" alt="" /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/link-sharing/">Link sharing is something we’re all becoming accustomed to. Whenever I come across an interesting article on, say, MakeUseOf or a funny photo or href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/infographic/">infographic, one of my first instincts is to share it with others. Whether I think it will be helpful to the readers or the authors themselves, or if I just want to gauge interest, sharing links has become second nature to me.

When sharing content, we’ve found that shortening links is the most effective way to not only make the link fit on a site like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter">Twitter, but for us to track activity around them via clicks, views, etc. But what if we could do even more with the links we share? I’m going to show you a service called BO.LT, which lets you “remix” the content you want to share before sending it out. If you’re into content sharing like I am, you should find this very useful.

What Is BO.LT?

href="https://bo.lt/">BO.LT is a page-sharing platform that lets anyone instantly curate, promote, and share content by copying, editing, commenting on, endorsing, sharing, and socializing on webpages.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1_bolt.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="293" />

If you want to share a webpage, you can copy the page URL and give it a unique short URL that you can choose, similar to other URL-shortening services like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/bitlycom-shortens-urls-offers-wide-variety-free-tools/">Bitly. BO.LT however, allows you to upload and display an avatar to the page, along with an optional comment, which will stay with the page as it is shared with others in social channels. If others click on your picture, you can also link them to another page, such as your personal website or Twitter.

What sets BO.LT apart from other services is that it enables you to make pages more personal, which works to increase sharing, and helps the original publisher, as tracking metrics (page views and clicks) remain in place even with the copied page.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/3_bolt.png" alt="" width="580" height="162" />

Another cool customization that BO.LT lets you do is edit the page before sharing. You can add, delete, and edit text, images, and other page elements, which comes in handy if you would like to share a page without all the clutter that comes along with it, or if you just want to highlight a specific passage or paragraph. There are a lot of interesting things you can do with this feature, as I’m sure you can imagine.

If you’re a marketer, you can also use BO.LT to create href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tips-create-cool-personal-landing-page/">landing pages and do A/B testing, as well as integrate KISSmetrics and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-analytics/">Google Analytics to view actions taken on your socially shared pages.

How Does BO.LT Work?

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2_bolt.png" alt="" width="580" height="67" />

Using BO.LT is pretty straight forward and almost surprisingly easy. All you do is head over to the href="https://bo.lt/">homepage, enter your URL in the box, and click the Copy it button. BO.LT will then take a minute to examine your page and provide you with your unique shortened link.

From there, you can opt to Edit Page, Share, and view More Options.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/4_bolt.png" alt="" width="326" height="124" />

Editing a page is pretty cool, as BO.LT lets you select page elements as if you were editing it with a code-examining app like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-hacker-software-tools-budding-coder/">Firebug. When you select an element, you can Block, Delete, Link to another page, or set a BG Image. You can undo anything you’ve changed and when you’re finished just select Done and your selections will save.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/5_bolt.png" alt="" width="467" height="451" />

When sharing, you can set your message and connect with Facebook or Twitter to send or tweet it out. Whenever someone clicks on your link, they’ll be taken to the page that you just “remixed”.

Conclusion

BO.LT exists to help users make the web more interesting through their creativity, which is exactly what I like about it. There are lots of apps out there that promote sharing links, but almost none of them act to give us a way to tailor that content to make it more relevant/interesting. Remixing links could be a new trend.

Can you think of any creative uses for BO.LT?

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/past-24-track.jpg" alt="recent searches" />Google offers quite a few options to monitor recent news and updates. We have class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/google-alerts/">Google Alerts (that allow you to subscribe via email and RSS) and various ways to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-uses-of-google-alerts-for-a-freelancer/">have fun with the tool. We also have class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-news/">Google News that can deliver news results to your email address or class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-interesting-ways-google-news-rss-feeds/">feed reader. Furthermore, we have class="vt-p" href="http://www.google.com/blogsearch">Google Blog Search that also generates RSS links for you to track new blog posts around your search term(s).

However, sadly, none of the above options are perfect and none of them are as good as regular Google search “web” results. The Google Alerts tool has no option to only get results from “Web” (these results are only included in the “Everything” option), the Google News index is much smaller than the general index and Google Blog Search is too spammed.

Therefore, the best way to monitor recent pages indexed by Google around your search term (which can be your business or personal brand name, your favorite website or even your town, if you are, for example, a local journalist), is to scan daily through “Past 24 hours” search results:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/past-24-track-01.jpg" alt="recent searches" width="550" height="380" />

Here are a few tools that both track pages on Google’s search results and remind you to check that page regularly (via email or browser update):

1. Track Engine

class="vt-p" href="http://trackengine.com/servlets/com.nexlabs.trackengine.ui.Login">Track Engine is the oldest tool I am aware of that lets you track results on any page and delivers you the changes via email). I’ve been using it for ages to monitor recent web mentions of my personal projects or name. The free version of the tool lets you track 5 pages which have proved enough for me.

When adding a new page (“bookmark”) to monitor you can:

• Set how often you want to track the page (from once in two hours to once a week);
• Set the tool to highlight the changes on a page;
• Set the color to highlight the changes;
• Track changes to particular page elements (hyperlinks, images, numbers or dates);
• Disable tracking during weekends or weekdays;

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/past-24-track-02.jpg" alt="recent searches on google" width="566" height="524" />

Here is a sample of results delivered to your inbox:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/past-24-track-03.jpg" alt="recent searches on google" width="508" height="514" />

2. Update Scanner (Firefox)

class="vt-p" href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/update-scanner/">Update Scanner is another option that can help you class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-monitor-websites-that-dont-have-rss-feeds/">monitor websites that do not offer an RSS or email subscription option. It reminds you to check out the changes via the browser alert.

To add a page to the scanner, right click on it and select “Scan Page for Updates“. In the dialog you can specify:

• How often you want the page to be scanned for changes;
• How huge the change should be for it to be highlighted (for example, you can ignore all changes which are less than 100 characters):

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/past-24-track-04.jpg" alt="recent searches on google" width="399" height="398" />

Here is a sample of Google search results scanned:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/past-24-track-07.jpg" alt="all recent searches" width="550" height="340" />

3. Page Monitor (Google Chrome)

class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/track-website-page-monitor-chrome/">Page Monitor is a valuable option for Google Chrome users. Like the above one, it also sends updates via browser alerts.

For each new added page, you can:

• Set how often you want the page scanned;
• Select the specific part of the page to track (via the “Pick” button in the “Advanced” section)
• Enable sound notifications;
• Enable desktop alerts.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/past-24-track-05.jpg" alt="all recent searches" width="550" height="187" />

Here is a sample of Google search results scanned:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/past-24-track-06.jpg" alt="recent searches" width="550" height="274" />

Are you making the most of Google’s “Date” filters? Please share your tips in the comments!

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/00a_WYSIWYG.jpg" alt="setup facebook page" />Everybody that I know has at least one  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook/">Facebook account, but not many of them have set up a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-controversial-facebook-fan-pages">Facebook Page. One of the popular excuses is because building a Facebook page is difficult. It’s a pity because Facebook Pages is a great promotion tool. You can use it to promote your blog, your product, or even yourself.

If you are a code novice and want to build and edit your Facebook pages without touching any codes, you could easily do it using href="http://apps.facebook.com/statichtml/">Static HTML – a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web editor, built specifically for Facebook Pages.

Add The App

Static HTML is a Facebook app that you can install by clicking href="http://apps.facebook.com/statichtml">this link. After the routine verification and confirmation process, you are ready to start building and editing your Facebook pages.

The first thing that you need to do is register your page(s) with the Static HTML app. Pick one of the pages from the dropdown list and click “Register“. But if you don’t have any page yet, you need to create one. Please refer to href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-promote-your-blog-using-facebook-pages/">this article to do that.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/01a-register-and-add.jpg" border="0" alt="setup facebook page" width="580" height="356" />

After that, click the “Add” button, and your page will appear under the “Facebook page name” list. Click “edit” to start the editing process.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/01c_start_editing.jpg" border="0" alt="customize facebook page" width="580" height="120" />

There are two editing mode that you can choose: WYSIWYG and HTML mode. Since our discussion today is about no-code editing, we’ll choose the first.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/02b_start_editing.jpg" border="0" alt="customize facebook page" width="580" height="220" />

Static HTML also provides two editing panes. The first one is the main content, and the second one is the optional fan gate content. The “fan gate” is the concept of showing the main content only to those who have clicked on the “Like” button. If you want to activate a fan gate, choose the “If user have not liked, below content will be shown” option.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/02c_fan_gate_option.jpg" border="0" alt="customize facebook page" width="580" height="200" />

We’ve discussed another method of activating the fan gate in href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/promote-blog-business-facebook-wildfire-iframe-app/">this article.

Enter The Editing Process

Building a page using Static HTML’s WYSIWYG editor is similar to creating a document on a word processor. You write your content and modify the fonts (size, family, format, color, and background color). Standard editing features like Align, Bullets and Numbers, Bold, Italic, and Underline are also available.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/04a_editing_font.jpg" border="0" alt="creating a facebook fan page" width="580" height="350" />

You can also add images to enrich the page. There are two options to add images: hotlink to the existing images on the web, or upload your own images (hosted on ImageShack).

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/04b_upload_image.jpg" border="0" alt="creating a facebook fan page" width="580" height="250" />

Those who are familiar with HTML and want to enrich certain parts of the page with HTML codes can activate HTML mode by clicking on the HTML icon.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/04d_edit_html.jpg" border="0" alt="creating a facebook fan page" width="580" height="350" />

Static HTML allows you to add a link to anything on the page. Just select the element and click on the “Add Link” button.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/04e_add_link.jpg" border="0" alt="04e add link" width="580" height="300" />

Fill in all the necessary information about the link on the pop-up window and click “Submit“.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/04f_link_info.jpg" border="0" alt="04f link info" width="580" height="300" />

Don’t forget to click “Update” when you have finished the editing process.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/04g_update.jpg" border="0" alt="04g update" width="580" height="450" />

Static HTML will confirm that you’ve completed the process and give you the option to “return to homepage“.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/04h_complete.jpg" border="0" alt="04h complete" width="580" height="200" />

This is the result of my short experiment using Static HTML. It’s the page that will be shown to those who haven’t clicked on the “Like” button. You can use other “incentives” to lure visitors to click the “Like” button.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/07a_result.jpg" border="0" alt="07a result" width="580" height="440" />

Tidying Up

As you’ve noticed from the picture above, the name of the page I created is “Static HTML“. You can edit the name by clicking on the “Edit Info” link under the page name.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/08a_edit_info.jpg" border="0" alt="08a edit info" width="580" height="150" />

Then select “Apps” from the sidebar menu.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/08b_edit_app-2.jpg" border="0" alt="08b edit app 2" width="200" height="300" />

Locate Static HTML in the apps’ list and click the “Edit Settings” link.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/08c_edit_settings.jpg" border="0" alt="08c edit settings" width="580" height="100" />

You can write down the name that you want for your page. Then click “Save” and “Okay” to finish the process.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/08d_change_name.jpg" border="0" alt="setup facebook page" width="450" height="200" />

After trying out Static HTML, I can say that this app is one of the easiest ways to build and edit Facebook Pages. Granted, the tool might be too simple and not powerful enough for veteran web builders, but it’s adequate for beginners.

What do you think of the tool? Have you tried it to set up your Facebook Page? Do you know of other alternatives? Share your thoughts and opinions using the comments below. If you want to learn more about Facebook Pages promotion, don’t forget to read our other articles -  href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-promote-your-blog-using-facebook-pages/">Promote Your Blog Using Facebook Pages and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/promote-blog-business-facebook-wildfire-iframe-app/">Promote Your Blog Or Business on Facebook With The Help Of The Wildfire iFrame App

Image credits: rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bram_souffreau/400749755/">bram_souffreau, rel="nofollow" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahreido/3120877348/">.reid />
/> href="http://www.supertintin.com/">SuperTinTin – Skype Video Call Recorder /> Record and save your audio and video conversations on Skype or MSN. Easy to use.

/>

 

Read comments: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-build-edit-facebook-pages-static-html-wysiwyg-editor/#disqus_thread">Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here …

 

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-build-edit-facebook-pages-static-html-wysiwyg-editor/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-build-edit-facebook-pages-static-html-wysiwyg-editor/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-build-edit-facebook-pages-static-html-wysiwyg-editor/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-build-edit-facebook-pages-static-html-wysiwyg-editor/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-build-edit-facebook-pages-static-html-wysiwyg-editor/&title=Easily Build & Edit Your Facebook Pages With Static HTML WYSIWYG Editor&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-build-edit-facebook-pages-static-html-wysiwyg-editor/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

 

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/design/" title="design" rel="tag">design, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/facebook/" title="Facebook" rel="tag">Facebook, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/html/" title="html" rel="tag">html, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/social-networks/" title="social networks" rel="tag">social networks, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/webdesign/" title="webdesign" rel="tag">webdesign, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/wysiwyg-editors/" title="WYSIWYG editors" rel="tag">WYSIWYG editors />

Similar articles:

class="st-related-posts">

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/write-develop-html-offline-with-first-page/" title="Write & Develop HTML Offline with First Page (January 2, 2008)">Write & Develop HTML Offline with First Page (12 comments …)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/selected-25-css-applications-and-tools/" title="Selected 25 CSS Applications and Tools (September 29, 2007)">Selected 25 CSS Applications and Tools (21 comments …)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/design-facebook-fan-page-pagemodos-wysiwyg-editor/" title="Design Your Facebook Fan Page With Pagemodo’s WYSIWYG Editor (February 14, 2011)">Design Your Facebook Fan Page With Pagemodo’s WYSIWYG Editor (0 comments …)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-reasons-facebooks-navigation-design-improvement/" title="4 Reasons Facebook’s New Navigation Design Is An Improvement (February 11, 2010)">4 Reasons Facebook’s New Navigation Design Is An Improvement (29 comments …)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wibiya-adds-improved-button-design-features-news/" title="Wibiya Adds New and Improved Like Button and Design Features [News] (November 14, 2010)">Wibiya Adds New and Improved Like Button and Design Features [News] (127 comments …)

View full post on MakeUseOf

style="border: 0px none;margin-left:20px;float:right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/discovery-tools.jpg" alt="discovery search engines"/>We all know how the Web search works: all you need is to provide relevant terms that describe the concept or the topic you are interested in, click “Search” and the href="http://makeuseof.com/tags/search-engine">search engine will generate the list of results ranked by popularity.

But what if you don’t exactly know how to describe the concept or the topic you are interested in? What if you just want “something of the kind”?

In this case, you need to try discovery search engines: these tools rank the Web by similarity (not by popularity). They allow you to discover more pages based on the one you found most relevant.

Here are the three useful and advanced discovery search engine tools.

id="more-64932">

Google’s Related: Operator

I have mentioned this neat search operator when listing href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-google-tricks-search/">google tricks when you don’t know what to search for. I also reviewed the visualization tool based on this operator called href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/touchgraph-visual-search-similar-results/">TouchGraph which can be used as discovery tool as well.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/discovery-tools-01.jpg" alt="discovery search engines" width="492" height="507" />

The index:

Obviously, the operator uses Google’s own database (which is huge). However, for most searches you run, you are most likely to see no more than 30-50 results (which looks as if Google generates only the fraction of possible results).

The algorithm:

The basic algorithm behind the search operator is co-citation, which, in simple words, works like this: if a web page A links to both page B and page C, the latter pages (B and C) are likely to be related. Of course, not everything is that easy and straightforward (it never is with Google) but the basic algorithm is like that.

Google Search Results Support?

Yes, you can access the list of related sites right from Google search results page by clicking the “Similar” link:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/touch-graph-04.jpg" alt="discovery search" width="463" height="393" />

Drawbacks:

It is hard to find faults with the mighty Google. The only drawback that comes to mind is that it is still Google and if you really need to test alternative user experience and get alternative results (ranked not by Google), you should try out other tools as well.

Similar Pages

href="http://www.similarpages.com/">Similar Pages is a standalone tool that uses its own technology and claims to let users dig into the “hidden” parts of the web – those that you wouldn’t be able to find using Google only: whereas “ordinary” search engines rank results by popularity (preventing us thus from seeing less popular pages), SimilarPages rank pages by similarity.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/discovery-tools-05.jpg" alt="discovery search" width="550" height="375" />

The index:

The tool uses their own database which is href="http://www.similarpages.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80&Itemid=104">claimed to contain more than 3.2 billion pages. The FireFox addon is said to access href="http://www.similarpages.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=85&Itemid=96">200 million sites.

The algorithm:

The tool uses “PageAffinity” that takes into account both the content of pages as well as the linking structure of the web to determine the level of similarity between web pages.

Google Search Results Support?

Yes, with their addon installed, you are able to view similar pages right within search results:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/discovery-tools-02.jpg" alt="discovery search" width="550" height="338" />

Drawbacks?

The tool has worked surprisingly well and suggested really good matches but it seems to be somewhat biased to home pages.

Similar Sites

href="http://www.similarsites.com/">SimilarSites (and its FireFox addon href="http://www.similarsites.com/">Similar Web) works similarly to the above one. We have written a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/similarsites-find-similar-sites/">review of SimilarSites previously.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/discovery-tools-04.jpg" alt="discovery searching" width="550" height="449" />

The index:

The developers seem to be very secretive as to which technology they use and how many sites they crawl. All that I have been able to find out using the href="http://techcrunch.com/2009/06/05/why-is-sequoia-looking-into-associative-browsing-add-on-similarweb/">external sources is that they have mapped “millions” of sites, and “adding tens of thousands daily”.

The algorithm:

Like the above two tools, this seems to be using page content and linking structure but the unique part is that they also analyze users’ input (votes) as well as user browsing trends.

Google Search Support?

Yes, with their FireFox addon you access similar sites right from the Google search results (works only for site home pages that you come across when searching Google):

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/discovery-tools-03.jpg" alt="discovery search engines" width="528" height="494" />

Drawbacks?

As the name suggests (and as we have seen from the above screenshot), the tool works only on the domain level. So no matter what the current page is about, the tool will only find similar sites to the current site (home pages). In other words, if you were testing it on this page (which is about search discovery), the tool would list sites about generic web tools and desktop tools and hacks (which is MUO is generally about)

Besides that, the tool inserts “sponsored” results throughout their search results (which are marked as sponsored but may still seem disturbing).

Any other great discovery search engines you are aware of? Please share them in the comments!

Image credit: rel="nofollow" href="http://flickr.com/photos/vj_flicks/52270356/">VJ_fliks />
/> Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

/>

 

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/discovery-engines-search-similar-pages/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/discovery-engines-search-similar-pages/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/discovery-engines-search-similar-pages/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/discovery-engines-search-similar-pages/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/discovery-engines-search-similar-pages/&title=Most Useful Discovery Engines: Search for Similar Pages&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/discovery-engines-search-similar-pages/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

 

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

class="st-related-posts">

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-powerful-ways-to-google-people-from-alternative-search-engines/" title="5 Powerful Ways To Google People From Alternative Search Engines">5 Powerful Ways To Google People From Alternative Search Engines (14 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/technology-explained-what-is-a-meta-search-engine/" title="What Is A Meta Search Engine & How It Works? [Technology Explained]">What Is A Meta Search Engine & How It Works? [Technology Explained] (5 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/touchgraph-visual-search-similar-results/" title="TouchGraph – Visual Search for “Similar” Results">TouchGraph – Visual Search for “Similar” Results (10 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-5-black-white-image-search-engines/" title="Top 5 Black & White Image Search Engines">Top 5 Black & White Image Search Engines (6 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-true-power-of-the-wolfram-alpha-knowledge-engine/" title="The True Power of the Wolfram Alpha Knowledge Engine">The True Power of the Wolfram Alpha Knowledge Engine (30 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-advanced-search-engines-web/" title="The 5 Most Advanced Search Engines On The Web">The 5 Most Advanced Search Engines On The Web (40 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/search-youtube-pro-google-advanced-operators/" title="How to Search YouTube Like a PRO with Google Advanced Operators">How to Search YouTube Like a PRO with Google Advanced Operators (14 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/monitor-online/" title="How To Monitor What Is Being Said About You Online">How To Monitor What Is Being Said About You Online (9 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-custom-search-engines-google-chrome/" title="How To Create Custom Search Engines In Google Chrome">How To Create Custom Search Engines In Google Chrome (5 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-social-network-data-in-your-google-results-with-social-search/" title="Google Social Search Makes Your Search Results Personal">Google Social Search Makes Your Search Results Personal (11 comments)

View full post on MakeUseOf.com

class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-08.jpg" alt="make web pages easier to read" width="240" height="244" />The Internet has long become a mainstream tool. You no longer need to be a programmer to sit for hours in front of the computer every day. People of all ages and professions work and spend days online.

This means that people with various href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/#visual">visual disabilities (be it poor eyesight, color blindness, etc) as well as older people (who may have bad sight) use the Web on a daily basis – and not many website owners care about making the lives of those people easier.

This post aims to help those with bad eyesight to become independent of each individual website interface. Here are 4 tools that will help you make web pages that are easier to read for low-vision people.

id="more-64942">

1. LowBrowse

href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lowbrowse/">LowBrowse creates a new frame in the top part of the browser that, on hover over, presents the text in a single line with configurable text size, font, color contrast and letter spacing without having to zoom in and out.

The tool will let users:

• See the white text on a black background (by default);
• Read the text in a huge font hovering over the text on a web page.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-01.jpg" alt="make web pages easier to read" width="550" height="144" />

2. Readable

href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/readable/">Readable (as well as href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reader/">this one that looks very similar) transforms text on any website using fonts, colors, and layouts that you choose.

To make it work, just select the part of the page you want to read and click the Readable icon in the status bar. The simplified, easier to read version of the selected text will load in a new pane in the foreground of the current page:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-02.jpg" alt="easy to read web pages" width="550" height="304" />

Right-clicking on the same icon lets the user customize the box and font size, color and contrast:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-03.jpg" alt="make web pages easier read" width="550" height="297" />

3. Nosquint

href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nosquint/">Nosquint (this addon has also been mentioned in a MUO article listing href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-addons-enhance-firefox-page-zoom-feature/">add-ons that improve Firefox’s page zoom feature) lets you adjust the font size and color as well as customize and “traditionalize” the overall page look and feel.

The addon allows you to:

• Set your own foreground and background colors (to adjust the contrast and make the page text easier to read);
• Hide all background images (to remove the clutter);
• Enjoy your zoom levels and color settings from site to site;
• Set the look of links (to stick to more standard and traditional patterns: for example, you can always underline links to easier recognize them).

The tool settings can be accessed by right-clicking on its icon in the status bar and clicking “Site Settings”:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-04.jpg" alt="Nosquint" width="492" height="291" />

The above dialog screen also lets you set the “Global Settings” for all the websites you visit (as well as add the exceptions):

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-05.jpg" alt="make web pages easier read" width="540" height="408" />

The current settings for each site can be seen on hover-over on the status bar icon:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-06.jpg" alt="make web pages easier read" width="340" height="161" />

4. Theme Font & Size Changer

If you spend much time using Firefox and its menus, you’ll find href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/theme-font-size-changer/">this addon invaluable. It changes the global font size and font family in all windows, menus, toolbars, etc within Firefox itself.

The tool settings can be accessed from the toolbar or status bar options.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-07.jpg" alt="make web pages easier to read" width="377" height="389" />

There ia a “Normal” value so that you can reset to the default Firefox values.

There are also compatibility issues with some FireFox themes, but if you are using the default theme, there’s nothing to worry about.

Are you aware of any other Firefox addons that would allow easier browsing and reading for people with poor eyesight? Please let us know in the comments!

 

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-tools-webpages-easier-read-people-poor-eyesight-firefox/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-tools-webpages-easier-read-people-poor-eyesight-firefox/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-tools-webpages-easier-read-people-poor-eyesight-firefox/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-tools-webpages-easier-read-people-poor-eyesight-firefox/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-tools-webpages-easier-read-people-poor-eyesight-firefox/&title=4 Tools To Make Web Pages Easier To Read For People With Poor Eyesight (Firefox)&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-tools-webpages-easier-read-people-poor-eyesight-firefox/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

 

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

class="st-related-posts">

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/vimperator-hardcore-firefox-addon-minimalists/" title="Vimperator – A Hardcore Firefox Add-On For Minimalists">Vimperator – A Hardcore Firefox Add-On For Minimalists (9 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/toomanytabs-turns-firefox-task-management-powerhouse/" title="TooManyTabs Turns Your Firefox Into A Task Management Powerhouse">TooManyTabs Turns Your Firefox Into A Task Management Powerhouse (32 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/switching-languages-firefox-easier/" title="Switch Between Languages in Firefox The Easy Way">Switch Between Languages in Firefox The Easy Way (7 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-multiplatform-app-save-information-read/" title="Read It Later: Save Information To Be Read Later On Any Device">Read It Later: Save Information To Be Read Later On Any Device (4 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/interclue-link-preview-firefox-addon-steroids/" title="Interclue – The Link Preview FireFox Addon on Steroids">Interclue – The Link Preview FireFox Addon on Steroids (6 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/restore-tabs-chrome-firefox-machines-tabcloud/" title="How To Restore Tabs In Chrome & Firefox Across Machines With TabCloud">How To Restore Tabs In Chrome & Firefox Across Machines With TabCloud (16 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/choose-browser-open-specific-link-firefox-extension/" title="How To Open Specific Links With Other Browsers While Using Firefox">How To Open Specific Links With Other Browsers While Using Firefox (16 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/load-google-search-results-preview-panel-page/" title="How To Load Google Search Results In A Preview Panel (On The Same Page)">How To Load Google Search Results In A Preview Panel (On The Same Page) (12 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-addons-enhance-firefox-page-zoom-feature/" title="6 Add-Ons To Improve Firefox Page Zoom Feature">6 Add-Ons To Improve Firefox Page Zoom Feature (9 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-firefox-plugins-that-let-you-easily-navigate-from-page-to-page/" title="3 FireFox Plugins That Let You Easily Navigate from Page to Page">3 FireFox Plugins That Let You Easily Navigate from Page to Page (11 comments)

View full post on MakeUseOf.com

class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/wordpress-logo1.png" alt="" width="200" height="188" />If you blog using class="vt-p" href="http://makeuseof.com/tags/wordpress">WordPress as your blogging software, you will know that it offers a lot of flexibility in design.  You can run a blog, class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-non-blog-wordpress-themes/">run a normal website, and even a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-buddypress-social-network-wordpress-30/">create a  social networking site.  You can also run a newspaper or magazine site using WordPress.

There are specific elements that make a site more magazine-isque (if that’s a word).  Some of which have to do with the layout of the front page.  Another characteristic of a magazine that you can now implement on your WordPress magazine site is that of multiple columns of text in pages and posts.

id="more-52193"> /> If you have ever read a magazine, you will know what I mean.  A normal WordPress site will typically have only one column of content text much like any blog.  If you read a magazine, you’ll notice how there can be multiple columns like in the screenshot below:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/multiple-columns_screenshot.jpg" alt="" width="440" height="500" />

Now with the proper plugin you can do this with WordPress in posts and pages.  The plugin is called “Magazine Columns” and it can be found in the class="vt-p" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/magazine-columns/">WordPress plugin directory ( class="vt-p" href="http://bavotasan.com/downloads/magazine-columns-wordpress-plugin/">author’s blog post).  We know though, that for plugins found on WordPress, we can just install them via our WordPress dashboard.  If you search for “magazine columns” it should come up as first on the list.  Make sure the author is “c.bavota” for this particular plugin.

After installing the plugin, all you have to do to create multiple columns in pages and posts is to insert “<!–column–>” where you want to begin the next column (up to 5 columns):

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/multiple-columns_html.png" alt="" width="409" height="277" />

You’ll also notice that there are added buttons in the HTML tab for easier implementation.  Using the “start columns” and “stop columns” buttons, you can easily have text before and after columns.  The result could look like this:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/multiple-columns_start-and-stop.png" alt="" width="570" height="317" />

Here’s a full screenshot of how my BloggerDoggie theme looks with multiple columns:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/multiple-columns_preview.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="368" />

You may be asking, “And that’s all there is to it?”  Yes.  Really.

Another cool part of this whole topic is that there is actually more than one plugin that does this for you.  Similar plugins to try are:

• class="vt-p" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-post-columns/">WP Post Columns – If you visit the author’s class="vt-p" href="http://www.samburdge.co.uk/plugins/wp-post-columns-plugin-2">plugin homepage, you’ll see that there are quite a few options via short codes.  This could be a positive or a negative depending on how easy you want the process to be.
• class="vt-p" href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-columnize/">WP Columnize – This plugin also has buttons in the HTML tab.  With them you can highlight the text and just hit the appropriate button.  Check out the author’s class="vt-p" href="http://darrinb.com/notes/2008/wp-columnize-a-wordpress-plugin-for-creating-columns-in-posts/">plugin homepage.

Whichever plugin you use, you’ll find you have quite a bit more flexibility.  Using WordPress for other anything other than blogging becomes a bit easier.  I know you can mess around with tables in HTML but why would you if a plugin can do it for you?

Do you use columns in WordPress to make it less like a blog?  What method do you use?

 

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-multiple-columns-wordpress-pages-posts/"> src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-multiple-columns-wordpress-pages-posts/"> href="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis/login?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-multiple-columns-wordpress-pages-posts/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/diggme.png"> href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-multiple-columns-wordpress-pages-posts/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/fb.jpg"> href="http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-multiple-columns-wordpress-pages-posts/&title=How To Create Multiple Columns In WordPress Pages & Posts&srcTitle=MakeUseOf.com"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/gbuzz-feed.png"> href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-multiple-columns-wordpress-pages-posts/"> src="http://www.makeuseof.com/images/rss-buttons/stumble.png">

 

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

class="st-related-posts">

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-easily-create-manage-a-faq-page-for-your-wordpress-blog/" title="How To Easily Create & Manage an FAQ Page For Your WordPress Blog">How To Easily Create & Manage an FAQ Page For Your WordPress Blog (24 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/email-blog-updates-wordpress-blog-postie/" title="Email Blog Updates To Your WordPress Blog With Postie">Email Blog Updates To Your WordPress Blog With Postie (15 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/commentluv-reward-commenters-on-your-blog-with-blog-links/" title="CommentLuv – Reward Commenters On Your Blog With Blog Links">CommentLuv – Reward Commenters On Your Blog With Blog Links (27 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/bring-interactive-linking-blog-apture/" title="Bring Interactive Linking To Your WordPress Blog With Apture">Bring Interactive Linking To Your WordPress Blog With Apture (17 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ckeditor-wordpress-theme-editor-plugin-replace-default-editor/" title="Add Loads of Features to the Default WordPress Editor with Dean’s FCKEditor">Add Loads of Features to the Default WordPress Editor with Dean’s FCKEditor (5 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-wordpress-plug-ins-to-automate-improve-your-blog-seo/" title="3 WordPress Plug-Ins To Automate & Improve Your Blog SEO">3 WordPress Plug-Ins To Automate & Improve Your Blog SEO (39 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/wordpress-exploit-scanner-helps-administrators-scan-their-database-for-malicious-files/" title="Wordpress Exploit Scanner Helps Administrators Scan Their Database For Malicious Files">WordPress Exploit Scanner Helps Administrators Scan Their Database For Malicious Files (14 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-5-free-ways-guestbook-website/" title="Top 5 Free Ways To Get a Guestbook For Your Website">Top 5 Free Ways To Get a Guestbook For Your Website (21 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-first-wordpress-plugins-you-must-install/" title="The First WordPress Plugins You Must Install">The First WordPress Plugins You Must Install (34 comments)

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-save-87-by-making-a-free-thesis-wordpress-theme-clone/" title="Save $87 By Making A Free ‘Thesis’ WordPress Theme Clone">Save $87 By Making A Free ‘Thesis’ WordPress Theme Clone (25 comments)

View full post on MakeUseOf.com

If you have an online home biz and your own domain it is highly likely that you make regular changes or add pages to your website. This can be a time consuming procedure at the best of times and if you have just got your own domain or are new to html it can be highly frustrating when you do not see the changes you have made and simply cannot figure out what has gone wrong.

It does not matter how many times you click the Refresh button, the same old web page still appears and you begin to wonder if you saved the changes before uploading your site. In fact you probably go to the trouble of downloading the site again and repeating the process to no avail.

What is cache?

Every time you visit a web page on the internet, your web browser will store a copy of that web page, including images and sounds in the Temporary Internet Files folder. This is often referred to as the cache. You may well notice how quickly a web page loads in your browser the second time you visit it, if you have not cleared your cache. Conversely, once you have cleared your cache, a site will take longer to load the first time round as it has no previous information to access from memory.

How to fix the problem:

The reason that you see your old web page is because your computer memory is still holding the old cache of your website. To overcome this problem in Internet Explorer open your online home biz website in your browser and hold down the Control key on your keyboard and at the same time click the Refresh button in your browser. This will force your browser to retrieve a copy of your website from the network server without comparing it to your cache. In other words it by-passes the cache in the memory of your computer and immediately your newly changed website should be visible.

How to clear your cache:

It is advisable to clear your cache regularly, not only to prevent your browser from loading out of date information about a site or image but, because cache takes up a lot of disk space and will eventually cause your computer to slow down.

To clear your cache in Internet Explorer 7, simply open a browser, click on Tools, then Internet Options, under Browsing History click Delete and there you will see the options to delete temporary internet files, cookies and history.

You can adjust your settings to automatically clear the cache whenever you close your browser. If you are using IE7, simply go to the Tools menu, and click Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab. In the Settings box, scroll down to the section labeled Security (look for the padlock icon), and click to check the box next to the Empty Temporary Internet Files Folder When Browser Is Closed option. Click OK to finish. This option will clear your cache of other files when you close your browser, but it does not delete cookies.

Clearing your cache may not cure this problem!

Another really frustrating and time consuming problem is that of opening a web site that you visit on a regular basis only to find that you cannot login? You keep getting sent back to the login page with no error messages coming up, like wrong username or password. If you are sure you have entered your correct details, make contact with the webmaster and usually he will be able to advise you of the problem. But, this can be caused when the DNS (Domain name system) provider of a web site is re-configured and using the method to clear cache may not work.

Apparently, some ISP (Internet Service Providers) are slower than others in updating the DNS records and sometimes a DNS change can take quite a while to be recognized by all ISPs. What you can do in this case is contact your ISP provider (Internet Provider) and ask them to put a bypass in to go around their cache engine. You may need to be persistent with this request, as the ISP can be reluctant to do the cache bypass.

Other benefits of clearing your cache:

Depending on how much time you spend on the internet on a daily basis, the temporary internet files or cache can take a few minutes to delete if done daily, but if you leave it and only delete them say once a month, you could be in for a long wait while your computer performs this task.

You may well find that your browser speed and performance increase too after clearing your cache.

When you are running an online home biz it is a great time saver if you clear your cache often, as this will help to keep your computer running smoothly and prevent it from getting bogged down with all the information on the web sites you have visited on the internet. It will also help get rid of unwanted gremlins that can creep into your computer via temporary internet files.

By using an advanced “Flash Players For Web Pages” Tool it seems like converting video(s) to web format has never been easier. If you want to quickly embed movie(s) on html pages you should consider using this unique technology. Read the following article to learn more about an easy VDO-to-Website encoding solution.

Getting some basics

The way it works is quit simple – “Flash Players For Web Pages” Tool encodes your videos into compact small sized files called .FLV, so they can easily play on any of your visitor’s Web Browsers. Your Webvideo(s) are ready to be published once you insert a small .html code to your page and upload the new files onto the Webhosting site. This method generates streaming webvideos – they are transmitted to your viewers continuously as they arrive with no need to download them first onto the hard disk.

Quick benefits and advantages

Let’s quickly examine what is in it for us:

* It attracts your visitors to stay more on your Website(s).
* Enables you to download, convert, and play YouTube videos on your Website(s).
* No need for any programming skills.
* It enables you to be more creative and persuasive.
* Compressing raw movies to 10% or less of their original file size!

There are probably many other great advantages provided by this unique system simply because it eliminates many technical difficulties involved with this encoding process.

Summary

Many Webmasters already recognize the fact that “Flash Players For Web Pages” Tool is a ‘must have’ tool simply due to the fact that plain text by itself just isn’t enough to promote an online business. Now that you understand how it works the best tip would be to try it by yourself so you could explore the fascinating opportunities that it provides.