webgarden.ca » Techy Stuff

Microsoft Office – on a shoestring

webgarden — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:47:33 +0000

Most business use PC to get their work done. Your windows based PC could be an HP, a Dell, Compaq, Acer… the list goes on, but you get the idea! Most of us in business also use the Microsoft office suite (that is Word, Excel, Powerpoint etc) which is incredibly important for creating and sharing documents and spreadsheets. The cost of MS office is usually around $400 – the student edition is also available for $150. But lets say you are a student (or more likely the parent of a student) – and you have just spent $700 on a laptop for collage – it is quite possible you can not (or do not want) to spend an addition $150 for MS Office. Did you know there is a free program that is so similar to Microsoft office that I dare say it is EXACTLY the same?
The name is Neo Office and you can download it here. While signing up to download, you will be asked to make a donation – I suggest donating $15 or $20 to the developers (come on… you just saved yourself $400!)
Once you have downloaded an installed Neo Office, you will notice that their text document and spreadsheet documents look very similar to word and excel (read: Exactly the same…) and after creating a file, you can select “save as” and save your documents as a word or excel file.

If you would like more information about Neo Office you can check out the help documents here. If you decide to install Neo Office, make sure you keep your copy up to date and always download the updates when prompted!

Do you remember the web back in 2001?

webgarden — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:13:20 +0000

Google is celebrating it’s 10th birthday this year, and to commemorate, it has put together Search 2001, a full scale version of Google as it was 7 years ago! (Apparently 7 years was as far back as they could easily go) Google’s Search 2001 includes the old google logo, and 1.3 billion URLS (instead of the trillion it is now!)

We have had fun searching the old index where facebook points to Facebook Havard, where Firefox is a personal home page and where iPhone was… well, I am not sure exactly what it was!

Check out some of the more notable changes:

What are some of the fun searches you have found? Share your comments below.

How to create a rotating header image in wordpress

webgarden — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:17:14 +0000

There is tons of information about how to make a random image header in wordpress, and just as many plugins - however, I wanted to make my own rotating header image. If you are like me, and you want “complete control” over your site – here is the easy way to make a rotating / random header image:

Create a folder called “header-images” & put your header images inside this folder
Upload header-images to your wp-content folder
Create a file called “rotate.php”
Add the following code to your “rotate.php” page (you can copy and paste from here: http://ma.tt/scripts/randomimage/ )
Upload rotate.php into the header-images folder (so that rotate.php is with all your images)
In your theme’s “style.css” file find “#header”
add the following code:
“background: url (…/header-images/rotate.php);” (this is telling your header to add the rotate.php as the background image)
Upload your css file
Test your site and your finished!

Questions? Send me a message or a comment and I will do my best to help you out.

How to remove 2 home pages from your wordpress blog

webgarden — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:33:57 +0000

Some wordpress themes and not very good a supporting “static” pages. After you have altered your wordpress blog into a static site, you may end up with 2 home links in your menu bar . To remove one of the two home pages go into your theme folder and find header.php. Locate the following code: (near the bottom)

comment out this part:

” title=”Home”>Home

Upload header.php and refresh your page to review the changes.

ALWAYS comment out the code – DO NOT DELETE – you never know when/ if you may need it again.

I hope this is helpful for some of you!

Costa Farm and Greenhouse

webgarden — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:24:29 +0000

I was surfing the web today and typed in Costa greenhouse to see how highly ranked in Google they are. To my suprise Costa Greenhouse is listed with a WARNING stating “this site may harm your computer”

and then, after clicking on the link, a second warning comes up, and takes up the whole page:

This is really BAD! First of all, this is a huge deterrent for your customers! Nobody wants to go to a site that could harm your computer! Secondly, if Google flags your site as being malicious – it is nearly impossible to get back into Google’s “good books” I really can’t believe that an international greenhouse & nursery doesn’t have a full time web developer taking care of this!

Then, after closer inspection of the site, I realized it is not THE Costa greenhouse in Florida – but Costa Farm & Greenhouse – a smaller and lesser known greenhouse and nursery. Good news for Costa Farms Florida! But I still think their web developer should be on top of closely associated names. Costa Farms should be actively developing new content to help them rank under both Costa Farms, Costa Greenhouses and Costa Nursery so that when a user is searching under any name, the correct Costa Farms comes up! Doing this will improve their google rankings, protect their reputation and help avoid confusion.

Do you think their web developer should be more on top of this? Why do you think he/she isn’t?

Install IE7 AND IE6 on your PC

webgarden — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:38:08 +0000

I have recently found a way to install all versions of Internet explorer on my PC. There are ways to do this using both freeware and paid applications, but my favorite thus far is a little program by Trendosoft which has an installer which contains IE3, 4, 5, 5.5 and 6. You can select some or all of the versions of IE you want to install and then it creates shortcuts on your desktop based on your selections. This is a great tool to use for checking cross browser compatibility and best of all it is FREE!

webgarden.com

webgarden — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:39:14 +0000

Well after reviewing the comments from my friend Gary (who is a very savvy Internet and computer guy I am taking back my original post (the part about the good people in the world…)

People are MONEY crazy – even monks!!!! The actual value of the webgarden.com domain is no more than $100. This is because they have no page ranking and no visitors to the site!

Let me put this into perspective for you. I bought the domain name “webgarden.CA” for less than $20/year from my favorite web-hosting company (BlueFur.com) This is the average price for a .CA website.

.COM website sells for as low as $5.95/year.

Personally, I see the value for webgarden.com as more than $100 so I am prepared to offer him $200 – which is double the appraised value.

What do you think? What type of money would you be willing to spend for a .COM domain?

webgarden.com

webgarden — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:16:40 +0000

I did a Google search for the ultimate .com name: “webgarden” and was surprised to find a wiki for the Tibetan Dharma Center, based in south Carolina!?!

After doing a whois search, I contacted the owner of the domain name, and asked if they were willing to sell their domain name, and if so, at what price?

Surprisingly, they responded within 24hours (very considerate!) and told me their price… unfortunately it’s about $9500 more than I wanted to spend:) Even though I can’t afford the webgarden.com domain name (at this time anyway!) I was very pleased at the fact they responded to my email!

I am feeling very warm and fuzzy from this experience (the world really is FULL of good hearted people)- and I am hoping soon for some good fortune so that I may be able to buy the ultimate domain name: webgarden.com!

What is a blog?

webgarden — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:15:59 +0000

I have heard time and time again, people asking what is a blog? So here is the official webgarden answer:

A blog is like a web journal where you can write your thoughts and ideas – it can be a particular subject, or just daily life – there are no rules! A typical blog combines text and pictures, as well as links to other blogs. One of the popular benefits of having a blog is that your readers (or yourself) has the option of typing in their comments.

A blog can be for business or personal use.The idea of a blog, is to develop an online community or following of people who enjoy reading your thoughts and ideas. A typical blog is displayed in chronological order – where the most current date is at the top followed by previous entries.

There are multiple benefits to having a blog. The first and foremost being improved Google rankings. Why is this you may ask? Because each time you write in your blog, you are providing brand new content-and Google loves websites that are rich with content!

Benefits of multiple domains

webgarden — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:17:58 +0000

Is there a benefit to buying multiple domains? For instance, let’s say my company name is West Coast Growers and I grow all kinds of tropical plants. Is it beneficial for me to buy “westcoastgrower.com, “orchid grower.com” , “bonsaigrower.com” ect… Does having multiple domains help Google rankings? Does it increase traffic to my site? Thanks in advance to all you techies for answering my question (and hopefully) enlightening me!