Website Tips: (don’t pay for what you can get free!)
Well, today’s website tip is really more of a general business tip.
Do you use a Word Processor, a SpreadSheet, PowerPoint or how about Flowcharts? Most people in business use at least one of these types of programs on a daily basis and more often than not, they are using Microsoft products to do it.

Well, there is no need. All the above softwares (and more) can be downloaded free in the Sun Microsystems Open Office suite. This is not pirate software nor is it some sort of hack software by an unknown company. The suite is every bit as powerful as Microsoft Office Suite without the price or limitations.

When using any proprietary software you not only have the price, but you have the perpetual need for upgrades as file formates change and features are added. This is not the case with an open source product like Open Office. In addition, upgrades to open source software usually come faster and bugs are fixed more quickly.

Concerned about all your old Microsoft files? Don’t be. It supports the ISO standard OpenDocument Format (ODF) for data interchange as its default file format, as well as Microsoft Office ‘97-2003 formats, among many others. Want to learn more about Open Office

Another great thing about the Open Office Suite is that it comes in a “portable” edition which can reside on your thumbdrive. In this way you can pop your USB drive into any computer anywhere and have your programs ready to run and work on your files. No information or files of any kind is left behind on the “host” computer. Take your whole office with you. You can download the portable Open Office here (along with a ton of other cool portable open source applications).

In case your wondering if I’m just blathering on about something I’ve never tried, I can say that I’ve been using Open Office for three years now, happily.

Download the Free Open Office Suite

http://download.openoffice.org/index.html

Ever wanted to be able to sync your email on every single computer that you use instantly and yet still access your email from “public” terminals too? This is often an issue for those of us who run email clients on our personal computers (outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) but still need to access emails away from the home/office.

When working at home you make changes to your email folders, delete emails, change status and “stars”, move emails from one folder to another. This all helps you to organize and run your office efficiently. But what happens when you access your email from your friends house, from that hotel lobby, or from Spain during your business trip. Unless you carry your laptop with you everywhere, you are forced to access your email accounts through your host server’s accounts, or hot mail, or yahoo, or all of them (for those who have like 20 email account spread all around).

When you access from abroad, all those changes, deletions and more are not going to be reflected in your “home base” email client. Upon your return back to the office, you are forced to download them all again and re-read every email, once again setting status, importance, moving to folders, etc.)… Leave for a week and this can be a real nightmare.

Not anymore. Google GMail now allows IMAP synchronization with most common email clients. What does this do? It syncs your online email with your email client in every way. That means when you’re in California in the hotel lobby and you delete 10 files, add five new folders, move 50 emails into 20 different folders and send 100 emails. Upon return to your office computer your email client will immediately delete those files, add those folder, move those files etc on your own computer. And it works the other way also, so that when you access your emails in Google Gmail from anywhere, you are always getting an up to date exact replica of your email client structure.

Because Gmail gives you an unholy amount of storage (always growing too) and allows you to create POP account addresses from anywhere you can consolidate every email from every account into once place which will sync with your “base camp” computer.

I myself have 11 email accounts from four different hosting services over the past eight years, all consolidated and stored in Gmail. All perfectly synced at all times with my Thunderbird Email client. It’s heaven.

Give it a try… doesn’t cost a cent.

Just a note for those of you who might be in need of some hosting services. We have lowered our prices on all Hosting packages. Now as low as $5.95/month. Damn! that’s cheap… and that includes multiple domains and 24/7 support and much more. Anyway, check it out if you are interested. http://www.bluegelmedia.com/hosting.htm

At last!!! I’ve been wanting these for years, and finally our design team has made it happen.  Joomla and Mambo CMS system design templates.   Joomla and Mambo are two of the most popular CMS system products available.  They make development and management of huge websites as easy as …. well as easy as can be.   In addition they a totally free since they are part of the wonderful world of Open Source software.

I myself have used Joomla and Mambo both for development of websites and love them.   Literally in a single day you can put together something which would have cost you thousands of dollars to have built and many months.   The open source nature of the systems also allow you to find free modules around the world, in every language which simply “plug n play” and add all sorts of features and functionality to your site.   Calendars, Ecommerce Stores, Photo Galleries, Shipping Calculators, Maps, etc etc etc……..   it’s endless.

The problem with these two systems has always been the visual aspect.  They are ugly!   The design options which come with the downloads are boring and ugly.   Yes, there are many sites out there who provide designs for Joomla and Mambo, but to date I’ve never found any that really look good.  They all still have the look of that guy next door who did it for you.   You can try and modify them yourself, but unless your really a php/css guru you are in for a long “hair pulling” time.

Well, we have the answer now.  Professional grade designs ready to use in your Joomla and Mambo CMS sites.  Check ‘em out! (Joomla Design Templates |  Mambo Design Templates)

Good news! With the new release of Swish Max2 from SwishZone.com we have released a new batch of Swish Max2 web design templates. This new category makes use of all the latest advances in Swish technology and design capabilities allowing us to create stunning websites ready for you to modify and publish. No longer does the layperson need to fear trying to build a high end Flash website. Between our templates and Swish Max2’s easy to use interface and drag/drop features, you will have your professional grade Flash website up and running in just hours.

Have you always wanted to work with Flash, but were turned off by the high price of Adobe Flash and/or apprehensive about trying to learn such a complex program? Well, maybe you should consider learning Swish instead. Swish is kind of the layperson’s Flash. It’s very “plug ‘n play” with an easy learning curve. It does most everything that the average person would want a Flash website or presentation to do and it’s only about 20% of the price of Adobe Flash. The new Swish Max2 currently goes for $149.95

I gave the new Swish Max2 a look over today and it seems they have added lot’s of new features to it. Here’s an overview of the new stuff they have added to the program.

Multimedia Effects and Components:
Choose from the built-in components or add your own custom built components.

• Bundled with over 230 built-in multimedia effects and a simple effects browser.
• Effects make animations with video, text, images, graphics and sound simple and quick to produce.
• The ability to author and distribute your own effects.
• All effects can be added to multiple objects at once.
• Supports multiple overlapping soundtracks with multiple sound effects.

Scripting

• No coding required! All interactivity can be added through a simple menu interface.
• Advanced scripting capabilities through SWiSHscript.

• Script editor which allows advanced user to enter scripts directly.
• Debugger that simplifies finding and fixing errors in your scripts.
• Syntax coloring, custom keywords and support for external script files

Drawing Tools

• Advanced set of drawing tools provided including: Line, Pencil, Pen, Text, Ellipse/Circle, Rectangle/Square and AutoShapes.
• Keyboard short cuts available for all the drawing tools.
• Complex Shape editing options making it easy to modify your shapes.
• AutoShapes that make adding and editing complex shapes like 3D cubes a breeze.
• Guides, grids, and alignment tools.
• Type text directly on the stage and give characters individual attributes.

User Interface

• A simple yet powerful interface means anyone can make stunning Flash animations in minutes.
• Objects, frames and effects can all be added, modified or deleted directly from the timeline.
• Multiple document support and easily hide/show all panels.
• Play all movies within SWiSH Max2 and play your movies at preset internet speeds.
• Sharing resources between your Flash movies is a breeze with the content library and assets.

Import & Export

• Import SWF movies produced in any other Flash application.
• Simply import videos, sounds, graphics and text files.
• SWiSH Max SWF movies can be imported into any other Flash application with ease.
• Advanced compression features help keep your SWF file sizes small.
• Exported HTML can use a custom template to include Javascript, CSS, PHP and more.
• Export straight to an AVI and GIF.

Two exciting new Flash design components (also known as flash extensions) have been developed by our Flash Loaded programmers, Flip Navigation and Designers Poll. Both of these new components can be implemented into a Flash website within minutes.

Flip Navigation Flash Component - Create and deploy entire Flash websites, widgets, banners or slideshows with flip transitions, using images, SWFs and movieclips, with no coding. Flip effects include easing, bounce and blur. The menu and button components (provided) allow you to easily flip through the pages of your site. Learn More…

Designers Poll Flash Components - Creates simple Flash poll voting systems with a single question and multiple answers. Data is stored in an XML file, without the need for a database. Uses browser cookies and Flash’s shared object to prevent voting more than once from the same computer. Fully skinnable. Learn More…