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The New & Improved NPower blog!
OK most of you know I started this blog at the beginning of 2008 to help you all with software related issues. Cool tips & tricks when using various programs. And Patrick Shaw, NPower’s manager of web & database projects, has had his blog to help with questions around web design & databases. So now what? Well these 2 blogs cover 1/2 of the services that NPower has been providing to nonprofits for the last 10 years. With a new year, it seemed like a good time to get our other 2 managers involved. We can’t have all of the blogging fun. So we’ve combined all of our ...
Image Resolution & InDesign
Now for the longest time I’ve told students in our InDesign classes that the way to tell if your photo is high quality is to open in up in Photoshop. Now InDesign CS4 will tell you the resolution of your graphic in the newly updated Links panel. This is one of those moments where I’m reminded that I don’t know everything. And when it comes to the Adobe products, that’s doubly so. Turns out that InDesign can & will tell you the resolution of your graphics in the older version. It just so happens that the Info panel, a panel that I stopped using when I switched ...
Making Snowflakes with InDesign
Since it’s been snowing so much here in Seattle, which is unusual for us; it seem appropriate that the folks over at InDesign Secrets have posted this handy tutorial on how to create snowflakes with InDesign. Or other really cool fractal designs.
Check it out, I’ve already creating several. Besure to ready the comments too, there are some great tips there. And you can do something similar using Illustrator, I posted about that a while back.
Creating Image Text with inDesign
For those of you who’ve taken NPower’s InDesign Intermediate, you may remember this handy trick. How you can use an image and make it appear inside your “text”. So that the characters are made up of the picture. It’s a cool trick and can make your document really stand out. The folks over at InDesign Secrets have a great posting about this. They do a great job explaining how it works, how to do it, and why the obvious method doesn’t work. That being, using the None or Paper choices in the Swatches panel. But this brings up an entirely different ...
Email Template Shortcut Buttons
A client of ours got frustrated with having to click on Send an Email, then Select a Template, and finally Select the right Contact(s) before hitting Send on a very common type of email. The email was still sent on a discretionary basis by staff so we couldn’t automate it with a workflow rule. The client [...]
Deleting Guides from Your InDesign Document
I know that lots of use work with Graphic Designers. We can’t all be design experts. Or you may have inherited InDesign documents from a previous staff member, etc. And lets just say that the way the did things doesn’t quite mess with your style. One of those migh, just might, be the use of guides. I’ve opened up some documents where the author had gone whole hog with the guides. I mean they were everywhere! I could hardly see the content on the page through the forest of guides. Now if this has ever happened to you, let me share a little trick that the folks over at ...
TXT Messaging Isn't Just for the Kids Anymore
Flickr Photo: BrownpauIn November, I was lucky enough to sit on a panel on text messaging for advocacy at the Convio Summit. My co-panelists, Matt Wilson from Mobile Commons and Kristin Kich of NARAL Pro Choice America both had some great case studies about using mobile to build lists and generate actions.There were lots of great questions during the session, including the very appropriate one about just who is texting anyway. Much like social media, there's an assumption out there that the only people who are texting are kids. That was probably true as recently as 2006/07. But it's ...
Office Greening for the Holidays: Closing Up Shop
If your organization is like many other offices in the U.S., your office will be closed for several days during these next two weeks. Here are a ten items to check off your list while shutting down for those days. In addition to helping the environment, you will also save money on electricity and prolong the life of many of your office electronics. 1. Shut down all computers; don't just put them in sleep mode. Computers in sleep mode still use a lot of energy. 2. Consider turning off servers that will not be used. Obviously, you can't shut down the server running your Web site or email, but ...
Microsoft Office at Macworld
Sad as it is for some Mac fanatics, Apple's decision to pull out of the Macworld conference after 2009 is probably a good sign. It shows that Apple has grown beyond its niche, trade-show market. I hope that the company will grow in other ways too: redoubling its focus on building secure, elegant software and hardware, possibly at the expense of a few gimmicky "One more thing..."-style announcements. One of my favorite things to come out of last year's Macworld was Microsoft's A Day at the Office. Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (MacBU) hosted a day-long presentation of the new ...
10 Resolutions to Green Your Technology
1. Set a green goal for the year & encourage everyone in your office to do the same. This year, our chief operating officer, Manning Sutton, asked each staff member to set a green goal for themselves and each manager to set a green goal for their department. These could be something as small as remembering to turn of their monitor each night to something as large as cutting the department’s printing in half. We have found that providing incentives or making it a competition between departments resonates with our staff members. Check out our forums for other green goals that we have ...
Online Learning Spotlight: GrantStation, Community Technology, Storytelling and Social Media
Are you too busy to leave your desk to learn a new skill or idea? Is your budget so tight that covering the cost of traveling makes attending training sessions impossible? If this describes you and your organization this list is for you! Take advantage of these low cost training solutions that you can participate in from the comfort of your own desk. If you offer online seminars and would like to be included on this list, contact ols@techsoup.org for more information. How Nonprofit Organizations Can Utilize Web 1.0 on a Shoestring, hosted by DIOSA | Communications Tuesday, January 6, 10 a.m. ...
Today Only - QuickBooks Pro 2009 Free
Our contact at Intuit just let us know that today only (Monday, December 22), QuickBooks Pro 2009 is free after rebate at Staples. You can purchase the product at your nearest Staples store or online.
This is good news for any organizations that aren't eligible for an Intuit donation or have already received their donation for the year and need another copy of QuickBooks.
Project for Awesome
I am a child of a certain time and place, a time and place where "dude" and "awesome" were considered perfectly acceptable words. I've weaned myself of "dude" -- except in reference to The Dude, of course -- but I can't kick my "awesome" habit. Fortunately, neither can the vlogbrothers. This week, they're launching the second Project for Awesome, in association with YouTube. Your challenge? Make a video asking your friends, colleagues, college roommates, and people on the street to support a cause you care about. The brothers will be ...
NTEN Leadership Series with John Kenyon
If one of your New Year's resolutions is to hone your skills on nonprofit technology, then here's a series to help you accomplish that goal. John Kenyon, a nonprofit consultant and overall technology guru, is holding a bunch of webinars in the early new year on topics from basic-level understanding of what's what, to more advanced training sessions on exciting topics like budgeting. OOOH!
Here are more details from the host himself:
John Kenyon is repeating his hugely successful series of webinars on technology for nonprofits in January and February of 2009.
Home for the Holidays: NTEN Office Closed, Dec. 22 - 26
Flickr Photo: Trey Ratcliff
All three of our bustling offices will be closed the week of December 22nd. For Karl and Annaliese, I assume that means closing a door and ignoring their computers -- or at least their in-boxes.
Here in Portland, we've already had our snow, so we're looking forward to the cooking, and the overeating, and the enjoying of life with friends and family.
Happy holidays from all of us to you and yours.
Consider LED Holiday Lights this Season
If you are going to use strings of holiday lights this season for your home or office, please consider using newer LED versions.
- They are greener because they save electricity, which means a lower carbon footprint
- They are safer since they are cooler
- You will save money on lower electricity costs ($0.54 vs. $24) and replacement costs since they last longer (est. 20x)
- So even though the initial cost is higher, it should be off-set by these lower costs.
Beloware some calculations to help you do the math on the electricity costs:
Webinar Series: Storytelling and Social Media
Stories that wrap your audience in and keep them listening will do wonders for your work. What is a story if it isn't heard? The magic of the social Web is making it easier and easier to get our stories out to more than our core audiences and allowing us to drawn in potential new listeners like never before.
Perhaps, you have heard a podcast or overheard someone talking about tagging or social bookmarking, but do you know how to make these tools work for telling your story?
Adopt a Computer Program for Public Libraries
On the MaintainIT blog, guest blogger Bess Haile has a delightful story about her library's new approach to budgeting for public computers. Her library's Adopt-a-Computer program is a simple way for friends of the library to show their support for free computer access.
Even more important than the program was the realization that led Bess to it: that if public computers could stay as a permanent part of the library's services, maintenance and upgrades needed to budgeted for, not just handled on an emergency basis.
Should you get Salesforce Certified?
Many Nonprofit System Administrator level users are wondering if they should get Salesforce Certified. This is actually a tricky questions because the Certification definitely carries value to the individual holding it, however, it can also prove to be of great value to the organization in validating the skill levels of their administrator(s).
Before you jump into [...]
Inbox N'at
Flickr Photo: DunechaserI'm shovelling my way out of both snow and email this week. The snow part has been humorous (because Portlanders don't do snow). The email in-box project has also been surprisingly fun: I found quite a few tidbits -- or this n'at, as Pittsurghers would say -- worth sharing. Here are some of the things I came across that you might also enjoy: Batgirl fights for equal pay. This is a great example of nonprofit video done right. Congrats to the Center for American Progress. The Security Quiz. I'll admit, I couldn't answer a few of these. Bad Geek! ...
