Mitchywitchy's Blog

Week in pictures

mitchywitchy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:10:46 +0000

What a cool webpart. You get to create a library, throw in your pictures, and have users view them in a slideshow setting.

Ran into a problem trying to disable the title link. Deleting the Title link from the webpart does not work because as soon as the page is refreshed, sharepoint automatically inserts the title url for the library into the link.

How did i fix it? I created a content editor webpart, put in the title eg Holiday Pictures, and minimized the webpart, and then created the week in pictures webpart, and hid the title.

When you view the page, the link to the library does not work anymore…i guess its easier to demonstrate it in a video.

Permission

mitchywitchy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:05:29 +0000

Permissions is harder than you think. I thought it was a simple thing to do, but it is very tricky. Take a survey, for example. How do you give users who have view only rights throughout a site, permissions to take a survey? The survey response button is automatically disabled.

After many blog posts, we finally found an answer. You had to give the users group a Contribute permission on the survey level permissions. Sounds simple now~ but trust me…it took a whole lot of playing around with it and researching before we figured it out.

Sharepoint kickoff

mitchywitchy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:38:11 +0000

I spent a whole week designing the front page, and i thought it would be easy, but it’s not.

I had to create a quick link section. The links webpart is great, but I soon found out, that you need to have a great way to organize the links so that they don’t look dead…*dont know how else to say this*** I added descriptions to each link, and this sounded like a great idea, but then, after viewing about 10 links with descriptions on the page, it looked so cluttered. So i played around with the layout, and it looked ok, but after going back the next day, it again looked cluttered. so i removed all the descriptions, and left the link titles only. I then added pictures under each group heading link, and it looked fabulous, or so i thought…until was told to remove them…haha…Anyways, the point of this, is that it is not so easy to fit a webpart with the rest of the page….you have to have an overall view of the whole site….

Sharepoint Kickoff

mitchywitchy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:32:22 +0000

So at work, we have started to implement sharepoint for our intranet, and boy!!! What a powerful tool. Seems easy to use, but once you start to use it, it is not as easy as it seems.

For example,

1. Adding a webpart is easy…anyone can do it. But, what is the purpose of the webpart that you want to add? Is it a week in pictures library..that’s cool. But what do you want to use it for? Only pictures of company events….Why not use it for something else that is more useful…let’s say.. post pictures of developments that your company has worked on.

2. The easiest way to learn sharepoint is to forget the instruction manual, and just go in and play with it. But, before you do it, it is very very helpful to get a basic class overview of what the different parts of sharepoint means. Also, a programming background is very helpful. ASP knowledge as well as visual basic will help you improve the customization of the site.

For our site, presentation is key. A good presentation of data is key. Without it, the site will easily become cluttered and ugly. There should be a strong idea of what you want the site to look like, and from that, multiple drafts should be made to ensure that the page is designed properly and user friendly.

Seth Godin MBA 6 month program

mitchywitchy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:08:16 +0000

What a fascinating idea….He’s got it all right.

Communicating with consumers…..permission marketing

mitchywitchy — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:03:30 +0000

I was talking to my husband the other day, and he was arguing that no one in their right mind, would give permission to advertisors to show ads to them. ….and I told him that a person would love to have ads shown to them if they were TAILORED to thier interests…I gave him an example…If i was searching to buy a laptop, then I would love if all the ads that were shown to me, would be that of laptops available for sale….Make my life easier….and the company’s too (think about it…no more mass advertising…..)

What i have been seeing lately, are ads trying to be tailored towards customers. But more often then not, the ads are not set to expire. I got married last year, and until january this year, they were still showing me ads for wedding showers, wedding cakes..etc…. If this technology imporoved, or if even there was a place that users could go in and click and say that they would like to view ads of xyz product,a nd also have an expiry date that they could set…so lets say…i want ads for a laptop for the next 2 weeks. After that period is over, i could change the criteria as to what ads i needed….

Isn’t that simple and great……

Click Z

mitchywitchy — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:27:45 +0000

Clickz is a great site to keep up to date with all the latest digital news around. For instance: Are talks between google and twitter going to amount to anything?

It also gives job postings, and seminars that are being held.

A truly great site

Update on new products

mitchywitchy — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:26:42 +0000

So the helmut idea is really crappy,as it is unsafe. But if you go to see, its easier to improve a product or service and enhance it.

is it hard to invent a product?

mitchywitchy — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:05:28 +0000

Our week assignment in our product design and development class was to come up with a product/service that we could use. I couldn’t believe it. all of our 12 ideas have already been invented. Here are some of them.

Treadmill with virtual reality, Wireless photo frame that links to flickr, kodak etc, sensor in shoes, Helmet with built in water so that players can drink while on the field to prevent fatigue, book sharing website, and the list goes on.

i never knew it took so long to come up with a new idea/service for a company.

Squidoo

mitchywitchy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:32:28 +0000

oh, my goodness…i just discovered squidoo. it is so addictive. I have to go back online tomorrow and try it out. Also on another note, twitter is also very addictive. I signed up for it, but i used a crazy name, but after browsing through people’s profiles, i realized that the best way to twitter is to use your name, and put up a photo. That way someone is more likely to read your posts,find you on twitter, and keep connected. I should invest in an iphone.
Also, am so fascinated with digital media especially social networking tools. Im a web developer, and now with all the tools available, i think that a company who hires a web developer/marketer should allow them to use such tools and also encourage transparency.