Posts Tagged: ‘Website’

Club Website Revisions (2024-07)

July 7, 2024 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

So far, I haven’t broken anything yet.  As you may or may not have heard, Paul Catrou has ended his duties as the Club Webmaster.  If you see him, please be sure to give him a big thank you for his service to the club.  Our club president twisted my arm and all of a sudden, I’m the guy.

My coding skills are a little rusty, but I hope to make some changes.  If you’ve been to the web site lately, you can see the new interface.  Hopefully, both members and the public will find it easier to navigate and find needed information.  I’ve tried to design it to look good on all devices.  I’ve been cursing phone screens a lot.  The idea is that all content will resize to fit all screens without the user having to zoom in or out.  The hamburger menu should make it easier to navigate.  I am also planning to add site map links to the bottom of each page.

If you haven’t checked it out, I would appreciate it if everyone did and let me know what they think.  I’ve already made some changes based on member input.  There are also some others on the way when I get the time.

So far, all of the changes are on the “front” end.  Registering for workshops, downloading newsletters, etc. haven’t changed.  In the future, I hope to make it easier with a “one click” process.  There are other potential uses for our club website.

Please check the site and let me or any of the club board members know what you think.  Opinions and ideas are welcome.  We want to make things useful for members.

Thanks for reading.

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WordHippo Website Review (2024-01)

January 24, 2024 Posted by Tiny

This month I’d like to tell you about a website that I use nearly every day.  I do a lot of writing.  LibreOffice and Scribus are the two main programs I use to edit most of the written material.  The WordHippo is the site I use for tools to (hopefully) help me do a better job with my content.

WordHippo was originally launched in 2008 as a site to find rhyming words.  It has evolved to include a thesaurus, dictionary, antonyms, word finder and many other word tools.  There are many sites on the internet that do these things.  This is the only one I have found where everything is on one easy to navigate page.

A complete list of word actions include:
• Synonyms – the thesaurus is the default home page.
• Antonyms – gives an extensive list of opposite words.
• Definitions – a pretty much standard dictionary.
• Rhymes – it even almost found a rhyme for purple.
• Sentences – gives several examples of word usage.
• Translations – only translates to and from 99 languages (some that I’ve never heard of).
• Word Unscramble – there are a lot of filters in this section.
• Find Words – you can select the number of letters and find words for Words With Friends, Scrabble and Crosswords. You can specify starting or ending letters. There are many more finding functions.
• Word Forms – finds plurals, past tense, present tense and more.
• Pronunciations – reads words and sentences aloud.

For the most part, the website is easy to use.  It utilizes a tabbed layout.  Entering a word in one section usually carries over to the other functions.  I turned off my ad blocker for the site.  There was only one advertisement on the right side of my monitor.  There are apps for both iOS and Android.  I haven’t tested them.

Give Word Hippo a try.  Everything is free and there are no up‑sells for a paid version.

Thanks for reading.

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Owning Your Own Domain (2019-06)

July 11, 2022 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

I purchased my first internet domain name on May 10, 2001.  For several years before that, I had a personal website that I hosted on the AOL free server.  Fast forward to 2018 and I’m the owner of a dozen different domain names.  I’ll admit that most of them are unused.  Someday my grandsons might want them.

I think that everyone should get their own domain for a variety of reasons.  The biggest reason is so that you can easily control your e‑mail.  If your e‑mail address is YourName@yourisp.net, you would lose it if you ever changed your Internet Service Provider to another company.  If you had your own domain, you could have the e‑mail address of YourName@yourdomain.com or .net, or .org, etc.  You would keep that e‑mail for as long as you owned the domain.  Never again would you have to change your e‑mail address.

Another advantage is that you could have many e‑mail addresses.  Most providers let you create at least a hundred separate addresses.  I usually create a new address for different sites.  If I get a lot of spam, I know who sold my e‑mail address.

Owning your domain isn’t expensive. For instance, HostGator, one of several hosting services that I’ve used, charges $12.95 a year to register a domain name.  Hosting services are $7.16 a month.  If you sign up for three years, the rate drops to $3.96.  If you do a web search you will find many companies and many different pricing plans.  For that low fee, you can get unlimited e mail addresses, disk space and bandwidth.  There are several other hosting sites that offer similar pricing.

Once you’ve purchased the service, you can easily make a website to show off your hobbies, a family photo album, or share recipes.  Other uses for personal domains and websites are to give family members their own e mail address, host private chat rooms, backup files, etc.  You can even create your own private cloud storage space.  You could also do like me: plain old fashioned BS.

Although it is helpful, there is no real reason to know HTML coding.  There are several free programs that can have your personal website up and running in just a few hours.  Most hosting companies offer easy installation of these applications.  Web searches will find you many more.  A final place to get help with a website is the Cajun Clickers Club.  There are several members that I’m sure would be more than willing to help.

All of my websites are powered by open-sourced software.  I use several free programs: RV Web Site Builder, WordPress, phpBB, Blue Griffon, to name just a few.  My point is that if you can use a word processor, you can use website software.

I sure hope I’ll be checking out some new websites in the near future.  After all, if I can create a website, anyone can.

Keep on clicking and thanks for reading.

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WordHippo Website

January 3, 2021 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

This month, instead of a free program, I’m going to tell you about a website that I use nearly every day.  I do a lot of writing.  LibreOffice and Scribus are the two main programs I use to edit the written material.  The WordHippo is the site I use for tools to (hopefully) help me do a better job with my content.

WordHippo was originally launched in 2008 as a site to find rhyming words.  It has evolved to include a thesaurus, dictionary, antonyms, word finder and many other word tools.  There are many sites on the internet that do these things.  This is the only one I have found where everything is on one easy to navigate page.

A complete list of word actions include:
• Synonyms – the thesaurus is the default home page.
• Antonyms – gives an extensive list of opposite words.
• Definitions – a pretty much standard dictionary.
• Rhymes – I would have never found a rhyme for lagniappe without this section.
• Sentences – gives several examples of word usage.
• Translations – only translates from English to other languages.
• Find Words – you can select the number of letters and find words for Words With Friends, Scrabble and Crosswords.  You can specify starting or ending letters.  There are many more finding functions.
• Word Forms – finds plurals, past tense, present tense and more.
• Pronunciations – reads words and sentences aloud.

For the most part, the website is easy to use.  It utilizes a tabbed layout.  Entering a word in one section carries over to the other functions.  I turned off my ad blocker for the site.  There was only one small unobtrusive advertisement on the right side of my monitor.  There are apps for both iOS and Android.  I haven’t tested them.

Give WordHippo a try.  Everything is free and there are no up‑sells for a paid version.

If you like the website, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Changing My Website Host

November 8, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

A couple of months ago, I gave a presentation on why I thought everyone should have their own domain, even if they didn’t have a website.  One of the things I stressed was taking care in choosing a web site hosting company.  I told them how hard it was to change to a new web host.  It was a pleasant surprise to find out that I was wrong.

I’ve been using the same web host and domain registrar for twenty years.  I’m not going to name which one because I’ve obviously been satisfied with the service, up‑time stats, support, speed, accessibility, etc.  I currently have three active web plans and about a dozen parked domains.

About a month ago, the hosting contract for tinys-bs.com expired.  For the past year or so, I had been toying with the idea of changing to HostGator.  Both of my computer clubs use the company without any problems.  Why am I changing?  There isn’t any specific reason, but instead a bunch of little ones.  Of course, cost is always a factor.  I’m not going to save a lot, but every nickel counts.  HostGator also makes it much easier to use Let’s Encrypt.  The internet has evolved to the point where SSL is almost mandatory.

I made the change with only one minor glitch.  Before changing hosting services, I transferred my domain names.  This did not go easily.  I believe it was because I tried to transfer both tinys-bs.com and tinysbs.com at the same time.  One change was successful and the second failed.  It took about a week to get it corrected.  In the future, when I move other domain names, I will only do one at a time.

I was dreading having to upload all my web site files and data.  There are almost 38,000 files and more than 2GB of data.  This turned out to be extremely easy.  HostGator has what they call the “Migrations Department”.  This assistance is used to transfer data to your new site.  It is normally a paid service but was free as part of my new customer package.

I decided to give it a try and it worked easily and perfectly.  It was a simple, three step operation.  All I had to do was complete an on‑line form.
1. Select the Destination Hosting Package.  This information was pre‑inserted into the proper areas after I selected my hosting package in a drop down box.
2. Enter Your Old Hosting Information.  There were several items I had to input:
• Account Domain Name
• IP/Hostname
• Control Panel URL
• Previous Hosting Company
• Control Panel Used
• Is there an SSL Certificate?
• Account Username
• Account Password
3. Submit the Transfer Request.  They said it could take up to a week to complete.  I got an e‑mail three days later with a link to check that all my files had completed successfully.

After I checked everything and deleted a few things I no longer used,  I was ready to shift to my new hosting service.  I did this by simply logging in to my hosting panel and changing the DNS Servers to point to my new location.

I wish everything on the internet was so easy to do.
Thanks for reading.

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BlueGriffon Web Editor – Originally Published July 2020

July 5, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

The club website is one of seven that I am currently maintaining.  To do so, I need some specialized tools.  For years, I was a “real” designer and wrote all my code in Notepad and later in Notepad++.  I may be showing my age, but I remember when I purchased Microsoft FrontPage in the late 1990’s.  I acquired it because DreamWeaver was just to darn expensive.  It turned out to be a good decision because DreamWeaver was later purchased by Adobe, which isn’t one of my favorite companies.

FrontPage taught me that I liked “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) editors.  I’ve tried many of them.  For the past year, I’ve been mostly using BlueGriffon.  Their tagline is “The next-gen Web and EPUB Editor based on the rendering engine of Firefox.” Old timers may remember the NVU Editor. BlueGriffon is a descendant of the program.

There is a new document wizard which is handy for starting a new page. You can easily select the page language: HTML 4, XHTML 1, XHTML 1.1, HTML 5 or XHTML 5.  The wizard then lets you enter document information: Title, Author, Description, Keywords, Language, etc.  You can also choose, fonts, link colors, background image and more.

The BlueGriffon interface is fairly basic and closely mimics a word processor toolbar layout.  Icons to the most common options are clearly laid out: adding a table, a single image or a thumbnail.  Switching from WYSIWYG view (where you can arrange objects visually) to the web page source code (where you can manipulate the web page by editing the HTML code) is done by clicking on two buttons at the bottom of the page.  You can also view WYSIWYG and source code in side by side windows.

I am definitely a user of the multiple tabs feature, which makes it easy to quickly switch from one document to another, copy and paste, etc.  My only problem is that inactive tabs are not easily seen without mousing over.  This sometimes makes it difficult to quickly go to the desired tab.

BlueGriffon is cross‑platform with versions for Windows 7, 8,10, Mac OS X and many Linux distros.  There is also a portable version (for Windows only).  Like much modern software, you can purchase a license and get more features.  One of these is a manual.  I’ve found that a web search works just as well.  You can find a complete list of features here.  To download the program, click here.
If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Core FTP LE – Originally Published March 2020

March 4, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
by Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is still surprisingly popular.  If you need to set up a simple way to transfer a file, FTP is a reliable, suitable method.  People and companies of all sizes use FTP every day when transferring files between clients and colleagues.  FTP is a great way to transfer large files or large amounts of data.  There are many free FTP Client and server applications.  For many years, I have been using Core FTP.

Core FTP is an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software that is used to transfer files between remote devices directly.  It is completely packed with features and functions which will assist you efficiently.  It is free software that is available only for Windows devices.  The most important feature of the software is that it provides support to a many protocols like FTP, SFTP with SSH and HTTPs/HTTP.  Other than that, the security of data is pretty important while transferring.  For that reason, it encrypts all the data as well as account information while the transfer of data is occurring.

The interface of the software is intuitive and easy to use.  To use the program, you must first connect to an FTP Server.  This is done by clicking the “new site” icon an inputting the host URL, user name and password.  After the initial connection is completed, the site is saved in the program’s “Site Manager”.  The next time you can easily reconnect by clicking on the site.

After the connection is made, the program shifts to the upload/download window.  There are two panes in the window.  Local files are on the left and the remote files on the right.  It is very easy for you to differentiate.  To upload a file(s), simply highlight them in the left pane.  You can upload clicking the upload button, right clicking, or drag and dropping.  Downloading is done in a similar manner.  If the file already exists, you are given options to overwrite or cancel.

The picture shows my connection to the club’s website. The left pane is the SWLAPCUG folder on my computer.  You may recognize some of the folder titles.  On the right you can see some of the files on the HostGator club website server.  The upper pane (below the menu bar) shows commands that are executing and their status.  The lower pane shows the progress of file transfers.

Core FTP LE/Lite is free for commercial, business, educational, and personal use.  There is a pro version, but I find it interesting to note that the website doesn’t list a price.  I assume that the price is dependent upon usage.  It is a Windows only program.  The CoreFTP download page has several options, including a voice pack.  If you have need of an FTP client, I highly recommend the program.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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Online Design Sites – Originally Published February 2020

February 16, 2020 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I know it looks a little grainy.  I know it looks a little tacky.  I know you probably said, “What the heck is Tiny doing now?”  Yes, I’m talking about the front page of this months newsletter.

There are a lot of online sites for designing things.  What is great about many of them is the fact that you don’t have to download and install software on your computer.  Some have been discussed at club meetings.  This month, I’d like to pass on a few that I use fairly often.

Create Word Clouds lets you make an image made of words that together resemble a cloudy shape.  The size of a word shows how important it is e.g. how often it appears in a text.  I’ve used it to create the heading image for “Big Words That You Will Probably Never Use” in the monthly newsletter.  I’ve also made a “history” header which I occasionally use.  It is easy to use.  Just type in, or copy and paste, your words.  Click “generate” and download your image.

˙ʞooqǝɔɐɟ uo sʇsod ǝʞɐɯ ı uǝɥʍ ʇoן ɐ bɹo˙ʇxǝʇdıןɟ ǝsn ı It is a fun little site that does only one thing.  Whatever you type is converted to “upside down” text.  Then just simply copy and paste to whatever medium you are using.  The only minor quibble I have with the site is that it doesn’t retain capital letters.

If you need to make a logo, DesignEvo is a site with more that 10,000 templates that you can use to design it in a few minutes.  Just pick a category, add a name and slogan (both optional), pick an icon and download your new logo.  You also have the option to change the font.

One of mah favo’ite sites is Th’ Dialeckizer. This hyar site has a simple corncepp.  Type o’ past whutevah yer hankerin’ t’say into th’ text box.  Then seleck a dialeck fum sevahal catego’ies: Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Mo’on, Pig Latin, Hacker o’ Censo’.  Yo’ kin also inter a URL address an’ translate an intire web page.  Redneck is th’ dialeck ah use most offen.

Almost all of the buttons and information tabs on the club’s web site were made on ImageFu.com.  Like all the links in this article, it is free and easy to use.  There are several options for text, coloring and shape.  After you’ve finished your design, click the “download” button.  Da Button Factory is another site that does the same thing.

I got the idea for this article after I stumbled across The Pulp‑O‑Mizer web site.  Although, the obvious purpose is to sell merchandise, I immediately thought it would be fun to do something for the club newsletter.  I designed the cover page in less than fifteen minutes without having to look at any instructions.  The reason it doesn’t look so great is because I expanded it to fit the page.  It wasn’t the best resolution.  You can see that it looks a lot better in the picture accompanying this article.  I probably won’t use this site again.

That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading.

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phpBB Originally Published January 2019

January 19, 2019 Posted by Tiny

Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch

la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.

This month I’m doing a different type of free software review.  phpBB is a program that most people will probably have no need for. phpBB is a free flat‑forum bulletin board software solution that can be used to stay in touch with a group of people or can power your entire website.  With an extensive database of user‑created extensions and styles database containing hundreds of style and image packages to customize your board, you can create a very unique forum in minutes.  The software was first released to the public December 16, 2000.

Why should you care about phpBB?  It is the software that is used to power the forums section of the club’s website.  It is an addition to some of the other features we have: Coppermine Photo Gallery, club members special e‑mail addresses and many others.  Unfortunately, most members don’t utilize many of the features.  Forums are online communities where people exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions.  Depending on what a forum is about, people can help one another, expose each other to different cultures, practices and more.  That is why forums have grown very popular.  The phpBB is one of the oldest, and without any possible doubts, the most used forum software around the world.

One of the reason that phpBB is the most popular forum software is that it is absolutely free to use.  Anyone can just go to their website, download and install the program and they are off and running.  The software can be easily customized as can be seen on the portal page of the club website.  Anti‑spam measures are great.  Tom and I haven’t had to delete an unwanted registrant in several years.  Users can easily manage and edit their profiles and avatars.  There is an excellent message system where members can send private messages to each other.

Like all software, there are a few things about phpBB that aren’t great.  The application is crafted for running forum serving as the only option.  It is impossible to run a blog or any other kinds of websites with phpBB.  This can be circumvented by making the phpBB forum a menu choice on a landing menu such as is done on our website.  There is a pretty large learning curve for setting up and managing forums, members, etc.  Fortunately, there are so many phpBB forums in use that a web search usually finds answers to any questions.  My biggest complaint is that I have only ever had one update go smoothly.  Like many others, I tend to wait for a while before attempting to install an update.  My advice is to search for problems before updating.  Give yourself plenty of time and follow instructions slowly and carefully.

So why would an individual want to install forum software on their website?  I’ve often thought of installing a forum on my personal website for family members to communicate with each other.  It would be a great alternative to posting on social media.  The only members would be brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc.  If you would like to find out more about phpBB, see demos, or download the software, check out the phpBB Creating Communities website.

If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.

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