Posts Tagged piece of cake

Why do I need to sign this? -OR- the paperless office

Lets get this out of the way real quick, Why in 2010 are we still using FAX machines? Lets count the steps.

1.Type up digital document
2. Print digital document
3. Sign paper copy
4. Fax paper copy
document got to far side un-readable…
5. Re-fax paper copy
6. Reprint paper copy because fax machine rollers slipped on paper and mangled the paper document and the 2nd attempt to fax the document failed.

7. Fax Paper copy….

Wasn’t that fun.

Now lets look at the pure digital path to enlightenment.

1. Type up digital document

2.  Save document as PDF

3.  Send document via e-mail.

I know kung-fu

But there is somebody out there that says.  “I need my fax rcpt for time of delivery”.   E-mail does that.   Both delivery rcpt and a read rcpt option are available with most dedicated e-mail clients and some web based systems.

So they return with, I need my document signed.  To which I respond with, digital signatures, Or digital signature watermarks,  (a jpg copy of your signature placed in document prior to PDF conversion).

Wake up central Pennsylvania, It’s time to move on.  The technology is here, its tested, it works.   The only problem left is between your keyboard and your chair.

Office Space

It's time to move on and let our fax machines go.

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Why Joomla?

There are many tools available to site designers today, ranging from Adobe Dreamweaver to fully WYSIWYG web based environments, and any combination of these.  So, how do you choose?  Several factors will determine the choice that fits:

  1. What does the customer want?
  2. How much content will the site hold?
  3. How often will updates be made to the site?
  4. Who is making the updates?

As a professional web designer, I have tried the majority of popular tools available, and one has found its place as my tool of choice… Joomla!Joomla!

Joomla is an open source content management system (CMS) with an active development community, extreme extensibility, and a plethora of third party plugins, modules, and components.  Here are some of the main reasons why I make it my first choice as a development platform:

Template based –  Joomla styles the generated pages based upon css template design.  You can create your own templates, or use pre-designed versions available for free or at a modest cost.  These templates make it trivial to “try on” a new design with your site’s content.  Tweaking them to gain the exact look you desire is easy as well.

Rapid development – The core framework is in place when you install Joomla itself.  Your web server does need to support PHP and MySQL, which most Linux hosting packages do.  All you have to do at this point is add content, and create the graphic look and feel that you want.

Easy to migrate – The migration from development server to live server is a piece of cake.  Tools such as Akeeba Backup make the job so simple that virtually anyone can do it with the expected results.

Easy to update and maintain – This is perhaps the most important of the reason for using Joomla.  Anybody can update or add content to a Joomla site, even the customer.  While many design houses might not like this idea, we do.  It is a value-added feature when the client knows that they are not necessarily tied to you for small maintenance tasks.  With just two hours of training, we find that our customers are comfortable with creating in the backend.

Extensive selection of third party modulesPlugins, Modules, and Components, oh my!  There are so many out there.  Whatever functionality you are looking for in your site, chances are you’ll find a pre-built module that fits the bill.  Many of these are free (as in beer), and some are commercial.  The installation and uninstallation of these software components is so simple that it makes it a pleasure to give new ones a try.

If you haven’t given Joomla a shot, you really should.  It is a solid foundation on which to build a great looking website with modern functionality — in record time.

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