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How To Add New Fonts To Your Graphics

While we were experimenting with layouts for a news letter for a project currently in the marketing department, we came upon the need for some additional font options for the headline and titles. While the built in fonts on a Mac are impressive, the headline wanted something more futuristic and stylized than those provided by default. A quick Google search identified that there are several sites which offer free fonts, and as the newsletter must be re-creatable, we wanted a freely available font for the headline on the style guide. After all you don’t want to pay for a custom font which you have to license for every user who may recreate the newsletter in the future.

On a Mac it is simple to install extra fonts. You just download them and then open the Zip or Archive file in Finder and then double click the font so that it opens in Font Book. If the font is what you are looking for just click the Install Font button. OpenType fonts work in Mac OS X, and TrueType fonts work in Mac OS X and earlier versions.

There is a little bit more to do in Windows, and you must be an Administrator on the target machine to install or remove fonts.

To install a font in Windows the hard way, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, and then click Run.
  2. Type the following command, and then click OK:
    %windir%\fonts
  3. On the File menu, click Install New Font.
  4. In the Drives box, click the drive that contains the font that you want to add.

Alternatively, you can also browse to a file in Explorer and then either

  • right-click on the font file, and then select ‘Install’ from the drop-down menu.
  • double-click on the font file to open the font preview and click the ‘Install’ button.

We are installing the new font for embedding in a header graphic, so everyone will see the same result. We tend not to use these custom fonts on web pages as most viewers will not have them installed, and you dont want to lose fancy twirls and long descenders.

A great site to visit is dafont.com where they have an excelent selection of Free, Shareware, Free for Personal Use and Public domain/GNU GPL fonts which will meet most needs. We particularly liked the Sci-Fi selection which includes gems like Star Jedi and terminator! We discounted fonts marked “Free for personal use” as this newsletter is to support a database which is launching in a corporate market.

Why not explore the wonderful world of fonts and give you next newsletter some character?

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Quick Tip For Adding PayPal Buttons In WordPress

Setting up a WordPress blog for promoting a service or product of your own is a great way to get up and running on the Internet. You can be up and blogging in a few hours, and maintain the site for yourself. However, if you want to attract payment through your site, you may find that your PayPal Buttons do not work correctly in your posts or pages.

Here is a simple WordPress guide to add a PayPal payment button within posts on your blog. Follow these seven steps to add PayPal to your site and monetize your online presence.

Seven Quick steps to putting a PayPal Button on your WordPress Blog

  • Install WP Simple Adsense Insertion, which is a simple WordPress plugin to insert Google Adsense into posts, pages, sidebars.
  • Activate the plugin, which will add a new Simple Adsense Insertion menu option under the settings menu option.
  • Login to your PayPal account, then go to Merchant Services and then chose your option from the available list.
  • For the purpose of this exercise we will select Sell Single Items, and fill in the boxes for your service or product.
  • Highlight the code for your Button under the Website tab and press Cmd +C (Mac) or Ctrl + C (Windows) to copy the code for the button.
  • In WordPress click on Simple Adsense Insertion and then click into the top text field next to Adsense Ad Campaign 1 Code and Cmd +V (Mac) or Ctrl + V (Windows), and then click Update Options
  • Back in your new post or page, paste the code into the edit box where you want the button to appear, and click Publish to save your entry.

Use this simple guide to add a PayPal payment button within posts on your WordPress blog, and start to earn money!

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Increase Your Productivity with Multi Monitor Graphic Cards

Have you ever wanted to see more of your spreadsheet on screen in one glance, without having to zoom out until the text is almost unreadable? Do you find that you are telling yourself that the job would be much easier if you could open two documents at one time and have them side by side on the screen? Do you feel that you could be even more productive if your display area was bigger?

This week we are looking at ways to increase your productivity using Multi Monitor Graphic Cards. Rather than opening up your PC case and installing another graphics card, a non-starter for laptop users, why not use an external device that splits your video output between two or more monitors? This is especially useful for notebook users, as it allows you to have maximum desktop space in the office, for maximum productivity, while still allowing you freedom on the move.

Matrox D2G-A2A-IF DualHead2Go Analog Edition Graphic Card

The first product we are looking at is the Matrox D2G-A2A-IF DualHead2Go Analog Edition Graphic Card

An external multi-monitor upgrade for notebooks and desktop computers which is ideal for business and professional users looking to increase their productivity with a dual monitor setup. Supports up to dual 1280 x 1024 Video Output, that is 2560 x 1024 (dual 1280 x 1024) at 60 Hz, provided your graphics card has enough memory.

This small box lets you run different applications on each monitor or view one application across two monitors. DualHead2Go is available in analog and digital editions.

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Quick Links to WordPress Resources

You probably know by now that WordPress is a world renown blogging platform, with millions of installs and active sites. You also know that at TechCo Systems we understand the need for small business to boost their Internet marketing without spending a fortune on advertising. That is why we recommend using a Blog to give you an Internet presence for boosting your marketing, or getting your message out there.

Here are some Quick Links to useful WordPress resources, which should help you to get started with a Blog based site to increase your marketing:

There is also a warning from Matt Mullenweg, one of the creators of WordPress about taking things too far:

If you want

Finally for those who like to see and hear the speakers tell you how to do things, see WordPress.tv

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Warning About Buying A Wireless Microphone System

Buying A Wireless Microphone System?
Are you considering purchasing a wireless microphone system, and are wondering which one to buy? There are a few questions you might like to ask your supplier before parting with some hard earned cash!

  • Do I need a licence to use it now, or in the future?
  • Will it be legal after 1st January 2012?
  • Can it use an unlicenced frequency band?

Users of Professional Wireless Microphone System (PWMS), should be wary of changes made to the wireless spectrum by Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, will mean that after 1st January 2012, some equipment will have to change frequencies or be illegal. This affects equipment such as wireless microphones, wireless instrument links and in-ear monitors, which use Channel 69. Ofcom are having at the moment is regarding Channel 69, and selling those ranges off… the question is, what happens to wireless microphones that are currently licensed to use Channel 69?

The answer is that after 1st January 2012, users of wireless microphones, or any of the other equipment mentioned above on Channels 69 will run the risk of prosecution by Ofcom. After that, Channel 70 will still be free but will only have 4 usable frequencies and could be useless if other users (other events, churches, theatres, clubs etc.) are in range.

Using existing equipment on Channels 69 and 70 is OK without a licence until Jan 1st 2012. For specific details of frequencies that will be available in your area, see the UK Shared Wireless Microphone Spectrum tool provided by JFMG, below.

Ofcom have proposed to provide funding to eligible PMSE users who are affected by the clearing channel 69, but as usual there are some hoops to jump through, if you think you are going to be affected. First, users will need to register claims through the appointed PMSE funding scheme administrator, Equiniti Ltd. Registration opened on 23 September 2010 and will close at the end of December 2010.

Who is eligible for funding?
To be eligible for funding, a user must have held a licence to use channel 69 equipment on 2 February 2009 (when Ofcom gave notice that they planned to clear channel 69), or in the 12 months before this date. The only exception to this requirement is companies who can prove their business involves hiring out, rather than using, equipment which needs a channel 69 licence.

Users will only be able to receive funding for working equipment that tunes to channel 69 but not channel 38. They must have bought that equipment before 30 June 2009 (when Ofcom confirmed channel 38 would be replacing channel 69).

The Ofcom proposed funding scheme aimed to help those affected by the changes can be summarized as follows. Those eligible would be:

  • Users who purchased before 2nd February 2009 equipment capable of tuning to Channel 69 but not Channel 38 and were in possession of a valid Channel 69 licence after 2nd February 2008.
  • Licensed users who needed to buy Channel 69 equipment between February 2009 and 30 June 2009.
  • and Rental companies

Users who will not be eligible for funding under the proposals are:

  • Channel 31 – 37 users.
  • Channel 60 – 68 users.
  • Users whose equipment does not tune to Channel 69.
  • Users whose equipment tunes to Channel 69 but also tunes to Channel 38.
  • Users who have never held a licence to operate Channel 69.
  • Users who purchase Channel 69 equipment after 30 June 2009.

To find out more check out the following links:

If you are currently considering buying a wireless microphone system, make sure that you ask the supplier to confirm that it will operate in the free Channel 70, or consider buying a licence for channel 38. After 2012 only channel 70 may be used for free, and channel 38 may only be used with a licence. You have been warned!

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Think Tank Slams Government IT

According to an article in Computer Weekly, a government think-tank has proposed dismantling the IT systems and business ecosystem established by Labour’s drive to computerise government. In an eBook entitled Better for Less: How to make Government IT deliver savings, posted on the Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age website, Liam Maxwell and six other named contributors slam the track record of the government in IT procurement.

Using headings like An Evolutionary Dead End, Bad Systems Concreted In, and Very Successfully Resisting Change, the paper describes how the UK Government has enabled a small group of overly influential System Integrators to corner the market, and dispensed with appropriate transparency in the name of Commercial Confidentiality.

The other fundamental problem outlined is that Government IT has been steered away from the IT mainstream, which encompasses open platforms, open competition and rapid innovation, and diverted the huge number of captive users into an expensive, proprietary sideline, where there can be little competitive leverage. Security is cited as the smokescreen which hides the truth about poor systems implementations and inexplicable policy decisions, although commercial exploitation of the ignorant and helpless is the most likely explanation. We would argue that this is a deliberate policy by the IT suppliers which allows them to act as the only consulted advisors, and so helps to perpetuate the situation and their continued revenue.

Just to be clear, Liam Maxwell has slammed the whole way that Government IT procurement is handled, which is about time. He has identified at least seven examples where savings could be made without massive changes to the infrastructure

  • A test environment for development companies with easy access to rack-space
  • Open Source on the desktop through the use of Open Document Format
  • New models sought for software framework (may we suggest Apache, My SQL, PHP for a start)
  • Commoditization of Email and office productivity
  • Common Security Framework
  • Migrating Schools to Free email services
  • Prizes for IT innovation in education

The view we take is that because you need as many people to monitor and manage the contract than you employed originally, to deliver the service in house, and attempt to innovate where innovation is stifled, it can and will never save money. Furthermore, because the outsourced supplier never delivers all the services that were provided by the in-house team, you have to keep most of those staff on to fill in the gaps. The net result is an increase in staffing costs, less flexible service because of the overheads of “governance” and a worse service to the consumer, and in the end the tax payer.

We would like to take this even further, as the policy makers likely do not read this blog, any more that the suppliers do! Although legal constraints prevent us from actually calling for the sacking of specific individuals for incompetence (remember that quote from Microsoft’s Ed Bott that “Any IT professional who is still allowing IE6 to be used in a corporate setting is guilty of malpractice“?) or naming the guilty parties who are preparing to roll out unsupportable version of operating systems and software on new platforms going live about now, remember we are watching you.

We commend Liam Maxwell for putting in writing what many people have known for a long time: Government outsourcing using the existing framework does not work. We recommend everyone involved in Government IT procurement, on either side, should read Better for Less: How to make Government IT deliver savings.

Finally, the warning to the IT suppliers should be clear, but if not we will restate it to make sure the message gets home. Remember the following three fortune cookie quotes:

  • Use of IE6 in a Corporate Setting is Malpractice
  • More than two software versions behind the current manufacturer’s recommendations is effectively deploying obsolescence
  • Ignoring the calls of reason from the little guy is commercial suicide

Click here to read Better for Less: How to make Government IT deliver savings

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The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age Featured Blog

The featured Blog this week is The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age, which is a WordPress Blog hosted at WordPress.com. It uses the Freshy theme by Jide and may be described as a comparative newcomer in the blogosphere, with its first post date-stamped on 28th June 2010.

The current headline post dated 8th September 2010 is a leader for a report entitled Better for Less: How to make Government IT deliver saving. This critical report by Liam Maxwell investigates the quagmire of government IT. In fact you might say that he has slammed the whole way that Government IT procurement is handled. The report is linked from the site, and should be read by anyone in government IT with responsibility for procurement.

The main reasons for singling out this site as a featured blog, is more about what it represents rather than it’s august history. This is a Think Tank, close to government which is criticizing the status quo. We consider that at least five of the seven examples of potential saving have merit, and the others may be examples where savings could be made without massive changes to the infrastructure

  • A test environment for development companies with easy access to rack-space
  • Open Source on the desktop through the use of Open Document Format
  • New models sought for software framework (may we suggest Apache, My SQL, PHP for a start)
  • Commoditization of Email and office productivity
  • Common Security Framework
  • Migrating Schools to Free email services
  • Prizes for IT innovation in education

Plaudits to The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age for hosting this message on WordPress.com and using the most popular blogging platform on the planet – WordPress!

Click here to visit The Network for the Post-Bureaucratic Age

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Theme Update for TechCo Support Site

Those of you who visit TechCo Support regularly will notice that we have now updated our theme to Atahualpa 3.5.1. Atahualpa is a highly configurable WordPress theme which allows you to change hundreds of parameters and features to suit your needs

There are a huge number of configurable items, (268 according to BytesForAll, the theme creators) with five separate categories for changing the header area alone. The theme will support five columns, with one or two sidebars on either side, each of which can have a number of combination such as display on Pages, or Categories, or not. The sidebar combinations alone would fill a substantial article, so let it suffice to say that you can configure them to meet most requirements, no matter what they are.

Atahualpa features a distinctive rotating header image, which changes every time you load a page. This can be further rotated selecting from the WordPress dashboard, Appearance, then Atahualpa Theme Options, Header Images, Rotate header images with Javascript, and setting a value in seconds in the dropdown.

For this to work, you will need a selection of images of the correct header size: 1300 pixels width, by 160 pixels high by default. You can also select to have the images transition by fading out then in, in the same place.

To install the Atahualpa theme, there are two methods:
Automatic Install From the WordPress Dashboard

  • Click on Themes, Under Appearance
  • Select the Install Themes tab
  • Type Atahualpa in the textbox under Search for themes by keyword, author, or tag.
  • Ensure Term is selected in the Dropdown, and click Search
  • When the Atahualpa theme appears below, click Install
  • After the transparant overlay appears, click the Install Now button
  • You should then see messages including the following:
    • Unpacking the package…
    • Installing the theme…
    • Successfully installed the theme Atahualpa 3.4.9.
  • Activate the theme by clicking the Activate link next to Actions, and you are in business!

Manual Install
Alternatively, for those used to manually installing WordPress themes, you can download the package, unpack it and then upload it to the Themes directory on your site. You should end up with a directory called atahualpa351, or whatever is the version number. Atahualpa versions will happily coexist with earlier releases, so if there is something you do not like you can always revert to the earlier version.

This versatile theme from BytesForAll is available currently as version 3.5.3, which we are actively evaluating at the moment. The latest version of Atahualpa also includes support for the new WP 3+ menu system integrated with 2 Menu Locations (called Menu 1 and Menu 2). The original Page Menu Bar and Category Menu Bar will work if you don’t setup a menu with the new system. We will let you know as soon as we apply this update to our live sites

If you are interested in using Atahualpa on your own WordPress blog, then see

  • Bytes For All
  • Atahualpa Support Forum
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    Katie Freiling featured WordPress blog

    The featured WordPress blog this week is the personal, coaching and marketing site of Katie Freiling, a social media, blogging, and personal development coach in the online home business industry. This one takes the headline position because of its balance between the personal blog style, and the content and panache of a marketing guru. It uses the Fresh News theme by WooThemes from WooThemes

    The site is a must see for anybody who is considering setting up a blog for marketing purposes, including nonprofit organizations, associations or coalitions, or even just to promote a worthy cause. It contains tips on Video marketing, getting top rankings in search engines, list building and numerous desirable achievements. The included YouTube videos are textbook examples of the way to build your brand online, in small chunks.

    Among her plugins, Katie is using the WP-FacebookConnect, WP-Polls and the ubiquitous Contact Form 7. WP-FacebookConnect adds Facebook functionality to WordPress using the Facebook Connect APIs. It provides single sign-on, avatars, and News Feed publication of comments. WP-Polls adds an AJAX based poll system to your WordPress blog so that you can easily include a poll into a page or post.

    You can find the plugins to add to your own WordPress site by following the links below:

    Click here to visit Katie Freiling’s blog

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    Changing Pages To Posts

    Sometimes in the life of a WordPress Blog there comes a moment when you realize that a static page you created (say for an upcoming event or campaign) has time expired, but still contains useful information. You might like your users to find the detail, in a search, but you do not want it clogging up your page structure, so it is time to make it a historic post. What you really need is an easy way to change a Page into a Post!

    You can create a new post, copy all the detail into it from your old page, and then delete the page, setting the Publish date to the original date. However, the easy way to change a WordPress Page into a Post is to use a widget!

    Changing Pages To Posts
    The widget we are currently using is called Post Type Switcher, by John James Jacoby. After installing this plugin and activating it, you will see a new option under Publish when editing a page or a post, Post Type. Clicking on the Edit link next to it will allow you to select Posts, Pages, or if you have any custom types defined Custom. Click OK, and the Page entry you are editing will turn into a Post. Simple!