This morning I stopped by a popular coffee/donut chain franchise. I went through the drive-up placed my order for two items. I had a vague idea of what the total should have come to. I pulled up to the window and was told by the cashier a price that was several dollars less than I expected. I asked if she had gotten both of my items and she responded with “shhh. I rung it up wrong.” Ok, now I’m not going to make a big deal about something that will save me a little money but something struck me about this situation.

I started to think about what might have actually transpired and it seems there are at least three possibilities.

1. The cashier knew she made a mistake but was too lazy or disinterested to fix it.
2. The cashier chose me for a Random Act of Kindness at the expense of her employer.
3. The cashier realized she had made a mistake but didn’t know how to correct it.

While the first two options are possible, they don’t seem likely. This person didn’t strike me as lazy, disinterested, or enough of a radical to purposely enter the order incorrectly. This leaves option number three. This order was placed in a drive-up. This means that once one order has been entered it moves into the que to be paid and another order is taken. I’ve worked in fast food style drive-ups as a cashier, and while my experience is dated the option existed, even in the early 1990s, to correct an order at the time of payment. However, you had to be fairly comfortable with the Point of Sale system in order to make the changes. This lack of understanding could have been because the person was new on the job, lacked proper training, or just couldn’t keep the steps required to change an order in the computer in her head.

It’s possible to relate this situation to other areas involving technology and software. I’ve been really struggling with getting templates for a client project working just right. And just letting some of the details slide becomes very tempting when the software is jam-packed with bugs and “design features” that make template development a nightmare. How often do we ignore a problem or mistake because we are not comfortable enough with the technology that we are using to fix it? The problems could stem from glitches and usability issues in a piece of software, lack of documentation, or lack of time and inclination to really master the ins and outs of software. Do we use a workaround instead of finding a solution? Software is sometimes underdeveloped or released with so many issues that workarounds are the only way to survive, but what if the answer is there, hidden in a menu or a toolbar?

What level of effort do you place into making sure the work that you produce does not contain recognized but ignored mistakes or fixable workarounds? On the other hand, how much effort should be given to an issue before a workaround used instead? There must be a point where a workaround must be used when the solution is not apparent or just plain impossible. The challenge, I guess, is to determine when to strive for perfection and at what point to accept defeat.

photo credit: aeu04117

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This is my very first plugin release. The code is heavily based on the Sig2Feed by Brendan Borlase at http://www.smackfoo.com/

This plugin will enable you to include ads from the Pheedo RSS advertising network in your WordPress RSS feed. It also gives the ability to add HTML and Text signatures into the feed.

Installation Instructions:

1. Download the current plugin
2. Extract the file pheedo.php into your wp-content/plugins folder
3. Activate the “Add Pheedo” plugin from the Plugins page in your Wordpress administration panel.
4. Navigate to the “Add Pheedo” option from the “Manage” tab in your wordpress administration panel.
5. Register for a publisher account with Pheedo.
6. Set up a “Green” feed and insert your feed url, usually http://mydomain.com/feed
7. Copy the code exactly as provided by Pheedo for the Green feed into the box, replacing the example information.
8. Check the activate button, or include <!-- pheedo --> in the individual posts that the ads/signature should be included on.
9. Click the “Update Options” button

At this point your Pheedo ads should begin appearing in the footer area of your feed entires.

Please consider this plugin to be a beta release and report any issues back to me via the contact page or as a comment on this post. This plugin is currently working with WordPress 2.5.1 but should also with versions as old as 2.1

If you find the Add Pheedo plugin useful, please consider making a donation to support it’s development. Thank you!

Updated 5/10/08: Plugin added to the WordPress plugin repository: HERE

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For the last several weeks I’ve been struggling to find a way get Word 2008 to allow for only specified sections of a document to be protected. I’ve used this feature in previous versions of Word and was shocked to find that it was, apparently, missing in 2008. Tonight, while looking through menu options, I found the answer to this problem and I wanted to take a moment to share my find.

The documents that I need apply this to are a series of Word 2008 specific templates. This includes fax, letter, memo, etc. All of the documents require the use of form fields that allow the user to enter information and then tab to the next field. In order to be able to tab through the fields the document must be protected. This essentially freezes everything on the page except the contents of the form fields. The problem with this is that formatting can not be applied to the contents of form fields. The body of the documents require the use of all formatting functions. Also, spell checking does not function within protected documents.

Thankfully Microsoft has provided a solution to this problem through the use of continuous section breaks. Section breaks are intended to be used for inserting breaks for chapters and such without actually creating a page break. For the purpose of these templates, however the continuous section break will allow us to leave one or more sections of the document unprotected.

A basic guide to create a template using this method:

Start by creating the layout of the document. Use the”Forms” toolbar to insert Text Form Fields where tabbable fields will be needed.

When the layout of the document is complete with all styles applied and Text Form Fields inserted the next step is to determine which sections of the document will need to be protected and which will need to remain unprotected.

To insert a section break navigate to the Insert drop-down menu, hover over “Break,” and then click on “Section Break (Continuous)”

Once the appropriate continuous section breaks have been inserted the document can be protected. In order to choose which sections of the document will be protected you must navigate to the “Tools” drop-down menu, and then click on “Protect Document.” On the resulting dialog box choose the radio option for “Forms” and then click the “Sections” button. Another dialog box will appear which will allow you to select any or all of the existing document sections to be protected. Check the appropriate check-boxes and click “OK” on both dialog boxes to complete the protection process. At this point you should be able to tab through the Text Form Fields and enter information into each field without being able to disturb static information that is located in a protected section. The area in the unprotected sections of the document can be edited, formated, and modified as usual.

I have one remaining issue with with section protection in Word 2008. While manual spell check will function perfectly well on the unprotected sections of the document, the Auto Spell Check will not. I am searching for a solution to this problem but it appears to be a bug in the software. I hope that Microsoft will address this issue in an upcoming software update.

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Awhile back, my partner and I took on a project to create a series of Word templates for a design firm. They provided all the specifications, measurements, fonts, etc. All we would have to do is make the templates fit to their specs. We knew from the beginning that they would be using the templates in a Mac only environment and that they were not concerned about cross compatibility. We proceeded to create the documents in a PC environment since neither of us had a Mac readily available to us. Between us we were able to create the documents to function just the way they requested. The end user would be able to tab through fields until they reached the main part of the document where they could type text, apply formating and retain the ability to use the auto spell check functions. Several fields located in the headers and footers that would update dynamically by using a simple macro that ran when leaving a form field and whenever the document was opened or saved. It was a complex solution that required a good bit of research to put together but it all worked.

The documents were sent and tested in the Word 2004 environment. There were a few issues that would require the use of a Mac to correct. My partner ordered a Mac mini and the project paused for quite some time. The new year began and it was time to get back on the project. During the pause Office 2008 for Mac was released and the client migrated the entire company to the new version. We corrected some of the minor details in the templates and assumed that all would be well with the world. We were wrong.

Several major issues arose within the templates. The section breaks were broken, the entire document became protected which meant the body area could not be edited while the form fields were in protected mode. In addition to this the header and footer fields would not update, and the spell check was non-functional. The documents were completely unusable. The client has made it clear that they will not be rolling back to the previous version of office and that we will need to come up with a solution for the templates.

I’ve studied the new software with what little available information I can find. I have found only one forum that mentions the problem of not being able to protect only a portion of the document by using continuous section breaks. This forum suggests that it is a bug ather than a intentional change in the software. This would be somewhat encouraging except that it seems to be a bug that nobody cares much about. Except for me, that is, since It is the key to the entire problem. If the section breaks worked then the spell check would be operational, and the form fields could be locked to enable the user to tab from one to another and the body of the document could be edited and formated freely. the headers and footer fields can, then, be updated using Apple Script just as they were updated using VBA macros before.

The client, unfortunately, is going to have to sacrifice something in their request. My current plan is to suggest the use of a table which can be tabbed through or arrow keys can be used to navigate for the portions of the document I had used form fields in the original templates. I will still need to learn enough AppleScript to update the Header and Footer fields. Assuming that I’m not missing anything in my plan this should resolve the worst of the issues.

One of the biggest challenges through this whole ordeal is that, because the software is so new there are very few print resources. In fact, I’ve only been able to locate 2 books available.

Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide

Ultimately, for me, this problem means that I will end up just breaking even on expenses for this project, if I’m lucky. I don’t know when I might have another project that would require a Mac. What really gets me cranked, though, is that Microsoft has started to make it clear that they don’t care about cross platform or backward compatibility. Another example of this is how poorly Vista communicates with XP computers on a network. There may be ways around the issue but they certainly are not simple. The entire office suite has changed the document structure in such a way that older versions of the software can’t even open documents created in the new version without a compatibility plugin for the computer with the older version installed. So we have expensive software that has been changed so drastically in a single version change that it’s practically an entirely new piece of software. To top it all off the new version makes it so much harder for a power user to work with the software. Did the desire to make the software easier for a completely new user to learn make them forget that they have a user base that has already taken the time and energy to learn what was there before? Now why are we not all just dumping Microsoft Office and moving to something that cares about maintaining some form of standards and has the minor little benefit of being available for FREE?

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I hadn’t really planned on writing this type of post, but I found myself leaving this as a comment on another post and it grew into a post of it’s own.

I don’t really keep up on this stuff and I don’t have girls but I’d have to live under a rock to not see the talk about Miley Cyrus and her Vanity Fair photo shoot. My personal opinions is that being in the lime light is very difficult. If a “regular” girl the age of these Disney girls had similar issues it would be unfortunate but hardly national news. They would be glossed over as teenage behavior, would be difficult for those involved and then the world would go on. The honest and unfortunate truth is many girls get pregnant as teenagers, agree to do things(photo shoots, for instance) without taking the full impact into account, get involved in drinking and drugs, and many other things. There is such a long line of Disney girls that have gotten into trouble that it makes me wonder if the blame is, maybe, being misplaced.  Clearly the temptations placed in front of these girls is great and the consequences for slipping up is probably even more life altering than if they were just regular girls, in regular high schools, in regular lives.

Perhaps supporting the girls and criticizing the position that they have been placed in would be more appropriate.  I understand that very young girls look up to these Disney girls as role models.  But maybe that’s part of the problem… The truth is that ADULTS were responsible for placing these young girls in risky positions.  It’s the adults that should be criticized first.  I’m not saying these girls are blameless but there is a bigger picture issue at play here.

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