pheffner

Dogs Behaving Badly updates website and introduces Facebook page!

DogsBehavingBadly.org has a re-designed website, http://www.dogsbehavingbadly.org and a new Facebook Page.

Stacy Hulen, a Certified Obedience Instructor specializing in Behavior Management & Dog Training, is very much experienced in dealing with dog behavior issues such as dogs that are being aggressive, fearful, obsessive or compulsive.

About 5 years ago, I had developed the old website, but over the years Stacy has studied science and research behind dog behavior. It was clear the site needed to be re-designed to support her training philosophy and the services that she now provides. Ideas for Barking News, her new blog on the website, became reality! Stacy offers dog training for the most difficult issues to the most common you can imagine.

Visit http://www.dogsbehavingbadly.org/ and subscribe to her new Facebook page and checkout the Barking News. Stacy Hulen, Dogsbehavingbadly.org offers In-Home Obedience Training or a Board-and-Train option.

She will work with you and your dog to design a behavior modification plan that works!

Easley's Floor Covering launches re-designed website!

Easley's Floor Covering, needed their website re-designed to reflect their friendly and inviting full service flooring, countertop and remodeling business. They desired to have a user friendly site that was not overwhelming or busy but would provide quality information.


They strive to provide the same quality service no matter if the job is large or small. Whether you are remodeling or building a new home, they can provide solutions for your flooring and countertop needs. Conveniently, you can find their products, services, memberships and certifications on their website. Many of the product lines they carry are environmentally friendly for both residential and commercial areas, so be sure to check out their Environmentally Friendly Products page!


If you are looking to remodel or are building a new home, Easley's Floor Covering can help. They are located in North Carolina, but also service coastal and upstate South Carolina as well.


They can provide solutions for your projects from room to room!!

When Adobe Captivate is causing you delays...

I've just been working on a project using Adobe Captivate 4.0.  I did have the Adobe update "for the record", but was still having a lot issues when I started adding the audio for the project. Yes, it was the audio, which I imagine, due to the size of the files, is what started my nightmare.

My basic problem in Adobe Captivate 4.0 was that it would run correctly on the timeline, but when in preview or publish mode, it would add a longer time to each slide that was specified and they would not advance when they were suppose to (It wasn't really a crash or stall, just a long delay). This was very frustrating. I spent some time figuring out a solution. This is what to do to fix it and also what you probably won't need to do, but you can try depending on your issue. I couldn't really find any forums or help on this so I thought I'd add it to my blog to help someone in need or (return to it, when I need a reminder!).

Because I'm sure you are frustrated now and would like a solution and you do need to finish the project very soon I'm sure, so here's what to try:

Adobe Captivate 4.0 builds cache. I found plenty of articles about cache for Adobe Captivate 5.0 but nothing really on Adobe Captivate 4.0. So what I finally did was I looked at the file it was creating in Captivate, in the Preview Mode, and saw it was pointing to this folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temp\cp4Temp

Close Captivate before doing the next step!

I moved all the files and folders from the above directory to a different folder in case I needed to restore them...for whatever reason (I was being precautious)...and I called that folder cp4Temp_old and left the cp4Temp folder empty.

Then I re-opened Adobe Captivate 4.0 and the problem was resolved (Totally Fab!!). Nothing else needed as far as I could tell.

After countless reading and trying to troubleshoot (and because I wasn't going to start over), I learned about needing to DaisyChain, so that was helpful.

Understand that Adobe Captivate 4.0 is known for causing corruption in files. I knew this but nothing worked to fix my problem. I had built a very large file...mistake number 1 for me. Lesson Learned, keep them to about 60 slides and learn how to Daisy Chain files, this link might be helpful. http://www.gooberguides.com/Mary/DaisyChain.htm I did implement this so the problem would not occur again. So far, so good.

I read you might be able to get away with more slides, it just depends on how much content is in on each slide and how large the file size ends up being.

Here are a couple of other things that might help you depending on what your issues are and where you're at in the troubleshooting:

1. Reinstall Captivate 4.0 (probably won't help you, so you might want to try this last!).

2. As I read here, Troubleshoot unexpected behavior | Captivate 4, 5, I closed Captivate 4.0, then renamed the Preferences file captivate_v40.dat to old_captivate_v40.dat in this directory:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Captivate

Then opened Captivate 4.0, it recreates Preferences file, captivate_v40.dat but this didn't help me for the issues I was experiencing.

3. Restore a file by following the instructions on what's recommended here: http://thedesignspace.net/MT2archives/000319.html or creating a new file as mentioned, but here are the basic instructions to import slides to an new project:

  • Create a new blank project with the same dimensions as the original CP file.
  • In the clean Adobe Captivate presentation select 'File>Import Slides/Objects from other Captivate projects'.
  • Browse to and select the corrupted CP file.
  • If no slides show in the importation dialog, then you will not be able to open the project.
  • If slides do show in the importation dialog, then click OK.
  • Once the slides have imported save your project.
  • You should now have an uncorrupted Adobe Captivate project.

Note: You will not be able to import quiz slides from one Adobe Captivate project to another.

Hope this helps you in some way, good luck to ya!

Burleson Farms Launches Website

Introducing Burleson Farms, LLC!

Burleson Farms' cattle thrive on the lush green grasses and hay grown on their family farm located in Salisbury, NC (Stanly County).  All of the beef they sell is homegrown and raised on their farm.  They raise natural Angus beef, with no added hormones, no preservatives and no growth enhancing antibiotics. Burleson Farms’ goal is to raise cattle in a natural environment and to produce a more healthy meat for their customers to enjoy at a price they can afford. They also want to educate their customers about how important it is to buy local and support our local farmers! Their beef is dry aged and they take great care in what they do.

I have truly enjoyed working on this website and have learned a great deal about the differences between Organic and Natural products. It has been very educational for me and I share in their passion for eating healthy and supporting local farmers (and web designers like NC Web Designs, Patricia Heffner).

http://www.burlesonbeef.com

If you’d like to order some of their delicious natural raised beef, you can learn more about ordering and arrange for delivery just in time for all of your summer cookouts and grilling by going to their website.

Check out their website to order, learn more and start following them on Facebook!

Wood Genius Launches Re-Designed Website

Meet the Wood Genius, An American Furniture Craftsman, Clyde Haymore, who designs unique custom wood tables, custom furniture and wood pieces of art.

http://www.woodgenius.com/

The site was re-designed by NC Web Designs, Patricia Heffner, using Word Press, to accent and display all of Clyde's artwork to allow visitors to see their true beauty. The site also allows for quick additions of his finished artwork and an All Works page, to browse and see his designs. You may find something you'd like custom crafted with his unique style.

If you’re visiting the beautiful Yadkin Valley of North Carolina or the Blue Ridge Parkway, stop by their shop even if it's just to taste their homemade fudge. http://www.woodgenius.com/visit-us/.

Search Engine Optimization, SEO Advice

People ask me why is SEO complicated or what should they do? There are many experts and opinions. So what really works? I read something today that pointed out that you should treat your SEO rankings like an asset rather than a campaign. An asset is something you keep building on and hope that it will pay dividends in time. Keep in mind that if it sounds too good to be true, then be leery.

Treat your SEO rankings the same way. If rankings come quickly, great! But it's really worth it to do SEO the right way, even if it takes longer. Organic SEO has many perks! If you build your rankings with high quality, your site will most likely to be around for the long haul. If you go for the quick wins, get ready for downfalls. Do shortcuts in anything really pay off? Typically no. So why should you do that with your business website and your investment?

I think this is a great way to understand how SEO works. I always take this in consideration when designing websites. It has become second nature for me as a web designer to use organic SEO in web design from start to finish. With most sites I have had success with SEO in getting them top ranked in less than 2-3 months. Sometimes tweeking is needed, but remember, you often have to do that with an investment.

Holidays fast approaching...

As the holidays are fast approaching consider a new look for your website in the coming year.  Keep things current so your clients will benefit.

  • Update pictures and logos.
  • Make sure company information is current.
  • Add Social media icons if your business has a social media presence, like Facebook or Twitter.
  • Make sure new products and services are represented on your website.
  • Make sure there are no broken links.

Keeping things fresh and current are part of SEO!

NC Web Designs launches a new website...

Hope you are enjoying my new website. It was time I redesigned it. If you have any comments, please send them to me. I would love to hear your thoughts.

NC Web Designs Blog

This year I decided to research various Content Management Systems (CMS) in order to provide clients a way for them to edit websites that I design for them. After looking at Joomla and WordPress, two very powerful CMS solutions, I ventured onward with WordPress.

Why did I choose WordPress? There some very good reasons why, but the main reason is because it was very obvious to me that WordPress was user friendly in the eyes of someone who might not have very much experience in editing websites. I'm very sensitive to how intimidating it can be for someone who may not know HTML, or have time to learn a new control panel. That's all you want to do when you barely have time to keep your site updated anyway, right? I would like to keep this explanation in a tone that many people can understand that are reading my blog. So here are my top reasons for choosing WordPress:

  • Numerous WordPress Plugins, applications that enhance a website or blog, are available to use. WordPress Plugins extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine and increase capabilities of a website or blog. There are also numerous WordPress developers and designers using WordPress that offer these Extensions or Plugins and provide support. These communities of resources and support are ideal for developers and web designers. This keeps the costs down in terms of development time and how much effort is spent designing a quality, custom website.
  • Build Blogs, Websites or both. What's a blog and how is it different than a website? You are reading my blog and can view it as an example. Blogs may not weigh high on your list to have, but in today’s internet savvy market, they have now become SEO tools to increase visibility to your website. With WordPress you can create a blog or a website with ease. You can even build both. You can use your blog as much as you want or keep it simple and make it something manageable for you and your time. I've had many people ask about blogs, and WordPress allows you to brand your blog along with your website. Branding is very important to some clients and WordPress can incorporate your blog as an extension to your website to increase visitors and most importantly, build SEO.
  • Ease of use in the Dashboard for clients that want to be able to quickly update their site on their own. I found WordPress much easier to navigate in, and simply put, I think my clients will too. The dashboard (which allows you to edit your website) is very user friendly! I've had experiences with Drupal and Joomla, other common CMS solutions, and WordPress is on top when you just want to click and go! If you can easily navigate in Microsoft Word, you'll find WordPress just as easy.
  • Do you have a backup of your website or database? This is the first thing I will ask you. WordPress allows this. So many clients don't know they should have a backup, maybe never thought about it before, or just assume there is one somewhere. There’s gotta be a backup of my website, right? Please don’t assume this. As a web designer, I can tell you about why this is important and why it's a priority, even though it might not be high on your list of things to do.

Are my days over for Adobe Dreamweaver? Well, no. I still find a valuable place for it and it's still a very important tool for a web designer, as well as the other Adobe applications I'm so fond of. As a web designer, WordPress has some limitations and in order to create a custom website, there's absolutely place in a web designer's toolbox for Adobe.

Do you need to know PHP? Well no, not to just update your website with WordPress. Did you just ask yourself, what's PHP?  I understand how that goes, so to find out, click here. Which brings me to this...I would like to extend a great big thank you to my partner in website solutions. As I set out to redesign my website in WordPress, my venture did need some support (you know who you are), the games began, and we rolled up our sleeves and dove in to PHP.  Always, being very good at setting me straight when I need another eye, thank you very much! Simple, we just made it happen!

If you have comments, please let me know. Again, thanks for visiting and don’t hesitate to contact me.