Convert a PNG to ICO (favicon)
A great tool for easily creating high quality favicon’s is ConvertICO.com. All you have to do is create a transparent PNG of your favicon (which is always 16 pixels by 16 pixels), then run it through the ConvertICO tool. Once you have the .ico version of your PNG, upload it to your website.
On your website, add the following code within the head tag:
<link href="/path/to/favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" />
For the change to take effect, you may need to hard-refresh your browser (Ctrl+F5 on PC’s). This clears the cache, then the new favicon should display!
Note: The “favicon” (or shortcut icon) is a small, 16×16 graphic that displays on the top of all modern browsers.
New Grand Haven Website
Element Design is proud to announce the launch of the Buffalo Bob’s website.
From the “Snow” section of their website:
We carry all major snowboarding brands such as Burton, Union, Oakley, Analog, Special Blend, SkullCandy, Anon, Spy, and much more. With new hardgoods and softgoods arriving constantly, Buffalo Bob’s is committed to carrying all of the latest tech and trends.
Buffalo Bob’s is a skate and snowboard shop located in Grand Haven, MI. This is their first website, and the design goal was to make the user experience simple, but modern feeling. To achieve this, the entire front page of the website operates as one smoothly scrolling screen. To see this in action, visit the website and click “Snow”, “Skate”, or “Contact”. On the homepage, a 3D Flash image slideshow was put into place, which showcases different sections of the store.
The owners can now edit all sections of the website easily, including the image gallery and blog. There has already been a huge surge of traffic to the website, and soon their online presence will multiply with event sponsoring in Grand Haven.
If you are curious on the advantages a website can have for your business, please feel free to contact Element Design, and we’d be happy to provide you with free consultation.
Internet Explorer 6 on Windows 7
When it comes to testing websites in newer versions of Windows, the current solutions are very cumbersome. My previous setup involved launching 2 virtual machines running Windows XP to test in Internet Explorer 6 & 7. This process was slow, memory intensive, and had to be redone semi-annually due to expiring licenses. Another problem with that setup was getting the virtual machines to talk to Apache running on Windows 7, so I was left with uploading sites and testing them on the actual server.
This setup was used up until I discovered Spoon.net. The idea behind this site is to stream applications, in the same way you stream videos on Youtube. All it takes is going to their site, registering for a free account, then installing a browser extension.
They have a listing of all the browsers you would ever need to test your sites. Simply “launch” Internet Explorer 6 or 7 on their site, wait a couple of seconds, then IE6 will launch on your screen, looking and acting like a completely native application.
Update 12/30/11: With Internet Explorer browsers they now have you go through an initial install process. It only takes several minutes and has to be done once. After that, you can stream Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8, and 9!
My free account runs IE for only several minutes before shutting down and asking me to upgrade my account. $60 a year to easily run all previous versions of IE is a easy decision to make, as I’m tired of the Windows provided virtual machines expiring every couple months (and the amount of memory they consume, when all I’m trying to do is test sites in Internet Explorer).
They list various other applications and games on the site that you can stream as well. Check it out, I highly recommend it!
Facebook Page Requires Login
If your company’s Facebook page is requiring users to login when viewing it, the issue is with the “Age Restriction” setting. To prevent kids from viewing age inappropriate content in groups, Facebook checks their profile whenever the “Age Restriction” setting is anything other than “Anyone”.
To fix this, go into the “Edit” area of your Facebook page. In there, click “Edit” underneath “Settings”, then look for the “Age Restriction” drop down. Set it to “Anyone”, and press Save!
Update 7/11/11: User “Chris” posted another solution in the comments:
My facebook page was requiring a login as well. The issue with my page was it had a county restriction of “United States” , look just above the age restriction box and see if any countries are listed. If so, remove them and save. You should be good to go!
Browsing Testing: Making sure your website works for everyone
While doing research for a client I ran into a rather large website (Weight Watchers, ranked 3,000th in the world) that does not work with the Google Chrome internet browser. What was surprising was that the website worked with Safari, which has a smaller browser market share than Chrome.
Here is a visual break down of the world’s most popular browsers (as of September 2010)
Element Design performs a full suite of browser tests before releasing a clients website. We make sure your website works with Internet Explorer 7 & 8, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.
BuddyPress Sidebar Links Widget Plugin (v0.92)
While developing a new WordPress site for a client I noticed a need for the ability to easily move around the links bar for BuddyPress. One of the easiest ways to do this was by the creation of a simple widget, that can be moved around to different widget positions in the admin panel.
The current version of this plugin supports the latest version of BuddyPress (1.2.6), and contains the following links:
- Activity
- Profile
- Inbox (#) <– counts unread messages
- Friends
- Groups
- Settings
- Log Out
The widget’s mark-up is a simple list that can be easily modified by your stylesheet.
Installation
- Download the zip archive containing the required files
- Extract the “bp-sidebar” folder from the zip archive
- Upload the “bp-sidebar” folder to your “wp-content/plugins/” folder
- Activate the plugin in the WordPress admin panel
- You will now see “BP Sidebar Links” in the widgets area of the admin panel
Change Log
- Version 0.92
- Added: Login/Sign Up links when user is not logged in
Download
BP Sidebar Links (v0.92) – 1/04/11
Social Network Launched in Grand Haven
Element Design is proud to announce the launch of a brand new social network for Mulligan’s Hollow Ski Bowl in Grand Haven, MI.
The site aims to be an exclusive social network for riders at Mulligans. They can post videos and pictures, as well as send messages and register for events. Based on volunteer work, good sportsmanship, and other factors, riders will earn points that will be posted to their profiles. Riders with higher points will be featured on the home page, as well as have better chances of winning prizes.
One of the many features that are currently under development is the ability for sponsors to create their own “groups”. These groups provide a way for the sponsors to communicate with the riders, as well as run promotions.
For the events section of the new site, Element Design has put together several promotional flyers. These flyers will be posted around West Michigan, as well as handed out to local businesses. All proceeds from the event go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
For more examples of our website development and graphic design services, please visit the Element Design Portfolio.
QR Codes: Connecting Physical and Digital Advertising
An easy way to link your physical advertisements (flyers, brochures, posters) to the digital world is to use QR Codes. QR Codes is a type of barcode that can be read from nearly all new smart phones. When users take a picture of this code with their phone, it will transfer them directly to the URL you defined.
To generate QR Codes, visit the Kaywa QR Code Generator.
Example QR Code
Scanning this code will bring you to http://elementdesignllc.com
Grand Haven Website Development
Element Design is proud to announce the launch of Kowalski Granite Center’s new website.
Located in Grand Haven, MI, the Kowalski Granite Center is a granite installation company that has been serving the area since 1991. The website showcases their various products and services with a clean and modern design.
The site runs off of WordPress, which allows the client to make changes to text and pictures throughout the site. This is important as the Granite Gallery can be changed as soon as new shipments arrive. Due to specific design specifications, a completely custom WordPress template was programmed as well, with various features that help automatically build navigation and images.
To help promote their location in Grand Haven, MI, a video/slideshow was produced. We brought our cameras on location to take pictures of their showroom, as well as a granite installation they did in the Muskegon area. The video serves as an excellent entrance to the website, greeting visitors with visuals and music that matches the Kowalski brand image.
Element Design also helped consult with the creation of their Google Places and Google Maps listing. By controlling those listings, we were able to help make their transition to a new location smooth, avoiding confusing any customers.
If you are interested in learning more about Element Design and it’s services, please visit our main site.
Save Videos from Youtube
Looking for an easy way to save your favorite videos from Youtube? Check out www.keepvid.com. Simply paste in the URL of the video you want, and it will generate links for you to download.
