I wrote a blog post several months ago about a solution I had come across that saved me some time.

The issue is that I take profuse notes in a Word doc when I’m meeting with clients. Since I can type about 9.6x faster and 187% more legibly than I can write by hand.  I typically write out task items and notes like this:

Task #1

• This is important to do
• This should also be done

Task #2

• This is uber-important
• Don’t forget to do this, or client will kill you

When I’m done taking all my notes, I add those to Basecamp for the rest of the team, and so we have a nice backup that can also be searched later by our staff or the client.

The Problem is that Word formatting doesn’t allow a simple copy/paste into Basecamp.  And while I’m pretty savvy at writing in Textile, I’m not as fast and therefore don’t do it when I’m working in Word.

The Solution that I found several months ago was a Macro for Word that would convert a .docx into a format that is ready for MediaWiki.  That’s not exactly what I needed, because it’s close – but it’s not Textile. I was still having to manually edit my notes and that was a pain.

The New Solution is that I’ve hacked the original file from InfoPro.com to meet my needs exactly, and the result is a perform conversion from Word to Textile that I can copy and paste without any editing! Thanks to those guys for giving me the start to work with, because I would never have taken the time to do this if I had to start from scratch!

Installation

1. Download our Word2Textile macro (<-right-click and Save As)
2. Start Word
3. Bring up the Visual Basic Editor (Tools->Macro->Visual Basic Editor)
4. From the VBE, import the macro library (File->Import File…) and select the file you downloaded

Usage

1. Open a word document to convert
2. Run the Word2Textile macro by bringing up the Macros dialog (Tools->Macro->Macros), selecting Word2Textile and clicking Run.
3. The macro converts the document to Textile markup and places a copy of the content on the system clipboard.
4. Open up the Basecamp message or writeboard you will use, and be sure you are in Textile/HTML mode. It should look like this:
5. Paste your content (which is automatically copied to your clipboard by the Macro) and Voila!

If this little technique saves you as much time as it saves me, then you’re welcome.

I happened across an excellent solution tonight for a problem that takes up a lot of time, but tiny bits at a time.

The Problem
I meet with clients and take copious meeting notes. Since we use Basecamp for everything in our agency, we archive all meeting notes into Basecamp so that they are backed up and can be referenced by all teams.  The issue is that I take my meeting notes in Word, since it’s easiest for me to quickly and easily produce an outline.  Getting that data turned into the same info for Basecamp was always a pain because it required a lot of manual reformatting, which equals an enormous waste of time.

The Solution
I figured that there had to be an easy way to convert Word formatting into Textile formatting. Instead of using bullet points in Word, you use asterisks (*) to create bullet points with Textile.  Easy enough, but when I get on a roll and really need to quickly get thoughts down- I find that I’m much better at hitting the Tab key to create sub-points and quickly get down an outline.

After a little poking around, I found exactly what I needed to convert a Word document with standard bullet point formatting into a Textile formatted doc that I can just copy/paste into Basecamp. And Poof! It was just this simple: you install a Visual Basic macro into Word that does it all for you with a few clicks.

Update 6/10/11:  After playing using this a few times, I realized that I need to hack this file so that it is more geared for Textile, and less for WikiMedia.  I’ve updated the link below so that the download is of my file, which will work much better for Basecamp users.

Installation

1. Download Valeo’s Word2Textile macro (<-right-click and Save As)
2. Start Word
3. Bring up the Visual Basic Editor (Tools->Macro->Visual Basic Editor or Alt+F11).
4. From the VBE, import the macro library (File->Import File…) and select the file you downloaded.

Usage

1. Open a word document to convert
2. Run the Word2MediaWiki macro by bringing up the Macros dialog (Tools->Macro->Macros… or Alt+F8), selecting Word2MediaWiki and clicking Run.
3. The macro converts the document to MediaWiki markup and places a copy of the content on the system clipboard.
4. Switch to a MediaWiki editor and paste the result.

That just saved me about 2.37 minutes of reformatting my meeting notes.  I project that will save me… (computer beepy noises) …  more time than that down the road.  Yeah – you’re welcome.

A big thanks to http://www.infpro.com for providing the great VB script and instructions for it’s use!

This is actually pretty simple:  don’t.  If you want to get real results from your site, you need to be talking to someone who understands online marketing and has a proven track record of success, not just someone who wants to “build you a website.”

If you’re in the market for a new website, you need to make sure that you’re asking the right questions. Or at least, that the firms you’re talking to are asking you the right questions. I cannot say this enough: web design has become highly commoditized. There is a very low barrier of entry to being able to call yourself a “web designer.”  My father has built a website before, but you don’t want him building your business a website!

Everyone has a cousin Max, or knows someone who can “build a website,” but if you’re interested in really driving growth for your business through the Internet, just walk away…

Cover via Amazon

Here are some thoughts to consider if you think that you need a (new) website:
Building the site itself is only the first step.  This isn’t Field of Dreams, and you are not Kevin Costner. If you build it, they will not come. Get that idea out of your head altogether.

If you are going to launch a site, a good rule of thumb for most SMBs is that you should devote 25% of your budget to the site itself, and 75% to driving traffic and promoting it. So, if your web designer or firm doesn’t mention anything about what they are going to do after your site is launched, thank them for their time, and walk away.

Online success requires your interaction, so if anyone talks to you about building a site that cannot be easily updated (by you) in the future, then you need to keep interviewing vendors. There is absolutely no reason to build static websites anymore; not unless you are a true designer and can’t code your way out of a paper bag.

There are some amazing, free products that do all this for you! WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, just to name a few. If your web designer can’t build you a site on some type of content management  system, then you need to look elsewhere. There are many opinions over why you should use open-source or proprietary, but that’s another topic entirely.

Lastly, if the people you’re talking to are only asking questions about your taste in colors, and the kind of content you will have, and what imagery will be used; then walk away. Don’t get me wrong, those are all very valid questions, but that isn’t ultimately what will make your site successful. If you keep with the 75/25 rule, then on 1/4 of your discussion about the site should revolve around the site itself. The other 3/4 of the discussion should be focused on your business and what will be effective at marketing it online.  How is your audience, what appeals to them, what are their pain points, what are your differentiators from the competition? These are questions that can lead to a successfully developed website that will have some legs under it.

If you’re in the market for a new site – make sure you talk to at 3 firms, too.  It is very difficult to compare apples to apples when it comes to web design/development, and also with online marketing. TALK to your prospective vendors and make sure you feel comfortable with them, and have a high level of confidence that they know what they are doing.  Look for case studies, check references, do your homework and see if they can back up what they are telling you. Find out what/who they use for project management, and how they can ensure that your project will be completed on time, within scope, and within budget.

Good luck, and if you get stuck – we can always help you vet them out! 

I have a lot of mixed opinions about content management systems, and suffice it to say that there is no one, single solution that will work for situation.  However, I do feel that it makes zero sense to develop sites without one; the technology has come to far along to have a static website.

Content management is a must for building a successful web presence for a variety of reasons. If your prospective design firm isn’t talking to you about a CMS, then they may not really understand what it takes to bring about true online success.  Choosing a firm that understands how to make you successful is important, and so is understanding how a CMS factors into the online mix.

Definitions:
In order to make the distinction between the two, I’ll define a proprietary CMS as one that is built from the ground-up by a particular development/design shop. The cost for these systems is likely figured into the overall cost of the web project.

Open Source content management solutions are developed through the collaboration of many individual developers who contribute to code to the project in hopes of building a better mousetrap, so to speak. Open source software typically has no cost.

Pros and Cons:
There are many reasons for one system or another depending on the needs and the goal, but here are some points to consider:

What does the site need to do?
Seems pretty straightforward, but this needs to be drilled down to a granular level right off the bat. If the main goal of managing the content on your site is to allow someone in your organization to update the homepage copy and image gallery every quarter, then that is very different from needing a site that allows users to register and post their own content, or includes e-commerce capability.

The more complexity that your site most have, the less likely that a proprietary CMS will be a good fit for you, for the simple fact that in a proprietary system, that functionality will likely have to be developed from scratch.  Open source platforms like Joomla and WordPress have thousands of already completed plugins and components that can be installed, which saves a tremendous amount of development effort. Odds are, someone has already thought, “I would really it if my WordPress site also did…” and a component was developed for that specific reason. The open source community, being the nice folks they are, would then post that for the rest of the world to use. Pretty sweet.

Who is going to be maintaining the site?
How savvy is this person, and how often will they be making these changes? Often times, the motivation for building a proprietary CMS is that the end-user if considered more than the functionality.  Meaning that a proprietary CMS may not do as much, but it can do specific tasks much easier than something like Joomla. We have colleagues who have gone the proprietary route, and their system is so simple that a lobotomized monkey could use it. That’s awesome if you have a really non-technical person who is going to be maintaining the site, and the site will really serve as an information-only web presence. That is definite advantage for the proprietary systems. Open source systems vary in user friendliness. WordPress is idiot-proof, but Joomla and Drupal are software; and like most software, you would have to be shown how to use it initially.

What are the cost differences?
The differences in cost can range widely, so that’s a tough one to answer.  Due to the decreased functionality of proprietary systems, and the fact that the people who built it know the thing inside and out – you can often land a custom website with a proprietary CMS for relatively low investment.

That’s not to say that you can’t find someone to slap a Joomla site together for you on the cheap either. There are some questionable firms out there who are offering $500 Joomla sites with a pre-made template. The flip side of that is that we’ve worked on open source CMS projects that reached into the $50k range.

A better question is: how much will it cost you to start over?  Or, how much are you willing to pay to have your site worked on down the road?

What are you going to do in the future if…
Say you have a falling out with your development team for whatever reason, what would you do? Obviously, you need to find someone else who can work on your site. The issue with a proprietary CMS is that it is proprietary and most firms who offer these solutions do not really “sell” you the website in the traditional sense.  You own your site and it will be online, as long as you continue your relationship with that firm. But if you ever decide that you want to move your site to a different provider or have another team work on it, you may find that you’re out of luck.

I have worked with several clients over the years who were badly burned by this policy. And it may not really even be the proprietary developer’s fault. Simply put: you probably cannot move your site to another server and have it work. These sites need special libraries on the server, so moving the site to a cheaper hosting provider, for example, is impossible. That’s another thing to consider, too: hosting cost.  Hosting your proprietary site with the developer is likely to be more expensive. They like to call this “hosting & maintenance” but there is very little you can do about it, since you must host with them.

If you want to change hosts and you’ve gone the open source route – then no worries!  Host wherever you want, any decent hosting provider in the world will be able to accommodate you. If you need to have someone else work on your site for whatever reason, then you’re fine. There are thousands of people/companies that can work with open source CMS platforms. For that reason, you can truly “own” your website, and not just lease it from the original developer.

Summary
The first thing we try to nail down with any client is: what is the goal. I think that’s a really good place to start when considering a content management solution. Know what you need right now and what you don’t, but try to think about the future, too.  If you might start selling online in 12 months, that should factor into your criteria.  If you’re never going to need any more than an online brochure, then that will certain help you know which direction you should go.

Some related reading:

• Content is king when it comes to Web sites (news.cnet.com)
• Joomla versus WordPress – CMS development (teabreak.pk)
• How Did WordPress Defeat Joomla And Drupal As The Best Open Source CMS? (blogherald.com)