Categories
Software Release

STG FolderPrint Plus 3.84 released

STG FolderPrint Plus 3.84 is now available at http://www.stgsys.com/files/stgfpp.exe.

3.84 (21/Jul/2011)

  • Improved maximum memory usage on 64-bit systems.
  • Added Registered to notice to main form title.
Some users scan large volumes of data – several million files. STG FolderPrint Plus can easily handle this, but sometimes that can be more than the 2GB it used to support. Now, if you are using a 64-bit OS and have enough memory, STG FolderPrint Plus can use up to 4GB.
I've also added the user number and number of license to the title bar. Some users weren't sure if the program was actually registered, this should help.
Categories
Book Review

Smashing CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout: Book Review

Smashing CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout – by Eric Meyer covers a number of techniques, tools, tips and tricks on using CSS. The book is very clear about the level of the reader – advanced beginner to intermediate.

If you are really advanced, you will probably know about most tricks, and if you are too much of a beginner you will probably be confused most of the time. This is not a CSS starter book.

The book is divided in 3 parts:

Part I- Fundamentals

Chapter 1 covers a number of tools, such as Firebug, Diagnostic Style Sheets, Reboot Styles and IE9.js. There are many interesting points made about the tools, and it can be very useful if you don't know all the tools (I knew some, but not all of them).

Chapter 2 is about selectors. My (Kindle) chapter is heavily underlined and bookmarked. Several good tips and explanations on the finer points of pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements, attribute and child selectors.

Part II  – Essentials

Chapter 3 – Tips – has tips on a number of areas, such as server-specific CSS, styling the html tag, indenting and outdenting lists, and much more

Chapter 4 is all about layout. Most ideas on how to do layout here (mostly ways to do different kinds of grids) are available on the web, but I found the overview and discussion to be useful.

Chapter 5 – Effects has a bunch interesting effects you can achieve with CSS. A few are outdated by CSS 3 but are still presented.

Part III – Cutting Edge

Chapter 6 is all about tables. Mostly about different ways of styling (which are much better than the class heavy ways I've used on the past). There are also two very interesting sections – making CSS based maps and graphs. Both are quite clever, and personally I have never seen it done this way.

Chapter 7 mostly covers HTML 5. The new declarations, media queries, the new color and shadow types and 2D Transforms. If you are interested in the subject, I recommend the HTML 5 and CSS 3 book.

Overall, a good and short read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Articles

How To Create Social Landing Pages

The Unbounce Blog has yet another interesting article, this time on How To Create Social Landing Pages.

I particularly liked the idea of Testimonial social proof – setting any good comments about your brand on Twitter as a favorite and displaying them on a widget on your page. This way any user can verify that your testimonials come from real people.

The 20% increase on Tweets after explaining how they will be placed is pretty useful information, too.

Categories
Articles

Site Speed and Conversion

The Unbounce blog has an interesting new article about Third-Party tools and conversion . The article suggests that the Google +1 button (please click mine!) can add up to 2 seconds to a page load.

That, combined with another bit of data – 1 second extra page load could decrease your conversion rate in 7% – means you might want to think hard before adding any external tool to your pages.

They also suggest a way to use A/B testing to figure out the cost/benefit of using any tool.

Categories
Articles

Landing Page Examples

Your Landing Page Sucks – an interesting article on Unbounce showing some very nice landing pages, and then analyzing what he likes and what he'd change or test on each of them.

I have been hearing so much about A/B Testing that I will have to get the time and do decent landing pages for the site. Currently what I have are just minor thematic variations on the product pages…