creative|mixed|media » Web

Gmail Labels

Neil — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:52:39 +0000

I have found that email has developed into my main mode of communication for work and for my personal life, but keeping track of it all can be difficult. I have been going through the process of slowly moving everything over to my Gmail account because from there I can manage everything and keep it all in order.

If you have come to Gmail from another program you may not be familiar with the concept of labels and how much help they can give in organising your emails. Drag and drop functionality makes this even more powerful. Gmail doesn’t use folders like some email programs because, although the folder concept can be an easy idea to get your head around, it has built in limitations. How many times have you tried to file things in one place but struggle because they should be in 2 or 3 places really. By using labels, individual emails can be associated with more than one subject or filed in more than one place – in reality there is still only one copy. If you combine this with the automatic ‘filing’ capabilities of filters you have a great way of organising your mail and restoring some sanity to your online life.

Google Apps for all sizes

Neil — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:05:17 +0000

We are realising the benefits of Google Apps more and more. For many of our clients, cloud computing makes a great deal of sense. But, it isn’t just for SME’s, huge global companies are using its power to make efficiencies.

Watch JohnsonDiversey’s IT director discuss the switch from Lotus Notes to Google Apps.

Viva TV site worth a subscription

Neil — Sun, 10 May 2009 15:11:08 +0000

I know that I am probably a little biased, but I have to say that the Viva TV web site is well worth a subscription, not that it will cost you anything. My bias comes from the fact that Creative Mixed Media have put the site together. However, the content for the site grows weekly so if you are from Lancashire and want to know what is happening this summer look in on the site once in a while. If you are at one of the events coming up, keep an eye out for the Viva TV team and you could end up a TV star yourself.

Click to go to Viva TV

Posting from Google Apps

Neil — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:41:56 +0000

Using Google Docs To Post To Your WordPress Site

For some time now we have been building our enthusiasm for Google Apps as we have discovered how it can help in the day to day running of our business. It is now part of our standard service package, to set up a clients email address on Google Apps so that they can take advantage of all these benefits.

Even better is how Google Apps can be used to supplement much of WordPress’s functionality.

We will be putting much more information about this functionality and how it can help you in your business in the future. For now though here is just one tiny piece of Google Apps/WordPress integration.

You can post an entry to your web site straight from Google Docs using the following procedure.

Open the admin panel of your WordPress site and go to Settings>Writing
Check the XML-RPC box to enable remote publishing.
Start a new document in Google Docs.
Click on the ‘Untitled’ tag at the top left hand corner of the screen and give the document at title (this is what the post will be called).
Add your text and pictures (bear in mind the size of your images, they should have been re-sized before bringing them into the document. If your page is 500 pixels wide, make sure the image in no wider than this; you can always make it smaller in the post).
You must realise that the document formatting will not be identical to in the Google Document as it will on the WordPress page. The difference in page width between the Google Doc and your WordPress page will cause re-formatting. You usually get best formatting results by having either half page or full page width images and lots of text that can wrap around it.
When you have finished composing your document click onto the Share button in the top right of the Google Doc page.
Click onto ‘Publish as web page….
If this is the first time you have used Google Docs in this way you will have to set up the blog post settings (bottom of dialogue box). See below
Enter in the following settings:
My own server/custom (assuming you host your own blog)
MetaWeblog API (this is the one for WordPress)
The path to your xmlrpc.php file (don’t worry, just put in http://www.yourwebsitename.com/xmlrpc.php – obviously insert ‘your web site name’ in here.
Your WordPress User name and password
Your web site name
Check the options tag so that your post gets the title.
Click the Test button to check the link works.
When filled in click OK.

What is the major advantage of this? For me, one of the biggest benefits is that I have an instant backup of all of my web site posts and with 25Gb of Google Apps Premier Account storage, that’s a lot of blog posts. You can of course ‘tweek’ some of your posts settings in the WordPress admin panel later.

If you want to know more about some of the great things that you can do with WordPress and Google Apps give us a call on 08444 128066 or email me here .

New Ramada Plaza and new marketing tools

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:35:47 +0000

of the new Ramada Plaza Hotel, Southport with a view of the bridge over Southport’s Marine Lake”]

Restaurant[mappress

We are pleased to have just finished some new photography for Southport’s new Ramada Plaza Hotel. It is nice to do quality work but what really excites me about this job is the way that we are making the images available to many potential users across the world.

With a new hotel to promote, Sales Manager – for the Ramada Plaza, Southport – Georgia Hayes has her work cut out. With a ‘new build’ hotel like this, how do you get people around the world aware of the hotel, how it looks and how it feels to stay there? We hope to contribute in some part by making the images we have shot of the hotel viewable, down-loadable and usable – by way of a ‘Creative Commons Licence’ – to a global audience. Putting the images at high resolution on our Flickr account with Tags and Links should help anyone who is looking for images of Southport find the images and use them. If they appear in any features illustrating Southport, so much the better.

This is a new approach we are taking with our images whereby the intention is to have as many eyes looking at the clients approved images of their product as we can. In the past many photographers instincts have been to closely guard and restrict the use of images. However, for some purposes this approach may be counter productive and not always serve the clients best needs. We will not always give our copyright away but for some clients in some situations this may have major benefits. You can see a larger range of images on our account at Flickr.

If you want to find out more about how you could benefit from having images of your product or service take advantage of these techniques call us or send an email. We will be very happy to talk to tell you more.
[mappress]

World Gravy Wrestling Championships

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:14:08 +0000

Yes, it is as crazy as it sounds and our friend Philippa James will steer us through some of the mystery. All in a good cause, the second World Gravy Wrestling Championships took place at The Rose and Bowl Restaurant in Bacup in August 2008 and raised funds for the East Lancashire Hospice.

(L-R) Kim Hodgson (Ladies Champion) Philippa James (Ambassador for Pennine Lancashire Festival of Food & Culture) and Daniel Carr (Mens Champion) World Gravy Wrestling Championships - The Rose and Bowl Pub, Bacup - 25th August 2008 - Image © Creative Mixed Media 2008 - www.creativemixedmedia.co.uk

Philippa joins the judges panel and does her fair share of ‘ogling’ the greasy bodies. This is the latest edition of a series of videos that we have done with Philippa called Philippa’s Kitchen. Others can be viewed on our YouTube Channel here.

The World Gravy Wrestling Championships is part of the Pennine Lancashire Festival of Food and Culture. Enjoy.

Note:

If you have a fast internect connection click onto the button in the botton right hand corner of the video screen you can select the HQ (High Quality) option that will give you a better quality of video.

Web 2.0 – Latest tool for your marketing toolbox.

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:01:46 +0000

What is Web 2.0? A good way to show you is use a Web 2.0 example. If you watch the Youtube video below this explains it far better than I could and will give you an idea of what our services are about. I must point out that we didn’t produce the video but its on Youtube to be used and viewed. When you have watched the video send us your details via the comments form below and we can start to work through how we can make these technologies work for your business.

So, in short, Web 2.0 does not represent any change to the specification to the internet, just the way it is being used and new tools that enable this.

I believe that Eric Schmidt has been credited with the adage “don’t fight the internet”. This sums it up perfectly for me; you cannot fight against what the internet naturally achieves. Connectivity, communication, accessibility to information and ability to copy and repurpose information with ease are all things that have changed our world forever. It is only at this stage of the evolution of the internet that we are learning to put all these ‘elements’ together to make them work for us. The exciting thing is that it continually develops in a seemingly organic way. The old ways of doing things, the old models of advertising and marketing that have been the norm for the last few decades, don’t necessarily transpose to this new medium. It is only now that we are learning how they work. And, sure enough, once you think that you have it sorted, some new widget comes along to change it all again. Getting on in the Web 2.0 world and using it to your advantage means having to embrace this and put some effort in.