creative|mixed|media

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.

The Best Of Ormskirk Festival 2009

Neil — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:47:03 +0000

As members of The Best Of Ormskirk, we were really pleased to be commissioned by Jane Windle to produce a video recording the day’s events. Jane works hard to promote local businesses and we hope the event will get even bigger next year.

If you want to know more about The Best Of Ormskirk, click here.

Sending large attachments

Neil — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:06:03 +0000

Google have increased the size of their email attachments to a new limit of 25 megabytes (MB). This is handy if, like me, you send a lot of photographs around the world. You can find more about this from Google here . Just remember that the recipient also needs to have the ability to receive such large attachments. You could always tell them to get a gmail account when your email comes bouncing back.

If you want to send really big files (up to 2 GB) without using complicated FTP software then ‘You Send It’ provides an excellent service and you can try it out for free with 100MB files. By far the most useful tool I have found for lugging files around when you are on the move is ‘Drop Box’ . It is great when you are working between different offices. It is like having a permanent 2GB backup hard drive ‘in the cloud’. You can allocate a public area to your ‘drop box’ which is another useful way of transferring large files.

Preston Caribbean Carnival 2009

Neil — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:10:22 +0000

Preston enjoyed Caribbean weather for its 35th annual Caribbean Carnival. I was there to take some images for Viva TV who have put together an nice video piece about the carnival which can be viewed here.

I have put some of the images on Flickr which can be viewed here. If you want to see them as a slide show go here.

Two useful tools in Google Docs Gmail Window

Neil — Tue, 19 May 2009 09:15:28 +0000

It probably isn’t the best practice, because it is a source of constant distraction, but I seem to have my Gmail interface open most of the time when I am on line. One of the slight ‘niggles’ that I have with Google Apps is the need to have different browser pages open for different functions; one for mail, one for your calendar and one for docs etc. This minor irritation can be alleviated to some extent by using 2 useful Google Labs features. Before we go into that, I know that you can have your own customised Google Start Page in Apps or iGoogle and I used these for a time, but I usually found myself back at the Gmail Browser Window waiting to be distracted by the next e-mail to arrive.

Now there are 2 new Google Labs Gadgets that make ‘living’ in the Gmail Browser Window an easier thing to do. Google Labs Gadgets are found in the settings tab in the top right of the Gmail window.

They add enhancements to the Google Apps/Docs workflow and there are many handy gadgets there, some of which I will be going through in the future.

The Labs gadgets are experimental though and do come with a health warning:

“Mail Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime. They may change,break or disappear at any time. If (when) a Labs feature breaks and you’re having trouble loading your inbox, there’s an escape hatch. Use https://mail.google.com/a/creativemixedmedia.com/?labs=0.”

If you scroll down to the bottom of the window, nearly reaching the bottom of the list (at the time of writing, no doubt Google will have added loads more shortly) you will find the Google Calendar gadget and Google Docs gadget. Click the enable button on each and then click the save settings button.

The Gmail window should now reload and you will have the Google Calendar and Google Docs gadgets appear to the left of your emails.

I have found these really useful gadgets to have giving instant access to my diary and the ability to launch an new Google Document without leaving the Gmail window.

I will be writing more about Google Apps/Docs in the future so if you have any queries about these or other gadgets send me an email or leave a comment. If you want to start using the power of Google Apps for your business especially in conjunction with WordPress get in contact with us.

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 .

Site Update

admin — Sat, 09 May 2009 09:10:19 +0000

We have just moved this site to a new host and a few things need tidying up. We are sorry if you some things don’t work; if you find something wrong please tell me at neil@creativemixedmedia.com

The benefits of professional logo design for a small business

admin — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 16:56:34 +0000

One of the Key Electrical logo variants

Any small business owner will agree that it is vitally important to spend your marketing budget wisely, in times of economic uncertainty this is especially true. Finding the right balance between spending too much and devoting sufficient resources to effective and professional marketing has never been more important.

Often SMEs and new businesses will try to save money by producing their own design and marketing materials, while in some cases this can pay dividends we cannot recommend it for all small businesses.

After-all every brochure, advertisement, and business card that you pass out plays an important role in establishing the image of your company. The same is true of your company’s logo and website. The design skills and techniques used to create your company’s marketing materials establish your company’s corporate identity, so why would you risk sending out the wrong message by relying on amateur graphic design work to represent your business.

The benefits your business will receive from professional logo design are

• professional image
• make your business stand out from the competition
• confirm credibility
• design longevity

So when Wigan based electrical engineering company Key Electrical Ltd. decided it was time to update their old logo they turned to Creative Mixed Media’s designer Barry Jackson for inspiration. The brief was to create a simple logo that represented the company,s core business, it must be effective without colour and contain a design element which could be used effectively on its own to represent the company, The final design would form the basis for stationary marketing materials and vehicle graphics.

logo development ideas

After initial consultation with Key electrical managing director Brian Plunkett, Barry produced a number of design ideas in sketch form. From these it soon became clear that the company name built around a stylized bulb motif would fit the brief perfectly. This idea was then developed further using a vector based illustration program, working only in black and white at this stage of the design ensures that the logo will look good in its simplest form. The final stage was to colour the logo and then incorporate it into stationary designs.

Final design incorporated into letterhead and business card

If you haven’t had your ‘lightbulb moment’ yet, and are struggling with a design that strengthens the image of your business just get in touch.