Microsoft, Yahoo! adopt Google sitemaps

Both Microsoft and Yahoo! have announced support of Google's sitemaps instead of developing an alternative method. Sitemaps help webcrawlers crawl your site better, thus improving search results.

As part of this agreement, the three parties are co-sponsoring a new web site, Sitemaps.org, which has details about the new sitemaps process. The new method uses XML tags, by the way.

Google will support existing sitemaps, their posting at the Google Webmaster Central blog says.

Email sigs pull visitors

So you have a great church web site and promoted it well. It includes down-to-earth plain language, people-oriented information, and is much more than just an online brochure. You added meta tags to each page that include all the topics on that page. You have added good "Description" meta tags. Your text on the page is brief, interesting, and in the "inverted pyramid" style -- most important information first. You have the web address on all printed materials, including business cards. It's even on your church roadside sign.

But the number of visitors to your site is not as high you'd like. What else can you do to promote your church? Increase the number of people who know your web address by using a couple of site tips that employ email.

• Email signatures of members. Have every church member add the following to the bottom of every email they send (under their signature or "sig" area):
  
  "My church: http://church-web-address"
  
  You get instant promotion to a lot of people. Some of those email recipients may check it out. Some may pass it on to others.
• Church leader sigs. Include the church street address, web address, email address, and phone number on every email any church leader sends in their official capacity. By church leaders I mean to include every member of every committee or work area in the church.

What site activities do you offer?

A web site can offer many different "activities" for visitors:

• Email contacts
• Fill out polls or surveys
• Add or send information via forms
• Notify visitors via subscriptions
• Notify visitors via Web alerts
• Track Web site visitors with web site analytics and traffic reports
• Build online communities -- blogs, forums, other community avenues

Decide which activities your web editing team can handle, prioritize them, and then charge ahead on priority one. If your existing web hosting or content management system (CMS) doesn't offer some of the above, there are many free resources available, including those below:

• Free survey - SurveyMonkey. Others ...
• Free analytics -- Google sitemap and Google analytics. Others...
• Free blog - Google Blogger. Others...

Writely has become Google Docs

Google has now renamed Writely and made it part of Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

A fast test of the interface shows that it includes:

• Full-screen width text writing and editing.
• Common and easy to understand icons for buttons, such as bold, font, hyperlink, text alignment, cut, copy, and paste.
• Toolbar "Style" includes frequently used options, but no ability to add a style.
• Spell-check, with the ability to add words to your dictionary.
• Periodic auto-save.
• Collaborate with other .
• A "Publish" capability that can send a doc to a blog (but not multiple blogs).
• Insert an image, table, comment, bookmark separator, or special character.
• Edit the HTML that makes up the doc.
• Track revisions.
• Preview
• Save as Open Office or even PDF

Web Directions South resources now online

Get session notes, handouts, speakers' slides, and eventually podcasts of the sessions for the Web Directions South conference held in Syndey from September 26-29, 2006 at WD06 Resources.

Session topics include:

• Design
• Accessibility
• Web standards
• RSS
• Online communities

Surf and learn.

Corporate logo library

BrandsOfTheWorld.com is a free library of brands and logos. The service is searchable, categorized and provides scalable vector versions (usually EPS) of thousands of logos.

Could your web site use Catfish?

Catfish. n., A horizontal area at the bottom of a web page that overlays the normal page content until closed by the user. It's a "bottom-dweller", hence the name coined by Sitepoint, which started this technique a while back.

Matt Oakes has improved on it using a JQuery plugin. Check out both Catfish and JQuery to see if you might be able to make use of them.

Although Catfish was originally designed for ads, I see possible use as a cool and unusual "announcement" method.

• Catfish - Part 1 (Sitepoint)
• Catfish - Part 1
• JQuery
• JQuery implementation of Catfish
• SitePoint blogs

UMC now offers free Web Ministry 101 course

United Methodist Communications today announced the launching of Web Ministry 101. The free online on-demand training aims to let you and your local church use the internet for effective Web ministry.

Register for Web Ministry 101

After you have register, you will get an email with a link to the training sessions. This is self-paced, so take any or all of the four-part training. Come back later to finish or for a refresher.

Related resource

• Web Ministry Resource Center, which contains the Web Ministry Planning Guide and more.

After each training session, a link at the end of each training session gives you a chance to complete an online survey. A follow-up email will also contain that survey link.

UMC announces sneak peek at new site

United Methodist Communications today announced that a "sneak peek" at the new UMC.org site is now ready for previewing.

Access the sneak peek at http://www.umc.org/; click the "sneak peek" image banner link (in the center middle of the page) to experience the preview site.

View the short introductory video, then select one of the links to new features. After checking out a new feature, please give feedback. UMComm is actively seeking comments in order to make the final site better meet visitors' needs when the site "goes live" in January 2007.

Blog startup tips

Thinking of starting a blog? Below are some things to consider and postings to read:

• Decide on your target readership.
  If you don't know or can't define it, don't start a blog yet. On the other hand, readership may evolve as the content evolves.
• Blog what you know, who you are, or what you like.
  If what you know includes what you like, that's even more rewarding for both you and your readers.
• Decide on the type of content.
  Remember that this may change as you go, but you need to focus on a starting point. A blog may start as purely informative, shepherding people to postings at other blogs and web sites, but later start to add original content and even opinion.
• Select hosting and software based on technical expertise (and time) available.
  Blogger, as one example, is an easy one for novices yet allows more advanced coding, if that's your thing. Typepad (Moveable Type) and WordPress blogs generally require some coding expertise. If you cannot devote a lot of time, you may want a simpler platform even if you are a coder.
• Select a name that conveys what the blog is about.
  It may well help your blog rise in search results.
• How to start a blog. This series of postings might also be called "how to emulate the A-List bloggers". Excellence alone is not enough.

Church bulletin content, design

Most every church has both a Sunday Worship bulletin plus a periodic church newsletter. What goes in which? This is something that the Worship Work Area (will we never adopt the "normal" word "committee"?) and Administrative Council should deal with. It's a policy type decision. Making such a decision official helps everyone involved with the production of these publications.

Tips in Reformed Worship magazine are a good place to start in your decision-making process. The article covers the bulletin's purpose, cover, content, and composition. Some key points in the article:

Cover and Content

• Importance. Congregations acknowledge the important of the Sunday bulletin, but few put much effort into improving this crucial communications tool.
• Purpose. Specify a purpose for the Sunday bulletin and one for the church newsletter.
  Make sure the content and composition of each satisfies the stated purpose.
  
• Impression. Your Sunday bulletin says a lot about your church. Is it saying what you want?
  [Does it use church jargon? Does it have large blocks of text? Does it look crammed together? Can people, both members and visitors, quickly and easily find what they are looking for during the worship service? Etc.]
• Decisions. The Worship work area/committee and Administrative Board or Council should decide matters such as what types of information go in which of the publications (bulletin and newsletter) and who decides what gets in the publication when there's more information than space allows.
  
• Cover. The cover of the bulletin gives an initial and lasting impression and as such deserves special attention.
  Is that impression one you want?
• Ease of use. Matters such as size and number of folds affect how "user-friendly" a bulletin or newsletter is.

Design

Some tips for good composition:

• Simple. Use a modern, clean look. Use standard sections such as Order of Worship, Prayer Requests, Church Calendar, and Announcements.
  
• Short. [A standard goal in modern writing is to aim for a 50% reduction in words from the draft to final stage]. Omit items in the bulletin that can wait for the next newsletter.
• Spacious. Use white space to make the design attractive and to separate unrelated elements. Large blocks of text discourage reading.
  
• Sensitive. Be sensitive not only to privacy concerns of members but also to who will read the bulletin, including children. Make at least part of the bulletin attractive for kids. Avoid church jargon.
  
• Superior quality. "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well."
  

Site planning lowers problems

Many church webs sites would benefit greatly from better planning. While in the military, I heard an old maxim ... "One minute of planning saves 12 minutes of execution". In other words, a good plan prevents wasted time later. This certainly pertains to web sites.

When thinking about creating or changing a web site, a good place to start is Gospelcom's " Your first two questions" page. The page even has a Planning Worksheet.

Plan for:

• Clear writing (it doesn't come easy)
• Good accessibility (by people with varied disabilities)
• Great usability (for example, is text easy to scan and the site is easy to navigate).

"Who-What-Where-When-Why" is a standard journalism standard for writing a straight news story. Let's apply that standard to web site planning:

• Who do you want to reach with your web site?
• What results do you hope to get from your web site?
• Where will you host the site? Costs, services, and support vary widely.
• When does you church want this done? Be realistic.
• Why have a web? If your church can't answer this with enthusiasm, forget it.

Some related links:

• Planning your web site design (Macromedia -- now Adobe)
• Planning (Web Style Guide)
• Web site planning (TechSoup)
• Site Planning Basics - what you should know before you design a web site

Use Google's new Accessible Search

Google Accessible Search searches for pages that are easy to read for the visually handicapped. That is, if your web page is easy for a screen reader to handle, it scores higher in the results.

This is one way to test out accessibility of your web pages for visually impaired people. Test it by doing some searches that you'd hope got your web page in the first page of the rankings. If the rankings are not what you'd like, get to work on SEO (search engine oiptimization) and accessibility.

Site planning saves time

Many church webs sites would benefit greatly from better planning. While in the military, I heard an old maxim ... "One minute of planning saves 12 minutes of execution". In other words, a good plan prevents wasted time later. This certainly pertains to web sites.

When thinking about creating or changing a web site, a good place to start is Gospelcom's " Your first two questions" page. The page even has a Planning Worksheet.

Put in your plan:

• Clear writing (it doesn't come easy)
• Good accessibility (by people with varied disabilities)
• Great usability (for example, make text easy to scan and ensure the site is easy to navigate).

"Who-What-Where-When-Why" is a standard journalism standard for writing a straight news story. Let's apply that standard to web site planning:

• Who do you want to reach with your web site?
  Who will do the needed web page editing and site management?
  Who will provide content?
  Who will approve content prior to publishing it?
• What results do you hope to get from your web site?
  What type of site will it be -- simple online brochure, internal, outreach, ... ?
• Where will you host the site? Costs, services, and support vary widely.
• When does you church want this done? Be realistic about the time involved, both for thesite startup and for updating of content.
• Why have a web? If church members can't answer this with enthusiasm, forget it.

Some related links:

• Planning your web site design (Macromedia -- now Adobe)
• Planning (Web Style Guide)
• Web site planning (TechSoup)
• Site Planning Basics - what you should know before you design a web site

Design pages for speed!

Surfers just hate to wait. As computers get faster and more people have broadband, they expect pages to display in as few as 8 seconds.

Extracts of the book "Speed up your Web site" at WebSite Optimization has good pointers. The author says that people now get frustrated if a web page doesn't load in the first 8 - 10 seconds. The old dial-up days guideline was 30 seconds. That's a huge difference.

Some tips to reduce page display times:

• Use only essential images. Excessive use of images gives a cluttered look anyway.
• Optimize images. Optimizing images can drastically reduce file size (and thuis display time). Some free optimizers are online (some offer free "lite" type versions online) or use your favorite graphics editor (I use Paint Shop Pro -- it costs lots less than PhotoShop).
• "Chunk" information. Use subheads and bullets instead of long narrative text. This can also help search engine optimization (SEO).
• Reduce excess verbiage. I call this "verbal essence".
• Avoid very long pages. Try to reduce text by 50%. Then split up long pages and link to them.

Are youth shunning email?

"Email is the new snail mail..." for today's youth says an article in USA Today. What's causing that?

• Spam is junking up email inboxes. A 2003 Pew study, "Spam: How it is hurting email and degrading life on the Internet " stated that about half of all email was spam. Spam has mushroomed from then. People feel that it's out of control and they don't want to have to deal with it.
• Cell phones let youth communicate faster than typing email messages.
• Instant Messaging (IM) is gaining popularity with the young crowd, which favors immediate gratification in communication.
• Text messaging from cell phones and hand held devices fills a desire for immediate, "anywhere" communication.

Does quick communication have a down-side?

A problem with the faster ways of communicating is the chance of bad assumptions. The list below is in order of increased possible misunderstanding of the message:

• Face-to-face talking, which has the least chance of being misunderstood due to observation of voice tone plus body language.
• Phone calls
• Email
• Instant Messaging (IM)
• Text messaging (or should I say "TXT MSGNG"?) is fast and convenient but conveys the least amount of total information about the message.

Do we even need email anymore?

This is not the death nell for email. Even youth do see a continuing need for email:

• When the message needs to go to many people, not just one.
• For more formal correspondence. Not that long ago, email was looked at as too informal,; now some view it as more formal than their normal communications.
• When the message needs attachments.
• For better documentation.
• When they have more time and an increased desire to write (in sentences) and perhaps late at night when the other person is not available by IM, phone, or text messaging.
• When communicating with adults and people in authority.

How does this apply to churches?

Your church needs to communicate to youth on their level. In communicating with youth, do your leaders:

• Use cell phones?
• Use IM? (Address privacy concerns, identity theft, and attacks)
• Use web-based chat? (Address privacy concerns, identity theft, and attacks)
• Use text messaging? R U OK W/ TXT MSGS?
• Offer (via your web site) blogs or discussion forums where youth can engage each other and the church leadership via the web? (Make sure you address privacy concerns, protect identities, and protect against attacks.)

Grab ideas from blogs

Keep searching for new ideas, new methods of reaching people through your web site. One way to get ideas is to search for and read some blogs that pertain to webs or religion. Blogs and sites I found when scanning the Gospelcom evangelism area after reading their Web Evangelism Bulletin:

• Effective Web Ministry Notes
• Strategic Digital Outreach - the old story from modern wineskins
• Christian Web Trends blog
• Outside the box ministry
• Emerging Evangelism
• UIE Brain Sparks (UIE = User Interface Engineering)
• IEC ENewsletter (IEC = Internet Evangelism Coalition)
• Church Leader Insights newsletter. Archives are online

Also check out the dozens of email newsletters at Christianity Today.

When we stop learning, we are in danger. As Will Rogers said, "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just stand there." Are your church leaders doing the same old thing or are they proactive and seeking new ways to educate, empower, and equip the saints to carry out God's work?

Color tools for web work

While trying to decide on color changes for the Congo UMC - Mulungwishi blog, I happened across a simple but fast and effective tool — The Colorizer at WebReference.com.

Color Scheme not only helps you check out a palette, but also lets you check out how it looks to people with color vision problems. Cool. Their old version operates a little differently and can be fun too.

And speaking of fun, try the Colour Sampler. Play around with a palette and then select the "Sample Page" link to see all the combinations of text and backgrounds. ColorCombos' ComboTester is a nice, free online utility. The site also has many sample 3 to 5-color palettes.

For PhotoShop fans favoring free goodies, Visibone has downloadable color swatches.

WebReference also has a couple of pages on color, each with good links within the text.

• Communicate with color
• Emotions of colors

Common design errors

Many people have slid into creating web pages without any training in design. A similar pattern emerged after the advent of laser printers and easy-to-use word processors. All of a sudden, many people were producing newsletters and flyers. But the result was often horrible products that experts dubbed "laser crud".

Likewise, many web page editor programs are easy to use now. But that doesn't mean that the results people churn out are automatically great. Below are some common pitfalls to avoid. In the coming weeks, I'll cover several of these in more depth.

• Poor use of white space
• Poor contrast among headlines of differerent importance
• Poor text-to-background contrast
• Grammar and spelling errors
• Too many typefaces (a.k.a. fonts)
• Image display resizing without image file resizing
• Huge images
• Distracting animation
• Too much bold or italic text
• Too many elements on a page
• Too much colored text

Keep main roads running smoothly

Do you know your web site's main roads? These are the destination pages that are most popular. If you don't have a web site statistics report handy, take an educated guess. Think like a visitor. Think like a non-member visitor.

The navigation path ("click path") to these pages should be very clear and easy to find from anywhere in your site. This is a strong usability factor.

Adding a blog header background image

The FreeWebPageHeaders site only offers many free 800x200 pixel images for use as DIV backgrounds. The site also has a tutorial on how to add such background images to a DIV. The technique uses CSS.

Open source web page designs

The folks at Open Source Web Design offer free Web page designs. A spot-check shows that OSWD uses modern CSS coding, not layout tables.

You could use these as the basic for regular or blog-type web pages. So download, tweak, and enjoy.

Another source is the free CSS/HTML templates at Mollio. The six basic designs cover most of the common column types and all use CSS, not layout tables. Mollio offers these under three different licenses: Creative Commons, GPL and CPL.

Translate your web

Do you have congregation members or anyone in your Web site's "target audience" that prefer a language other than English? If so, offer them a way to translate your web page.

Google offers a Language Tools page that "translates" from one language to another. Just type in the web address of the page you want translated, and ... presto. Test it out by translating the Avondale Pattillo UMC home page from English to Spanish.

Outreach tips

The Church Outreach Lab has some interesting comments and useful web page content tips. It also accepts tips and comments from varied churches. Here are a few:

• Keep it very simple. Our brains break complex information into small bits before moving them to long-term memory. So make your communications literally more memorable — simply "keep it simple".
• Most church newsletters are horrendous. For more tips about newsletters , see Avondale Pattillo UMC's special training section. Does your church newsletter look "old school" and out of touch with the modern world?
• Make Sunday worship bulletins seeker-simple. If you truly believe in outreach, make your worship bulletin simple for a seeker to understand. For example, get rid of ancient terms such as Introit, Gloria Patri, Postlude, and the like.
• Hold special events that emphasize your "brand" -- what your church is really all about.
• Communicate by email and the web plus traditional means. Hold some "meetings" or pre-meeting discussions by email. Keep the membership up on late-breaking news by email. Let members receive publications via email. Have a web presence that's more than an online brochure.

Get free Sunday bulletin shells

To get you to try their Sunday worship bulletin shells , Outreach offers you a free week's worth of 1 of 10 designs.

These designs look good enough to use for church pamphlets or special events too.

Review: Picasa Web Albums

Google's free photo organizing and editing tool Picasa, also integrates well with Picasa Web Albums. Both Google (Picasa) and Flickr offer free and subscription photo storage. Here's my fast take on the two:

Picasa Web Albums vs. Flickr (free version)

• Picasa Web Albums offers 250MB storage space vs. only 20MB at Flickr
• Uploader: Picasa is more "fun" and attractive vs. Flickr Uploader. But Flick has tag-oriented input fields at upload time.
• Photo editing: Decent, free photo editing using Picasa. Flickr doesn't offer a photo editor.
• Slideshow: Picasa Web Albums gives a significantly larger photo view than Flickr's slideshow.
• Flickr lets you add rectangular hotspot "Notes" to any photos. I don't use this feature, but it is a difference between the two services.

Overall: I am using a paid Flickr account for my church, but will definitely give Picasa a try soon. Picasa Web Albums may become my preferred site for church galleries and slideshows.

But ... you knew there was a "but", didn't you! Picasa Web Albums is in beta testing (like a lot of the current Google projects). You must request an invitation and wait until Google gives you the "OK".

If you are just starting Web photo albums, want a free photo album site, and don't feel the need for blogging-related tags and such, Picasa may be perfect for your needs.

Keep personal info off your site

In Microsoft's article, "9 Things Not to Have on Your Web Site", one often overlooked by churches is not including personal information about staff and members.

Everyone likes to see their name or photo on the web. In these days of increasing data theft, though, churches need to do more to protect identity-type information about their members and staff.

Do not show the following on your web site:

• Full names (the most common exception is the pastor)
• Home street addresses (even for the pastor)
• Home or cell phone numbers (even the pastor's cell)
• Members' personal email addresses
• Personal names as staff email addresses
• Staff or member photos (again, the common exception is the pastor)

Coping

• Use email attachments, rather than the web, to give members electronic access church newsletters, advance copies of the Sunday bulletin, and even the church directory.
• If you put your newsletter or similar articles on the web, identify people by position (no name) or by first name only. You may find, like I did, that you'd need to "scrub" the newsletter so much that the effort isn't worth it.
• When you show photos, either avoid using names, or use first names only. Be general. Consider what a thief might do with the information you provide.
• For staff email addresses, use the generic position, not their name. Use pastor@mychurch.org or music@mychurch.org, for example. An added advantage to this is that the staff email address is valid even if (when) the person changes.
• Be very careful when adding names to email lists for bulletins, newsletters, and directories. If someone in your church doesn't personally know them, require them to appear in person and fill out a request form. Don't "assume" that a request by email is an honest one.
• Advertise your personal information policy -- your members will appreciate your concern.

Web myths lead to church decline?

The World Wide Web is changing the world and the way we live in it, including our religious lives. "... those companies and organizations not ready for it are dying as predicted," says a CNN article today.

Many studies show an ever-increasing use of the Web both by religious organizations and individuals and by those seeking spiritual information, direction, or advice. Yet, some churches today disdain the web. Why? Some misconceptions may be at work:

• Myth: It's only for geeks and kids.
  Fact: With millions of people using the web and many more each day, it's no longer the nerdville that it used to be. Soccer Moms are using the web. Seniors communicate with email and get online news and information. Clubs and organizations have their own web sites and email groups.
• Myth: A web site costs too much to host.
  Fact: Any United Methodist church can get a small (5MB) web site free from the General Board of Global Ministries. Microsoft offers a free 30MB web site and your own domain name. Google offers a free 100MB web site. Blogger offers a free Blog. Flickr offers free online photo storage. Cost is no excuse.
• Myth: A church web site is a low priority because it doesn't help "the bottom line".
  Fact: First, a church should not get preoccupied with money, the root of all evil. Secondly, A church needs to minister to all its members, their local community, and "to the ends of the earth". A site on the World Wide Web fills that broad mission need.
• Myth: We don't have any web developers at my church.
  Fact: With free Microsoft and Google type web sites, setting up and maintaining a web site is very simple. You can have a good look and great content without any knowledge of web design. Next excuse?
• Myth: It takes too much time.
  Fact: Your church web site can be simple or complex. Use the time available to set how complex you get. Start simple, then add more pages. The web is too important to ignore. As more people use the web to locate churches and even "preview" a prospective one to visit, church web sites will become even more critical. A visitor to our church this past year said he checked out our entire web site before deciding to visit.

Writing for the web

Here are some fast writing tips that will make your web pages easier and faster to read:

• Write for "scanners".
  People don't read on the Web – they "scan". Let readers easily and quickly find and read the information they seek. Printed documents and directives of all types can benefit from web writing techniques. Even people with PhDs like easy reading.
• Simplify the language.
  Delete words that are not essential. Blast folksy or bureaucratic language. Be direct and clear. Aim for a 50% reduction in words.
• Reduce polysyllabic words to familiar one or two-syllable ones.
  For example, favor "use" over "utilize", "make" over "fabricate".
• Use strong, present tense, active voice action verbs.
  "Someone does something", not "something is done by someone."
• "Chunk" content.
• Use short simple sentences (25 words or less) of varied length.
• Put key information first. Answer the "who, what, where, when, why, and how." Good news journalists use this " inverted pyramid" style too.
• Use "white space".
• Use short paragraphs of just a few sentences, each with one idea.
• Add structure
  Use subheads and bullets to help readers scan the page.
• Use "Styles"
  Just make sure the styles follow the document structure. Heading 1 appears before you use a Heading 2, for example. Subheads would become Heading 3 styles in this structure.
• Limit use of images and apply alt text.
  Use only images essential to the document. Blast the clip art and cute stuff. Look professional. Remember that Section 508 and WCAG require images to include alternative text. (In MS Word, select "Format", "Picture", and then the "Web" tab).
• Never use red or green text.
  Why? Red or green text violates Section 508 accessibility for the handicapped.
• Never underline words.
  Why? Underlines in a web page or doc imply a hyperlink.

Tips for accessibile web pages

Below are some ways to make your web pages more accessible to the handicapped. Read more at the W3C's "Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web sites".

• Page organization. Use headings, lists, and a logical, consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
• Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read by itself. For example, avoid "click here."
• Images. Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each image. Avoid animated images.
• Tables. Use tables for data,not layout. Ensure that line-by-line reading ("linearization") of data tables makes sense.
• Graphs and charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute. Offer a data table.
• Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case the user's browser or settings does not support these features.
• Frames. If you must use frames, at least use the noframes element and meaningful titles.
• Proofing. Check your work, validate pages, and use the tools, checklist, and guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG.

Free online survey tool

SurveyMonkey offers online surveys. The basic version is free and lets you ask up to 10 questions and collect up to 100 responses. This is perfect for a small to medium organization, including a church. Their professional version is relatively inexpensive and allows unlimited questions and up to 1,000 responses. More responses incur a slight per person charge.

So what could you use it for? Did you ever wish you could poll your members about an issue or even how they like your web site? SurveyMonkey may be the answer to your prayers.

Editorial tips

The "Learn One Thing" blog has an article with several great editing tips . This article includes use of English (insure vs. ensure, for example). The article also links to the ESA Training site's " Editorial Tips" page.

I recommend you bookmark the "Learn One Thing" -- it's a site you should return to often.

Use Google Sitemaps for better SEO

Google Sitemaps can help raise your ranking in Google search results. Google says, "By using Sitemaps to inform and direct our crawlers, we hope to expand our coverage of the web and speed up the discovery and addition of pages to our index."

Mary Gillen, author at Learn One Thing, has tips on using the site maps:

• Google Sitemap Tips - Part 1
• Google Sitemap Tips - Part 2

Also check out "About Google Sitemaps" and " Inside Google Sitemaps" at the Google site.

Using images for bullets

Would you like to have bulleted lists with fancier bullets? Have you tried using an image as a bullet and hated the result? Buddy, have I got a deal for you.

The MaxDesign site has a LisTutorial specifically for this. The step-by-step details are easy to understand and the code is short. Try it; you'll like it.

Writing: Writely coming soon

The free Writely online application will start issuing "invitations" in July. People have described Writely as an "web word processor" or a "wiki with permissions". Some features include:

• Edit, save, and share files online
• Add tables, images, links, colors
• Limit view and edit access to specific docs
• Collaborate with others and see who made changes when
• Easily compare versions and revert a doc to a prior version
• Make a web page from a doc
• Edit in HTML if you want
• Create a blog post and post it from Writely
• Use blog categories. This may also imply that Blogger, also owned by Google, will allowing use of categories starting in July.

Not on the list to get an email notice when you can sign up? Request an invite.

Presentation Tips

Do you want to create more effective PowerPoint presentations? Check out Guy Kawasaki's pages:

• Presentation Zen
• Presentation Tips
• What is good PowerPoint design?

Methods of PowerPoint presentation design:

• Lessig Method
• Godin Method
• Kawasaki Method
• Takahashi Method
• Wabi-Sabi and Presentation Visuals

Learn one thing ...

The Learn One Thing blog, run by Mary Gillen, has a bazillion tips on subjects including writing, marketing and sales, web technology, SEO, RSS feeds, podcasting, and blogging for business.

Mary says the name came from a class she taught, where the student said he was there to "learn just one thing".

The blog doesn't have categories yet but Mary says she'll be adding them soon.

Look more professional

Want to make your design to look more professional? Here's a few tips:

• Use a good color scheme.
  Avoid wild colors. Avoid distracting background images or ones that do not help a "professional" appearance. Match the color scheme to the intended audience, not to your own tastes.
• Use safe fonts.
  Avoid weird or wild ones. Also remember that fonts carry emotions with them. Do you really want your church to come off as "Comic"? Is that professional?
• Develop a clear, logical layout.
  A simple, clean design looks professional. Avoid a cluttered or cramped look. Navigation should be easy to understand. Minimize multiple navigation menus on the same page. Use bulleted lists logically. Use headings and white space to visually show which elements are related and which are not in the text area. Test your pages in multiple browsers -- they won't all look the same.
• Keep any graphics simple and fast.
  Images slow down display of a web page. The larger the total image file size, the slower the page displays. Sprinkling in images can also distract the visitor's eyes and create an unprofessional appearance. Animated images are very distracting and often give an unprofessional look. Always question their use.

Learn more ...

• 5 steps to a great home page (NetMechanic)
• Top 10 reasons visitors leave your site (NetMechanic)
• Web Design Tips
• Design tips (link collection at UseableWeb.com)

Looks counts

A couple studies by the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab and Sliced Bread Design show that people relied heavily on visual appeal in deciding credibility.

• People said they judged web sites' credibility on non-visual factors.
• In the study, trust was actually associated with a "professional" look.
• Once satisfying the user's criteria for a professional look, visitors used other aspects of the site in evaluating credibility.

The studys' authors say that this shows a need to better educate people to be careful not to place too much trust in sites solely based on "looking good".

On the other hand, it also means that even church web sites will be "graded" by visitors based on looks. Look unprofessional and suffer the consequences.

• Read more about how people evaluate a web site's credibility

Avoid in-page links

Usability expert Jacob Nielsen says to avoid same-page links. Why? Almost all links work one way, so users expect the following:

• Clicking a link navigates you to a new place.
• After you click, the old page goes away.
• A new page loads into the window, replacing the old page.
• You first see the top of the new page.
• The Back button returns you to the old page.

Useit.com has a page of links to current issues in Web Usability

De-hack your code

While most church web developers won't want to get into the code this deep, everyone needs to know that when the new Internet Explorer 7 arrives, it will "break" some old techniques that coders used to force IE 6 to "behave". Some that code will need to be edited.
How widespread is this? Even some blog templates use the IE6 "hacks".

The Sitepoint blog has a posting on this, " Microsoft Says: De-hack your CSS". It gives code samples that won't work in IE7.

After IE 7 arrives, you may want to keep an eye on any site that produces web page "templates" you have used -- many will update their code. You can also email them and ask how they plan to handle the transition.

Assemblies of God site

The Assemblies of God (Northern California and Nevada) site uses a blog format. It has an appealing look. Great photos, all wider than "normal" (490x162 pixels), are always placed above their related heading, always within a thin gray-ruled box (a DIV tag, naturally).
Each news story has a "Tell a Friend" link to an email form plus a link for Del.icio.us bookmarking. They've also used the new standard feed icon, as agreed upon by Microsoft and Mozilla.

Tips to improve blog content

While churches probably don't need to "drive" bloggers to a church blog, the tips on the "Art of Linkbaiting" page (I know ... I cringe at the title too) can actually help you improve the content of your church blogs.

Know who you're evangelizing

Ben Gray, at "Blog Ministry," says that when we start to evangelize, we need to understand the culture of the people who are our "target audience". He briefly discusses boosting your effectiveness as a youth minister by understanding today's youth and pop culture.

For example, he says that young kids prefer IM and MySpace to email. Read the comments, too -- there's some interesting stuff there.

"Skip to content" link code

You can improve accessibility to a web page by adding a "Skip to content" link that jumps past the header and any navigation area on your web page and goes straight to the text ("meat") of the information on the page. But you don't necessarily want sighted people seeing a link they might not use. What to do?

One solution is to add a special class that hides the text. Example:

.skip2content {display: none}

This lets screen readers for the visually handicapped hear the link and use it but hides it form the display for a sighted person.

• How to add "Skip to content" in a Classic Blogger Blog

Are there any situations where you'd want to display that link? Perhaps. Consider a person with a motor handicap -- they can see just fine, but it takes them much longer to move a mouse or other pointing device around. They may well want the ability to Tab to that link and press Enter to jump to the page's text. In such a case, they'd need to be able to see the link.

Use English good

OK, OK. I know it should be "well," not "good." The headline makes a point. The language we use reflects on us and on the site on which it appears. So when writing for a web site, use language correctly.

A good references for proper usage of the English language is Mr. Grammar's English Study Blog. Mr. Grammar gives excellent, clear examples as well as several quizzes. Recent subjects have included different parts of speech (POS) and samples of tenses. Do you remember what the future perfect tense is?

Web page views get an 'F'

Jacob Nielsen, renowned Usability expert, says that a recent study on eyetracking visualizations shows that users read web pages in roughly an "F" shape. He lists three main implications of that:

• Write for scanners.
  Users won't read your text thoroughly. They scan parts of pages.
• Use the inverted pyramid writing style.
  The first couple of paragraphs must contain the most important information.
  This is not news to anyone versed in newspaper writing. You start with the "Who, what, where, when, why" (the 5 Ws), and sometimes "How" of a straight news story. Then and only then do you elaborate.
• Put key words in heads, bullets.
  Your page's subheads, paragraphs, and bullets should all contain key words that users will notice as they scan down your page (down the left side of the "F").

Related tips

• Use flush-left subheads vs. centered ones. Centered ones are a good bit in from the left, where readers seem to want to read.
• Use bolding in subheads and perhaps even in the start of bullets. Bolding makes words stand out and might increase the chances of getting read. Just don't go bold-happy. A long stretch of bolded text slows down readers.

How to write for the web

Below are some tips related to improving your writing for the web. These come from Jacob Nielsen, renowned Usability guru.

• How users read on the web, including scores on a sample paragraph in different writing styles.
• Why web users scan your text
• Information foraging
• Write in inverted pyramid style
• Keep it terse
• How to write for the web (this has long text)
• Apply writing guidelines - increase usability 159%
• How to write heads and subheads

Do pets blog?

This isn't eactly on-topic, but I couldn't resist this link to a funny cartoon:

• cat vs. dog blogs

More ways to read these postings

You can always come to this blog's web page to read the posts. That's my personal preference. But if you start subscribing to a "bunch o' blogs", the number of new articles may get large. One way to manage scanning them for what you really want to read is to use a " Feed Reader", which I've mentioned in prior posts.

Blog readers (a.k.a. feed readers or RSS readers) come in two basic forms -- web-based and ones installed on your PC.

• The web-based variety involves setting up an account at Google, Yahoo! or similar wites, then adding blogs to track. You log onto the Web site to see new headlines from the blogs in your list.
• The local install method gives you a program. When you run the program, many of which look similar to MS Outlook, you "subscribe" to blogs. The program then pulls down information about the blog postings and you read as you like.

Here are a few recently touted feed readers (blog readers):

• SharpReader (donationware)
• RSS Bandit (donationware)

Don't make them think!

Steve Krug's First Law of Usability for web sites is "Don't make me think!". Some of Krug's points:

• Make everything easy for the visitor.
• Visitors scan pages; they don't read them. Design accordingly.
• Visitors don't take time to learn how site navigation works. They muddle through.
• Visitors "settle" for a link they consider most-likely when none seems "right" to them.
• Users like mindless choices (again -- don't strain their brains).
• Be pithy, not verbose.
• Design navigation with all the above in mind.
• If it's too hard to use your site, visitors leave and may never return.

Steve's book, " Don't make me think: A common sense approach to usability", is thin but pithy. And it has pictures and even some cartoons to bring home the point easily and quickly. This book is for beginners, through we all can learn something here (or at least be pointedly reminded of a better way to design our web sites for visitors).

Blog template, design tips and tutorial

Users of Photoshop will get the most out of Jennifer Apple's "Blog Tutorial - Tips For Blog Templates & Blog Design In Photoshop", but there's some good information there for any blog designer. She suggests making a splash, changing the banner background, and more. She also has a very nice collection of blog-related links, including to Wikipedia's blogging terms.

Top 10 blog designs

On-page samples and links to sites the author believes are great blog designs. They can be a good source of inspiration.

Validate your web pages!

If you create your own web pages, you should validate them to make sure the code is correct for the web "document type" (DOCTYPE) you have specified. If you don't specify a DOCTYPE, one gets assigned by default.

Online tools let you check:

• The HTML code
• The CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) code
• Accessibility by the handicapped

If you buy a web design creation service instead of creating your own, it's still a good idea to see if the firms' code passes these checks. Validators usually refer you to a specific line in the code so you can locate and fix problems.

Below are a few links to get you started. You might also want to read, "Should you validate your web page?"

HTML validators

• HTML and XHTML Validator by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
• CSE HTML Validator Lite
• W3C Link Checker - checks for bad links
• HTML, XHTML, WML, XML validator
  

CSS Validators

• W3C CSS Validator
• WDG CSS Check
  

Accessibility checkers

• AccMonitor online
• HiSoft Cynthia Says
• WebAIM's WAVE
• WebXACT
• Accessibility Valet
• LIFT Online - 5-pages evaluated free
  

Why adopt accessibility guidelines?

Web developer Andy Hagans found that a high degree of web page accessibility greatly improves Search Engine Optimization (SEO)." Do you want better search engine ranking? Make your web pages more accessible.

Andy had this "Road to Damascas" moment after editing his website to comply with most W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

• Read Andy's full article

Yahoo! gets hybrid maps

Yahoo has scrambled to adopt the satellite and hybrid maps that Googled has offered for a while. Here's a Yahoo! hybrid map of Avondale Pattillo UMC . Personal opinion -- I like Google Maps better.

Code stylin' tips

• LinkTips blog (links to CSS, color, ...)
• Flow text around image using CSS
• Sample revised blog CSS
• Fluid CSS with extra info in footer ... "Arkanoid" design of SimpleBits
• Dave Shea's CSS Crib Sheet at MezzoBlue has great pointers -- guidelines for web developers.
• CSS crib sheets - Andy Bludd
• CSS-Discuss Wiki has been gathering great tips since 2002. Chek it oiut for tips and explanations.
• CSS Formatter and Optimiser. Based on the free csstidy app, this online code optimizer works well. You get options and code layout choices.

The Terror of Feed Readers

Bryan says that he has kicked the Feed Reader habit and visits blogs he likes via his web browser. Why? Reading all the feeds he had subscribed to was like a black hole sucking up the hours of his week.

So, OK ... maybe you shouldn't subscribe to this feed. Just check back a couple of time a week to see what's new. It's your choice. Just go blaming me if you start down the path leading to Feed Subscribers Anonymous!

Free Google organization email accounts

Google is now beta testing organization email accounts and administration. You have to have a domain address already, but Google lets organizations sign up for and administer email accounts within their own domain. It's free.

So, let's see ... you can now get for free:

• your own domain name and web from Microsoft,
• organization email from Google,
• blogs from Blogger (Google), and
• photo albums from Flickr.

There's no longer any excuse for churches not to have their own web site, email, and more. These online offerings and related tools are easy to use and the price is unbeatable. These are all simple to use and attractive.

CSS tips from NetMechanic

The NetMechanic site is a great one with tons of tips. If you want to learn more about Cascading Style Sheets or just troubleshoot a current challenge, you can find a lot of information in the "CSS Tip" pages.

Check out the latest Usability, HTML, and CSS Tips at the newsletter index.

General principles for church web sites

• Each hour of planning saves 12 hours of changes later.
• Web site visitors mostly "scan" pages
. They don't really "read" all the nice text web designers and content people put there. So plan on it and design based around that.
• Less is more. That goes for design as well as content. A big block of text is visually discouraging. Tons of clip art or small photos is distracting and gives pages a "circusy" look -- not exactly what your church has in mind, I'm sure.
• Use Cascading Style Sheets, which will make site-wide changes much easier and faster to accomplish.
• Aim for a strict HTML 4.01 code. If you can't get there, make as much meet the strict standard as possible. That will save time later, when recoding might be required due to web browsers becoming more standards-oriented.
• Start small in both scope and content. Let the site grow naturally. If your site seems to have a ton of information but not a great organization, consider cutting back content as you think through site organization.Don't post what you can't maintain. There's nothing worse than an obviously outdated site to give your web site visitors a negative impression.
• The only thing constant is change. Go with the flow; expect changes. The web you have in one year should not resemble what it looks like now unless nobody is maintaining it. Every few years, plan on a change in "looks" and features.

Contain CSS floats

Eric Meyer's "Complex Spiral" site has a tip of containing floats and an explanation of why they seem to (but don't really) "go awry'.

Google Pages: free web site

Yes, it's true, that search giant Google now is in the beta (testing) phase of "Google Pages" -- free web sites. You need to sign up to get a free site and you'll get a Google "account", but I got my Google Pages account enabled within a week or so. Google Pages seems ideally suited for churches that want a web site that nearly anyone can create and maintain.

Here are some fast facts about Google Pages ...

• Google is currently granting up to 100MB of web site space on their server.
• You choose from several different page designs
  (you can upload your own if you really need or want to).
• Each design comes in a few different color schemes.
• The Web-base Google Page Creator editor isn't fancy, but it does the basics.
• You can upload files and images.
• Three heading levels (H1, H2, and H3 tags) are available by mouse click and are styled to produced a result that's pleasing with the selected design.
• The designs use CSS, not tables

If your church doesn't have a web and would like to start one that doesn't require a web developer or "techie", give Google Pages a try. Here's a sample page with comments about the service.

Reduce JPEG image file size

A large image file size can slow down your web page getting displayed. You want to get a small size while also retaining good image quality. For JPEG type images, here are some steps to take:

1. Add a bit of blur, which helps reduce noise
2. Decrease saturation a bit
3. Decrease contrast a bit
4. Optimize the image

Source: Expert Optimization: Five Tips for Optimizing JPEGs in Photoshop CS2

Free web site from Microsoft

As part of Microsoft Live, Microsoft is offering Microsoft Office Live Basics, which includes a free web site (with your own domain name, not a " microsoft.com" site) to anyone. You get 30MB of file space, 5 POP email accounts, and unlimited files (within the 30MB limit). You also get easy drag and drop web page templates plus reports.

Some down sides -- the current version gives you very little choices.

• You have to accept the Microsoft menu navigation scheme
• The color schemes are currently limited and seem to come in only two flavors -- poor contrast or gaudy colors.
• You can't really touch the HTML code, unlike Google, which at least lets you get at the code within the editable regions of the web page.

Of course, Microsoft obviously hopes you'll outgrow this Basic version and want to upgrade to one of the other fee-based versions.

If your church wants to get its feet wet and create a web presence, this is the time. No excuses. Sign up for Microsoft Office Live Basics -- the price is right!

Analyze church computers for security

You, like many web developers at churches, may well be one of the people (or the only one) who gets asked to help with "computers" -- you know ... recommending what to buy, installing them, installing software, helping with problems, educating users, ...

If so, you should download, install, and run on those computers the latest Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) -- version 2.0. MBSA not only checks security patch status, but also will look at several other aspects of system security and give you cautions and advice.

You may also want to check out the Puter Gnome blog, which often has security tips.

Improve photos with HDR

Sometimes you take (or are given) a few shots of the same image, but with different exposure values (EV), different speeds, etc.. This may have been accidental or done deliberately using an exposure bracket. In any case, you may end up with a better photo if you use a High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging technique. You always want the photos you post to the web to look their best.

You can get a free copy of Photomatrix Basic at MultiMedia Photo's HDR site. This software lets you merge two photos of the same scene. Their Pro version has more features.

Some Web technology blogs

Here are a few AOL-hosted blogs related to Webs:

• The CSS Weblog
• Web Design Reference Guide (articles)
• Writely - an online word processor recently bought by none other than Google. The basic version, which can edit and post to blogs, is free. But during this Google transition, you have to sign up on a waiting list. For more, see the Writely FAQ at their old site.
• The RSS Weblog
• The Social Software Weblog (news)

Basic CSS layout method

isitebuild.com has a decent page geared for people just starting out with CSS layout instead of tables: How to build a basic css layout .

The site also offers a page on the what and why of Cascading Style Sheets.

Online Microsoft HTML, CSS reference

The Microsoft Developers' Network (MSDN) Library contains a great HTML and CSS reference, including some obscure properties. The pages include code samples and a "Show me" button that opens a separate window that uses the code.

Most clueless about phishing, podcasting, RSS

A survey commissioned by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the vast majority of people have no idea what Phishing , podcasting, or RSS are. Yet some web developers assume that people know what to do with the little RSS "chicklet" image or a little pretty orange "Feed" icon or associated link (the icon will probably become standard -- it's already used by Firefox and the upcoming IE 7).

Pew/Internet survey (PDF)

Get web page report

WebXACT is a free single-page test utility that reports on quality, accessibility, and privacy. Test one of your pages. The results can be an eye-opener.

They can also lead you to site-wide improvements. This from the Watchfire people who make Bobby, the accessibility checker.

Protect your Blogger blog from splog

Creating and using a blog via Blogger is fast and easy. So many have joined the rage. But it seems that sometime in the summer of 2005, spammers caught onto the "opportunities" that blogs presented. Thus started two types of unsolicited annoyances -- spamming of blogs ( splog) and creation of blogs solely to link to other blogs and web sites to try to drive traffic and search rankings to them. The other sites are notoriously worthless or worse.

Google bought Blogger and offered free blogs. But soon the splog activity was overwhelming them and seriously aggravating actively blogging Blogger bloggers (I couldn't resist). Problogger.net slammed Blogger and asked if it was a haven for sploggers. It even suggested that blog search sites might have to start excluding blogspot.com blogs. Google responded to these threats to the blogosphere:

• They added a word verification option for adding comments to a blog posting. If you an Admin of a blog, you should turn this feature on in self defense.
  
• They added a "Flag" button in the blogger navbar. Clicking it alerts Blogger that someone finds the blog offenseive or against the terms of service. Unfortunately, some sploggers have found a way to leave the navbar displayed but hide or delete the Flag icon.
• Supposedly, Google now reviews blogs that are included in their "Next Blog" (using the navbar), but it's not totally effective. Some still slip through. Actually, it's not just "some". One check of 50 "Next Blog" clicks revealed about 20% were splogs.

Other reading about splogs:
Splog Reporter, Started 8/20/2005 in response to spamming of blogs. It equates sploggers with terrorists.
How to fight surging splogs. Wired Mag offers tips and a bit of background.
Splog Reporter adds Firefox extension
Splog Spot lets you search for splogs! Really! It bills itself as the world's largest splog database.
Fight Splog! reports 442 servers splogging.
Blogging industry infected with splog flu

Church Newsletters by email?

There are both pluses and minuses to sending the church newsletter by email. An article at UMC.org deals with E-newsletters.

Among the pluses:

• Fast! It arrives oh so much sooner than the USPS mail (not so affectionately called "snail mail" by some)
• Convenient. You can read it electronically or print it out and read the "hard copy".
• Reduces mailing costs.
  -- This is maybe an advantage -- your church may need to mail a minimum number of newsletters to get a price break from USPS.

Some minuses:

• Some people don't have computers (the percentage is declining, but not zero).
• Some people even with computers just prefer to get their "normal" hard copy mailed to them. So even if you email most, you should offer a printed copy to any members that want it.
• If your church does not already maintain a list of members' email addresses, you'd need to dedicate a bit of time to doing just that.

Create Google-friendly web pages

Google has some tips that will help Google find, index, and rank your web page better. Google offers both design and technical tips for accomplishing this. A top-listed general guideline ... "Make pages for users, not for search engines". In general:

• Avoid "tricks" -- don't try to be sneaky.


• Use keywords that directly relate to the current page, for example.


• Don't stuff tons of the same generic keywords into the KEYWORDS meta tag on every page of your site.


• Use key words in the text your web page. The nearer the top, the better.


• The first 25 text words in the HTML doc may get used as the "Description"

How to create a Google-friendly web page

Learn to float using CSS!

Max Design has a nice series of pages listing steps and showing results for a variety of uses for the "float" attribute. So he calls these the "Floatutorial".

This is also the site for Listamatic and Listamatic2 -- how to use CSS to create menus from lists. Access them from the Max Design home page (above).

Free web site search

I came across FreeFind Search recently. It offers a free search capability, but with a banner ad. It also automatically makes a Site Index. Google offers free search for non-profits, but you don't get a site map out of the deal.

Other features of FreeFind Search:

• Track visitor searches (get ideas for better key words)
• View an automatic "What's new" list (newly edited pages)
• Offer visitors content monitoring -- an alert when a specific page has changed
• Schedule periodic reindexing of your site

If a non-profit wants to pay a small fee (starting at $5 per month), you get the results without the banner.

As always, check the site's policies, including their privacy policy, before using the service.

Google has Sitemaps

Google keeps adding nice features. The latest one I discovered is "Sitemaps" -- you add a file (no content) to your web site "root" and then verify it via Google Sitemaps. After that, you can view statistics on top search queries, top search query actual clicks, and errors.

Google says that signing up for these (free) reports also helps them improve the results of their search "crawl".

Google Sitemaps
Google Sitemaps FAQ

Churches, maximize your emails!

Many churches have at least email accounts, though sometimes it's a pastor's personal email account. But is your church making maximum use of email? Below are some ways for churches to use email. If you're not using these, consider how you might adopt one or more. Got more ideas? -- Add a comment to this posting.

• Alert church members of a change in an event.
• Remind members of an important upcoming event.
• Meet. Committee chairpeople: Hold "meetings" by emailing everyone in a committee or work group. Let members respond to all and share ideas. This can be a great way to set the stage for a regular in-person meeting. It's also a superb way to get members involved even when work schedules make it hard for everyone to attend a "normal" meeting.
• Pitch a project or campaign. Did you email everyone about subscribing to the Wesleyan Christian Advocate in February (complete with links to the Advocate subscription page)?
• Survey members about some issue.
• Send Sunday School teasers: Early in the week, email all in your Sunday School class about the upcoming lesson. Perhaps give a couple pieces of background information, add a couple of thought-provoking questions to be discussed Sunday, and (if you have time) maybe a link or two to a web page related to the lesson.
• Distribute the church Sunday Worship bulletin to staff that need it (Assistant Pastors, Accompanist, Lay Readers, etc.)
• Distribute the church newsletter to those who request it (Opt-in).
• Alert members to religion-related information on the web.
• Alert members to religion-related items coming up on TV or on the radio.

Blog from MS Word

If you have Microsoft Word 2000 or higher and your computer's Operating System (OS) is Windows 2000 or higher, Blogger offers a free plug-in for Word that lets you create, edit, and post blog entries.

Blogger for Word

Feed Reader reviews

You don't really have to come to this web page to read the latest posts. All you have to do is set up your computer to receive the "feed" from this page.

A "feed" is the information about a posting here -- the title, date/time, and text of the post. You can access those via a "FeedReader" (also called an "news aggregator"). Most are free.

Once you "subscribe" to a feed, your NewsReader automatically checks for new posts when you open it. Of course, you can still just check back here now and then.

cnet has reviews of several feed readers. An executive summary... if you use Internet Explorer, it looks like Pluck is a good one to try. [ Download Pluck ]

If you'd like to read blog feeds via a separate web page that collects "feeds" from different blogs for you, try the Google Reader or NewsGator.

If you are a FireFox user, you can "drag" a web address for a blog to your bookmark bar and it adds an orange "feed" icon. Clicking on that icon lets you see all current posts for that blog. Internet Explorer 7 is reported to also add this feature.

You've got mail - Sunday School Lesson

How cool would it be if a Sunday School teacher could get a pre-done lesson plan that also related to current news -- all without spending hours on research and preparation?

Well, Communications Resources has a new commercial product that fills the bill: The Wired Word. You get a ready-for-use, adult lesson sent to your email inbox each Thursday.

Communications Resources also offers several other church-related products, including Church Art Online (the "Plus" version includes an online calendar). Avondale Pattillo UMC makes use of Church Art Online Plus.

Free online web school

OK, it's not technically a school, but W3Schools online has tutorials, sample code, interactive code you can test, references, etc. A few beginners may find useful:

• Learn HTML
• Web building primer
• HTML 4.01 reference
• HTML examples
• CSS examples
• HTML quiz
• My first HTML
• My first CSS

A United Methodist Glossary

What do you know about United Methodist Doctrinal Heritage? Not much, I'd guess. You may want to offer this link to our Doctrinal Heritage for your web site visitors.

Uses for the glossary

• Add a brief definition to the word such as "Intinction" on a web page by inserting the "TITLE" attribute in a span that covers the text to be defined. In such a case, when the visitor holds the mouse cursor over the word, the definition pops up in a small "tooltip" type box. For example, hold your mouse over "Intinction" above in this paragraph. This example also assigns a background style of yellow to make the defined word stand out.


• Add a separate glossary or "terms" web page that links to terms like below or else uses your own phrasing (have the pastor check for accuracy).

Below is a pretty decent link collection, mostly from the Intrepreter Magazine Glossary.

• United Methodist Social creed
• Glossary of terms related to Sharing Our Gifts
• Acolyte
• Aldersgate
• Annual Conference
• Apostles' Creed
• Apportionment
• Book of Discipline
• Chancel
• Confirmation
• Covenant
• Charge Conference
• Discipleship
• District
• District Superintendent
• Doctrinal Standards
• Episcopal area
• Evangelism
• General Conference
• GBGM
• Golden Cross Sunday
• Heritage Sunday
• Human Relations Day
• Inclusiveness
• Intinction
• Jurisdiction
• Lay Leader
• Lectern
• Lectionary
• Litany
• Narthex
• Native American Ministries Sunday
• Nicene Creed
• One Great Hour of Sharing
• Parish
• Pastor
• Peace with Justice Sunday
• Pentecost
• Postlude
• Committee on Lay Leadership (formerly called the PPR or SPR Committee)
• Prelude
• Psalter
• Pulpit
• Sacrament
• Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
• Special Sundays
• Stewardship
• Stole
• Tenebrae
• Trustees, Board of
• UMCOR
• UM Student Day
• "The Upper Room"
• Vesper service
• vestments
• World Communion Sunday
• World Service Fund
• Youth Services Fund

Church business cards

Business cards are an important part of church identity. Here are a few important factors when designing business cards for churches:

• Use type that's easy to read without squinting or holding the card closer than normal reading distance. "Squint print" is a negative factor.
• Use a typeface ("font") that's easy to read at small sizes. Usually this means what's called a "sans-serif" font (ones without the little "feet") like Arial, Tahoma, or Verdana. By small sizes, we're talking 9 or 8 points. Even an 8 point size is getting pretty small for easy reading, but is sometimes used (with a Sans-serif font).
• When using a map, make the text size easily readable.
• Look for ways to minimize text so that the card is not "crammed" ("tight" to the edges). One way is to reduce text to the essentials. For example, you only need to include a web address, not an email address if the email address is already on the web. Besides, you do want to encourage people to check the web site, as it tells a lot about "who you are" that you can't squeeze onto a business card.
• Use a tag line if your church has one. Consider making it prominent on the business card as well as other identity media.
• Use color, but don't go overboard. One inexpensive alternative is to buy sheets of micro-perf business card blanks, then print from your church's laser printer (or color printer). You can find dignified and colorful business cards online, now. One such company is Paper Direct. More online business card sources »