Rocket Science

This is all Tom’s fault.

(And this might help as folks prepare to fly for the holidays.)

Here’s a nice writeup from the Wall Street Journal on The 10 Rules of the Road for Air Travel .

(Here’s another related article at CNN.)

Yes, you read that correctly…it’s possible to enter “alt” text for images in PowerPoint, if you’re using a Windows version. This feature is not supported in the Mac version–which, yes, is just really dumb.

Why would you want to use alt text? For accessibility of course.

Alt Text for PowerPoint 2003 and Prior

Right‐click on an image then choose Format Picture, then select the Web tab. Enter text that describes the purpose and appearance of the image. Click OK.

Alt Text for PowerPoint 2007

Right‐click on an image then choose Size and Position, then select the Alt‐Text tab. Enter text that describes the purpose and appearance of the image. Click OK.

Photo Credit: kvitsh

Free Shampoo

Actually, for most people, this is probably a good idea. Hey, I’ve done it myself. I started accumulating soap, shampoo and the nifty personal hygiene items from the “nice” hotels that I stayed in. I put them in the guest bathroom of my house. But remember, I travel a lot. Pretty soon I was accumulating too many of them and I had to stop. (Here’s an article on CNN about taking hotel amenities.)

You may be wondering, why don’t I use them myself? Well, there’s a reason.

Have I said that I travel a lot? One of the things I’ve decided to do is to take along my own bar soap and shampoo to try and retain some semblance of normalcy when I travel. It’s a small thing, but being able to use the same items helps all those hotel rooms feel a little more like home. And, while I haven’t done it yet, I have thought about taking a pillow case with me too for the same reason.

So for me, “I say no! to free shampoo.”

(And for Tom, yes this is another one of my travel tips.)

As a followup to my Messenging post, I thought I’d include a post on the style I’ve been using or at least trying to do.

• First paragraph: The first paragraph should stand alone, fairly short, and most of all be “interesting” enough to grab the potential reader’s attention.
• Visually interesting: Ideally every post would have a visually interesting element that doesn’t overpower or overwhelm the article. Most of the time I accomplish this using an image from Flickr, my own photo or image, or even a blockquote.
• Images: When I can’t use my own image, I try and use one from Flickr that’s Creative Commons licensed that enable me to do what I’m doing. I also add a “Photo credit” in the style of Flickr.
  <div style="font-size:8px;margin-top:-5px;text-align:right;margin-right:5px;line-height:10px;">Credit/Source: <a href="http://hostname/filename">Author</a></div>
• Quotes: I like to include quotes in <blockquote>s to help amplify points in my posts. I add a source line in a close to APA style format with a <div align="right"> style.
• Embedded Media: Similarly to images, I’ll embed media that’s Creative Commons licensed to enable me to do what I’m doing, or is publicly shared on a site like YouTube. I also add a source citation similar to quotes.
• “More”: Sometimes, when an article gets long, I’ll use the Wordpress <!--more--> tag to separate the post into a more manageable chunk.

Aside: There are a couple of my previous posts that don’t follow these guidelines that I’m still trying to figure out how to handle.

One of the benefits of blogging is that I’ve had the opportunity to be self-reflective. I’ve taken the opportunity to post some things my personal life (ok, they’re mostly rants because I don’t have folks local to me yet that I can rant to all the time, my co-workers might call the men in white coats). And more interestingly, I’m using this site to document and share some of the work-related topics, tools and techniques I find interesting.

I’ve also complained complained before about how most of the posts I find that I want to write take more than an hour.

Recently I was reading an article in Fast Company and it brought together many of the things I think about when I write posts. Their original topic was viral messages, I think the elements they describe work for my blog posts in general. And their article helps to explain why I’m taking the time to write about the things I do. The authors, Dan & Chip Heath, contend that there are “three secrets”:

• Emotional: Good (viral) messages are emotional.
• Public Service: Good messages are also a “public service”, they help the user do something easier, they help the user solve a problem, and so on.
• Trigger: Good messages have a trigger, “an environmental reminder to talk about an idea.”

I think I’m writing many of my professional posts as a service–I’m trying to share the information, and I’m also trying to model a process. When I write many posts, I’m trying to include a trigger, where I can to stimulate involvement (ok that’s not working so well). And certainly my “rant on” posts have an emotional component.

Anyway that’s my 6-month-ish update on posting.