Mister Nifty

I found this great little kit to help web developers recreate their sites into iPhone format.  The templates are already set up.  All you have to do is copy/paste your content code and build simple menu structures.  Then, set up a separate directory or subdmain on your server for the alternate site.  I would use something like http://m.yourchurchsite.com  or http://yourchurchsite.com/m

You can download the iWebKit here for free!

Have you ever wanted to post a Powerpoint presentation on the web?  Now you can for free with iSpring!  It’s a great little application that allows you to convert what was once a proprietary file to be used only in presentation software into a web friendly Flash file that can be embedded on a website.  This nifty tool can get some of your polished slideshows on your church websites for the world to see.  I love free stuff.

Issuu is a great tool I just found to publish virtually any type of static material on the web. Issuu has a neato interface that lets you read the content like a book. Say you want to publish an article on your website, all you have to do is upload your pdf, doc, or a variety of other formats to Issuu and they do all the work. They give you an embed code you can place on your website. The result is a fabulous virtual book that people can literally flip through right from your own page. It’s totally cool and totally free! Check out this e-book I made of some photos I took of one of my old cameras. You can see it here!

I stumbled across this great new service from Adobe – Adobe Share Beta. I assume Adobe is allowing this to be free while in beta stage and eventually will charge for the service once they get all the bugs worked out of it. Basically, you can upload your documents/files and share them with anyone via email or embedding them in your website. I really like seeing a preview of my document on the website before downloading. I hate having to wait for Acrobat to open up to see my PDF’s. It’s just a terrible waste of energy. I know, patience is a virtue, but not with Adobe (they charge for everything!!!). Use it to display a preview of your church bulletin, forms, and various other documents people need access to on your website. Another great feature is they can share it with others as well directly from your website. Might as well take advantage of this cool tool while it lasts!!

Click Read More to see an example of a document embedded in a website.

After researching dozens of list servers for emailing our entire congregation, I found Pommo. It’s a wonderfully free software that takes a bit of tech experience to get running. You can import all your contacts, add whatever information to each field, create check boxes for different lists, filter the lists down to groups, and many more cool things. Basically, I log on to pommo, click mailing, select my recipient group, fill in my subject line, who it’s from, a reply address, select a programmed template (you have to create your own via FrontPage or your own HTML editor) and then send a test email to myself to make sure it’s perfect. Once I’ve done that I hit send mail, and I reach over 700 people in one click. The difference between using this software and using your Outlook software is that this sends 700 different emails rather than one email to 700 people (this is referred to as SPAMMING). Some of the greatest features of this software is that people can unsubscribe if they don’t want your emails, and you can personalize each email you send out based on whatever information is in their data record, (i.e. First Name, ministry group, etc.). This has made a huge difference in how we communicate with the church. Read past the screenshots for tech advice on installing this.

Tech Advice:

You will need to download the zip file containing the software.

Expand it to a directory on your hard drive.

Create a directory on your web server and upload the contents to that web directory. (I used a sub-domain – mailings.mydomain.com – ask your hosting provider for more information how to do this with your domain).

Once you’ve uploaded everything, you need to go to your control panel and find where you can add a MYSQL database. Get the server address, database name, user name, and password. You will need to add these to the config file.

Open the file called config.sample.php and find where you input the database information. Then save this file as config.php and upload it to your web directory.

Next, open your browser, go to: http://www.yourdomain.com/pommodirectory/install

The software will do an automatic install from here out. Have fun. Visit pommo.org for more information and support.

This is an exciting tool that I’ve been looking at for a while. You don’t have to be a tech genius to create a mini website. I have created a simple tutorial using the Leafletter mini site to show you how it works. You can use it for advertisements on your current website, announce events, or even put together your own mini youth site your kids can post on their social networking site. The possibilities are endless with 36 cool layouts. You can upload your own image, grab from Flikr, or even take an image from your current website. They give you up to 10 pages on each mini site that you can link together. Check out the one I made. It’s neato and it’s a freebie!