But, I have a bone to pick with you web developers, business owners, and bloggers out there.  Many of you don’t have mobile-friendly sites.  Why is this?

Even back when I was living in the dark ages and was not using a mobile device myself, I understood that there were plenty of people around who were.  My sites all have a mobile version.  Granted, I’m running WordPress-powered blogs for the most part, so getting the plug-in wasn’t exactly hard or anything.  I did it because I know that when you’re bored, reading short pieces appropriate to a blog is a common way for the wired to entertain themselves.

Don’t think it’s just for blogging, though.  More and more, people will be using mobile devices to search for information as they’re going about their day.

Categories for which a mobile-friendly website is crucial:

• Restaurants

Every one of us has looked around, at our friends and voiced that time-honored phrase, “Where do you want to go for dinner?”  We don’t always ask this question in front of a computer or phone book.  Make sure that you have a mobile-friendly page that shows your location, hours open, menu and a general idea of prices.  It’ll make it more likely for your customers to pick you.

• Bloggers

Yes, that theme you designed is very pretty.  Guess what? I can’t see it on a screen smaller than the palm of my hand, and I’m not visiting your site because it’s pretty.  If I read a blog regularly, it’s because I find what you have to say entertaining, informative, or more likely both!   Have a mobile version.  And if you’re worried about ad revenue, don’t.  On your mobile version, you can set it so that the ads show interspersed with the text or at the bottom of the screen.

• Anyone that sells things over the Internet

Amazon has a mobile-friendly site.  Big department stores do, too.  If you sell products online, you really want your potential customers to be able to make an impulse purchase from their mobile phones.  You don’t have to spend a fortune on a site that’ll be friendly to your mobile customers,  and you want to be able to make it easy for them to make that impulse purchse.

Let’s assume you’re convinced.  So, what makes a website mobile-friendly?

• Vertical Design

Mobile devices generally have a screen that is narrower than it is wide.   The user will be scrolling down a great deal to get to content.  Make sure the most useful content is right at the top – rather like going for page rank on Google.

• Minimized clicks

Make sure that your user doesn’t have to click on too many internal links for the site to be useful.  However, resist the temptation to put all of the content on one page.

• Minimized textual input

Typing on a mobile is a pain.  Make sure you’re not forcing your user to fill out too many forms.

• Minimized Image Use

Think icons here.  Don’t integrate the image into the usefulness of the site!

• Good Content organization

Make sure you sit down and draw out not only a generalized design, but make some flow charts about how your user is likely to navigate the site.  Test this with people who are not web developers until you can get a usage flow that makes sense and is fairly intuitive.

Remember that your main site, the one that people will be browsing on larger screens, can be considerably more elaborate.  What you want here is a version of the site built specifically for your mobile user.  If you’re considering a new website, make sure that you get a designer that understands these principles.

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So, for a couple of weeks, I used OpenOffice and Google Docs instead.  Now, I was familiar with both programs.  By the nature of my work, it’s useful to be familiar with as many computer applications as possible.

Open Office’s interface is more or less like Office 2003 or lower.  You have a menu bar, and a customizable toolbar with buttons.  Unless you memorize the steps you need to do something rather than read menus and popups, you’re simply not going to have any trouble.  For minor differences, the help files are clear.  I’ve already accessed them about three times writing this and always found my answer pretty quickly.

Writer works well and plays okay with documents created in Word.  Calc can handle the most complex spreadsheets I work with in Excel, and the Impress presentation application could handle the presentation I created in PowerPoint for an SEO talk I give, though would require some minor cosmetic tweaking were I to use it to give the presentation.  I have no idea how Base and Access play with each other.  I have little occasion to use database software other than when I am teaching.

Microsoft Office or Open Office:  What Do I Use When I Have the Choice?

I prefer Office 2007.  Here’s why.  I’m used to it[1]. Once I got used to it, I did find that I liked the intuitiveness of the ribbon interface. It’s as simple as that.  There’s nothing I do in an Office program that OpenOffice can’t.  (Well, other than study to teach Office 2007, mind!)  If you’re looking into a productivity suite and are short on cash, I can’t urge you enough to check out OpenOffice.  The features are great and the price can’t be beat.

What about Google Docs?

I’ve used Google Docs professionally.  No, seriously.  I’ve had clients who wanted me to write the documents in Google Docs and share them.  I also use it when I’m collaborating with other authors. It’s not as robust a word processor as either Open Office Writer or Microsoft Word, but it gets the job done for basic tasks.

Its spreadsheet capabilities are pretty limited, though.   If you’re doing charting, use named ranges or perform complex 3-D calculations, you really want to use either Calc or Excel.

As far as its presentation capabilities?   Eh… Animations don’t seem to work on it[2], but other than that, it’ll play static slides okay.  Some might consider this a feature rather than a bug, and I don’t blame them.  There are people who overdo the animations!

Still, the takeaway for all of this is that you’re not limited to buying a very expensive productivity suite for most of your computing needs.  Sure, I like and use Office 2007, but you really don’t have to.

If you’d like to try Open Office, click here for the download:

[2] At least, how to add animation is not immediately obvious and is not susceptible of a right click!

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But, in the event that people start needing a cheat sheet for Word, Excel or PowerPoint 2007, I made one.  It tends to be the ribbon interface that confuses people, so this particular cheat sheet has and image of each activated ribbon, and some common keyboard shortcuts on the obverse.  Just click on the link to download a printable PDF.

Word 2007 Cheat Sheet

Excel 2007 Cheat Sheet

Power Point 2007 Cheat Sheet

Just a little something that can be useful in your productivity!

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The thing is, you want to be careful when you’re working from home.  The solitude is great.  Few interruptions, cow-orkers¹ to distract you, the annoyances of a commute to bother you… it’s wonderful, right?  For the freelance writer or computer programmer, one can make a decent living bidding on online freelance boards and never actually interacting face-to-face with a client.  That’s heaven for we cranky introverts, isn’t it?

Recluse Figart is here to tell you that’s not quite so.  English satirist and keen observer of human detail Terry Prachett once wrote in Men at Arms:

Individuals aren’t naturally paid-up members of the human race, except biologically. They need to be bounced around by the Brownian motion of society, which is a mechanism by which human beings constantly remind one another that they are . . . well . . . human beings. He was also spiralling inwards, as tends to happen in cases like this.

One of the challenges of the freelancer or anyone else in a solitary profession is the necessity of enough social contact to stay human.  It sounds a little goofy and a little dramatic, but it’s true.  If you don’t have regular contact with people, you’re going to lose perspective and lose your ability to deal well with people.  That’s going to translate into a loss of marketing skill if you’re not careful, so it’s important not to let things get that far.  You don’t want to start spiraling inward.

So, what do you do?

Like anything, it depends.  I’d encourage anyone who worked from home to have some regular project that required you to leave that home sometimes.  Maybe it’s church work, or maybe it’s a charity project.  I have a part-time job working the front desk of my local gym.  I chose it because it’s a low investment of time, it means that I have the use of the gym regularly and I’m forced to interact with people on a regular basis.   It’s part of my job to be cheerful, perky and helpful.  Believe it or not, keeping in practice with this is quite useful.

But it doesn’t have to be a part-time job or charity project.  You could start a local meet-up for the freelancer, say a regular day of the week you meet for coffee and exchange ideas.  It could be a hobby group you’re keen on.  It doesn’t really matter as long as its fairly regular, gets you out of the house and ensures that you’re interacting with people to keep perspective and keep yourself human.

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