Archive for August, 2010
Take Advantage Of osTicket, A Widely-used Open Source Support Ticket System
When there are many department involved in a company, then handling customer complaints can become quite complex. Recording a complaint, then forwarding it to the right department, and checking its status now and then can become very complicated. The best way to go about the issue is through a ticket based system. By assigning each complaint a unique ticket, you can assign it to the right person, and check the issue’s status easily.
Many website operate a ticket based complaints and contact system. If you run such a website then you can surely take advantage of osTicket, a widely-used open source support ticket system.
osTicket is a complete and feature-rich open source support ticket system that easily fits into your website. It can seamlessly integrate inquiries created via email, phone and web-based forms into a simple easy-to-use multi-user web interface.
All that osTicket requires is PHP 4.3 or later and MySQL 4.4 or later. You can follow the installation guide available on osTicket’s website, follow the instructions on it, and set it up.
If you are thinking about going for a paid solution for your web complaints and issue handling, think again. “osTicket is an attractive alternative to higher-cost and complex customer support systems; simple, lightweight, reliable, open source, web-based and easy to setup and use.” It makes the entire process easier for the customer as well as the employees.
The Robust Collection Of (50) Mindblowing Icon Sets For Your Next Design
Icons can be useful to furnish users with unforgettable images and examples if used properly, and this is the reason why Icon sets always come in handy. You will find the huge collection of recently released icon sets which are believed to assist you in bettering your designs on websites as well as on web applications.
In this post, we have also gathered some useful icon sets for your inspiration. If you like them, you can use them in your next design project. The icon sets that we have provided below may become valuable and useful in corporate designs, portfolios, blogs, and magazines as well as in Web-applications. Feel free to suggest and share more icon sets in the comments section below.
New exclusive icon set: Copenhagen
The ‘Square’ Social Media Icon Set
Sketchy Social Media Icons Freebie
Freebie Fiesta – Twitter Bird & Egg
The Ultimate Free Web Designer’s Icon Set (750 icons, incl. PSD sources)
Designer Icons – Professionally Hand-Crafted Free Icon Set
The ‘Free Style’ Social Media Icon Set
Picasso: A Free Social Media Icon Set
Isometrica (Volume 1): A Free Social Media Icon Set
Free Social Media Icons: Tricons
Content Management System Icon Set
Free Web Design Icon Set By Iconshock
Adding Credibility Signs To Have A Profitable eCommerce Website
With the incredible competition in the online marketplace, it has become obvious that more importance should be put on site’s credibility. Generating more leads becomes possible when customers feel comfortable and secure while shopping online with your web store. So it is highly recommended to apply the proven basics of the retail success.
To run a successful ecommerce website, you need to make your web store as attractive as possible and display your product range to the best advantage.
You may incorporate an online catalogue that provides detailed information on each product and make it easy for the online shopper to make a purchase. Perhaps it would be nice to have organized categories and use thumbnails to give faster load time. Just let the visitors learn about your product, win your customers’ interest before they will actually shop online.
Note that for a fail-safe eCommerce project it is highly recommended that the retailer is physically present in the web store having a real name instead of pseudonym, putting a personal picture and being ready to communicate with customers, explain the process of placing the order and proceeding with it. Simply let your customers feel that they know at least something about you to be certain that someone will take care of them.
Additionally, you should give clear and accessible information about your company, your contact information, customer service. It’s highly preferable to present these options as links on your eCommerce website’s main navigation menu. What’s also important here is to provide the answers to the commonly asked questions using FAQs, for instance. Your customers will feel comfortable with a fully developed customer service policy. They will also feel secure in your store if there is SSL on your online payment pages, some visible signs that your site is secure and online payment systems are safe. Plus you can show credibility signs like 3rd party trust logos, security audits of your website, accreditation logos included in strategic points on your site, etc. The above-mentioned factors are actually the prime concern of every potential online shopper.
Do you know that the visitors are sure to give up shopping with eCommerce websites that have large sections under construction or offer coming soon banners, stores that never offer any new content, littered with dead links, hosted by providers that provide slow or inconsistent services? Be sure, all this will kill online shopping and a business eventually. It is extremely important that you, as a solid online retailer, could afford to professionally maintain your eCommerce website, otherwise the visitors will leave you.
To make your eCommerce website a high converting machine that not only has top-quality look, but also builds tremendous credibility, you may apply to Template Monster that’s having this killing promo currently – their eCommerce Templates are 20% off starting August 25th. Out of such product categories as osCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, Zen Cart, VirtueMart, and CRE Loaded Templates, online retailers can pick any design and purchase it with a guaranteed discount. Every eCommerce Template developed by Template Monster expert designers has a professional-looking, fully functional design that will build exceptional credibility with potential online shoppers. So make the click that matters! Follow this source to get a professional eCommerce design at a 20% discount and make your eCommerce site visitors actually shop with your new shiny store.
5 Free Tools To Download Or Create Movie Subtitles
The subtitles for a movie serve an important purpose. If your hearing is impaired or if you do not speak the language used in a movie, reading the subtitles can greatly help in keeping up with what goes on in every scene. If you have rented a DVD, chances are that it includes subtitles. But if you have downloaded a movie it might not have subtitles accompanying it.
To get subtitles for movies and TV shows, there are a number of free tools available online. These tools help you obtain subtitles and, in some cases, let you add subtitles of your own. Check out the list of 5 such tools that we have gathered below.
Subs.to
Subs.to lets you search for subtitles for movies. You can choose your desired language of subtitles. Supported languages include Farsi, Hebrew, Slovenian, and many more. Most of the subtitles include file format and FPS (frames per second) with them.
DivxSubtitles
DivxSubtitles is another online database for subtitles for movies. The site offers better search options that include language, file format, date of upload, number of CDs, minimum quality, and name of movie.
TVsubtitles
Movie subtitles are not that hard to find online. What are hard to find are subtitles for television shows. Through TVsubtitles you can look for subtitles for most popular TV shows. Subtitles can be found in a variety of languages including English, French, Polish, Italian, Romanian, and many others.
SubtitleSync
SubtitleSync lets you search for movies and TV subtitles. Additionally it offers online apps for synchronizing, splitting, and merging your subtitle files. If the only subtitles file you can find is out of sync, then these online tools can be of great help.
Aegisub
Aegisub is an advanced subtitles tools. The tool is installable and comes in version for Windows, Mac OS, and Unix. You can use Aegisub to create subtitles and position them exactly where you want in your video. You can also edit the font style and size using this program. Existing subtitle files can also be modified.
Get Your Own Online Diary That Lets Your Express Yourself Fully With Daileez
Online social networks are today scattered all over the internet. In addition to Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, and MySpace, there are countless other social networks you might not even have heard of. While these networks serve the purpose of helping you keep in touch with friends and family, they do not help you with keeping a track of your life – that can only be done through a diary.
Writing a diary mean documenting your days. You write what happened every day; then as time passes you read about your past events and feelings; this can be a great way to analyze how you have grown. Social networks do not offer this facility. Thankfully “Daileez” does.
Daileez can be you online diary that lets you express yourself fully. In a physical diary all you can store is text and doodles. But using Dialeez you can sign up for a free account and then start recording everyday via textual notes and emoticons.
These emoticons can be used as shortcuts too; for instance the first aid emoticon can be used to represent a visit to the doctor or an injury. The airplane icon can be used to mark journeys by air. This way you can express yourself without having to type a lot.
A bonus feature of the site is its ability to link Facebook and Twitter accounts with itself. While typing in a new message on Daileez you can choose it to simultaneously be posted on your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Anybody who wants to keep a record of his days and how he / she spent them will find Daileez to be highly helpful.
OffiSync Supercharges Microsoft Office By Enabling Real-time Co-Authoring And Google Apps Integration
OffiSync Supercharges Microsoft Office, enabling users to significantly improve the way they create, collaborate and share their documents by integrating Microsoft Office with Google Docs, and Google Apps.
Installing OffiSync adds a new toolbar to any version of Microsoft Office, letting users easily import web content such as images and templates right from within MS Office, collaborate with others in real time, letting users see each other’s edits as they work with Office files and share their final documents with others inside or outside the firewall.
The OffiSync plug-in for Microsoft Office downloads seamlessly as a new toolbar in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel 2003, 2007 and 2010, making it very easy to use with no training required.
Opening and saving a document to Google Docs and Google Sites is as easy as using documents on your own computer.
OffiSync tracks, manages and syncs all changes made by collaborators to merge them correctly into one updated version of the document. With OffiSync you can work on a document while others do the same and see their changes appearing in real time.
Go-Gas Helps You Calculate The Estimated Cost Of Fuel Required For Your Trip
The prices of fuel are today at a stage that we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. With such high prices our main concern while traveling through cars is the cost of fuel required for each trip. What you could do to estimate the cost is check your car’s mileage, then calculate the distance of your journey, then factor in the local fuel rates; when all this information is at hand you can manually estimate the cost of fuel required. An alternative to the manual calculation is Go-Gas.
Go-Gas is a great website that can be of great benefit to people planning road trips. The site works in a very simple way.
Step 1: You see a map on the site’s homepage. You locate your position, and mark the departure and destination spots on the map. The map contains roads so the travelling-by-car distance from start to finish is automatically calculated by the site.
Step 2: Then you enter the information required by the website. This includes your car’s mileage and the local fuel rate. The fuel rate can be entered either in Euros or in Dollars.
Step 3: You enter these results and have the site estimate the total cost of required fuel for the journery.
The site’s feature is quite simple but greatly useful.
10 Best Business Web Apps To Make Your Lives Easier
This is one of the very best list of its kind where you can find incredibly useful and life saver FREE web apps that you probably never heard of and these would be great enough to bookmark or just for get in your knowledge. I hope everyone of you will like this list, you can try these whether you are an office worker, a manager, a supervisor, a student, a home user, etc.These are really amazing in respect to their features. This is the list of 10 Best Business Web Apps To Make Your Lives Easier. Just take a look at them and share your thought’s here.
You are welcome if you want to share more useful web apps that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well.
Project Bubble is a simple and easy tool for managing your projects, client and invoices. It’s intuitive interface makes project management a breeze. You can easily generate PDF invoices and get paid through PayPal.
Collabtive
Collabtive is a modern Web application that allows teams to collaborate on projects, manage tasks, milestones, and files, and send instant messages to each other. It is multilanguage capable, supporting more than 20 languages. Collabtive integrates with other webservices via an XML API. It also provides importing functionality for data from other applications.
Pivotal Tracker
Pivotal Tracker is a great collaboration tool for people working on a software or web coding project. You start work on a project by first creating an account on the site. After logging in you can create and name a new project.
ShiftPlanning is a free online employee scheduling management software aimed at helping businesses with their employee scheduling. Interactive and easy to use, ShiftPlanning is next-generation scheduling software that delivers precision and speed to the business’s scheduling responsibilities, freeing up time to concentrate on other demands.
Doit.Im
Fortunately I have found a greatly user friendly task management tool and am about to share it with you – Doit.Im. Doit.Im is a free web app that offers task management services. It offers comprehensive options yet packs them into a neat and tidy interface.
Stixy
Stixy is a free to use website that acts as your portable work desk. Basically it is a virtual desk that operates from within your browser. You create an account on Stixy then upload files to your account; you get thumbnail views of each file; these thumbnails can be dragged around or stacked on top of each other, whichever way suits you best. Thus whether it is organization you want or that scrambled documents look, Stixy can help you out.
Zoho
Zoho is the name for a collection of services. The entries you see in the image above are only few of what Zoho has to offer. We can sign up for an account and use Zoho’s services to easily gather ideas and create plus modify files / documents / images / presentations as a group.
Tabzon
Tabzon is a free website that acts as an in-out board. It can work as a wonderful attendance tool for businesses. To take advantage of the site, the boss creates a Tabzon account. This requires entering the name of the company and no kind of personal details. Upon successful account creation we are provided with a URL for our company’s in-out board. We can then proceed to invite our employees to Tabzon either from within our account or by sharing the URL.
HiTask is a friendly and easy-to-use task management system that anyone can start using right away. It is designed to satisfy both sophisticated followers of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” methodology and anyone who just needs a quick and easy tool to manage their everyday tasks.
Even if you are running a small business you need a service that analyzes your finances and keeps the figures updated. Through this analysis you can view if there are any upcoming shortages or anything you should be alarmed about. By monitoring the financial health of your business you are able to better ensure its success. inDinero makes that possible. inDinero is a web service that can be dashboard for your business’s financial health.
Humyo Helps You Upload And Access Files From Anywhere
All computer users want remote access to their files; but remote access requires your computer to stay powered on and have internet access. If you do not want to leave your computer powered on all the time, then uploading your files on the web is the best solution. You could use file hosting websites but that would be impractical as you would have to save separate URLs for each file. There are a few web services out there that let you upload files and keep it organized but almost all do not provide storage capacity more than 1 GB. That is what sets Humyo apart from its competition.
Humyo is a web service that lets you upload your files and access from anywhere on the web. The site offers paid service but it has a great free package as well: opting for the free package will give you 5 GB upload limit for media files (videos and audio) and a 5 GB limit for non-media files, totaling the storage capacity to 10 GB.
Apart from its massive storage, Humyo also features a great user friendly interface. Although it does not offer a desktop application, you can open up its Java app in your web browser and simply drag the files there to be uploaded. The Java app is in the bottom left of your dashboard.
With your files uploaded, you can sign into Humyo from a web browser on any computer and get access to your uploaded files.
Big Day At Digg, New Digg (v4) Launched Today
After long wait and excitement it seems the new digg launched. Yes! you read it right digg releases their version 4. People have too many reservations with digg’s new version but today is a day when every one has to accept it with it’s all pros and cons. At the moment, there are some deployment issues and implementations of the new version is going on due to which digg is responding very slow, but digg’s administration is working very hard to get it rolled out successfully. Guys, you can follow us on digg by going here.
This is how new digg looks like
They also shared picture of the digg office to show the world what is going on there.
No doubt it’s a great news for digg community and now everyone is waiting to start exploring the new digg as production version. Will it give more surprises, to find out this we have to wait and keep using the new digg. I am hoping that this new digg will be as lovable as the old one for the community and it will be a much greater place for everyone. Good luck Digg.com guys.
