How to write code (or anything else) much quicker with text substitution

Do you find yourself spending your days writing the same text over and over? You could save yourself hours of time by using text substitution software.

There are lots of text substitution packages available, but they all work in a common way - you set up shortcuts (small pieces of text), which when triggered are substituted with longer pieces of text.

Here's some shortcuts in action that I've set up for writing HTML:




Not just for writing code

The application of text substitution isn't limited to writing code. It comes in handy any time you find yourself writing the same text from day to day. For example, I find myself writing the phrase "writing for the web" a lot, so I've set up a "wftw" shortcut that does that for me. You can even set shortcuts for whole canned email responses to common questions and save yourself a whole load of time.

More information

For a great overview of the topic and the tools available for different operating systems, see the lifehacker article Save time with text substitution

Job opportunities - come and join us!

The following advert is due to appear on jobs.ac.uk over the weekend:

"The University has embarked upon a major redevelopment of its web presence. Four new one-year posts have been created which offer exciting opportunities to play a key role in this ambitious project. Working within the Communications Office, you will assist staff in departments in all aspects of migrating their existing website into the University's Web Content Management System (CMS).

Excellent customer service skills are essential, as you will work with a range of people, providing advice and support. You will be following set procedures to source and quality-control images, documents and text for the website and put them into the Web CMS.

This client-facing role will be coordinated from the University’s Web Office and will involve spending significant amounts of time in departments helping with the migration of their content to the Web CMS. There are clear lines of management and communication between your role, the Web Office and the departments.

This is not a web developer role; we will give full training in the use of the Web CMS. However, you need to be confident in the use of the web and to have an understanding of what makes a good website.

Salary within the range: £19,089 - £22,126 per annum.

Closing date for applications: 11 October 2009.

Further information is available via http://www.york.ac.uk/jobs/"

Site Manager upgraded to version 6.2

We successfully upgraded TerminalFour's Site Manager, our Web CMS, from version 6.1 to 6.2 earlier this week. We've been testing it for a few months now and we're happy to report that the upgrade went smoothly and all seems well.

There are a few changes that end users will appreciate straight away:

• a search option to get you straight to the page you want to edit
• removal of the annoying 'channel selection' screen when previewing a page
• a better default view in the Media Library

We've emailed all Web CMS users with details of the changes so if you use the system hopefully there haven't been any surprises. We'll introduce the changes in more detail, together with some more that are happening behind the scenes and a selection of new content templates, at a briefing session with web authors on Tuesday 29 September from 12-1pm in Alcuin College room AEW/003. Anyone at York is welcome, so do come along and find out more.

What, why and how we're blogging

We've talked in the Web Office about starting a blog several times over the last couple of years. We've finally done it, so I thought a quick overview of why and how we've done it may be of interest.

Why we want to blog

The Web Office works with lots of web authors around the University and the work we do has an impact on everyone who uses the website. We sometimes struggle to keep in touch or maintain a dialogue with all these stakeholders and wanted a way to improve this. We hope a blog is one way we can keep people better informed, be more open about what we're doing and offer more opportunities for dialogue.

In addition to just letting you know what we're up to in the office, we also hope to share some tips and tricks that may help you make more productive use of your computer and the web tools that you use day to day.

If there are things you'd like to hear more about, drop us a line by email (web-office@york.ac.uk) or leave a comment right here on the blog.

Why we're on Blogger

Those of you who know a little about blogging may have noticed we're using Blogger. This is an external service, run by Google, and operates completely outside of the University.

We're using Blogger because the University doesn't (yet) have a centrally-supported blogging service. There is a project ongoing looking at selection and deployment of collaborative tools for the University, of which blogging is likely to be one component, but nothing is in place just yet. We could have installed our own blog software on a University service, but it would have been a lot more effort to set up and a lot more effort to maintain. Blogger is quick, simple, offers all the functionality we need and fitted the bill just nicely for our particular needs at this time.

Until the University has a supported blogging platform, our use of Blogger unfortunately doesn't mean we can support other departments who want a blog. We'll be happy to advise, but our involvement can only be very light-touch until the University settles on a supported solution. It's important to note that while Blogger suited our needs, it may not suit yours so please don't just assume that following our lead is a good idea. Talk to us first and we'll advise as best we can.

New Physics website live

The new Department of Physics website was launched as a CMS driven website last week.

It joins the ranks of Alcuin College, Centre for Modern Studies, Chemistry, Communications, Goodricke College, The Library and News & Events.

Updates to our CMS print style sheets

"Improve print style sheets" had been languishing near the bottom of my to-do list for what seems like eternity - they're not the most exiting topic after all. Today I decided that it was finally time to get on to it.

Here's what a typical page looked like:

It's not a complete disaster, but there's plenty of room for improvement - the logo looks messy, text is indented where it shouldn't be, and there's quite a bit of formatting missing, especially for styles that had been introduced via our CMS (the original page contains a styled quotation and some content in boxed regions).

So an hour of tinkering later, here's what the printed pages now look like:

Here's what I did:

• Added a print specific version of the logo, rather than using the one that appears on screen (using the :before pseudo-class).
  
• Added print styles to match the onscreen formatting of boxes, bullets, tables and quotations.
• Hid a few more links that aren't of use in printed form.
• Increased the line height to improve readability.

There are still a few more improvements that I'd like to make, such as automatically inserting the URLs of links (as described in the A List Apart article, Going to Print), but they can wait until next time.

How to quickly search the University Directory from the Firefox address bar

Is the way that you search the University Directory something like this?

1. Go to the University homepage
2. Click on Contacting People
3. Click on Directory
4. Type in the name of the person you're looking for
5. Click Search

Well, using Firefox's Smart Keywords functionality, you can do this a whole lot quicker, without even taking your hands off the keyboard. Here's how you set it up:

1. Navigate to the University Directory

2. Right click in the Surname field, and select Add a Keyword for this Search...

3. In the Add Bookmark dialog box that appears, give the bookmark a name and a short keyword. I've used "d" (for "directory").

4. Now, whenever that you want to search the directory, just go to the address bar (which you quickly do by pressing CTRL + L) and type "d" followed by the surname of the person you are looking for. Eg to search for someone with the surname Kelly, you'd type d kelly.

You can expand on this further and create keywords for the different types of searches that are possible with the directory - for example I also have a "de" keyword that searches the directory by email address.