Bobblehead Nativity Scene

I built a Bobblehead Nativity Scene!

I looked around everywhere and couldn't find one, so I thought I'd build one.

Hope you have a wonderful December, leading up to a warm and cozy Christmas Season.


Play Bobblehead Nativity Scene

Enjoy

jorge

How to set up a PHP Contact Form on your Website

The first few times I tried this, it didn't work. I ended up getting some friends to set it up for me. Then I found this script that uses PHP that works perfectly.

So, requirements for this form to work is that your server is running PHP. If not, you'll have to use a cgi script or a perl script or something. I don't use those, but you can start here.

Here's a zipped file with 3 items in it: The php script "MailForm.php", an autoresponse example "autoresponse.htm" and an html page with the form built on it "contactForm.html". You can use this form, or modify it accordingly.

You will also be building a "thankyou.htm" and an "errorpage.htm". You can turn these functions off, but I like them, so I've left them on the file.

Basically, for simplicity, you'll need to put "MailForm.php" in the same directory on your server as the other pages of your website. (you can always put the form wherever you like, but you'll just have to make sure the path on the form is pointing to the right place.

OK, so I'll talk about the easy stuff first. The autoresponse file is just a plain text message that gets sent to the senders email address immediately as they submit the form. Make sure and change the title of the page (this is turned into the "subject line"), and change the message to your liking. I made mine plain text with no html...that's the lowest common denominator. The name of the file needs to stay "autoresponse.htm" or it won't work. (again, if you change it, just change the path as well).

The error page will come up if the user does not fill in all of the required fields (we'll talk about that later). So, there should be a message stating that they need to go back and fill in the rest of the fields.

Note: I put a javascript "history-1" link on mine...just to make it easier.

The Thank you page is a "confirmation" message that the email was sent successfully. I suggest that it say something like "Thanks for contacting us...we'll get back with you shortly" or something like that.

I make my error page and thank you page look like my website pages. Test my page by not filling out one of the fields to see the error page, and then send me some nice message to see the thank you page.

This contact form script does not check that the phone number is all numbers and the right amount of numbers, or if the email is correct, so you might get some people sending you emails without a way to return their message. My brother does that to me every once in a while with messages like "Your website is lame!" and signs it "Holdin McGroin". I know he does it because he loves me.

So, now the form. Checkout the contactForm.html that you downloaded. You should be able to copy that code from the page I provided and paste it directly into yours. You might have to mess with table widths.

Note: make sure and copy from the open form tag to the close form tag.

<form></form>

So, there are a few things you'll need to change:

Form action: change this path to point to your file on your server.

Recipient: This is your email or your client's...the recipient.

Subject: Change this to what you want.

Redirect: This is the path to the thank you page.

Required: These are the textfield names that are required to be filled out.

Errorpage: This is the path to the errorpage, when the fields are not filled out.

Autoresponse: This is the path to your autoresponse page...this file (autoresponse.htm) should be somewhere on your server...I put mine in the same directory as the script and error page, etc.

Now, you just have to build your form (or copy/paste my form into your page. You know, almost every time i need a form, I go and copy the form from my site and paste it into the site I'm creating. I know mine works, I just have to change paths.

I always start by creating a table with the right amount of cells, then start filling them in. When you put a textfield in, go down to the "properties" palette (dreamweaver) and write in a unique textfield name. This will organize your textfields, but more importantly, these are the names that you type in above in the "required" area of the form code. If you are not working in Dreamweaver, the textfield name looks like this:

<input name="name" type=text id="name">

You can "require" any textfield, as long as it's unique, and is named. For example, you can have name1, name2, officialname, petname, numberofkids, basically anything. You can use underscores and hyphens, but no spaces or special characters.

I've actually made a form that had almost 80 fields in it and they wanted all of them to be required. That was crazy. I suggest making it obvious which fields are required by using "bold" or "red" or a "*" or something.

You can change what the buttons say at the bottom. The buttons are created for you by the code that speaks to the browser, so you don't have to create a button.

To make a multi line field in Dreamweaver, you just click multiline in the properties palette, and specify how many rows. outside of Dreamweaver it looks like this:

<TEXTAREA name="comment" cols="30" wrap="virtual" rows="4"></TEXTAREA>

Or something like that.

I sure wish I had an explanation like this when I was learning. You know, there are a bunch of scripts and tutorials out there, just google "contact form script" or something. What I found though is that most are written by coders that assume you know something about code or where to look deep in the code to find what you have to modify. The code I use is real easy, but again, your server needs to be running php...sorry.

Hope this helps

Jorge

How to Get Your Clients to Pay on Time

Well, I've gone and done it.

First of all, the headline is not true. I don't have the answer. I have some ideas, like taking credit cards online and calling the client rather than emailing them, but nothing works every time.

The real advice is that I should: 1. Not do any more work for them until they pay, and then 2. End the relationship once they pay.

I had this idea a while back about how to make my clients pay me sooner. We all have those clients. You know, the ones that somehow forget that you need money to pay bills and buy food. Well, I've got a couple.

I'm usually very forgiving and email a few times, then call, then call again before even thinking of doing anything drastic. I'll even show up the clients' home or office in hopes that they have a check waiting on the "outgoing" pile they were going to mail.

I always start my emails: "I've been having problems with my emails lately and I'm wondering if you didn't receive my last invoice...I've attached it again just in case."

That works...usually.

My next effort is to email them and tell them that I have a bill that hasn't been paid. I blame my accounting system and ask if they would check their records to see if they paid it and got lost in the mail, or if I deposited it and forgot. I've actually done that, so it's not a total fabrication.

I've had my wife call and say, "This is Leigh of GoycoDesign, and we show an outstanding payment here for (this amount), when can we expect to receive payment?"

She's got such a sweet voice.

Of course, I have had to resort to calling and asking them outright if they are able to pay a partial payment of the invoice. Anything. A good faith amount!

I've thought about early payment discounts and late payment penalties, but have never done either of those.

My assumption is that they overlooked writing me a check.

Well, for most clients, that's the case. But I have one client who owes me money and just keeps on coming up with excuses. His latest was to tell me that he's got many people he needs to pay, and the loudest is the one who gets paid.

Basically, he just gave me the go-ahead to bug him until he pays me, right? You see that too, don't you?

That brings me to my crazy idea. I constructed a campaign using my kids in an effort to pull some heart strings.

I realize I could just call a collection agency, pay the fee and be done with it, but I guess I'm too nice. I try to justify it by saying that they might need me for more work in the future, but do I really want to work with them again?

It's really become a game. It's been so long that they've owed me this money, it's become a challenge, a conquest. Like a dragon I need to slay. Well, sort of.

The image to the right is part one. I sent it last week and I have yet to be paid.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Hope this helps

Jorge

Who Needs Designers?

At the risk of upsetting some of my wonderful clients who may or may not laugh at this, check it out:



From: www.whoneedsdesigners.com

Check out a great discussion on this topic: www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk

What do you think?
1. How do you deal with clients like this?
2. Are you wondering if you need to redesign something after watching this?
3. Question Three?

Get Paid for Your Illustrations at iStockPhoto.com

I was over at iStockPhoto.com purchasing some stock photography and I ran across a great article called "Vector Do's and Don'ts".

Being a computer illustrator, this article really helps with tweaking my technique. They've graciously posted a "Don't", which is basically a vector in a state that could use some reworking, and then right next to it, a "Do" which is the same illustration, redone in a more technical style. And then they talk about what's wrong with the "Don't" image, and what they did to improve it.

The article is a guideline illustrators can use when they submit illustrations into iStockPhoto.com, in the hope that they will get better illustrations, or at least acceptable illustrations.

Stuff like: Keeping the styles within the illustration the same, planning ahead, not overusing gradients, picking a style and sticking with it.

Here's an example:



And another:



Check out the "Vector Do's and Don'ts" article, hope you are as inspired as I am.

Hope this helps.

What do you think?
1. Have you tried Illustrator CS3?
2. Have you submitted illustrations or photos to iStockPhoto?
3. I'd love to see your illustrations. Do you have a website where we can see them?