tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52186842024-03-09T11:51:30.339+11:00RMW Web Publishing - The story so far...A history log of milestones accomplished by Western Sydney based web development business; RMW Web Publishing.Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-74368612050366623312007-07-12T00:54:00.001+10:002007-07-12T11:09:06.293+10:00Instant popularity<p>On the eve of the <a href="http://www.iphone.com/">Apple iPhone</a> release in America, I stayed up in the early hours of the morning working on an idea to help fellow web developers customise sites to work well on the massively hyped up iPod/phone device. After a few hours of coding, testing, setting up a domain and hosting and submission to a few search engines and social networking sites I thought <a href="http://iphonetester.com/" title="iPhone Tester">my site</a> would go unnoticed in the sea of iPhone related hype. Not so…</p>
<p>Within 2 days <a href="http://www.google.com.au/" title="Google Australia homepage'">Google</a> had trawled <a href="http://iphonetester.com/" title="iPhone Tester">the new site</a> and ranked it at number 2 for <a href="http://www.google.com.au/search?q=iphone+tester" title="Google SERP for 'iphone tester'">a search on "iphone tester"</a> (currently #1) and many more sites had started linking to it. The site does not serve much purpose to anyone who isn't a website tester/developer, but it was enjoyable to make and very interesting to watch to see which sites appear in the referral logs.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1166099525640391372006-12-14T23:29:00.000+11:002006-12-14T23:32:06.213+11:00Case Study: 1800 Reverse re-code<p>We initially started working with 1800 Reverse to maintain their existing website. After designing and setting up a few customer competitions we were able to see that behind-the-scenes the site was running on some very dated and messy code that was making any new development unduly time-consuming and testing unpredictable.</p>
<p>We approached 1800 Reverse with an offer to clean up the site and bring it up-to-date with today's web standards.</p>
<p>The updated version of the <a href="http://www.1800reverse.com.au/">1800 Reverse website</a> was released this morning. We took some samples of the site just before it was updated.</p>
<h3>Comparison:</h3>
<p>To add some balance to the comparison we chose 2 different pages on the site. The most important page on the site, the <a href="http://www.1800revers.com.au/">homepage</a> and a child page, <a href="http://www.1800revers.com.au/rlinks/">RLinks</a> which includes links to 1800 Reverse's partners. This second page is typical of most of the other pages on the site.</p>
<table summary="compared sites details in each column, each deatil in a new row" BORDER="1">
<thead>
<tr>
<th rowspan="2"></th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="http://www.1800revers.com.au/">Homepage</a></th>
<th colspan="2"><a href="http://www.1800revers.com.au/rlinks/">RLinks</a></th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Old</th>
<th>New</th>
<th>Old</th>
<th>New</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th><a href="#httpinfo">HTTP requests</a></th>
<td>21</td>
<td>9 (57%)</td>
<td>27</td>
<td>19 (30%)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="#tableinfo">Tables</a></th>
<td>7</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="#imginfo">Images</a></th>
<td>18</td>
<td>6</td>
<td>25</td>
<td>16</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="#htmllineinfo">Lines of HTML</a></th>
<td>168</td>
<td>80 (52%)</td>
<td>253</td>
<td>114 (55%)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="#htmlsizeinfo">HTML size (bytes)</a></th>
<td>13557</td>
<td>3927 (71%)</td>
<td>16916</td>
<td>6521 (61%)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th><a href="#csssizeinfo">CSS size (bytes)</a></th>
<td>1948</td>
<td>4712 (141%)</td>
<td>1948</td>
<td>7199 (270%)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<th><a href="#filetotal">Files on the server</a></th>
<td>1283 (67.1 MB)</td>
<td>66 (12.5 MB)</td>
<td colspan="2"></td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
</table>
<h4 id="httpinfo"><abbr title="Hyper Text Transfer Protocol">HTTP</abbr> requests</h4>
<p>As <a href="http://yuiblog.com/blog/2006/11/28/performance-research-part-1/">researched by Yahoo!</a> the number of file requests can have a huge impact on the speed of your site. Browsers are limited to the number of concurrent requests they can make (often 2 to 4 at a time). Each request must complete before another is made. Minimising the total number of requests that need to be made will allow the web browser to display your site quicker.</p>
<h4 id="tableinfo">Tables</h4>
<p>While the number of tables do not effect the speed of a site loading, they do add unnecessary mark-up when used for page layout. Using tables for layout was a common practice many years ago before web browser support for <acronym title="Cascading Style Sheet">CSS</acronym> layout had improved. Using tables also has the downside of restricting the layout of your content for each page. Using a linked stylesheet allows you the freedom to easily update the entire look of your site by changing a single file. The <a href="http://www.csszengarden.com/">CSS Zen Garden</a> is a perfect example of this. Every one of the 200+ designs use the same underlying <acronym title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</acronym>. If the base mark-up had been done with tables each design would have been restricted to using the same basic layout.</p>
<h4 id="imginfo">Images</h4>
<p>Reducing the number of images helps reduce the number of <a href="#httpinfo">HTTP requests</a> but it may also reduce the overall size (bytes) of your site. By their nature image files can be quite large, so less is often better.</p>
<h4 id="htmllineinfo">Lines of HTML</h4>
<p>The number of lines in a file does not directly correspond to the size of the file, however it is a good indicator of how complex the code could be. Less mark-up makes it easy for other developers to read, change and maintain code. Less complex code around your data also increases the accessibility by non-visual page readers (this could be for people with disabilities or for a search engine bot).</p>
<h4 id="htmlsizeinfo">HTML size</h4>
<p><acronym title="HyperText Markup Language">HTML</acronym> should contain textural information. It also allows for full styling of the content, but this is a bad practice. Best practice is to include a minimal amount of semantic mark-up to add meaning to the content (headings, paragraphs and emphasis are good examples). The size of a single file often depends on how much content it contains. The larger the file, then longer it takes to download. In this comparison where the displayed content has not changed you can see that there was a lot of extra code that was in the wrong place or not needed at all.</p>
<h4 id="csssizeinfo">CSS size</h4>
<p><acronym title="Cascading Style Sheet">CSS</acronym> files store the presentational information used to style the look and feel of the site. The same CSS file can be used on multiple pages which allows the browser to load the same downloaded copy of the file on subsequent loads (caching). When using a cached copy the files does not need downloading from the site again, meaning the page loads much quicker.</p>
<h4 id="filetotal">Files on the server</h4>
<p>This statistic does not effect the load times of the site for users. It is shown here purely to show you how many files and how much disc space (hosting providers charge extra for more storage) was/is needed for the 1800 Reverse site. Fewer files also makes it much quicker to find what you are looking for when maintaining the site.</p>
<div class="disclaimer">
<p>Tests done between 11:30 am and 12pm on 14 Dec 2006 using <a href="http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/">Web Page Analyzer - 0.961 - from Website Optimization</a>.</p>
</div>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1162289545119466322006-10-31T19:01:00.000+11:002006-10-31T23:12:02.393+11:00C. I. Sales & Service<p><a href="http://www.cisalesandservice.com.au/"><strong>C. I. Sales & Service</strong></a> is a local business specialising in the sale and service of measurement equipment. C. I. Sales & Service was referred to <a href="http://www.rmwpublishing.net/">RMW Web Publishing</a> by one of our first clients clients, <a href="http://www.syndian.com.au/">Syndian</a>. <strong>C. I. Sales & Service</strong> provide <strong>Syndian</strong> with equipment used in the process of their food products.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rmwpublishing.net/">RMW Web Publishing</a> created a website for the business which includes <a href="http://www.cisalesandservice.com.au/about/">information about the business</a>, it's <a href="http://www.cisalesandservice.com.au/products/">products</a> and <a href="http://www.cisalesandservice.com.au/services/">services</a> and a form for customer <a href="http://www.cisalesandservice.com.au/contact/">contact</a>. As some pages were quite long, we designed a simple, but exciting, method to scroll through a long page. Clicking on a link at top of the <a href="http://www.cisalesandservice.com.au/products/">products</a> page slides the page down to the section of interest, clicking "top" whisks you back to the menu. A <a href="http://www.cisalesandservice.com.au/specials/">specials page</a> includes sale items and will be updated regularly.</p>
<p>The site also uses <a href="http://www.alistapart.com/articles/urls/" title="information on clean URLs">clean <abbr title="Uniform Resource Locator">URL</abbr>s</a> which not only make addresses on the site easy to remember and say aloud, it also allows the site back-end to change technologies without the need to change everybody's bookmarks to the site. But most importantly search engines love clean URLs, especially related human readable English words like on the new C. I. Sales & Service site.</p>
<p>We would like to thank Jurgen and Tracy at C. I. Sales & Service for their help in making the site and Amal at <a href="http://www.syndian.com.au/">Syndian</a> for referring them to us, thank you.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1162281656666938232006-10-31T16:57:00.000+11:002006-10-31T19:00:56.686+11:00Kurrajong Rural Fire Bridage - updated<p>Over the weekend we released major updates to the <a href="http://kurrajongrfs.org.au/">Kurrajong <abbr title="Rural Fire Service">RFS</abbr> website</a>. Following is the release news article the site:</p>
<blockquote cite="http://kurrajongrfs.org.au/2006/10/major-website-update.html">
<p>To coincide with our 60th Anniversary celebrations the <a href="http://KurrajongRFS.org.au/">KurrajongRFS.org.au</a> had a major overhaul. The site is no-longer a standard blue Blog template, it now has it's own unique look and feel. The site also now has 3 columns (if your screen is wide enough) to show you more information without scrolling. The calendar is now larger making it easier to read and pictures submitted by members are now pulled in to the homepage and other sections of the site.</p>
<p>Along with the regular news updates, sections have been added where information about specific areas can be kept. A section on <a href="http://kurrajongrfs.org.au/info/kurrajong/"> Kurrajong Village</a> aims to become a good source of information about all things Kurrajong. The <a href="http://kurrajongrfs.org.au/info/kurrajongrfs/">Kurrajong Rural Fire Service</a> section will hold information about the brigade, while the <a href="http://kurrajongrfs.org.au/info/site/">About this site</a> section instructs members how they can use the site and contribute to it's contents.</p>
<p>We encourage all members (past and active) to check the site regularly to keep informed of the brigades activities and help expand our online community.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We hope the members of the bridage enjoy their new site and look forward to expanding it with them.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1161582658572514142006-10-23T15:26:00.000+10:002021-01-26T00:58:20.152+11:00SILVER AWARD - Mainland Building Solutions<p><a href="http://mainland.net.au/">The Mainland Building Solutions website</a> has been awarded a silver medal by the official judges of the <a href="http://www.webdesigners.net.au/">Australian Web Designers Network</a>. The award is judged on the following categories: Graphics, Artwork, Layout, Navigability, Functionality and Originality.</p>
<p><img src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5961/164/1600/medal_silver.gif" alt="An illustration of a silver medal. Dated 2006" title="Silver Australian Web Designers Network Award 2006" /></p>
<p><a href="https://www.rmwpublishing.net/">RMW Web Publishing</a> would like to thank John at Mainland for the opportunity to re-design there online presence and hope they are getting the most from <a href="https://mountainash.blogspot.com/2006/09/mainland-building-solutions.html">their new website</a>.</p>
<p><i><a href="http://webdesigners.net.au/">Webdesigners.net.au</a> is a comprehensive directory of web designers connecting buyers of web services with its members on a national level. With over $1,000,000 in new contracts going through the online quoting system each year, <a href="http://webdesigners.net.au/">webdesigners.net.au</a> is the leading directory of web designers in Australia.</i></p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1158456256253914952006-09-17T11:21:00.000+10:002006-09-17T11:24:16.266+10:00Mainland Building Solutions<p>Early this week (Monday evening) we launched a new look for <a href="http://www.mainland.net/">Mainland Building Solutions</a>. Not only did the look of the site change but the staff at Mainland now have the ability to easily change the content of the sites page, and new pages, at anytime through an easy to use <abbr title="What You See Is What You Get">WYSIWYG</abbr> interface.</p>
<p>The new site is built using the latest Web Standards and clever client-side scripts to enhance the design of the site. The practise of unobtrusive DOM scripting and semantic markup progressively enhances the usability of the site while not restricting browsers that do use Javascript. Scroll up and down on the site to see the navigation follow your viewport allows you to quickly jump to a different page in the site. A modified version of the <a href="http://aranea.zuavra.net/index.php/27/">Sidebar Slider</a> makes this possible. Something a little less obvious is that the three columns of the site are of equal height. This is achieved by using <a href="http://www.projectseven.com/">Projectseven.com</a>'s PVII Equal Height CSS Columns script. The front page features a fading photo side-show script created by <a href="http://slayeroffice.com/" title="slayeroffice website">Steven Chipman</a>. We also added our own script to resize the width of the site dependent on the size of the browser window to present the main content better at any screen size. We would like to thank all the script developers for making these additions well documented and freely available.</p>
<p>The site is hosted here in Australia on our new hosting platform that shows real-time tracking of visitors and statistics on which search engine keywords people are using to find the site. To assist in direct traffic <a href="http://mainlandbuildingsolutions.com.au/"><tt>mainlandbuildingsolutions.com.au</tt></a>, <a href="http://mainlandbuildingsolutions.net.au/"><tt>mainlandbuildingsolutions.net.au</tt></a> also point to the site.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.rmwpublishing.net/">RMW Web Publishing</a> has enjoyed working with Mainland on this project and hopes to continually develop the site to suit the need of their business.</p>
<p><i><a href="http://mainland.net.au/">Mainland Building Solutions</a> is a quality building company operated by professionals who focus on providing quality products and services on time and within budget. Mainland Building Solutions specialise in all facets of the remedial repair industry whose operations are supported by a highly credentialed and experienced team.</i></p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1153267612624284132006-07-19T10:05:00.000+10:002021-01-26T00:57:02.704+11:00Kurrajong Rural Fire Bridage<p>RMW Web Publishing's lead web developer is a volunteer member of the rural bush fire brigade in Kurrajong, which located west of Sydney. The brigade recently set-up a computer with internet access for it's members. Many of the members do not have internet access at home, so having a community based connection is a great way to allow people access to the web. The brigade also has a lot of members that do not attend the weekly meetings but still have a strong interest in the brigade and it's activities. To better serve all the members and other members of the community a member of the brigade set-up a free blog which would be used to update visitors on the latest events. Unfortunately a blog is not the best tool for displaying date centric content. So our developer took on the task of building a site that would best suite the brigade.</p>
<p>It's early days yet, but in our spare time we are working on a new site that will be quite functional and allow members to update the site's content with ease. We have already began setting up an environment from which the site will expand. So far we have brought a domain name <a href="https://kurrjongrfs.org.au/" title="Kurrajong Rural Fire Service"><tt>kurrjongrfs.org.au</tt></a> and provided hosting. We have also setup a partnership with <a href="https://www.google.com.au/" title="Google Australia">Google</a> to provide email storage for members with the ability to use <a href="https://www.gmail.com/" title="Google Mail">Gmail</a>'s excellent online webmail package allowing members to access email from any internet connected computer. We are also using <a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/">Google Calendar</a> which allows multiple members to add events of interest in an easy to use interface. This information is then shown on the site making it easy for users to see, at a glance, what is planned.</p>
<p>What good is a site that can not be found? Currently the Kurrajong RFS site does not appear in either of the big 3's (<a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a>, <a href="http://www.yahoo.com/">Yahoo!</a> & <a href="http://www.msn.com/" title="Microsoft Network">MSN</a>) search results. RMW Web Publishing has chosen to case study the process of getting the new site indexed and log the process of climbing the search result ladder to a number 1 position. You can follow along with this study by subscribing to the <a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=b2096r28socd32re1cgj89voqk@group.calendar.google.com">shared Google calendar</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=b2096r28socd32re1cgj89voqk@group.calendar.google.com"><img src="https://www.google.com/calendar/images/ext/gc_button1.gif" alt="Add Google calendar button" title="Kurrajong RFS SEO shared calendar"></a></p>
<p>We look forward to releasing a new site for the brigade and the Kurrajong community soon.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1145594331114840062006-04-21T14:33:00.000+10:002021-01-26T00:58:05.599+11:00GOLD AWARD - Peter Blake<p>We've done it again. Last night an email was recieved telling us of our latest award. This time the honours go to the <a href="https://peterblake.rmwpublishing.net" title="The Offical Peter Blake website">Peter Blake</a> website. Peter's site has been chosen for a Gold Award by the judges of the <a href="http://www.webdesigners.net.au/">Australian Web Designers Network</a> for excellence in graphics, artwork, layout, navigability, functionality and originality.</p>
<img src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5961/164/1600/medal_gold.gif" alt="An illustration of a gold medal. Dated 2006" title="Gold Australian Web Designers Network Award 2006" width="198" height="198" />
<p>Although RMW Web Publishing did very little to get this scalable and complex site off the ground we did a lot of research in finding something that would suit the purpose while looking good. Like most most projects we do, we look for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSource" title="A Wikipedia entry on Open Source">Open Source</a> projects that can do the hard work for us. This has many benefits for example our customers get tried and tested tools that are continually getting better. It also allows us to pass on massive cost savings and allows you to have a functioning site much quicker than if it was built from scratch. Althouh it sounds simple, there is still a lot that goes into using pre-built packages to make complete and usable site. Often installing and setting up the software is a complex process prone to errors resulting in many hours troubleshooting. Once the package is working we then have to get our "heads around" the code methadology in which it was written to then customise the default design to our clients requirements. During this phase we often come across bugs or better ways to write the original packages code. When we do, we write a detailed description of the issue and inform the package owners of a fix or improvement. Taking the time to do this benefits all users of the package and our clients.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://peterblake.rmwpublishing.net/" title="The Offical Peter Blake website">Peter Blake</a> website for instance uses a modifed version of a pre-built theme named <a href="http://www.contact-sheet.de/blog/index.php/iroybots-stained-theme/">iRoybots SlatyStain</a> by <a href="http://www.contact-sheet.de/blog/" title="Erik's blog">Erik Poehler</a>. Changes to the theme include a custom header, a visit counter and a "pages" category among other small changes. This modified theme sits on top of the very popular blogging platform <a href="https://wordpress.org/" title="The offical WordPress website">WordPress</a> which allows Peter and this team mates to update the site instantley from any internet connected computer.</p>
<p>Peter Blake is an upcoming Sprint Car driver in car 48N. Peter currently races in most meets at <a href="http://www.parramattacityraceway.com.au/">Parramatta City Raceway</a>. Peter's site was created free of charge in exchange for advertising space on his car.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1142055173051398612006-03-11T14:59:00.001+11:002021-01-26T00:58:48.899+11:00BRONZE AWARD - RMW Web Publishing<p>This time it's our turn. <a href="http://www.webdesigners.net.au" title="Webdesigners.net.au website">Australian Web Designers Network</a> has awarded us a bronze medal in the Website Awards <a href="http://www.rmwpublishing.net/" title="RMW Web Publishing website">our homepage</a>. At present our site is merely a placeholder for a much larger site it does serve a very important job. The site is coded using the web standards and is quick loading showing our developer expertise. A fun feature of the site is a simple JavaScript function which allows you to view the site with a variety of different background colours (hover your mouse over the coloured squares on the left of the footer). The site also allows visitors to sample some of our recently designed sites and contains a contact form to allow users can contact us for further information. There is also a simple 'client' page that allows our clients to login and make instantaneous changes to their own websites.</p>
<p><img src="https://blog.rmwpublishing.net.au/business/img/award_2006_bronze.gif" alt="An illustration of a bronze medal. Dated 2006" title="Bronze Australian Web Designers Network Award 2006" /></p>
<p>You may be wondering why a web development business such as ours has such a small site. The reason is quite simple; we are too busy building sites for others. The website has been kept simple so that we can continue to put our customers first. But we are working on a bigger, more informative site (and have been for long time - in our "downtime") and hope to have it ready for the May CSS Reboot. The <a href="http://www.cssreboot.com/">CSS Reboot</a> is a day when web professionals around the world collectively update the design of their sites which is very easy to do when your site's presentation is controlled entirely by a single <acronym title="Cascading Style Sheet">CSS</acronym> file.</p>
<p>RMW Web Publishing would once again like to thank Australian WebDesigners.Net for their continued support and recognition. We would also like to thank all our site visitors and clients. Thank you and be sure to visit the site again soon.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1136422601314219542006-01-05T10:03:00.000+11:002021-01-26T00:59:30.357+11:00GOLD AWARD - TRON Financial Services<p>Seven Hills based web development studio, <a href="http://www.rmwpublishing.net/" title="RMW Web Publishing website">RMW Web Publishing</a> has recieved a Gold Award in the first <a href="http://www.webdesigners.net.au" title="Webdesigners.net.au website">Australian Web Designers Network</a> Website Awards for its efforts on the <a href="http://www.tron.com.au/" title="TRON's website">TRON Financial Services website</a>. The medal is awarded by an official panel after much consideration and deliberation on areas like graphics, artwork, layout, navigability, functionality and originality.</p>
<p><img src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5961/164/1600/medal_gold.gif" alt="An illustration of a gold medal. Dated 2006" title="Gold Australian Web Designers Network Award 2006" style="border:none" /></p>
<p>RMW Web Publishing would like to thank Australian WebDesigners.Net for their the recognition of the TRON website's design and development. Thank you.</p>
<div style="font-style: italic"><a href="http://www.webdesigners.net.au" title="Webdesigners.net.au website">Webdesigners.net.au</a> is Australian's most comprehensive directory of web designers connecting buyers of web services with its members on a national level. With over $1,000,000 in new contracts going through the online quoting system each year, webdesigners.net.au is the leading directory of web designers in Australia.</div>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1131441451156003732005-11-08T19:49:00.000+11:002021-01-26T00:59:55.271+11:00SITE OF THE DAY - TRON Financial Services<p>We've done it again. Almost four years since the site first launched, but only a few months after the redesign; <a href="http://www.webdesigners.net.au/" title="A directory of Australian Web Designers">Australian WebDesigners.Net</a> has awarded <a href="http://www.tron.com.au/" title="TRON's website">TRON Financial Services</a> "Site of the Day" for the 8th of November 2005.</p>
<p><img src="https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5961/164/1600/08_11_2005.gif" alt="SITE OF THE DAY 08 Nov 2005 australian webdesigners.net" title="Award image" style="border:none" /></p>
<p>Again we would like to thank Australian WebDesigners.Net for their continued recognition and TRON for allowing us to maintain their creative web presence. Well done.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1131451089101370732005-11-02T22:57:00.000+11:002006-01-05T09:24:18.736+11:00Sponsorship Proposal<p>Recently RMW Web Publishing was given the opportunity to partner with a upcoming Sprint car team: FastTorque. The teams driver (Peter Blake) and <acronym title="Public Relations">PR</acronym> manager were after a simple and affordable way to distribute a sponsorship proposal. RMW quickly created an interactive <acronym title="Compact Disc - Read Only Memory">CD-ROM</acronym> showcasing what exposure the team can offer. We created a simple Flash stage that pulls in content from text files which allowing for very easy updates to the content. By using <a href="http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/" title="Airtight Interactive' SimpleViewer">SimpleViewer</a> we were able to provide a gallery that can be easily maintained while keep the cost and development time down.</p>
<p>A CD-ROM has many benefits over a traditional glossy brochure proposal:</p>
<ul>
<li>can enhance the mood/experience (the presentation includes "pit shop" sounds)</li>
<li>is easier to store and carry around (at the speedway you don't want to carry something large and heavy around)</li>
<li>very cheap to reproduce (blank CD's are available for 30 cents)</li>
<li>is something different (will help get you noticed)</li>
<li>is very easy to update and does not require expensive software (a simple text file verses an Adobe Illustrator document)</li>
</ul>
<p>We wish FastTorque the best with seeking a sponsor and look forward to working with them again soon.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1131453324615266832005-10-18T09:30:00.000+10:002005-11-09T18:23:32.466+11:00Protection goes live<p>Today RMW Web Publishing launched <a href="http://protectmyasset.com.au/" title="Protection homepage">Protection - Online Future Planning</a>. This is a new concept that allows users to view product information about various forms of personal insurance and then apply for it online. The site is built using current web standards <acronym title="eXtensible HyperText Markup Language">xHTML</acronym> to ensure greater accessibility to a wide and varied audience. The site's layout and presentation is controlled by cacheable <acronym title="Cascading Style Sheets">CSS</acronym> and the dynamic behaviours utilises JavaScript to effect the <acronym title="Document Object Model">DOM</acronym>. The client can modify the sites many content modules at anytime using a customised <acronym title="Content Management System">CMS</acronym>. Each of the forms on the site collect user details securely over <acronym title="HyperText Transport Protocol Secure">HTTPS</acronym> using an <acronym title="Secure Sockets Layer">SSL</acronym> shared certificate. The site also allows for rapid customisation of the "look and feel" by loading different skins based on the <acronym title="Uniform Resource Locator">URL</acronym> (example <a href="http://protectmy.com.au/aussie/" title="A demo of a possible partnership with Aussie Home Loans">Aussie</a> and <a href="http://protectmy.com.au/abc/" title="A generic brand">ABC</a>).</p>
<p>Another unique feature of this site is that it has over <a href="http://protectmy.com.au/" title="Protect my ?">t</a>e<a href="http://protectmyasset.com.au/" title="Protect my asset">n</a> <a href="http://protectmyfamily.com.au/" title="Protect my family">d</a><a href="http://protectmyfuture.com.au/" title="Protect my future">i</a><a href="http://protectmyincome.com.au/" title="Protect my income">f</a><a href="http://protectmylife.com.au/" title="Protect my life">f</a><a href="http://protectmylifestyle.com.au/" title="Protect my lifestyle">e</a><a href="http://protectmymoney.com.au/" title="Protect my money">r</a><a href="http://protectmymortgage.com.au/" title="Protect my mortgage">e</a><a href="http://protectmyretirement.com.au/" title="Protect my retirement">n</a><a href="http://protectmysuper.com.au/" title="Protect my super">t</a> domain names all aliasing the same site. This allows for very specific targeting and tracking of various advertising campaigns.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1118037580157596512005-06-06T15:58:00.000+10:002006-01-05T09:27:01.440+11:00May Reboot<p>On the last day of May we re-launched the <a href="http://www.tron.com.au/" title="Tron Financial Services">TRON website</a>. A few times a year TRON requires a few small text changes to their site which we are always happy to do as part of our ongoing service. Although this time TRON requested an update to a few images on the site, the main one been their logo. Unfortunately they only had an image of their logo on a white background which would not sit well on the website which had a black background. Rather than messing around to try and get the logo looking good on the black background, it was suggested that we update the site with a white background. After a quick mock and approval from TRON's director the site was inverted to good old black text on a white background. Feedback so far from TRON's regular visitors have all been positive, and we agree!</p>
<div style="font-style: italic">TRON Financial Services provides a variety of financial services from financial planning and investment advice to home loans and life insurance. Tron prides itself in showing people how to Make, Protect, and Preserve wealth.</div>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1107904653394038152005-02-07T10:12:00.002+11:002021-01-26T01:00:10.735+11:00SITE OF THE DAY - Syndian Natural Food Products<p>Today we feel quite honoured as our latest site (<a href="http://www.syndian.com.au/" title="Award winning Syndian website">www.syndian.com.au</a>) was awarded 'Site of the day' and was featured on the front page of <a href="http://www.webdesigners.net.au/" title="Australian WebDesigners.Net">Australian WebDesigners.Net</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://blog.rmwpublishing.net.au/business/img/award_syndian.gif" alt="SITE OF THE DAY 07 Feb 2005 australian webdesigners.net" title="Award image" style="border:none" /></p>
<p>We'd like to thank Syndian for allowing us to create the site and Australian WebDesigners.Net for rewarding us for the effort. Thank you.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1101934002460535832004-11-11T09:00:00.000+11:002004-12-02T07:46:42.460+11:00Printed FlyersAs the X-mas period nears it seems everyone's workload becomes more demanding - especially so for food services. Our client, Syndian, see this as an opportunity to increase sales and seek some new customers.
Last month Syndian requested RMW Web Publishing to design some flyers that could be posted to hotels, cafes, event organisers and other businesses that provide catering services.
The design of the flyer followed the "growing" corporate image with Syndian's modern logo and deep red theme. Printed on a DL sized paper card (for easy mailing) the flyer outlines the various products and possible uses with a push to the <a href="http://www.syndian.com.au/" title="Syndian website">website</a> for more details.Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1096508142018875872004-09-30T11:35:00.000+10:002005-11-08T20:23:03.570+11:00Digital Surfing Video<p>This last week RMW Web Publishing was requested to quote on a unique job of transferring video on miniDV cassette to a Digital Video Disc (DVD). Within a week a high ranking <a href="http://www.1800reverse.com.au/">1800 Reverse</a> manager and his twelve mates from around the globe each had a high-quality Surfing movie of their wave riding island adventure. The DVD contained an animated menu with 2 options; an edited 50 minute movie with musical soundtrack, and an shorter 'Outtakes' movie of the chopped scenes, which was all enclosed in a full colour photographic case cover. I hope the recipients get a lot of enjoyment from the ease of viewing their holiday on DVD (as opposed to the cumbersome task of replaying a DV).</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1094085420247034982004-09-02T10:37:00.000+10:002005-11-08T20:22:24.296+11:00PhotoCD<p>This week RMW Web Publishing was asked to supply Syndian with a copy of all the raw digital photos used taken for the <a href="http://www.syndian.com.au" title="Syndian website">Syndian.com.au website</a>. As there was over 80 high quality images shot (all about 1 mb in size) it was not feasible to transfer the images across the web (especially as Syndian is still connecting only to check emails on a dial-up modem) we decided CD was the best method. Instead of just plonking a large bunch of images on to a CD for the client to sift through, RMW built a customised version of <a href="http://wenning.formativ.net/" title="ImageBox website">ImageBox</a>. ImageBox allows you to view multiple galleries of images in an easy to use drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to find and preview the many images. Some localisation changes were made to ImageBox and then the application was imported into <a href="http://www.swfkit.com/" title="SWFkit website">SWFkit</a> where some tweaking was needed to get the Flash to learn where it was been run from on the file system. This is an example of how RMW Web Publishing moulds technology to make life easier.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1093491917058109072004-08-26T13:45:00.000+10:002005-11-08T20:21:36.040+11:00Client Area - initial<p>RMW is in the process of building a feature rich "control panel" to make it easy for clients to:</p>
<ul>
<li>view there current services</li>
<li>view mail account details</li>
<li>get help on email set-up</li>
<li>see their site statistics</li>
<li>access webmail</li>
<li>request site changes</li>
<li>upgrade their website with optional enhancements</li>
</ul>
<p>The site is been built in PHP and XHTML using CSS for the visual layout. Currently the client details are stored in a flat file but this has been programmed with the intention of expanding to a SQL database as client numbers increase.</p>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5218684.post-1093267592922770702004-08-22T17:01:00.000+10:002005-06-06T16:14:54.500+10:00Syndian goes live<h4>History</h4><p>Syndian's director approached RMW Web Publishing a little over a month ago to discuss what we could offer in giving his business a web presence. Within a week a face-to-face meeting at the clients factory had given both parties a road-map involving:</p><ul><li>what was possible</li><li>what was needed</li><li>rough costs</li><li>time periods</li><li>how best to communicate development</li><li>what was possible for the future.</li></ul><p>It was agreed that Syndian would supply all the textual content (including product lists) while RMW would do the rest. As agreed, the following week we met again to capture pictures of their food in a presentable manner. Once RMW had the "look" it was time to develop the "feel". Within a week we had two templates to show Syndian. After the initial feedback a third template was developed which was very well received.</p><p>As Syndian's text came in over the following weeks it was added to the evolving site after grammar and spell-checking and small tweaks for better readability. While the site was browser tested, optimised [for download speed] and adjusted for search engines, Syndian was given time to check the sites information. While Syndian was in the time-consuming process of moving premises most of their feedback was not received until the following weekend as there was little time during normal business hours.</p><div style="font-style: italic">Syndian Natural Food Products is a small food manufacturing/process business that recently moved from near Parramatta to the Hawkesbury in Western Sydney. Syndian specialise in gluten and dairy-free food. Syndian distribute to various independent retailers and supply to the food services industry.</div><div style="font-style: italic">RMW Web Publishing supplies Syndian with an easy to manage Internet solution for an affordable yearly fee. Included in this fee are:<ul><li>content changes to the current site at the clients request</li><li>Australian domain name administration</li><li>complete set-up mail accounts</li><li>professional local hosting (which online statistics)</li><li>search engine submission</li></ul></div>Mountain/\Ashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05198241524844543379noreply@blogger.com