Tech Notes III

Here's 3 recent blog tweaks. (Tech freaks only...)

I had to reinstall the collapse/expand post hack from Hackosphere. I don't know where it went, but it suddenly stopped working. Something I did must have reset the template. I found another version (again, Hackosphere) that takes the reader to a post page when "Read More..." is clicked. I like this feature because...

I'm tracking reader interest using Google Analytics. This is another free Google application that lets bloggers see how many visitors they have, where they live, what pages they read, how long they spend on each page, and lots more information. Previously, if a reader surfed to my blog's main page, they could read recent posts without having to go to that particular post's separate webpage ("post page"). Google Analytics would show that as a visit to the blog's main page but wouldn't tell me what content readers were actually looking at. (Google Analytics is good, but it can't read your mind. Yet.)

Now I should get results on what content is holding people's interest. Why do I want to know? Because it's all about you! If I'm going to spend time writing this blog, I'd like to make it interesting for visitors.

Finally, I added a labels column on the right of the page. It's very simple to do using Edit Template in Blogger. I label most posts into categories/labels, so if there's a certain flavor of post you're interested in, click on that label.

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Practice website puttering

I've been gradually working on my practice website. It's template-based and so is pretty simple to use. On the other hand, it's template-based and so has limited capabilities. As such, I was pleased with myself when I figured out a useful way to work around its limitations.

The website template (courtesy of Mydoctor/Canadian Medical Association) includes a way to show a Yahoo or Google map to your clinic location. I wanted to show maps to several local hospitals, radiology clinics, etc., but the template won't do that.

I could put a long list of links on the site, but that clutters up things. I started by putting a list of links in a Word document and then uploading that to a page on the site. It turns out that the template converts Word documents into PDFs. That would be fine, but the links wouldn't work on the PDF page. A little Googling revealed that links on Word docs (generated on a Mac) don't survive conversion to PDF.

The fix: Upload the Word doc to Google Documents, convert it to PDF and upload that file to my practice website. The links survived that translation. Now I have a single link that gives Yahoo maps to various healthcare facilities.

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Tech notes II

This is for the real gadget freaks!

I've got comment moderation enabled on the blog. Translation: If you leave a comment (please do!) after any of the posts, Blogger emails it to me and I have to OK it being published. I wanted this option so as to delete unwanted spam and inappropriate language (you know who you are, potty-mouths).

Previously, I would get the email on my PDA (Palm Treo 650) while I was out and about. I then had to find Internet access in order to allow the comment to be posted. But today, I had a minor breakthrough!

The Treo 650 has an Internet browser called Blazer. I haven't used it much as it always seemed very slow. I got an email today about a comment under "1-800-How's my doctoring?". Clicking on the "Publish it" link in the email took me to the Blogger log-in page where I can access this blog and authorize the comment. Sweet!

I've already experimented with "mobile" posting directly from my PDA but this "discovery" makes the whole works mobile. Not impressed? Well, you were warned - this was for gadget freaks only!

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Tech notes I

I don't like having to scroll through yards of posts to find one of interest. I prefer the expand/collapse ("read more...") buttons found on many blogs.

I discovered that Blogger doesn't have that function, so I've tried adding a hack to the template. Thanks to Hackosphere.

Hope I don't pay the price for messing around with HTML that I don't understand.

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