Vitriolic Humor

In a product as carefully developed and mature as Microsoft Office Excel 2003 SP2, you'd think there'd be a nice way of intuitively removing multiple hyperlinks from a set of cells. The general thought process for designing this functionality would be something like:

1. Select range of cells from which you want to remove hyperlinks,
2. Right-click, then select "Remove Hyperlink(s)" option,
3. Done.

This seems intuitive, heck, that's how you remove a hyperlink from one cell, why wouldn't multiple removes work the same way?

I recently received a spreadsheet with several hundred hyperlinks included on a key field that had me accidentally linking to a web page (along with being prompted for authentication every time) whenever I selected the hyperlinked field. Useful for someone, a major annoyance to me (click-Hold, BTW is the correct way to select a hyperlinked field.) I tried the approach detailed above several times with no success. The choice to "Remove Hyperlink" disappears when multiple cells are selected. I gave in and asked Microsoft Office Help how to "remove hyperlink" and got the following procedure:

1. Type the number 1 into a blank cell,
2. Select and copy it (right-click, select "Copy" option),
3. Ctrl-Select the fields from which you want to remove hyperlinks (Shift-select or click-drag are also acceptable), release Ctrl or Shift keys if you are using them,
4. Select the Edit menu, then the "Paste Special" menu item,
5. When the Paste Special window opens, select "Multiply" under the "Operation" section, then choose "OK.

Who at Microsoft thought this was a useful, intuitive, or even understandable way of removing hyperlinks from multiple cells? It's almost as if some programmer's hack made it into the end-user's experience and no one noticed. Someone had to do functional test on this in Quality Control, right? Did it seem right then? I haven't used the newest Microsoft Office Excel offering, but I sure hope they've improved this bad user interface design. I'll add to this post tonight to comment on how OpenOffice deals with this task.

Tags: task experience flaw microsoft office design problem excel user hyperlink

Posted by speedeep at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Does anyone know where Mitylene, Alabama is (or was (or was supposed to be?)) I see references to it all around the area, but I can't seem to find any references to this municipality anywhere on-line. Could this be the query that finally drives me back to my public library?

I found one site that gave a latitude and longitude for Mitylene, AL (32°22'58"N -86°10'27"W). A quick latitude and longitude conversion (32.382777, -86.174166), and mapping on Google Maps showed that location centered at the intersection of Atlanta Highway (US-80) and Taylor road on the east side of Montgomery, AL.

I've found some genealogical records that point to residents of Mitylene, Alabama from the late 1700s and early 1800s, perhaps this is a vestigial remnant of a town that once was.

This is a fairly significant crossroads, but there is no particular infrastructure to indicate that there is (or was) the beginnings of an independent city here.

On a related note, Mytilene, Greece was once the capitol of the Greek island of Lesbos, a nice counterpoint to the religious interests in these parts...

Article on other interesting Central Alabama town names:
Smuteye.Com

I'll update this entry as I find more information.

mitylene -alabama - whereis - whatis -

Posted by speedeep at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So I've been having a problem with my "Send To Flickr" Bookmarklet functionality on Flickr, and been in a foul mood about it. I finally got to the right person at Flickr who set me in the right direction and give me permission to post the javascript contents for the bookmarklet here.

"Send To Flickr" Bookmarklet Code:

javascript:t='';for(var n=0;n<document.images.length;n++){t+='<a href=/ onclick=\'document.f.url.value=document.images['+n+'].src;document.f.submit();return false;\'><img border=0 src='+document.images[n].src+'></a><br>'};if(t!=''){document.write('\<p\>Click an image to add it to your photostream\</p\>\<form name=f action=http://www.flickr.com/tools/sendto.gne method=get\>\<input type=hidden name=url\>\</form\>'+t+'');void(document.close())}else{alert('No images!')}

<20050906 Edit>How Do I Use This?

Highlight the text in this box and drag it onto your "Bookmarks Toolbar" (Netscape/Mozilla) or ":Personal Toolbar" (Opera.) Optionally, you can manually make a bookmark. For the 'Location' field (Mozilla) or 'Address' field (Opera) paste in the javascript from above. (It needs to be copy-and-pasted as one line.) Then go load the page with the picture you want to upload to Flickr. Click on the bookmark(let) and it will list all images on that page. Click the image you want to upload. Login to Flickr if it asks you to. Choose "Upload To Flickr" button. Voila! Your file should be uploaded into your account on Flickr.

To make this really useful, add the bookmark to your "Bookmarks Toolbar" (Mozilla) or "Personal Toolbar" (Opera) under View->Toolbars, so you can use your bookmarklet easily while browsing. If at this point, you can't figure it out, please wait for Flickr's new Bookmarklet coming to a browser near you soon.

</20050906 Edit>

I believe this is the exact JavaScript from Flickr (they wrote the code, not me), but I can't guarantee it. It works correctly and YOU can scan through the JavaScript, there doesn't appear to be anything untoward in the code. Flickr is reworking their bookmarklet upload function currently, so keep an eye on their Upload Tools page (you must be logged in to use that link) and be sure to use their new bookmarklet when they post it. (I'll modify this blog entry when they do...)

</20070323 Edit>

I've stopped using YahooFlickr, so I can't verify whether or not this still works. I'll leave it here for history's sake, and in case anyone finds it useful. As before, this code came from Flickr, I do not support it or provide any warranty to it working or working correctly for any of your needs. Your mileage may vary, use at your own risk/benefit.

Tags: sharing photos photography internet bookmarklet uploader web upload flickr code

Posted by speedeep at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Like fellow Montgomery blogger, Charles Presley (Eating Montgomery, insert witty title here), I was amazed (after it was pointed it out to me) that there is an arrow in the Federal Express (FedEx) logotype. It's been there for over 10 years now and despite seeing this logo thousands of times, I've never noticed it before.

The ugly secret however is that now that I know it's there, my mind purposefully analyzes the logo each time I see it to catch the arrow, burying the brand and meme of FedEx deep in my cranium. Now I'm passing the curse on to you:

Besides being a brilliant use of typography in design and a simple, effective logo it's got the additional hook of the arrow in the negative space between letters. The man who designed this was interviewed by The Sneeze. His name is Lindon Leader and his company is Leader Creative. There, now you know who to bug, don't call me if you can't get "the arrow" out of your head...

Tags: leader fedex logo design graphics typography federalexpress type arrow logotype

Posted by speedeep at 5:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by speedeep at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)