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interactivetools.com newsletter - August 2002
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INTERACTIVETOOLS.COM
An HTML version of this newsletter is available at:
http://www.interactivetools.com/news/?nl
August 7, 2002 - Issue #10
http://www.interactivetools.com/?nl
info@interactivetools.com
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In this issue:
1) Satisfaction Guarantee Extended to 90-Days
2) Major Updates to Article Manager - Archiving is here!
3) More Snippets of Wisdom from the Forum
4) Featured Auto Manager Client and a Call for More Featurees
5) Reviews and Interactivetools.com in the News
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1. SATISFACTION GUARANTEE EXTENDED TO 90-DAYS
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As many of you know, Interactivetools.com has offered a 30-day satisfaction guarantee for several years, but now we've really put our neck out by extending the policy to 90 days.
So, let me reiterate... if you purchase software from Interactivetools.com and you're not happy for any reason whatsoever within 90 days of purchase, let us know and we'll refund your money.
Here's our full return policy:
http://www.interactivetools.com/about/satisfaction_guarantee.html?nl
90 days... are we crazy?
Nope, just want to give you enough time to make absolutely sure you're thrilled with our software. It can sometimes take a few months to fully explore all the features, so now you won't feel that you're being rushed.
The extended return policy also means you've got three months to apply your purchase price as a credit towards a 5 or 10-pack to take advantage of reseller discounts. To have a credit for a previous purchase applied to a 5 or 10 pack, all you have to do is add your request to the additional information section on the order page or contact us directly.
http://www.interactivetools.com/order/?nl
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2. MAJOR UPDATE TO ARTICLE MANAGER - ARCHIVING IS HERE!
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Our significant news for July is the latest version of Article Manager, which includes two features our customers have been asking for: Archiving and Admin Customization. So, without further ado, let me introduce to you...
ARTICLE MANAGER - version 1.11 (July 30, 2002)
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Archiving functionality - create new archives and transfer articles to them. Although this is seamless to visitors of your site, it can dramatically speed up the performance for sites with many articles. You can pull articles out of the archive if you need to change them later too.
Admin Customization - you can change the administration interface to personalize it for your clients. Change the login images, the admin title/footer bar, and turn the meta generator tags on/off.
Other fixes/features
" Image captions can now safely include HTML tags
" XHTML <br /> tags are now generated for summary and content fields
" Javascript Encoding "_je" placeholder suffix now works on all pages
" Browsing directories on a Mac OS/X server now works correctly
" Logging off Article Manager can now send you to a specific file
Upgrades are always free, so, if you want to upgrade to the latest edition, visit this page:
http://www.interactivetools.com/upgrade/index.cgi
Fill out the form and we'll email you the latest version of the software.
If you want more information on Article Manager, visit this page:
http://www.interactivetools.com/products/articlemanager/?nl
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3. MORE SNIPPETS OF WISDOM FROM THE FORUM
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One big advantage of our newly added discussion forum is that it lets us share the knowledge around. Instead of answering people's email directly, we can post explanations, workarounds, tutorials and support to the forum and help hundreds of people. So, once again, I'll point your attention to some stuff on the forum that might be of use to you.
Please follow any link that interests you, read the thread and post any advice and comments you may have.
First... we ask for your feedback.
30/60/90-day money back guarantee?
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Here's the original thread where we explored which way we should go with our satisfaction guarantee. In the end we decided to go with 90 days, but I think you'll find the discussion interesting. Got any additional ideas?
http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/forum.cgi?post=245
Free Updates versus Free Upgrades
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Our next big decision is how to handle software updates and upgrades. Should they always be free? Should we charge an upgrade fee for major releases? How much is reasonable? Are we being too generous to offer free upgrades for life?
http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/forum.cgi?post=520
Software subscriptions: love them or hate them?
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One business model that many software companies employ is to offer an annual subscription instead of a single purchase. It has its advantages and disadvantages. What would you prefer?
http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/forum.cgi?post=628
Discussion Threads About Article Manager
Page Break Technique
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Programmer extraordinaire (and rabid Ultraman fan) Dave Lo flies to the rescue with some clever JavaScript that allows you to break longer articles into several pages. Check out the thread, download the code, and enjoy your newfound advertising revenue.
http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/forum.cgi?post=668
Tutorial on Creating Article Manager Templates
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One visitor found that our documentation wasn't comprehensive enough to explain how to customize Article Manager's templates. Famed technical support director Luke jumps in with a *detailed* breakdown of exactly what you need to change, and where.
http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/forum.cgi?post=602
News Ticker with Article Manager
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Dave Lo unloads some Perls of wisdom with a clever way to generate a text file of Article Manager headings for use in one of those scrolling news tickers. (Perls of wisdom... ouch). This is an advanced solution, really only for the technically minded.
http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/forum.cgi?post=483
Allow specific categories only in the Webfeed Generator
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Want to restrict the categories available to other sites with the Webfeed Generator? Damon shows you how.
http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/forum.cgi?post=568
Publish certain files into a members only area
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Damon follows his gripping Webfeed generator trick with a clever way to get Article Manager to publish certain files into password protected directories. This is great for membership/subscription sites.
http://www.interactivetools.com/forum/forum.cgi?post=403
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4. FEATURED AUTO MANAGER CLIENT AND A CALL FOR MORE FEATUREES
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Here's another featured client website, this time for Auto Manager.
George Corbett Motors - http://www.gcorbett-motors.com
Auto Manager is being used to maintain the Used Car section of the George Corbett Motors website. Training the staff to use the system took less than 2 hours, including instruction on how to use image editing software on the digital camera pictures! The search results page was built from the ground up, using template variables to place search results where they were needed. It's saved the developers and the customers a huge amount of money, time and headaches. The site was designed and developed by aceposition.com (http://www.aceposition.com).
... want to have your site in the spotlight?
We're in the process of redesigning the product pages on our website, to have more spotlighted clients, complete with a screenshot and a longer description. We've got all we need for Article Manager (http://www.interactivetools.com/products/articlemanager/clients.html?nl), but we need more for our other products. Specifically Auto Manager, Realty Manager, Page Publisher, News Manager, Job Manager, DocBuilder, and Search Engine. If you've got a site that's using one of those products, drop me a note and propose your site for the spotlight.
Email me at mailto:fraser@interactivetools.com
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5. REVIEWS AND INTERACTIVETOOLS.COM IN THE NEWS
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Here's some feedback we've had over the last month that I thought I'd inject into the newsletter. Nice letters written by people without any kind of compensation. Seriously, we didn't pay them a penny for their stellar testimonials.
Okay, so we've got a handy form you can use on our website to write your own. Go ahead, if it's even halfway nice, we'll post it on our website. ;-)
http://www.interactivetools.com/cgi/write_review.cgi?product=Interactivetools.com
Mark from filmmusicworld.com says, "Article Manager Has Revolutionized Our News Page"
"Wow! This product has completely revolutionized the way we manage online news. It took only a few hours to configure and customize the templates, and readers are thrilled with the new easy-to-use news reading capabilities. I was just hoping that an "archive" feature would be added to the program for older news stories, and after seeing an automatic update in my config screen for the program that an update was available, looked at the update page and there it was - a new feature to do archiving! What a great experience with a vendor, and a program. I would highly recommend Article Manager to anyone who has to deal with online news and doesn't have a big staff to handle things."
Shawn from FlightSafetyBoeing (fsbti.com)
"Article Manager acts as our "Marketing Intelligence" page and brings 22 global centers in many countries and continents together online. Since it's all self-publishing, Webmasters like me are free to venture on to other things. This is one of those "killer apps" that I just can't live without."
Carl from luckydogmedia.com
"We make support calls for our clients almost every day, and the folks at Interactive Tools are by far the most patient, fastest and friendliest people we deal with."
David from terrasage.com
"You can't beat Interactivetools.com's search engine for features and performance. My client loves it, and I liked how easy it was to implement. The amazing part, though, was the extreme responsiveness of the support team. I wouldn't hesitate to use any of Interactivetools.com's products."
And in other news... some reviews of Interactivetools.com and our software.
Falling in love with Interactive Tools (their title, not ours)
http://www.theworldjournal.com/special/nettech/dotcom/interactivetools.htm
Wilson Web's Page Publisher Review
http://www.wilsonweb.com/reviews/pagepublisher.htm
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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The interactivetools.com newsletter is written by Fraser Cain.
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OTHER RESOURCES:
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At interactivetools.com, Inc. we make affordable Perl CGI scripts, software and tools to enhance your website.
You can visit our website at:
http://www.interactivetools.com/?nl
or demo our products at:
http://www.online-demos.com/?nl
Call us at 1-800-752-0455 if you have any questions not addressed on our site.
To subscribe to interactivetools.com, simply e-mail: mailto:subscribe@interactivetools.com
>> This publication may be freely redistributed if copied in its ENTIRETY <<
(c) Copyright 2002 interactivetools.com, Inc.
Fraser Cain - Product Manager
interactivetools.com, inc.
Tel: (604)689-3347 - Fax: (604)689-3342 - Toll Free: 1(800)752-0455
Software for your Website - http://www.interactivetools.com/
(This post was edited by Fraser on Aug 8, 2002, 1:22 PM)
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