Thursday, April 20, 2006

Received TWBlog Invitation? Some useful info.

Welcome - again - to our blog. Some of you visiting may have received an electronic invite to our blog and now are trying to figure out what to do with it. Well, you could just ignore it, but then you would miss out on our rants syndicated through RSS/ATOM/e-mail/WEB/etc feeds that make this form of publishing so very cool. So, here is some useful info:

  • What is a blog?
    A web-based publication conisting of periodic articles - which are generally less formal and more personal - that generally consist of information, thoughts, ideas, etc.. In our situation, we use a popular blogging system, available to anyone, to syndicate our articles. Publishing is fast and easy, so is news delivery. Once a new article is published subscribers can be instantly notified using e-mail or RSS. End result, you're always current on the latest scoop.
  • What is the TrialWorks Blog?
    This is a free news syndication service available to anyone designed to increase communication with our customers and deliver important information realted to our industry. Our mission is to publish articles quickly on new developments that may affect your busienss. To date we've published valuable information about missing calendar appointments and freeze-ups in office that have affected dozens of companies. Our topics are generally triggered by patterns discovered by our support/networking team. In addition, we will also use this to publish relevant information to TrialWorks, including new software releases.
  • What is RSS?
    Really Simple Syndication is a web feed format used for delivering news and podcasts. It consists of a title, date, description, and the article which are standardized to a universal publishing system. Users can "subscribe" to these feeds using various tools like:
    > Microsoft Live (www.live.com)
    > Google Desktop Side Bar
    > Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (now in BETA, will be available in Windows Vista).
    > All sorts of RSS Readers.

    As a side note, I use IE 7.0 but I do not recommend it - just yet - for non-advanced users. I suggest signing up with Windows Live, a free website operated by Microsoft.

    For more info on RSS feeds, check out WIKIPEDIA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29
  • How do I subscribe to TrialWorks Blog RSS?
    Simply go to http://trialworks.blogspot.com/atom.xml. You will see the feed. Some software will automatically detected. If using Windows Live, you will be able to "add" the feed using one of their gadgets - most other software works that way also.
  • How do I subscribe to the TrialWorks Blog E-Mail Notifications?
    The easiest way is to use the RSS feeds above. If you are not doing RSS, you are behind the times. It's the only way to stay current on all the latest news from multiple sources. Even if you are new to it, it's easy, just use some of our recommended tools mentioned above.

    If you want to do things the hard way, you can always e-mail an article to yourself using the envelope below each article. That will keep you updated - somewhat. A potentially easier choice is to sign up with Blogger.Com and FLAG this blog using the option on the top blue bar across the top. HOWEVER, we are using Blogger services because they are simple and readily avialable. Please be sure to review Blogger.com's privacy policies and terms of use agreements before signing up (here is the link: http://www.blogger.com/privacy).

That's all I can think of for now. Feel free to e-mail us/me with questions. To limit spam we have a blog inquiry form you can use for questions. Click on this link: http://www.trialworks.com/form_blog.htm

-Karl J.