Posts Tagged ‘tutorials’

How To: show Chinese characters on WordPress

laelene Posted in how to guides，Tags: , ,
16 April 2021
0

Now that I’m reviewing Chinese dramas, I wanted to be able to type Chinese characters into my blog posts, but they were all coming out as question marks when I saved! 真烦人！

I did some research and got some confusing answers before finally getting it to work, so I wanted to log that in case you have trouble too. Ultimately it was the answer to this thread that helped me decipher what I needed to do. Below are step by step instructions following that answer.

I logged in to my webhost provider and thankfully they had quick and easy links, so I clicked on “phpMyAdmin”

That landed me on this page:

I thought I’d fiddle around with the Server Connection Collation dropdown and change it to one targeted for Simplified Chinese, but that didn’t seem to do anything. Instead I chose my site from the selection on the left panel, then clicked on the SQL tab:

Then in the box, I pasted the code from the help topic:

alter table wp_posts convert to character set utf8 collate utf8_general_ci;
alter table wp_links convert to character set utf8 collate utf8_general_ci;
alter table wp_comments convert to character set utf8 collate utf8_general_ci;
alter table wp_terms convert to character set utf8 collate utf8_general_ci;

After I clicked “Go” I got some green messages confirming the changes and then that SQL box was blank again. That was it! Once I returned to my blog and added Chinese characters, now they display correctly and don’t get reverted to a mess of ??????s lol.

How to: make a browser tab act as a desktop program

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
12 March 2015
0

When I learned of this trick, I was so excited! I hope your inner nerd loves it too.

Are you like me and hate having certain tabs open in your browser because you want to be able to use a site as if it was a separate program? Well, with Google Chrome you can basically achieve that! As I discovered recently, you can pop out certain sites you want to have open without having to resort to new windows or tabs. This way, it gets its very own icon in your taskbar and when you close it, you can quickly re-open it by clicking the image. This is called an application shortcut and is particularly useful for sites you listen to music on (so it’s like having a music player program open), sites you’re messaging with (so it’s like having an IMing program installed), or even just your favorite sites (like your blog editor).

I think you really need to try it out for yourself to understand it better. It’s a lot like the Add to Home Screen option on iOS devices (but the Windows desktop version), if you’ve done that before. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1 – Go to the menu in the top right, More Tools, then Create Application Shortcuts…

google chrome browser application shortcut setting option

Step 2 – Choose one or both application shortcuts to create. You can create a Desktop shortcut and/or a Pin to Taskbar one.

google chrome browser create application shortcut options

Step 3 – Now your app shortcut sits on your desktop and/or your taskbar for easy access. Just click to open!

google chrome browser application shortcut on desktop

Here I set up Grooveshark so I can listen to music and quickly switch to it to pause my music. Behind it, I’m working on this blog post in the browser!

How to: Configure Touchpad Edge Swipe Gestures

laelene Posted in how to guides，Tags: , , , , , , , ,
17 December 2013
0

If you’re on Windows 8 with a touchpad that has edge swiping gestures, you might be itching to deactivate that annoying left side swipe. I’ve been using my new laptop for a few weeks and I inadvertently switch between apps whenever my finger accidentally swipes from the left side of the touchpad inward. I couldn’t find how to make it stop, so I scoured my settings until I figured it out.

1. Swipe in on the right side to access the charm bar (the menu bar on the right side of the screen). You can also hover the mouse over either corner on the right side of your screen to get it to appear.

2. Click on Settings (last icon).

3. Click “Change PC Settings” text at the very bottom.

4. In the General section, find the App Switching subsection.

pc settings section to enable and disable left edge swipe

5. Turn off “When I swipe in the from the left edge, switch directly to my most recent app” to disable that edge swipe. Now when you swipe from the left, you’ll get the menu of apps on the left.

6. To take it a step further, turn off “Allow switching between recent apps” and there will be nothing when you do a left edge swipe.

That’s it! Simple enough, but they sure make it hard to find. I searched through touchpad and driver settings for ages before stumbling across the PC settings page. Hope that helps you too. Happy swiping. 🙂

How to: Facebook Contest Tutorial

laelene Posted in how to guides，Tags: , , , , , , ,
13 March 2013
1

I just participated in a super-quick giveaway on Facebook and there seemed to be a lot of confusion over how to win. In case you ever come across a similar promo, here are some tips for a winning strategy – I’ll use the contest I entered, hosted by Physician’s Formula, as the example.

success page for those who got the free physician's formula product on facebook

Want to win these giveaways? Here are my tips for how to do it.

The giveaway was hosted on Physician’s Formula’s Facebook page using the “Promotions” tab. On the promo tab, there was a timer counting down to when the giveaway started, which in this case was today at 2 PM PST.

Tip 1: Check the time! A lot of people thought it was 2 PM local time, but it was stated that it would be PST, so you’d need to convert to your own time zone. All giveaways will specify the time, so be sure to look it up. If you’re not sure, browse the Rules or Terms/Conditions for the contest ahead of time, or just check with the company by asking them.

The instructions were to watch for a secret word posted on their page at 2 PM PST, then be one of the first 1000 to fill out the form (over on the Promotions tab) to win. A lot of people promptly posted the secret word on PF’s Facebook page and wondered if they won. This, however, was not the appropriate place to enter. A careful read of their instructions would have made it more clear.

Tip 2: Double & triple-check the rules! All giveaways clearly lay out how they will work and what their terms are, so if you really want to win, make sure you know exactly what you need to do when the giveaway is live.

Also, many people complained that the timer wasn’t accurate or their clock didn’t match. One of the things you want to check beforehand is that your clock is synced with the “real” time. Usually our computers do this automatically, but it’s always good to check it and make sure that your clock is matching up with the timer. As for the timer being off, it might have been due to certain browsers not being up to par. Make sure you’re using the latest version of your browser. Also, when time’s getting close, refresh the page so the servers realign and ensure a more accurate countdown time.

Tip 3: Refresh the page (but not too much). It’s always a good idea to refresh the page to make sure you haven’t missed something, but overdoing it can overload the system and cause your page to freeze mid-load or load blank. Definitely not what you want when you’re trying to win!

Oh, and speaking of all this browser and computer talk – if at all avoidable, DO NOT USE a smartphone. Facebook “apps” (or tabs) such as the Promotions one for Physician’s Formula don’t tend to work on mobile phones. Your best bet is a computer browser, whether desktop or laptop or netbook or otherwise.

Tip 4: Use a non-mobile device. While you still can access the appropriate tab on a tablet, it’s a lot more hassle and often less reliable than a good old computer desktop or laptop. If you don’t have access to a non-mobile device but you have a tablet, be sure to log in to Facebook from the browser. Don’t use the Facebook app for your device, as it will generally not show you the Promo tab.

Ok, so you’re all ready to wait for the secret code to show up on the Facebook page so you can then fill out the form on the Promotions tab. Be smart about it! Have both pages open in your browser! In fact, have an extra backup browser with the pages open too. That way, you can quickly get to the form once it’s live and fill it out ASAP. If there’s a snag with something loading, you can promptly try a different browser to see if it works better.

Tip 5: Have both pages open in your browser. Saves a little bit of time, which can mean the difference between winning and not.

Ok, and now here’s one of my best tips: get notifications. What does that mean? Well, read on…

Tip 6: Get notifications! Usually to participate in a contest like this, you have to “Like” the page. Now what a lot of people don’t know is that after you like the page, you can actually choose to get (near) instant notifications from that particular brand. Just hover over the “Like” button and you’ll see a small menu. Click on “Get Notifications” and a checkmark will appear next to it. Now you’re a power user! This one step can help so much – every time the page is updated, you will get a notification. When you have Facebook open in your browser, a small box will appear in the corner sort of like an IM. If you have a mobile device, it will also receive pop-up notifications (if you have that enabled for your Facebook app). This is the fastest way to find out if the company updated their page yet, so you can get the code right away.

If this is confusing, just give it a try with a page you follow that updates often. The next time they post, you’ll get a notification and you’ll see how fast it is. When the code showed up for Physician’s Formula today, I saw it pop up in the corner and immediately went to fill out the form on the Promotions tab (which was live by then – no refreshing needed). When you went to fill out the form, a small box popped up asking for the secret code and that’s where you should have entered it. Tons of people repeated the code on the wall, but that didn’t do anything for you. And if you were one of the lucky 1000 to get your submission in on time, you got a lovely confirmation like the one shown. All those wondering if they got it probably didn’t, since it was clear upon filling out the form if you did.

Alright, those are my tips for how to best prepare yourself to win these flash giveaways! Do you have any other tips to share? Did you find this useful? Please let me know!

If you liked this, you might like my other tutorial on how to link social media accounts.



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...