Website General Updates November 2011

The changes we've made are significant and run deep!

While it's easy to see some cosmetic differences -- all of which are still in the process of being finalized and tweaked -- the changes we've made here at caddpower.com are significant to say the least. Specific items of note include:

• Software Performance: We've upgraded Drupal to version 6 (with plans already underway to go to Drupal 7 pending updates to some key modules) which is considerably faster and more reliable than previous versions. Along with Drupal upgrade came a requirement to upgrade the versions of mySQL and PHP which also brought along performance and stability improvements.
• Hardware Performance: In the process of the Drupal software upgrade we also moved all the content from legacy hardware/servers with our hosting provider to newer, faster, and more reliable hardware. This has been a great performance benefit.

Of course, anyone who's gone through those sorts of changes knows the task is far from simple. It's not simply a matter of moving a few files, but time involved in testing and setup of configurations takes up the huge amounts of the time. We're comfortable with where were at, and even though we have little more house keeping and cleanup to do we felt it was time to flip the switch.

So, if you see some dust in the corners or a few minor rough edges like a broken link or missing graphic, rest assured we're addressing that housekeeping. However, if you do see something out of sorts we'd appreciate if you'd take a moment to send us an email with a link to the specific page that's displaying a problem.

Thanks

Brian Huculak
managing editor
caddpower.com

New Features April 2008

New Site Features

As we continue to polish the new look and feel of our site for 2008 we just felt some of those new features were too good to make you wait so here's a quick run down on what we've added.

• Popular Content: On the left you now see a new section for popular content. It lists the 5 most recently read pages on our site as determined by you -- our visitors. You can still access Recent Posts to get the latest on what's new but this mini-list gives you an overview of what other folks were reading.
• Search: We snuck that one in a few weeks ago - we've opened searching to anonymous as well as registered users. It means folks don't need to log in to search our site.
• More Public Content: Again, a few weeks ago we opened up the PowerCADD User Section of our site so it does not require logging in to read. Visitors still need to log in to vote on polls and post comments. We're hoping the change will make it easier for everyone to find content and see just how much content we have here -- and then signup so they can participate in posting comments and voting.
• Resources Link: This is a big one that you are definitely going to want to check out and visit often! It appears in the primary navigation column, and it's cleverly named resources . Simply click on that link to see a host of related links to articles that visitors will definitely want to check out. Click on any sub-link to see content related to a given subject. That section includes a list of related PowerCADD links, and perhaps of even greater value is a series of current links from Apple on trouble shooting tips and updates. Check that stuff out every day to keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening with Mac OS^? X!.
• Mac OS X Learning Center: We've links to the Learning Center: Mac OS X section for late breaking support articles from Apple. This is premium content that comes right from the source so make sure to check it out. For example, if you visit the Mac OS X: Dot.Mac section of our site you'll see a list of articles from Apple on how to get even more value from Dot.Mac.

We hope you enjoy these new features and take advantage of the constantly updating related content. That content refreshes automatically every 24 hours with articles over than 16 weeks from the current day being automatically deleted. The new look and feel for 2008 is progressing nicely and we're looking forward to a cleaner and crisper interface, some performance enhancements and perhaps most importantly; laying the foundation for even better features in the future.

Thanks for visiting
Brian (huc) Huculak
Managing Editor & co-founder
caddpower.com

New Look & Features 2008

caddpower.com Spring Cleaning for 2008

It's been about two years since we upgrade the site to the Drupal based CMS^? but it was time to freshen things up and lay the groundwork for the future. Since it's April, we figured now was as good a time as any for some Spring Cleaning. As we noted in this article, we rolled out some new features earlier this month. While those changes were essentially a few features we wanted to share, we still had more work to do -- and that work is now complete (sure, we're still cleaning up a bit but have you ever noticed how that part of the job always takes the longest!).

As part of our continuing efforts to improve our site and quality of services for guests and clients, we have completed the upgrade to Drupal 5.7 from Drupal 4.7. Here's a brief run down on what's changed and why:

• New Look and Feel: We gave everything a fresh coat of paint but still maintained our standard color scheme and basic layout so things will still feel familiar to our long time visitors. In addition to freshening things up, the new layout gives us room to grow with respect to features and making it easier to communicate new content to our visitors.
• Security & Performance: The upgrade to Drupal 5 gives us better performance and some improved security features which are always good things. The upgrade to Drupal 5 is also important as we continue to monitor information related to the newly released Drupal 6 which has us excited about the future!
• Easier Maintenance: The fact Drupal 5 makes it easier for use to maintain and update both the site and it's content makes it a win-win for us and you, our visitors.
• Article Revisions: Any time we make a major revision to an article a special link is created at the top of the articles page. Our registered users (who log in) will see a Revisions link; click that link to compare between different versions of the same article. It serves a few purposes, not the least of which is making it easy for us to track changes and keeping our regular readers informed as to both what and when we might make a significant change to content.

Of course we also added some new features so here's a quick run down:

• Recent Polls: We now include the most recent poll on the front page. If you have registered to use this site, just log in and you can vote, post comments, or visit any of our older polls.
• Log in: We've cleaned up the front page and moved the log in link to the top of the screen. That log in link also gives you access to create a new account or request a replacement password.
• Two Column Layout: We've moved to a two column layout to make it easier to navigate the deeper sections of our site. Your personal navigation elements have always been on the right, and they haven't moved. When you are visiting the PowerCADD User Learning Center or any of our Learning Center or FAQ sections, the supplementary navigation for those areas now appears in the left column.
• Search Field: We've move that to the upper left column for easier access. That location puts it right in your sight line to make it faster to find what you're looking for.
• Primary and Secondary Navigation: You no doubt have seen we've moved cleaned up the navigation area. Now all your primary and secondary navigation links are accessed from the top of the screen, from any page. This gives us room to grow and makes it easier to find what you're looking for.
• e-Postcard: You can now send your colleges a link to our site by using the Send e-Postcard link in your personal navigation area. Thanks for spreading the word!
• Foward This Page To A Friend: When you read any article, you'll see a Forward This Page link associated with it. Click on that link, type your message and you can send the content to a college. Note: we always respect your privacy and we do not collect your email address -- it's simply required so the person getting the email knows who sent it!
• Rate An Article: With several hundred articles on this site, we decided a rating system would be helpful so visitors can see, at a glance, what others thought of a given article. You see a preview of the rating when viewing a summary. When you read the whole article you can click on a rating button. If you change you made a mistake no problem; just click on the rating button again.
• Digg: We've made it easy for you to share helpful articles here with the rest of the web workd by using Digg.com Just click the Digg link displayed at the bottom of any article to add it to your Digg account.

Don't forget we added some other features earlier this month so check out this related article for details.

We hope you find the changes helpful and if you have any thoughts or comments please feel free to use the comment link below or the contact us link at the top of every page. As the year progresses we'll be looking at other means to provide additional features, services, and continued first rate PowerCADD and Mac OS^? X related content for the CAD professional.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

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If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak, Co-founder and Managing Editor, caddpower.com - powercadduser.com

New Look and Feel 2006

We have a new look and feel
Our returning visitors and clients have no doubt noticed the new look and feel to this website. We've been receiving positive feedback and thank everyone who took the time to write.

The old website, created using iBlog served it's purpose well and we think that product was, and still is, a great choice for many things. However, we simply out grew it in terms of the amount of content we were generating, how it needed to be organized and many other factors.

After looking long and hard at several different products over the better part of a year we decided to go with the Content Management System you see here, Drupal Among the many benefits a CMS^? provides (including that little ? mark you see next to the term CMS, go ahead, put your mouse over it and click), we how have a great deal of flexiblity in creating and organizing content, and in adding new features as time, money, energy, and interest permit.

You have no doubt noticed we've moved to a registered and guest type content structure. Long time visitors to caddpower.com may recall we tried something similar in the late 1990's. At that time the techology to do the task was just to cumbersome to be practical and we abandoned it... thankfully technology has come a long way Fundamentally, requiring visitors to register before accessing premium content let's us know who and how many people are seriously interested in the content and service we provide on this website. That information, when used in conjunction with traditional website logs, we how have some tangible facts to make informed decisions about the future. We understand and respect your privacy and spell it all out in our privavcy policy.

So, we look forward to seeing you here online, thanks for visiting, and we hope you find the information here helpful and that it helps get you through some of the bumps on the technology highway.

Thanks for visiting.

Brian (huc) Huculak
managing editor
caddpower.com