Video Trick

Writing this blog post to share a really cool trick I learned for how to crop a horizontal video for Instagram. So much easier than manual cropping. 

Thanks to Allie and Will for the tip about how to auto reframe video content. 

How much work will you take on?

This headline might give some people pause about hiring me someday, but I've realized that there are some lines in my work life that I won't cross. 

I am proud to work full-time for UB and their needs are the top of my list of things to do, but luckily for me there is an end to the work day.  I still check social and things like that but that's not necessarily "work" in the grand scheme of things. I like to help people. 

So, my freelance life starts after 6pm during the week and takes over on the weekends. I usually have a couple of clients to manage and so I have fun things to work on all the time.  I also do a lot of volunteering.  Even though I'm busy, I always respond to client queries.  You never know how something new can fit into the current list of projects and sometimes I learn something that helps everyone. 

Recently I was asked to take an editing test for a potential client.  I really liked the idea of the work, it was going to be a lot of captioning of legal files and I am really good at captioning.  However, I've never worked for any legal firms and I have no clue about the formatting they wanted. They sent very few instructions and expected me to figure it out. It dawned on me about an hour into this formatting challenge that if they were not interested in helping me succeed then I didn't need to work for them. I asked one question and was told I had all the information I needed. Since I did not, I won't be working for them in the future. 

Another potential client asked me to draft some blog posts for them and asked for images to accompany the text. When I asked how to add alt text to their CMS, they told me not worry about it. I sent them a link to the WCAG standards and removed myself from consideration.  I won't support any website not interested in accessibility.

So, my original question. How much work will you take on? I'll take on any project that won't harm my current clients, that won't exhaust me so that I can't do my regular job, and where I can learn as I go and have training or support if needed. 

Flexibility in the work space

One of the hardest lessons to learn as a freelancer is how to juggle the ebb and flow of available work. This dynamic sometimes pushes freelancers to seek more work during a quiet time than they can handle during the busy times.

It is also hard to tell when a freelance gig has reached its end-of-life. Sometimes I've pulled the plug and other times the client pulled the plug, but the nature of contract work is that it will end. And no matter how much you like the work, the project is over. 

This is why continuously updating your skills and staying connected helps you in the marketplace. How do you keep expanding your freelance circle? 

More Adobe Acrobat fun

 Working on remediating some PDF files and have been frustrated by random elements that the accessibility checker finds in the final review.

I know that these elements are not in the visible file, but they are often artifacts from the production process.

I found a shortcut today on the Adobe help site. Sharing for my own notes and to help this pop up for more people. 

Here is the key part:

"To try this out, do this:

• launch the Preflight tool (cmd-shift-X, or go to Edit->Preflight, or search for it in the Tools view
• switch to the "PDF Standards" library (pull-down menu in the middle at the top of the Preflight window)
• again, in the Preflight window, switch to the "Fixups" list (click on the wrench icon)
• in the search field in the Preflight window, enter 'artifact'
• an item with the name "Mark all non-structure elements as artifact" will be shown
• click on the "Fix" button in the lower right to execute the fixup (again: make sure to work on a copy of your precious original PDF, or during execution of the fixup, save to a different file name and/or different folder)

Once completed, all elements should either be part of the tagging structure, or be marked as artifact (background element)

Alignable

 It's a new year and there is a new app for businesses.  I was recently invited to Alignable (see my profile) and I've spent a few hours looking around.  It seems to be a more personal LinkedIn experience geared to smaller businesses.

Have you joined it? What are your thoughts?

Lulu Publishing

My aunt wrote a sequel to her first book The Christmas Tree. It is called The Paperboy's Dream and talks about how my Uncle Steve first learned about paratroopers and how he decided he wanted to jump out of planes.  And how he managed to make that happen. 

It turns out that his awareness was triggered by a stunt by Bernarr Macfadden. That was an interesting internet hole to dive into. You never know what experiences will impact others. 

Posting these links to her author's page and books so that people can find them. I'm not sure why her friends struggle with the Lulu Bookstore so much, but they do.   

• Constance Gessner's Author Page
• The Christmas Tree
• The Paperboy's Dream

Memories

 I found a really interesting project online and wanted to share (and save it).  I am working on a project to make pillow cases out of tees and the few that I have done in the past are either sewn closed (so hard to clean) or the cat climbs into them. Seriously. She loves to hide in open pillows. 

So, this DIY trick for an envelope pillow cover, using existing seams, seems like a great idea. Saving it to try and will update if they work! 

Second verse, same as the first....

Wow. What a year.

Back in April, I posted about how COVID-19 has changed so much and parts of the world seem absolutely frozen right now.  We are in worse shape now than we were back then. 

We should be learning to adapt, but people who resist change are dragging this illness around with them. But, projects persist and life goes on. 

If you need help with a project or someone to fill a gap while things continue to change let me know. 

ASL

 American Sign Language (ASL) is something that I started to do last year before COVID. My husband is interested in ministry to the deaf community, so he really needs to learn it.  I'm just fascinated with how people learn to communicate. 

As part of our lessons, we are learning signs associated with the Catholic Mass. So, I'm saving this link here for my future reference. Maybe it will help you too! 

Our Father at OKScribbler. 

My one sheet printable version (not an accessible PDF)

Let me know if I can help...

Wow. What a month.

COVID-19 has changed so much and parts of the world seem absolutely frozen right now.

But, things will return to "normal".  Normal always changes.  What was normal when I was 20, is not what is normal now. My whole work world flipped upside down, but we are getting things done. I am fortunate that my freelancing made my home office very adaptable to my primary occupation, but that is not necessarily the case for many. We are all learning to adapt.

The need to continuously learn is really the only constant in my life.  So, if I can help you with a project, or learn something new, let me know.  Hang in there.

Long links and other issues in Adobe

Continuing to push my way through several PDFs that need remediation. Today's lessons:

What do you do when a long link breaks across two lines and now the hyperlink is doubled (and tripping a warning because of the duplication)?

Well, you work through each duplication, copying the links as you go. Then edit the link, delete them and edit the PDF by drawing an invisible link box over the two lines. Add back the link info and now all of the text will launch the desired web content.

What to do with the character encoding issue?

In this instance you really want to have the source document, because this means the PDF was made with the wrong fonts embedded.  I have most often found this with logos, but it can happen with bullets, checkboxes etc.  Often you can copy the graphic and place as an image (and then tag as an artifact) but sometimes you just have to recreate the PDF from scratch. 

Tagging Links in PDFs

I am writing this post mostly to not lose this very useful piece of info that I read today.

I was working on remediating a PDF for a new client and there were several links that had been mismarked by the first person who had reviewed the PDF.

This article by Lynn Pacquin solved all my problems in about five minutes.

Her thoughts (copied and edited below)

To be accessible, each link in a PDF document must have three tags (in this order):

• a parent tag.
• a child tag.
• a child document content tag. 

The tag alerts a screen reader to the presence of the link. Acrobat tags each URL by adding a document content tag to the tag tree, but it does not also add a tag. A link that does not have a tag is considered an unmarked link and is inaccessible to assistive technology.

You must locate all instances of unmarked links in the tag tree, and then add tags to them, by following these instructions

1. In the Tags tab, choose Options & Highlight Content, and then choose Options & Find. 
2. In the ind Element dialog box, select Unmarked Links from the Find drop-down menu. 
3. Click Find. The first unmarked link is highlighted on the page. 
4. Close the Find dialog box. Use the select tool to select text that is near the link, then choose Options & Find Tag From Selection. 
5. In the Tags tab, select the document content tag for the link (the tag that names the URL), and then choose Options & New Tag. 
6. In the New Tag dialog box, select Link as the tag type and click OK. A tag appears below the selected document control tag. Drag the document content tag down to be the child of the tag. 
7. Select the tag, choose Options & Find, and then select Unmarked Links from the Find drop-down menu. 
8. Click Find. Acrobat finds the URL that you have been tagging. 
9. In the Find Element dialog box, click Tag Element. The following two things happen: - A tag appears as a child to the tag directly above the document content tag. The tagging for this link is complete. - Acrobat highlights the next unmarked link in the document. 
10. As needed, repeat steps 4 through 9 on the rest of the unmarked links in the document.

A custom coat

For Christmas, my aunt gifted me wool she inherited. The clearing out of closets is a whole series of posts for a future time, but suffice it to say, my relatives have been strongly encouraged to go into drawers that have been ignored for a while. She found several pieces of beautiful fabric and wanted at least one converted into something new. So, we set out to find a tailor. Most people told me to leave Buffalo and head to Toronto or New York City to have a coat made, but we went to Chayban's instead. He took one look at the fabric, agreed it was beautiful, quoted me $600 and took my measurements. One fitting later (only needed to adjust shoulders and determine the final length) and I'll have a custom coat in one month.

I admit that I was surprised when he quoted me that figure. But, now that I've gone through the fitting process I realize that I got a great deal. His experience was worth every penny for something I'll have for the rest of my life.

When you decide you need something done, and you go find the right person to do the work, pay them what they are worth.

26 Shirts

Sometimes I am lucky.  I picked Feb. 2 as my first 26shirts sponsorship day cause it's the day of the big game :)  And in addition to the regularly offered shirts in Buffalo, these are the special ones available this time around! 

Buff-Emoji

The Buffalonian Shirt

Connections

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the 20th Celebration of Catholic Education dinner at the Buffalo Convention Center. My husband and I were guests of a friend who works for Uniland, so we came to the event not entirely sure who we might find. We promptly walked into the parish group where my husband volunteers (teacher of the year award winner!), a former colleague of mine from Roswell Park and UB, and several other friends we don't always get to see. It was a lovely evening. The bonus to the whole event was the potential for a new project, updates on some other former colleagues, and a reassessment that everyone on Buffalo knows everyone else, so acting politely at all times is needed :)

Happy New Year!

WOW. Last year was crazy busy for me.  I just selected my days to support 26 Shirts this year and realized that it's been over a year since my last sponsorship. Last year was an interesting one for OPP, I had the most diverse group of clients I've ever had and stayed very busy right up to the end of the year. In this new year, I hope to continue to expand my connections while continuing to learn new things. Let me know if I can help you!

Golden Nuggets

I've been asked to share what I learned at my conference with my coworkers and realized that the most valuable part of the experience were the people.  At lunch on Monday I solved a problem for work after quizzing the table.  During a session on Tuesday, I found two tools to make my life easier.  Plus I got to hang out with some really interesting people I'm now following on social.

Life is all about continuous learning. 

Link articles

So, I got to write some content for Link: The Journal of Higher Education Web Professionals. It is the official publication of the HighEdWeb Association.

You can check out my posts at https://link.highedweb.org/author/catherinedonnelly/.

Higher Education Annual Conference

I am heading to the HighEdWeb 2019 conference! It's in Milwaukee (hello polka escalator) and I'm excited to get back there. 

I find this conference to be a useful touchpoint and learning opportunity for me.  Will share updates at the end!

About me

I'm starting to realize that I have profiles all over the place and I forget them regularly.  Today's surprise? About.me.  I haven't logged in there for years.  So, it's now gone. 

But I did like my personal description so I'm archiving it here :)

My hobbies and activities shaped my life. After joining The Griffin at Canisius College, I turned my biology degree into a career as a technical writer, college administrator and social media maven. When I was the only person on a marketing team who knew what "html" meant, I became a content manager, site developer and advocate for accessibility. I'm currently working in Web Services at the University at Buffalo where I love working on the channels that help to recruit and retain our students.

I'm the meanest mother in the world and a confirmed sci-fi fantasy geek – anyone else see ALL six original Star Wars movies on opening weekend? I'll have to update this to seven in December when I see it, but I've got my tickets!

Just remember that the worst someone can do is say no. If they say yes, we move forward, if they say no we find another way to get the job done, but the worst thing I can do is not ask. Let's all learn something new today and make the world a better place.

Congratulations to the Tri-State Consortium!

Wishing all of the conference attendees a wonderful event as you continue to promote educational opportunity programs! The conference schedule looks amazing. I'll be watching for your updates and photos!

Successful web launch!

Congrats to PADE!  The Pennsylvania Association of Developmental Educators launched their new website in anticipation of their annual conference this coming weekend. I had the opportunity to work with them on part of their content audit, website set-up and editing for accessibility.  I think the site turned out really well.  Kudos to their team that was focused on the project.  Linda was particularly amazing!

WCAG 2.1

I was asked if web accessibility was really important today.  The short answer is yes it is.  I admit to not understanding accessibility as I learned to code my corner of the web, but oday there are no more excuses.  We need to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities. 

This definition is from the W3C team, "Accessibility involves a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities. Although these guidelines cover a wide range of issues, they are not able to address the needs of people with all types, degrees, and combinations of disability. These guidelines also make web content more usable by older individuals with changing abilities due to aging and often improve usability for users in general."

The web has to be for everyone. 

Snow days!

It's the snowiest I can remember in years but this means that I get a chance to catch up on correspondence, freelance work and other piles around my house.  It also gives me a chance to look for new opportunities.  If you're looking for a freelance editor or writer to help with some projects down the road please feel free to connect. I'd love to hear from you catherine_donnelly AT yahoo DOT com.  Stay safe and warm!

Data and Google Sheets

As the year begins to wind down, I start to work on my spreadsheets for taxes.  I try to keep up with them all year, but it gets really serious in December! 

I've begun to realize that I can reference data from one place to another and not duplicate things.  The best site that helped me figure out the right string to include was WikiHow.Tech, specifically their instructions for pulling data from one sheet to another in Google.

The single quotes around the name of the sheet was the key.  It's amazing how one keystroke can stop things from working!