…and I'm all out of bubble gum.
Posts tagged script
Google Mail Envelopes Implementation
Apr 11th
I came across Rahul Mahtani and Yofred Moik’s conceptual design of a Google Mail Envelope a few days ago and was… instantly captivated. I’m
not sure if it’s just the aesthetics of a design on the envelope in general, the way it hearkens back to an old school airmail envelope, or the conceptual neatness of the route between the two addresses. I just know that I love it and I want it.
So, I spent some time making a version of it.
Right now, my implementation is very much hacked together (I was teaching myself the Google Maps API as I went — it’s not hard, but it’s not familiar vocabulary, yet — I have a few other projects that will get me more expert soon, I hope). The things to know are:
- Change the addresses and the map will (should) update to reflect the new information.
- The first line of the address is removed on the assumption that it’s a name and not part of the address (and users are cruelly constrained to 3-line addresses right now).
- The resulting envelope template is pretty much exactly a full-bleed letter-size page. Which means that printing it is a hassle.
- I strongly suspect that there should be a dampening-down of the colors on the map so that the USPS can automatically scan the right information easily. My recollection from constructing bulk mailings a few years back is that the address just needs to have a bit of white space around it, but having a mess of other geographic information scattered nearby may not be helpful…
- The snazzy orientation of the address infoWindows on the original design hasn’t happened yet. I think I have an idea of how to do it with some CSS (they won’t be “real” infoWindows), but haven’t taken the time to fiddle with it yet.
- There’s something hinky with the borders of the side-flaps due to the not-yet-standard border-radius CSS.
More to come as way opens.
Convert Word Processing Files to PDF
Nov 22nd
This post is part of a series that are components of my “Expert Plan” at my school, looking to create a shared resource for my colleagues as the school moves towards greater adoption of laptops and technology in our pedagogy.
This AppleScript application converts any word processing files that Pages can open into PDFs. This application will only work on Macs.
Use
To use this application, drag a icon(s) of a file or group of files on to the icon for the application. When asked, pick which folder you would like to save the PDFs into. As the application runs, if Pages cannnot open a particular file, you will see a message warning you of this. When the application completes, it will display a list of all the files that could not be converted (or simply quit if all of the files were converted).
Install
To install this application, click the link below to download it as a ZIP archive. Double-click the “Convert Word Processing Files to PDFs.zip” icon to expand the ZIP archive and drag the application icon to where you want to use it.
