Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with announcements

SharePoint CQWP: How to use today's date to compare to another field

momzilla — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:38:31 -0800

SharePoint CQWP: How on earth can I use today's date to compare to another field in a calculated column or filter in SharePoint? (WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007) We have two subsites that have announcements lists which we are using to display deadlines. We are using the Content Query Web Part on the parent site homepage to roll up the deadlines from both subsites. Project manager only wants deadlines that will be expiring within the next seven days to display in the CQWP. This seemed like an easy task to complete ... just use the filter in the CQWP. However, I cannot figure out how to get it to allow for [Expires]-7 or otherwise use Today, Date or Now functions in a calculation.

My first solution was to create a calculated column to determine the beginning date to display the deadline (using the formula of [Expires]-7). The column displays fine in the list, but I wasn't able to get this to work in the CQWP filter because it didn't see this calculated column as a date field, even though I selected "Date" data type when I created it.

My second attempt was to try to create a "countdown" of days until [Expires], wherein I ran into the Today function limitation in calculated fields.

Am I going about this the wrong way or overlooking the obvious? What is the easiest way to achieve this? I'm new to SharePoint, and any guidance is appreciated.

Audio of old departing train announcements?

Mo Nickels — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:17:39 -0800

Where online can I find historic audio of train conductors or platform announcers calling out the coming stops on a train and then saying "all aboard"? This past weekend I was at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. In one of the exhibits they had what sounded liked genuine old-time announcements of a train's coming stops, something like (made-up cities) "San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Los Angeleez, all aboard!"

I'm looking for as many recordings of such announcements as can be found online. I prefer the ones that call out the stops and then bid the passengers to board. If you remember Mel Blanc's "Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga!" then that's exactly what I'm looking for, only genuine and longer. I've googled like mad but only come up with some very modern announcements about security or prerecorded subway/metro announcements.

Who should receive this annoucement?

JennyJupiter — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:38:01 -0800

Wedding Announcement Etiquette My fiance and I have a planned elopement in May. Our friends and family all know and are excited for us. We've ordered wedding announcements and will be mailing them to all of those that would normally have been invited to a wedding, plus others who are out of the area, co-workers, etc. The announcements will be mailed the day that we get married.
I have been estranged from my step mother for about 10 years. We are not on speaking terms. My question is whether or not I should address the announcement to my father only or include my step mother as well? If we were having a wedding I would not have wanted to invited her. I do not want to put my dad in an uncomfortable situation, but at the same time do not want to send the impression that I'm open to any communication with her.

Prayer notices in the local paper - what are they for?

lysistrata — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:49:29 -0800

I sometimes see announcements in the newspaper praising saints and listing prayers or novenas with instructions to publish the same ad in a future edition of the paper if the prayers work for you. Who places these ads? What purpose do they serve? What's the deal?

Looking for software for slideshow with interspersed announcements

rvrlvr — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 11:15:14 -0800

We have put up a large screen in a public area of our business. We would like to be able to have it rotating through some images, and also put other announcements about workshops, seminars that appear every X minutes. Is there a cheap/free software that will run a slideshow and then every 20th slide put up a text slide. We would rather not have to create a new slideshow everytime the announcements change - just put those in a text file or similar.

Telephone announcements

rolypolyman — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 13:10:53 -0800

Is there a telephone number provider like kall8.com than can let me record WAVs on my computer, upload them, and store them as telephone announcements? I run a service that uses voice announcements extensively. Unfortunately I have to deal all the time with hunching over and speaking into a crappy answering machine microphone, and hope that it's not too distorted. I want to use a nice microphone and concentrate on my delivery and my information, and post that as a telephone announcement.

I know one solution is to use a computer voicemodem, but I really prefer to use a telephony service company as I get a lot more flexibility that way. Unfortunately they usually require that I record announcements through the telephone, which equates to crappy quality.

Any ideas here? Am I stuck with having to use a voicemodem?