Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with creation

MSAccessFilter: How do I create a printable report in MS access, with a click-through interface to choose my data?

Seeba — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:26:47 -0800

MSAccessFilter: How do I create a printable report in MS access, with a click-through interface to choose my data? Good morning,
At the office, we're using an access database that everyone is afraid to touch, but at the same time, it's not quite doing what we want it to do:

I want to take information from two or three tables (the information's all linked together), then print a summary of the day's activity (one of the fields in one of my tables is a value for the date).

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Can I set up a form so that all my coworkers have to do is click "create report", then it'll give them another form with a calendar to click on, maybe a drop down box of another variable or two, click "create", and a report come out that I can print/save/distribute?

(Apologies if this is basic-- my google-fu has failed me, and I think it's because I'm not phrasing any of this correctly-- this strikes me as something that should be relatively easy to set up, though probably time consuming)

Lost My GoogleFu. Boo. :)

DrtyBlvd — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:28:55 -0800

Website Creation - What do I look for in order to find how to make a website of a particular type; the sort that is a background image with no visible links; but hovering over an item in, and then clicking over an item in, the background image acts as a link? I'm sure there's loads of instructions out there but I can't even find a site to show what I mean, letalone use search terms that return any kind of meaningful results! Thank you for any suggestions :)

db

How can I get a DVD to customers without maintaining an inventory

jseven — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:31:17 -0800

How can I get a DVD to customers without maintaining an inventory? I want to setup a site where customers can visit, choose to buy a DVD, pay for the DVD, enter their shipping address and an order is sent off to get the DVD created and it is shipped directly to the customer form the DVD duplication service.

The goal would be to manage zero inventory.

So what i'm looking for is the name of any company that would provide this service. (I think this is "drop shipping"?)

The content of the DVD would be provided by me, and I would want them to basically "keep it on file" to burn as orders come in.

I would also want a very legit way to take payment.

Any suggestions?

Need help reproducing a custom DVD

robhuddles — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:54:35 -0800

Where can I get my own custom DVDs reproduced so that I can sell them to a small, select group of people? My daughter was in a school performance tonight. Along with other parents, I video taped it. I'm going to collect video from some of the other parents and edit it together and then create a DVD from it.

What I need is a Cafepress-like resource where I can have the DVDs reproduced, a label screened onto it, a DVD case (of my own design) printed, and then the whole thing made available for sale. We aren't talking about mass production: the performance included students from 4 classes, so there are only about 80 families involved. I have neither the time nor money to manually create all 80 discs; I'd much rather outsource it. But I'd like to keep costs down as well.

I will be doing all of the production of the DVD myself - I don't need anyone to do any editing or menu creation or anything of the sort. Ideally, I'll be handing off a completed DVD that will simply need to be reproduced.

So any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Please recommend software program for creating/maintaining webpages

jujube — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:49:06 -0800

Please recommend software program for creating/maintaining webpages I would like to be able to create webpages, and also to be able to edit/maintain current webpages. I currently have others do this for me, but I'd prefer to learn to do this on my own, rather than find someone every time I need to update something minor to the webpage, or when I want to add a new link/page, etc. The webpage is currently maintained by using a combination of something called Filezilla to transfer the files, and Seamonkey to edit the files. As I said, this is currently done by various people I find to edit/maintain on an ad hoc basis.

So my question is:
1. My impression of the current method is that it is cumbersome and difficult, and I find the prospect of trying to figure out how to do this rather daunting. So, do the for-purchase programs for creating webpages make the job that much easier than the current free-wares that I'm using?

2. If so, what are the webpage creating/maintaining software out there that will be fairly simple to learn? The key here is ease of learning. I have a few hundred dollars I can spend on this, but not so much time learning how to use it.

3. If there is such a program, does it matter that the original webpage was created using a different software?

Thanks!

Help me find a website (non CMS/Blog) program/tool for my wife.

Leenie — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:31:15 -0800

My wife and I have a small family farm. While I run a few websites that are hand coded, Wordpress or Joomla based, with galleries and more, she can not handle that. We are trying to find a simple website creation program for her to maintain the farms website.

The one we are testing and it almost what we need is 'Website Baker'. It is a PHP web application that is somewhat WYSIWYG. The big gripe we have is image handling. If we have a large photo from a camera and want to place it on the website, it can not create thumbnails or a browser friendly size. You have to upload the images before you can use them on the page, etc. You can not have images float on the page to the right or left of the page, they have to be within a paragraph break.

We don't need commenting, blogging, ratings, voting or anything like that. We are looking for software that will let her create the website, a professional non crap looking page. I can do the templating, that is not the problem.

The software needs to be able to create a static page for an animal. That page will contain its recent genetics along with a few paragraphs about the animal. Photographs are required on the pages.

If the menu system can support sub pages/categories, that is great.
Example:
Breed 1
Animal 1
Animal 2
Animal 3
Breed 2
Animal 1
Animal 2

Nvu, Frontpage, Dreamweaver, etc. are not an option. Web based apps get bonus points. It will be on a Linux server running Apache web server with MySQL and all of the usual stuff.

Thanks for any, and I mean any, suggestions.

Starting a Foundation or Fund

divabat — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:29:21 -0800

How do I start a fund or foundation? I would like to start up a fund or foundation to give grants to projects by young people back home (Malaysia), an area currently in need but not served very well. Being a young person myself with plenty of enthusiasm but not enough knowledge, I'm not sure where to begin.

I understand that a lot of information will be location-specific (laws, regulations, etc), but what else do I need to take note of when starting a fund?

How do I get the money? (I can't just use my life savings...)
What sort of bank account would be best?
How do I get people to be interested in the fund, to support it and apply for grants?
How do I choose who do I give grants to, and what do I do with them afterwards?
How do I build credibility? (A big problem back home is that youth projects tend to start up with plenty of hype, then disappear soon after. I don't want that to happen.)
How do I find people to help me? What sort of people should I be after for this - businesses? Community people? Other youth?
What existing models can I follow or use as reference? I've seen the YouthBank UK website and it looks interesting, and I would like more examples.
What is the difference between a foundation and a fund? Will I have to redefine this project if I decide to do more than just give money?
What else am I missing?

Any and all help appreciated. Assume I know nothing. Thank you!

Best practices for test creation

worker_bee — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 05:47:04 -0800

Can anyone point me to some sources for best practices in creating end of course test questions? Not looking to create SAT level tests but some simple end of course tests in a business environment to follow training sessions held in-house. To make sure the participants have understood the material presented we want to give a short (10 - 15 question) end of course test.

I want to make sure the questions (only multi-choice or True/False format), the answers and the feedback are worded clearly and are as unambiguous as possible and would like to use either books or more preferably web sources as a guide in wording the questions. Anybody have any good pointers or best practices for this kind of thing?

UPC Barcode Creation

coudal — Fri, 11 May 2007 10:16:00 -0800

Is there a fast, simple way to create and register a real UPC barcode for a retail product? Seems like all I can find is desktop software for sale or sites that don't seem too official or just don't work. Maybe I'm ignorant and there's something about the process that is more complicated than it seems like it ought to be?

Who came up with this quote on meaning in creative works?

evadery — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 11:33:59 -0800

A paraphrased quote: 'As one creates (writes?), it's meaning is known to only two - himself and God. When one finishes, the meaning is only known to God.' So, where did this quote derive from? Who originally said it? Note: my paraphrasing may be incredibly off. Long shots are welcome.

Sandwichs!

TwelveTwo — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 10:28:20 -0800

Who loves sandwiches? I do! But I'm tired of sandwichs designed in the vacuum of my mind. My question is thus: What are some great sandwichs? I'm also curious about sandwich tips and techniques that make any sandwich, or most sandwichs all the better. Bestow unto me your sandwichy wisdoms, Metafilter!

Help me create a tutorial video for the web!

Geoffh — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:52:46 -0800

I want to create a tutorial video in the style of this one. I've got the voice-over stuff covered, but what software would I use to pull this off if I'm not actully filming anything with a camera?

I want to be a programmer's pinup girl.

thewhynotgirl — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 14:45:55 -0800

I have applications galore mapped out in my head, and want to hire a coder to make them. Without coding knowledge, I want to be the dream client by submitting a GUI graphic and basic directives (like "initial screen displays these 6 buttons" "option for icon/text" "keep all screens no busier than 60% whitespace" "what problem is this app designed to solve?"). Can you supply/point me to such a developer/client questionnaire and free GUI template graphic maker? Please don't suggest I learn how myself right now -- I need these apps because I'm so overwhelmed with stuff to do! Thanks in advance.

Where to find illustrated body parts to mix to create infinite character position/attitudes ?

vincentm — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 02:51:22 -0800

Where to find illustrated body parts to mix to create infinite character position/attitudes ? I'd like to find body parts (heads, hands, arms, clothes, objects) that I can assemble (in illustrator or flash) to create different situations/actions/gestures. Do you know a free or low cost website that provide this ?

The parts should be available in different configuration (angles, positions, etc...) so that I can create an almost infinite set of characters.

How to create forums on a blog.

adrober — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 18:48:42 -0800

How can I create forums on my food blog like the ones here and here? I realize both of these are powered by PHPBB but I tried to download it and couldn't figure it out. Maybe because I'm using OSX? Is there an easier way? Thanks!

Money multiplier makes no sense

rolypolyman — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:28:54 -0800

Any economists here? I have a logic / semantics puzzle. An article about money creation says that when the Fed 'gives' the banks $1000, the total amount somehow becomes a lot higher through something called a money multiplier. But the mechanics of this make no sense. Basically if banks have a 12% reserve requirement, they have to keep 12% but can loan out the rest. So if Bank A gets $1000, it can loan out $880 to Bank B. Bank B gets the $880 and can loan out $774.70 to Bank C, ad infinitum.

Supposedly this is creating $7333.33 of additional money. A lot of articles and books talk about how this creates additional money, e.g. "each dollar of new reserves enables the banks to create ten dollars of new money".

But it seems to me that all that's happening is $880 is being divided out into smaller pieces. If someone goes to Bank B to take out a loan, it won't have the money because it loaned out its $880 to Bank C. So you can't add it as part of the total. I don't see any new money being generated; just the original amount being sliced and diced.

What am I missing here? Or am I looking at this the wrong way?

What is the best budget sequencer software for Mac?

pollystark — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 03:53:16 -0800

Recently, I've started learning the guitar. Up to now, I've been recording and arranging my compositions on my Mac with GarageBand. However, I'm outgrowing it, so I want to find a new budget ($50 to $200) piece of software to use. I just basically want to do multitrack recording and sequencing of .wav based sound files. Also might want to add some effects to tracks, plus probably other stuff I haven't learnt about yet.

Product production resources for the lowly inventor?

felix — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 08:31:58 -0800

So all of us mad inventors now know about eMachineShop and PIC microprocessors and interesting connectivity devices. And some of us have designed truly wicked little systems just begging to make it onto the front page of Engadget. ...the internets are less capable when explaining how to get from A to B. Assuming that I've got a working circuit board diagram, a list of chips, resistors and capacitors...how do I get fully-populated circuit boards, ideally assembled and tested inside a machined enclosure, and even more ideally packaged in a cardboard box with a country-specific power supply and cheaply printed instruction manual, and even more ideally, built and shipped to customers on a build-to-order basis? Does such a thing even exist? If not, how close can I get? My soldering skills are not remotely adequate and likely never will be.

What's the best way to learn interactive game creation in blender 3d?

ph00dz — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 19:32:15 -0800

What's the best way to learn interactive game creation in blender 3d? I took a look at tutorials... and they seem pretty good. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any other good resources that'll help a person with very little 3-d experience get started.