Simple Way to Convert excel tables to HTML

Many webmasters and bloggers not hailing from a web design back ground often feel the need to convert an excel file into html. But they want to achieve this feat without the unnecessary coding, hit-and-trials or head banging. 

One must admit, A method of converting an excel worksheet into its html counterpart is difficult. Owing to lack of options webmasters often resort to taking screenshot of the tables and inserting it as an image in the blog. Arguably, this is a great method to insert tables into a webpage, but it does not perform the job. The following are reasons why inserting table as an image is wrong.

1. It does not look good
2. Your readers cannot click
3. They cannot copy the text (for which, even codemakit method cannot help)
4. The image might perform weird in a mobile device
5. The text and the table prepared by you so meticulously will not be read by search engines* 
6. It shows lack of finesse in the blog

* You cannot just copy and paste the table text as alt txt in images, because large text in Alt-Text defies Blogger Policies.

So, looks like you're going to need HTML table. Now that I've established your need for HTML tables I shall present a solution.

First, open the table containing the spreadsheet. Save it as a .csv file.

* A .csv file is a comma separated values file, here the values are separated by commas, which makes it easier for online web applications to convert.

Next, go to http://www.tablesgenerator.com/html_tables

Click on file - Upload .csv File and Upload.

Now you'll be presented with a raw version of your html table. You can make modifications, change font type, size, justification, color, cell color etc.

Every update will be reflected at the newly created html-CSS file at the bottom of the page.

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Create an Auto Responding Google Form

Corporates and institutions often accept information from public through online forms. The best (Non Google) form creation websites have already been discussed which do provide a lot of facilities. Often the best of them are disguised behind the paid ones. These are mostly inaccessible to the general web owners as the professional ones need a note for shelling out money from their firms and the freelancers just don't have the money. 

One such facility is the automated response which one receives after he/she has filled up an online form which might say "thank you for your responses" or something. The facility, though available on Google docs is not readily available. You would not see fancy buttons to facilitate your auto responding form. So, you'll have to do it yourself.

For this purpose an app needs to be created. The app will obviously have a script. but fret not, as most part of the script is already filled by Google. you just need to add a small snippet and your work will be done. Following are some really simple steps with instructive screenshots which will help you create an auto responding form which has the ability to send emails to the filler. But, do read the special note so that things go smoothly.

Step 1: 

Firstly you need to create a form at google Docs. The form creation has been explained pretty clear article at codemakit.

Step 2 : 

Now assuming you are accepting the responses in a google spreadsheet, You then need to open the spreadsheet where the responses for the form are stored.

Step 3 : 

You will land on the Google Script Window where you need to select, which script do you need to create. Since we're creation a script for a spreadsheet, click spreadsheet. A scipt will then be visible to you. Do not modify any code, Just add another piece of code given here.

The Code

Edit the code to your wishes, Do check the notes to understand the functioning. 

function formSubmitReply(e) { var userEmail = e.values[2]; MailApp.sendEmail(userEmail, "Yo! Thanks for your time", "Thanks for submitting your information to us, \n\n", {name:"Help Desk"}); };

Note. 

One must understand the intricacies of the code and not use it mindlessly.

formSubmitReply is a function, which handles events, this is the function that initiates the action. It has a parameter 'e' which basically is an array filled with values. Have a look at your spreadsheet containing responses, First one will always be the timestamp. If your table consists of 2 questions, ie.e 'Name' and 'email' address, you will have to put the array value as e[2] so that the app would know where to send the response.

Also the name of the sender is taken as "help desk" Which can be changed to suit your needs.

Step 4 : 

Now you need to set a trigger for the script you just set. Click on resources menu and select "All your triggers". You will see a window stating all your triggers, Click on "create new", which will create a new trigger instance. Select values from the dropdown window as is done in the screenshot below.

Step 5 : 

You might be presented with an authorization window where you need to click yes to go forward. Once you've authorized the app. Your form will start sending automatic responses to anyone who fills your form with an email address.

Related Reading

1. If you're unsure, why you need an online form, you can check out Why Online forms, A study (Part One) and the rest can be found out at Why Online Forms, A study (Part Two)
2. Need help creating a form using Google Forms, Try this.

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8 Best Online Form Creation Websites (Study Part 2)

Consider a case when you really need to create a form for your website, and so you need to decide which online service would suit you best. Though the reasons for creating an online form were discussed in an article before. Different websites have different USPs, some are suited for the general non programming public. Some are for more advanced users who actually know about the nitty gritty of coding and are willing to go the extra mile for providing awesome service to their customers or visitors. Some Form creation websites are meant for people who don't have the time and can do without the petty details which most people fret about.

So here is a list of all websites that can perform the task of creating an online form. Codemakit Website Research analysed them perfectly for your perusal so that your time is saved

Jotform

If you think of form creation with the speed of light, You would probably consider jot-form as the best. One visit to jotform would change you perception of form building forever. This is the first time I personally considered buying one of the premium packages that the website offered. The simple drag and drop functions bundled with easy edit and move options, jotform can be the site to look for.

Cons- The free subscription offers just 100 submissions in a month. No option of dedicated hosting of form. you must embed the form on your website for it to be functional. The responses are mailed separately but not as a spreadsheet which has found to be useful for most web masters and statisticians. There were speculations however that jotform domain was temporarily shut down once by the US Government.

FormSite

As is evident from businesses around the world, one man's thrash is another man's treasure, The disadvantages in jotforms were completely removed when the developers were creating formsite. Formsite understands that people actually need to use the information that they gained from the forms filled by the visitors. Formsite offers you services that helps you convert the responses into pdf /xls or similar spreadsheets so that you are spared from manual entry into spreadsheets for further processing or record keeping. Wiki entries boast about formsite into the top 5000 websites in terms of daily unique visitors. With more than 500 million form submissions, formsite is one of the most popular form creating destination for developers worldwide.

FormStack

Formstack can be called as just another form creating/maintaining website. Some of its USPs are better control  for the information flow by the form creator. The only major con for formstack is its 14 day trial. The website seems hell bent on converting nearly ever visitor into a customer. It is because of such low return on investment (ofcourse the functions wouldn't work afer the trial period.), codemakit decided to give it a rating of B3. Final verdict, If you are a freebie and want little fucntionalities for your blog/website, you woulnd'nt want formstack. It is for corporates and big players in the internet sphere.

Wufoo

Though Wufoo brags about cloud storage as its USP, It is interesting to note that Google drive is the only sensible enough competition for the same. Thus If you want your form data to be automatically stored at cloud storage. You can either use the ever free Google Drive forms or Wufoo. Since both are in the same battle field now, Let us compare them further. The one thing that Wufoo offers apart from the others is that you can personalize the pages to an extent that the form would look like an inhouse creation. With really high PageRank, SERP and an acceptable CWR (see Codemakit Website Research Ratings document) rank, WuFoo has been crowned the best in its class.

The Analysis

The following is an analysis for the eight Form Creation Websites from codemakit Website Research. Four different Rating Systems were employed for determining the overall worth of each Website; Webutation, known for providing users with the actual reputation of a website analysed by it. Page Rank, as you might know is one of Google's most overused methods of determining which page should be ranked first. The Third CWR rating is Codemakit's way of analyzing websites based on several patterns (You should first read the CWR Document about how codemakit analyses websites), Website Planet also works towards finding the importance of a website. Wind Rose diagram for Form Creation Websites is shown below.

Rockforms however was given a 40% rating by Webutation and so it comes at the end of our list. 

-->

Rank	Website Name	Webutation	Page Rank	Website planet	CWR Rating
1	Wufoo	100	8	8.5	A3
2	Coffeecup	100	6	8.5	A3
3	Formsite	100	7	7.5	B1
4	Jotforms	100	5	7.5	A2
5	Formstack	100	6	7.6	B3
6	Email-me-form	100	7	5	C1
7	Form-to-go	40	5	8.8	B3
8	Rackforms	100	3	8.6	B2

To find the actual stabilized table (Which was actually used for analysis) you might want to take a look at the following PDF document containing tables and the charts in the occasion when I might have left anything.

If CWR has left a form creation website that you think should be studied and analysed here, post it in the comments.

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Why Online Forms? Best Online Form Creation websites (A Study : Part I)

Forms are tools by which any web owner/developer/designer wants to communicate with its intended readers. So having a form on your site is as important as having a label system or a subscribe button (Which itself is a form). 

codemakit ran an article on "How to create easy online Forms with Google Forms?" when the service was first Launched. By far google is one of the most easiest and most economic ways of creating an online form. But, free services are bound to have drawbacks and lower fucntionalities. And so comes the need for other form creating websites which shall be discussed in the next article. But first we must understand why do webmasters need online forms? Why aren't they happy with their websites? What more are they trying to achieve? Consider the following examples.

1. You need to determine which photo or image would look great on your website. You put up a form collecting votes by showing both the pictures together and asking the users which one do you like. You put up a voting form on current topics to attract visitors showing interaction.

2. You need to put up a survey for your visitors as you need to know what age group do they belong to, what do they like, what don't they like. So that using these questions you could mold your website content to suit your readers. Result? increased visitors who are content with your content. No need for SEO, keyword study or best content practices.

3. You need a form which collects email addresses and related information from users in exchange for premium information.

4. You need forms so that people may comment on your articles which they found interesting. More comments would surely attract more comments (even the spam ones).

5. You might have a plethora of content and would like to share the same with other users, but the website is too large for them to find just be clicking.So you create a form which takes inputs from the users and displays a list of those pictures/videos/content which matches the most.

6. You want some extra functionality added to your website making it more interactive and user friendly, by adding a tool/calculator. E.g. Financial calculator, bond returns calculator (A really great example is tabelizer which itself is a tool for converting xl data sheets into html code)

7. There are yet smaller forms available with just one or two fields like, the subscribe us form, change language form (Which has been incorporated on codemakit since 2011 or change currency form etc.

Related Articles, Create an Auto-Responding Google Form

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The Best Office Websites of 2014

Often, the working population of a country finds itself in a place where a work needs to be executed and that too swiftly. The best and the brightest minds often use shortcuts at their workplace to make their job easier. This lets them focus on the important issues pertaining to the job leading to better quality and lots of pats from the boss. Find websites that can help you achieve your targets in 2014.

For executing a job normal executives have have just two choices, either work it out in the conventional way, i.e. the tedious and mind numbing procedure of entering data and analyzing it or the second and more effective method of using a website to do most of the grunts for you while you sit back and relax with a hot cup of coffee.

Obviously the first method has no place on codemakit.com, so let us look at the second method. Let us find out the best and the most useful office websites of 2014. A list which will be updated with time and would find its way into the bookmark list of most professionals.

Save Webpages

PdfmyURL

How many times have you felt the need for storing a website for future review but didn't want it as html? As storing in html leads to the storage of supporting files which you obviously do not want. Saving as pdf led to the storage as a single file. So you would need a webpage to pdf generator. Though I would recommend a printer known as dopdf, one of the most powerful print drivers available, but the offices usually disable the installation of any program and hence you would not be able to use it. 

Here comes pdfmyurl to your rescue. Just insert link in the exceptionally big bar and click the awkward looking button, lo and behold you are good to go! It however has a con, pdfmyurl has been found to display errors for larger files.

CtrlQ Screenshots

But then again there comes times when a pdf just wouldn't do and you need an editable copy of the webpage. What would you do when you need a png or a jpg image for a website? You would probably use an online tool created by the famous Indian Blogger Amit Agrawal. The webpage is aptly named Screen Capture, and it would put many functional websites to shame with its detailed images.

Convert to different Formats

Online Convert

So people obviously have more than just a url to convert, they might need to convert images to pdf, or word to pdf or mp4 to mp4 or wmv to mp4..phew.. list tends to go into hundreds. However, be prepared to have your beliefs shattered as here comes onlineconvert.com, The mega site with the largest set of functionalities I have ever seen, is known to make all of them true! Online Convert has the ability to convert almost anything to just about everything.

Optical Character Recognition

Everything has its limitations, the downside of onlineconvert.com is that it lacks the ability for an accurate and quick Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Sometimes you get a printout or a printed text that needs to be typed or made editable so that amendments can be made but for that to be possible, you would have to read and type, which in some cases is excruciatingly boring and time consuming. Instead, you could scan the page and run an OCR on it, this will recognise the characters and display as text, Now you can just copy and paste. newocr is the website you would be looking for in such cases. One of the best OCR websites ever seen, newOCR can convert nearly any scanned document into its corresponding textual components and with such agility and celerity!

XPStoPDF

A trend has been observed in offices, where people cannot simply convert their documents into a pdf file, They usually have the ability to convert any document into .xps using the inbuilt Microsoft xps Document writer. 

But finally you get a file in .xps and not .pdf, ofcourse online-convert.com will not provide a flawless OCR on the document, so what should you to to convert? You use xpstopdf online converter which is one of the fastest file conversion tools I have ever seen. Within the split of a second you would get a pdf file on your browser for viewing.

Pass your Time

igHome

Not all offices have employees working day and night, Some have lenient employers who let their employees have some time of their own. What do they do then? In their free time, most of them do not start playing games to maintain a decorum, so they read news. 

For this they need a news aggregator which finds news headlines from hundreds of websites and mix them according to their relevance and popularity. Unfortunately the most popular one of them, i.e. igoogle.com has been discontinued. So now we need to find an alternative. Fortunately a website which looks and is named a lot like igoogle has crept up, known as ighome, (igoogle Alternative). The website function exactly like its discontinued counterpart, where you can open your mail, access calender, search and many more.

Other Useful Websites

Here's a comparison of 8 Best Online Form Creation Websites

Here's a rank wise comparison of 7 Best Websites for Downloading Images

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What is Google Helpout? (Helpouts Explained)

The greatly rumored and one of the most secret projects of Google is right here. Google Helpouts! A video chat based service that is offered by the users for the users. For what you ask? To help them solve problems and learn new things. Many services are fee and some services are paid, the choice depends on you. 

You can either start a helpout page or view another’s.  Interest towards this new service has already gained momentum. See the data from Google Trends about the interest in the phrase. 

The categories for the helpout are Home & Garden, Computers & Electronics, Health & Counseling, Nutrition & Fitness, Fashion & Beauty, Art & Music, Cooking, and Education.

I still couldn't understand it?

So let me break it down to you. You are an expert in the field of botany, you know flowers and stuff. Now you want to monetize your skill. What would you do? You would create start a Google helpout page ( A platform which would assist you in your online endeavors). 

One a page is created, you would schedule a helpout stating that at (let’s suppose) 4:00PM you would be available online for an online video chat session. Now, its 4:01 PM and you find a person who has a doubt or want to know more about “Rafflesia arnoldii” (It’s a flower of course). You listen to his questions, give your opinions and after half an hour of serious conversation about the flower, the customer leaves satisfied. You billed the customer at 0.5$ per minute and you shut down the computer satisfied with considerable earnings.

How does it help?

The helpouts can help both sides of the economy, the consumers as well as the businesses. Let’s see how.

For Consumers, 

1. Google Helpout has the potential for helping users learn new skills and attain knowledge without actually having to travel to far off places in search for a bright teacher.
2. Consumers can troubleshoot their problems, find out answers and learn things easily. It is equivalent to having a coworker or a colleague helping you out in times of distress. 

For Example, with Google help-outs, you might be seen roaming around the house with a laptop/tablet in your hand, getting advice from plumber on which pipes need fixing or the type of drapes which will be suitable with your wall color.

For Corporations,

1. Suppose you have a computer of ABC brand, it fails and you experience problems, you could either call their technicians and wait for some days or just view the company’s helpout page and do it yourself. It is that easy!
2. Corporates can increase their reach to more and more consumers.
3. Helpouts are also fee based, so small businesses can use this service o their advantage, charging some fee for their expertise.

Note. However there is a restriction to age for helpout users. Customers must be 13 years of age or older and Providers must be 18 years or older.

What about my $$ Money?

Payment is done through Google wallet, where providers have the option of getting payment per minute basis or payment per helpout basis. More information can be found out at, Google's Support Pages. Of-course Google will charge some fees for giving you the platform for earning, the current transaction fees is 20%, This fees is not applicable to free helpouts. Also it is on the net amount and does not include taxes. So if you price a helpout at 10$ 2$ will go to Google. Suppose tax levied is 1$, You would finally get 7$.

The shortcomings

But there are some problems that I think would keep Google’s Legal team on toes, 

1. The “100% money back guarantee” is turning many heads. Another potential problem that might occur is the authenticity of the help offered. 
2. If the assistance you got from the helpout page was wrong or misleading and that led to some monetary or health loss, who would be held responsible?
3. Helpouts will also suffer with the same disadvantage as YouTube, i.e. low internet speed will render the service useless. Not everybody has a fast internet connection and not everyone can have access to fast internet connection.

More Information

To use any service, you must first understand the terms of service.
Here are the terms of service for consumers, for providers, the content policies are not like yet another blogger content policy, It is a wee bit different. Helpouts have also been launched in android app store.

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Techniques to store your passwords safely

Recently 450,000 user account passwords on Yahoo hacked in addition to 6 million LinkedIn accounts and the 32 million on RockYou.com

According to pc world,  A professional hacker can access an account in one second leading to a total of 17 minutes to break into 1000 accounts.

So what do you do to keep your most prized possessions away from those criminals? A budding enthusiast will always have a problem lined up after the other. One such problem is the storage and protection of passwords for your online user accounts. To achieve this feat, one must create a system in which the passwords are stored properly and safely.

For Storage of Passwords

Since your usernames and passwords are the key to unlocking your account information and practically everything about yourself, You first need to create a system for the storage of the usernames and passwords so that they do not just lie around for everyone to watch and read.

Never write Usernames and Passwords in small chits or pieces of paper. There are two reasons: First, you then have to keep track of each and every chit at your home/office and Second, The chits are open to everyone for use.

For the hardware lovers,

Those who think the best way to store confidential information is on paper. These people are cautious, and have utmost confidence in the hacker community, why because they are sure that one day will come when each and every account of theirs would be accessed easily by a bearded, spectacled guy sitting with a laptop. For such cautious paper-philiates only job left is to print out a template on an A4 sized paper. Once printed they can then fill-up the details of carious mail and online accounts through a pen and then keep it in a locked drawer of yours or a small safe.

For the software lovers, 

There are two options available. First to create your own system, i.e. to create an excel file or a Microsoft access file with the below template in use. Second to rely on another predefined system, i.e. a password manager (online or offline).

Use of an Excel file
An excel file is one of the most easy and most trusted ways of keeping your passwords safe (other than that of the paper method). Its advantages are the ease of use and the safety.

The excel file can be created based on the above template. Once a template has been created, you then just have to enter the website name, your username and the password for the website.

Now next important step is to secure the complete document. It can be done in the following ways.

1. Firstly, encrypt the document
2. Secondly, set a password to open the document
3. Thirdly, set a password for modifying the document
4. Fourthly, restrict access to the document

Use of a password manager

Many tech savvy people rely on password managers who claim to keep their user’s passwords safe. Some might even go to the extent of using an online password manager. In my experience, password managers if free are of absolutely no use. The companies cannot afford the kind of security needed to ward away hackers with users swarming with free accounts. But paid ones can afford and you will stand better chances with them. Some of the advantages of a password manager are:

1. Provides a nice template to help you store your passwords in a more effective manner
2. Help you create stronger and healthier passwords
3. Ease of use
4. Relieves you of the hassle of remembering the passwords
5. Simultaneous updation of passwords

Though I would not recommend it, but for busy bodies, here are some of the password managers

• LastPass - https://lastpass.com/
• Keepass - http://keepass.info/
• 1Password - https://agilebits.com/onepassword
• SplashID - http://www.splashdata.com/splashid/

Related Reading,

You can store your passwords safely, but can you prevent yourself from unknowingly giving away your passwords?

Though you know the techniques to store your passwords safely, are you aware of other methods to say safe online?

Also read, everything about phishers and phishing. Learn, how they trick you into giving away your information.

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