One problem when using the Custom Navigation module in Office Live is the inability to switch to a horizontal layout. By default, it uses a left navigation layout. Changing the NavType to TOP from LEFT in the XSLT code apparently has no effect either. Microsoft should really fix this, but it seems unlikely that will happen any time soon. We promised avd a little more than a month ago that we will have the code for it, but we didn’t get around to doing it until this weekend. So, without further adieu, here is the XSLT code for setting up a horizontal navigation bar with the Custom Navigation module:
- Download topnav.xsl and upload it to the Document Gallery.
- Add a Custom Navigation module to your web page, then go to Properties. Click on Link to an XSLT file. Click on the Select file… button and pick topnav.xsl from the list. Click OK.
- View the web page. You will see a horizontal navigation bar generated from the Custom Navigation module.
Fergus asked if there was a way to type beyond the 25 characters limit for a navigation title (the title that you see for a page in the navigation bar). To beat this limitation, we need to employ a small trick. Here’s how we can do it:
- Go to the Properties of the page you want to add the long navigation title to.
- Delete the text in the Navigation title box.
- Uncheck Show this page in the Navigation bar.
- In the Page title box, type in the long navigation title you want to see.
- Once completed, check Show this page in the Navigation bar. You should see that the Page title has now been copied to the Navigation title.
- You can change the Page title now to whatever you want, or keep it the same.
- Click OK to Save.
Now, when you view your website, you will see this long Navigation title in the Navigation bar.
Google Adsense is a good income generator for many websites but how do you add it to an OLSB website? There are a number of techniques out there, but there is only one that does not violate Google’s T&C for the Adsense program. You will need to insert a custom module into your web page. In this example, I will use a Custom Footer Module. Replace the code in the XSLT textbox with the following:
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output method="html" />
<xsl:template match="/Footer">
<script type="text/javascript"><![CDATA[<!--
google_ad_client = "pub-0000000000000000";
google_ad_width = 728;
google_ad_height = 90;
google_ad_format = "728x90_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel = "";
google_ui_features = "rc:0";
//-->]]></script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
As you can see from the above, we had to add in the CDATA tag to make sure the content inside will remain intact as it goes through XSLT transformation. When you view the web page in a browser and view its HTML source, you will see that the original Adsense code appears as if it was copied directly, despite the fact that we added the CDATA tag above.
Remember to replace the google_ad_client = "pub-0000000000000000"; line with your own publisher id!
A Windows Live ID account is essential to access a range of products/services for the Windows Live platform, including Office Live Small Business. However, what if you want to use a non-Microsoft domain as your Windows Live ID, such as gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc? Here’s how you can overcome this limitation:
- Before signing up for an account, make sure you are logged out of any Windows Live ID account.
- Go to accountservices.msn.com. Click on sign up.
- Select Yes, use my e-mail address and click on Continue.
- Fill in the required information. The email address here will be used as your Windows Live ID account. You can use any email address you want. Click Continue.
- Continue filling in required information about your date of birth and your location, etc. Click on Continue. Review the Agreements. If you agree to the terms, fill in your email address to sign. Click on I Accept.
- Go to the email account you used to create the Windows Live ID account and check for an email to confirm your account. Click on the link in the email to confirm.
- Once a confirmation message shows up, you are ready to sign in with your non-Microsoft Windows Live ID account! Go to login.live.com to sign in.
One of the challenges with permission marketing is getting that initial “go-ahead” with your visitors. One way of overcoming that is to entice your visitors with a free gift, such as a useful whitepaper or document, so that they will give you permission to engage with them (i.e. via an email address they provide) for future marketing activities in exchange for this free gift. This “opt-in” approach is much more favorable than the “opt-out” one commonly used by telemarketers, bulk mailers, etc.
Edalor asked how this can be implemented in Office Live Small Business. We cannot use the standard Contact Us module as it does not provide such functionality. What we need to do is to create a simple Business Application List that will store a name field and an email address field. These fields will be used to capture data submitted by a visitor via a form we place on the web page using Form Designer. Once the form is filled out and submitted by a visitor, the whitepaper or document will be provided automatically. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Business Applications->Team Workspace (we will use this for now, you can use another Business Application or create a new blank application to store your list)
- Click on +Add at the end of the list tabs. Select Custom List.
- On the New page, you can call the list Signup and click on Create.
- When the Signup list is displayed, Click on Settings->List Settings.
- Under Customize Signup, do the following:
- Click on Add Columns from Site Columns, under Available Columns, select E-Mail and add it to your list.
- Click on E-Mail and select Yes for Require that this column contains information.
- Click on Title and rename it to Your Name.
- Now your Signup list is ready. Go to Documents Gallery and upload the document that you want your visitors to download to it.
- Once your document is uploaded, go to the web page where you want to place the signup form and add a Form Designer module to it.
- In Form Designer, select Team Workspace as the Application. Select Signup as the List.
- In the Success Message Box, clear its content and add the following code to it:
<script type="text/javascript">
window.location.href="http://full_url_to_the_document_you_want";
</script>
- Save the form. Now you are ready to test it out!
Click here for a demo.
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