It’s always difficult to find a fresh approach for logo design. If you want a new, innovative logo, it’s time to look at our new logo pack.
This pack contains 25 “.CompanyLogo” files which can be use in our Company Logo Designer. Simply install the CompanyLogoDesigner first and then the logo pack, then you’ll have the new templates available. Give it a try and get the Company Logo Designer.
Want an industry-style logo? Well, try the Company Logo Designer and get the free industry logo pack. It contains 25 logo templates to give you a real good start with the design process.
The logo pack is free (you can download it here) and it’s compatible with the Demo Version of the Company Logo Designer.
Here are some examples:
(This artcle was previously published in the ASPects regarding ReplyButler, but now I’ll make it available to everyone.)
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRODUCT
Did I catch you? Great, here are a few things you should consider when choosing the right boilerplate software for you.
1. Subfolders (Multiple levels)
These are absolutely essential if you want to stay organized.
2. General or integrated
If you plan to use boilerplate only in your e-mails you might want to look for a product that can be integrated into your mail client, making the texts easier to access. If you want to use it in other places, too (software development perhaps?), you should use a program than can cooperate with all applications on your PC.
3. Multi-Language
If you speak more than one language and answer support mails in the other language(s) you’ll find it useful to have your boilerplate text in multiple languages.
4. Multi-User
If your company is not a one-man-show, you’ll probably want to share your canned text with other persons. You could probably just copy the configuration files around, but it would be easier if the program supports a multi-user environment from the start.
5. Icons
You’ll probably look down on this point. But I’ve found it very useful because it’s easier to memorize an image than a text.
Good luck with your boilerplate!
Thomas Holz is the owner of www.itsth.com, a company offering the “Easy2Sync” file- and Outlook synchronization tools as well as the boilerplate software for Outlook “ReplyButler“.
(This artcle was previously published in the ASPects regarding ReplyButler, but now I’ll make it available to everyone.)
ADVANCED BOILERPLATE ISSUES
If the boilerplates really become useful for you and your collection grows, you’ll face a different problem. Finding a text you’ve written months ago. That’s why you have to organize and maintain your texts. Giving the texts short headlines is essential and folders are very handy, too.
If you do support in multiple languages, you’ll probably want to use the same text in these languages, too. This can be difficult with most boilerplate products, as they don’t support it. As a workaround you can use folders or prefixes (or postfixes) with the language name in the headline (like “EN - Install problem”). But it’s important to use the same headline for the same issue, no matter what language the response is in. Otherwise you’ll constantly look for the wrong text. (Another mistake that I already made.)
The English language isn t very picky when it comes to addressing a person, but other languages offer more choices than simply “you”. Depending on your language and communication policies you may even want to store the same text in different styles: formal and informal. Otherwise you might easily end up with addressing somebody with his last name in the greeting phrase and using an informal addressing (”tu” in Spanish, for example) in the boilerplate. Sometimes texts are basically the same for several products or vary in other minor issues. So it makes sense to use one single boilerplate here and just fill in the gap when you re inserting the text.
Some boilerplate programs can ask for the gap text. If yours doesn t, simply use a placeholder like ######. The hash marks are great because you can very easily see them and it s less likely that you send out a mail where you didn t fill in the gap.
Our Company Logo Designer already has a lot of templates (the Comfort Edition a whopping 250), but here are some more. This week, we can offer you free, elegant logo templates.
You can get this free logo pack “Elegant logos” here.
Here are some logo samples:
(This artcle was previously published in the ASPects regarding ReplyButler, but now I’ll make it available to everyone.)
They have many names. The dictionary calls them boilerplate text, but you ll also find them as stationery, AutoText, templates, canned text or text macros. The idea is always the same: Type a text once-use it many times. This article is about why they are useful for software support and how to get the most out of them.
Customers are asking questions. And chances are that they’ll ask you the same questions over and over again (probably ignoring any FAQ). And you’re typing the same answers again and again. You don’t? Sure? Test it! For the next twenty answered mails, pause for a second and think if you didn’t write that answer (complete or in parts) before. You’ll see that it happens more often than you thought. Still, you probably refrain from storing these texts in some form, because of the extra work this causes. Organizing the texts, choosing a wording that can easily be reused later for another customer, etc. But this work quickly pays off; you just have to start it. And the more boilerplate replies you have ready, the more time you can save, you’ll see.
As a side-effect, you ll probably also deliver the answers to customers quicker than you used to. Since canned text makes answering e-mail easier, you re less likely to procrastinate the answers.
Boilerplate has another advantage. Customers sometimes are unfriendly or simply write stupid things. It’s tempting to let your feeling go wild and write a hefty response. That may be satisfying for the moment, but it will definitely backfire. Trust me, I already made that mistake. If you have a boilerplate response to handle the customer’s issue (written in a friendly tone) it’s much easier to give the customer a professional reply.
Furthermore, a boilerplate library makes it easier for other persons to do your support work. Either while you’re on holiday or if you permanently give the support job to somebody else. This way they have to know less about your products and your company policies because they can just use pre-written texts.
Creating and using your boilerplate forces you to organize and categorize your support cases. This will also make it easier for you to see what the typical questions are that the people keep asking. That s very valuable knowledge. Perhaps you can change your product or website to make these issues clearer even before the customer has to write you an e-mail?
Designing logos with the Company Logo Designer software is easy, but even it is even easier if you have a nice logo template to start with.
And this week we have a pack of 25 free templates for Company Logos. Here are some samples:
They’re free, they don’t even require the paid version. Download the Company Logo templates.
When working with the Company Logo Designer software, template files can be a great timesaver and give you an impression what logo types the program can design.
And this week we have a pack of 25 free templates for Business Logos. Here are some samples:
You can use our Freeware GoogleEarthTweaker to view Geocaches as nice icons in GoogleEarth (GPX files from a geocaching.com premium account are required). When you convert the files with GET, you may notice that some custom icons appear. GET auto-detects some special cache types:
Church caches:
TB Hotels:
Train stations:
Highway caches:
Night caches:
If you’re into Geocaching, you might be interested in GoogleEarthTweaker, a Freeware program that I wrote. It allows you to convert GPX files (pocket queries) into nicer KML files with nicer icons. To do that, simply drag the GPX file (or the zipped GPX file) into the main dialog of GoogleEarthTweaker.
There are however some tricks: