Monday, September 22, 2014

Complete Tutorial on Facebook Open Graph


Facebook Open Graph for Web Developer


Facebook Open Graph allows you to use custom site title, URL, description and even a custom image when you share your page. If you use Facebook Open Graph code on your site, every time when you share any page, it will be counted directly for your home page. Suppose, if I share the following URL on Facebook - 

http://www.markspcsolution.com/2014/09/complete-tutorial-on-facebook-open-graph.html

The sharing/ like will be counted for - 


http://www.markspcsolution.com/


But If there is no open graph code on my site, the sharing of the first URL will be counted individually. And the sharing will not be counted for your home page. Now I guess, you've understood the importance of open graph. It's really helpful to increase facebook likes of your site rapidly. 


Couple of days ago, I discussed about how to claim a site on Facebook. Following the same method, you can place Facebook Open Graph code on your site. Open graph code is as follows:



<meta property="og:title" content="Site Title"> 
<meta property="og:description" content="Site Description"> 
<meta property="og:type" content="Content Type">
<meta property="og:url" content="http://www.example.com/"> 
<meta property="og:image" content="Custom Image Link"> 
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Your Site Name"> 
<meta property="fb:admins" content="Your Numeric FB ID">


You have to place the above code in the head (<head> </head>) section of your site's HTML. The code must be placed before closing head tag - </head>.


Facebook Insights Meta Code

Now follow the steps below:

  1. Go to Facebook Insights > Domain Insights > Add your Domain
  2. Type your home page URL > Copy the Numeric FB ID > Keep the window open
  3. Go to your site's code or HTML and find the closing header tag </head>
  4. Place the above code before closing header tag
  5. Now back to the Facebook Insight Page 
  6. Hit on the Get Insights button
  7. Now you should be able to see your domain under the Domain Insights section


There are 7 meta properties in the above code. You have to change in the content option.  Make sure you've used them properly. I'm gonna clarify the points - 
  1. Site Title Example - Marks PC Solution.
  2. Site Description - What's your site about. Example - Your Ultimate Choice for Computer, Internet, Blogging, SEO & PC Troubleshooting Tips!
  3. Content Type - Website/ Blog/ Article/ News etc.
  4. Site URL Example - www.markspcsolution.com
  5. Custom Image - Upload your desired image in a server. Then simply copy and paste the link here. You can use postimage.org to upload image.  
  6. Type your Site Title here. Example - Marks PC Solution.
  7. Numeric FB ID that you've got from the 2nd step in Facebook Insights Page. You can also find numeric by this method


Marks PC Solution Custom Image



Troubleshooting

If you face any problem after implementing the code on your site, you can take help of Debugger. Here you can paste your site URL and debug the errors. You can check whether all properties are functioning normally or if there is a problem. 

Remember, you can omit some properties. If you use Custom Image, then it will be same for any link of your site. So you can also use a shorter version of the code as below:

<meta content='Website' property='og:type'/> 

<meta content='http://www.example.com/' property='og:url'/> 
<meta content='100002127563096' property='fb:admins'/>

It will do the same job for you. You can also use multiple Admin IDs. Simply add more numeric IDs in the admin property.


If you need any support regarding Facebook Open Graph, please leave a comment . . . 


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Thursday, September 18, 2014

Convert VCF to CSV by Contact Converter


VCF File Converter


Contact Converter is the most reliable tool to convert vCard File (.vcf) to .csv file which can be opened by MS Excel. Contact Converter allows you to convert unlimited number of contacts. It's a 100% free software, easy to use and supports Google Contacts. 



Background Story 

Yesterday, one of my colleagues told me that he has a back up of his iPhone contacts in a pen drive. He wanted to know, how to print those contacts. Then I asked him to show me the file.  I opened the file in a PC and saw there are over 600 .vcf files!

And to be honest, I never work with .vcf files. I even didn't know what type of file this is before writing this post! Then I took his pen drive to my home though I was sure that I couldn't do anything! 

Last night, I googled and found a software named Contact Converter. And with this tool, my task got easier. Within few minutes I converted the vCard files to CSV. Then I've edited the CSV file in Excel and printed the document without any problem!



What is .vcf (vCard) File?

You should know about .vcf file. It's a type of file which can be used to back up the contacts of your phone. And later you can restore those contacts in another phone. But if you need to view those contacts in PC or if you need to print them, simply you can't!

Because vCard files are not saved as a single file. For every contact, there will be a unique .vcf file. If you have 500 contacts, 500 vCard files will be created. You can't either view them in a single file or print them. I faced the same problem. 

There is a logical reason behind single file for single contact. A vCard contact may include different information. Such as - Name, Email, Company, Website, Home Phone, Office Phone,  Address, Date of Birth and even Picture. That's why, each contact is saved in a separate file. 


Features of Contact Converter
  • 100% Free!
  • Super Fast - Complete action within seconds
  • Reliable and easy to use
  • Capable of converting unlimited number of contacts
  • Support Google Contacts

Convert Contact Logo


How to Convert VCF to CSV?
  1. Download Contact Converter and Unzip it. Install the setup file properly.
  2. Double click on the desktop icon to run the software.
  3. At the top, make sure the option Contact to CSV file is selected.
  4. Then you will have two options - Add Contact Files and Add Folder.
  5.  Hit on the Add Folder option if you have multiple contacts.
  6. Now browse and locate your vCard files.
  7. By default, all contacts will be selected. You can deselect some contacts if you like. 
  8. Now hit on the Convert Contacts button.
  9. Within 2/3 seconds, the operation will be completed. Look at the available fields at the right. You can remove some fields if necessary. Now hit on the Save as button and save it as CSV. 
  10. Open the CSV file in Excel and make necessary changes! It's easy. :)






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Monday, September 15, 2014

How to Print Word Document as Booklet?


Folded Booklet Printing in Word


You can print your Word Document as book. In MS Word, the term is known as Book Fold which can be found in the Page Setup dialogue box. If you want a document to be printed as a booklet, you must set up the document at first. Otherwise your document settings may change too much. And this will take a huge time to fix the settings. 


For last few days, I've published several posts on Excel. Now it's time to write something on MS Word. What do you think? :)


Applies to All Versions of MS Word

  • Word XP, 2003
  • Word 2007, 2010, 2013



What does Book Fold Do?

It's a good question to begin the discussion. Suppose you have a document with 4 pages. If you want the printed document to be looked like a book, you can use the booklet option. The Word will print your document as show in the image below:

Booklet Printing Example

And if you print the two pages in both sides of a single paper, it will be like a book! What if you have 8 pages? Then it will be printed as below:

Booklet Print Output for 8 Pages

That means the last page of the document will be printed with the first one. Then the second page and the second last page will be printed together. Thus the series will continue. Even page will be printed on the left side and the odd page will be printed on the right. 


In a 8-page document, you have to use 2 papers only. Page 8, 1 and 2, 7 should be printed on the both sides of a single paper. Then page 6, 3 and 4, 5 will be printed on another paper. The second paper should be folded in the first paper if you want the document as book. 


The concept of booklet is little bit tough if you have no practical experience. So, I suggest you to try it directly if you have a printer. :)



How to Use Book Fold? 

If you use Book Fold after completing your document, you may suffer a lot. Because it will change your text or graphics position. So, if you have any intention to print the document as book, your should set your document as Book Fold when you set up the page. 

Follow the steps below:

  1. Open a document or create a new one
  2. Go to the Page Setup option from Page Layout Tab (In Office XP, 2003: File > Page Layout
  3. Margins > Pages > Multiple Pages > Choose Book Fold
  4. Sheets per Booklet > Choose All
  5. Hit OK to exit. Done!  


How to Print Booklet?

You must know the right way to print a booklet properly. If your printer supports automatic both side printing, the task will be much easier for you. But if it doesn't, then you have to print both sides manually. 

Go to the Print options > Print on Both Sides (Flip on Short Edge)/ Manually Print Both Sides > Landscape Orientation > Hit OK




If you have any confusion, please leave a comment . . . :)



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Saturday, September 13, 2014

Divide Excel Worksheet into Pages!!


Excel Page Layout View


If you're using Excel 2010/ 2013, you can divide your worksheet into individual pages. This exciting feature was unthinkable even on Excel 2003. At first, Microsoft introduced this Page Layout feature in Excel 2007. And it's available in Excel 2010 and 2013 too. 


Almost all of you are familiar with the Print Layout view of Microsoft Word. Excel Page Layout view does the same job here. If you enable Page Layout view in a worksheet, you can easily understand your print area with header and footer. And it also makes your printing task easier


Excel 2013 Page Layout View


Applies to:
  • Excel 2007
  • Excel 2010
  • Excel 2013


Advantages of Page Layout


  • You can view how your printed document will look
  • Check where your page begins and ends
  • View headers and footers of the page
  • Print the worksheet page by page

How to Enable Page Layout View

You can enable page layout view as below:
  1. Open any worksheet or create a new one
  2. Go to the View Tab > Workbook Views > Page Layout 

Page Layout Option in View Menu


You can also use the keyboard shortcuts:

Press Alt Key > Then type WP 


If you would like to back to the Normal View then:

Press Alt Key > Then type WL 


You can also enable Page Layout view from Status Bar. I think it's the most handy option. Follow the image below:


Excel 2013 Page Layout Icon


The selected icon in the middle is Page Layout icon. The left one is for Normal View. And the right one is for Page Break Preview. 






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Wednesday, September 10, 2014

How to Claim a Site in Facebook?


Get Facebook Insights


Do you know, you can claim your domain/site in Facebook to get insights? If you register your site on Facebook, you can view analytics for referral traffic, stories, user engagement and other related information. And definitely this will help you to take better actions for your site. 


I always say, if Facebook were a country, it could be the most populated state of the world. It's a site with the most registered active users. No other site, even Google and Twitter can't attract users as much as Facebook. Most of the users waste their valuable time on Facebook.  


But as a blogger/ web developer/ app developer, you can't either waste your time or avoid Facebook. You can take advantage of the popularity of Facebook. You can promote your website/ blog/ app on Facebook. You can do this in your way. I'm not gonna interfere there! 


Today I'm writing about - claiming/ registering a site on Facebook. You can do this easily. All you need is just adding a simple meta tag before your closing head (</head>) tag. 


Never try this trick if you - 
  • Don't have a website/ blog
  • Don't have a Facebook ID

Okay, I'm talking too much for a little trick! Let's back to the track - 
  1. Visit this page - Facebook Insignts
  2. Domain Insights > Add your Domain
  3. A new window will appear with your name and a meta property
  4. Type your site's URL there (ie. www.markspcsolution.com)
  5. Copy the meta property (ie. <meta property="fb:admins" content="100002117543096" />) and paste it in your site's HTML closing head tag. 
  6. Now hit on the get insights button. 
  7. If you're done properly, you will see your domain here. 

Claim your domain on Facebook Insights


Hope you've completed the task easily. But I couldn't do this as easily. Don't know why the meta property didn't appear when I was trying to implement the code in my site. Maybe something was wrong in that time when I was trying. 

If anybody face the same problem, I mean if the meta property with your numeric FB ID didn't appear as shown in the above image, follow the steps below - 


<meta property="fb:admins" content="100002197543196" />


Replace the above numeric ID with yours. And the code should be placed before the closing head tag - </head>

You can also use several IDs here. Suppose you want multiple users to get your site's insights. Then you can use more than one ID as below - 


<meta property="fb:admins" content="102117543096, 10034534562" />


Remember, this will just help you to get insights from facebook. If you wanna customize your sharing URL, Image or description you need to use Open Graph. I will discuss it later. Thanks. 




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Sunday, September 07, 2014

How to Print Headings on Every Page in Excel?


Repeat Column Headings on Every Page


Sometimes you may need to print same column headers on every page in Microsoft Excel. And to do so, you don't need to manually copy the headers on every page. You can simply set a command from page setup option to print column headers on every page automatically! 

In my previous post, I discussed about how to lock or freeze column headers. By freezing rows or columns, you can just show headers at the time of scrolling. But they will be printed on the first page only.  In this tutorial, you will learn - how to print same column headers on every page automatically .  .  .


Applies to:
  • MS Excel 2000/ XP
  • MS Excel 2007/ 2010/ 2013
Note: This tutorial has been prepared using Excel 2013. So, few options may differ slightly.


Let's start - 
  1. Open a previously saved worksheet or create a new one in MS Excel.
  2. Go to the Page Setup option from Page Layout Tab (Office XP/ 2000 users should find it under Edit Menu).
  3. Go to the Sheet tab from Page Setup.
  4. Look at the Print titles option: Rows to repeat and Columns to repeat.
  5. To repeat the headers at the top, click on the first one. Or click on the second one to repeat the columns.
  6. After clicking the box, select the area of your sheet which needs to be repeated. Follow the image below.
  7. Hit OK to close the Page Setup. Done! Now check by printing or look at the print preview. 

Repeat Headers in Every Page



Here I showed the process for rows only. You can also choose columns to repeat by the same way. And I've also uploaded a same sheet for you. Download the sheet from the link below:






Open the above sheet. You will find a worksheet named Rows to Repeat. I've set top 3 rows to be repeated on every page. You can directly check it by printing this two-page worksheet. Or simply check it in Print Preview. 


Hopefully, today's topic will be helpful for your study or office work . . . :)





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Friday, September 05, 2014

How to Lock Rows/ Columns in Excel?





When you are preparing a large statement or table in Excel, the column headings at the top usually disappear when you scroll down. And this is really troublesome when you need to input data under several headings. Couple of months ago, I faced the same problem. And just 2 days ago, one of my relatives questioned me how to create static/ fixed column header in Microsoft Excel. 


Then I explored the topic and found the solution from Excel help and Microsoft Support Page. So, in this post, you are getting another important excel tutorial - How to Lock/ Fix/ Freeze Rows or Columns in excel while scrolling throughout the worksheet.


Lock/ Fix/ Freeze Rows or Columns

In Excel, the term is known as Freeze Panes. With this option, you can freeze a row or column that you want visible even when scrolling down or right. 

Suppose, you preparing a salary sheet that contains hundreds of rows. And you can view only 25/30 rows in a view. When you scroll down, the column headings will disappear. If you want the first row (that contains headings) visible, you have to use the Freeze Panes option. 


If you're using Office 2000/ XP/ 2003, you will get the freeze panes option under Window menu. 

  1. Simply open a worksheet
  2. Choose the row you wanna freeze
  3. Then go to the Window menu
  4. Hit on the Freeze Panes option - Done! 
If you want to unlock the row, follow the steps again, and this time you will get unfreeze option. 


For Office 2007/ 2010/ 2013

Here you will get the freeze panes option under View tab in Window section. And you can also freeze both top row and left column! 



Excel 2010 Freeze Panes under View Menu


  1. Open a previously saved worksheet or create a new one.
  2. Input your necessary data.
  3. Go to the View Tab.
  4. Find the Window section at the right and locate Freeze Panes
  5. Hit on the down arrow, you will get 3 options - Freeze Panes, Freeze First Column, Freeze Tip Row.
  6. Freeze Panes - Used for locking multiple rows. And the next two are used either to lock  only the first column or first row.
  7. If you want to unlock the locked row or column, you have to unfreeze it by following the same steps. 

Note: Suppose you wanna freeze first 3 rows. Then you have to click on the 4th row. Now go to the Freeze Panes option in view menu and use Freeze Panes. 





I've also uploaded a sample sheet which you can download from the above link. Download and open the above sample sheet. It contains the example of freezed panes. 

In the first sheet, I've freezed a single row. In the second sheet, I've freezed multiple rows. There you will see, first three rows are freezed. To do it, you have to put your cursor in the 4th row, then you have to choose Freeze Panes


Hope this will be helpful for you. In my next post, I'm gonna discuss about - how to print the headings in every page


Reference: Freeze or Lock Rows and Columns



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