An Awesome Way to Automate Your Life, @IFTTT

Have you ever been so passionate about an app that you start talking like this?

"Oh my gosh you have to install this app I totally love it and I can't believe you don't have it yet why haven't you installed it yet do it now while I'm telling you how cool it is..."

Well, that's pretty much how my conversations have started about IFTTT.

IFTTT stands for 'If This Then That'. It lets you create a cause and effect relationship between a list of applications. This relationship is called a 'recipe'. It isn't a mobile app (yet) but it is a freakin' awesome tool. And personally, I'd rather manage from my computer anyway.

Sometimes when I learn about a new tool like this, my first thought is 'Yeah, that's really cool but I have no idea why or how I would use it.' Were you just thinking that? If so, I'm about to blow your mind (I hope).

First, the basics:

• It's free. 
• It's a web app.
• It connects one app to another, allowing you to initiate an action. (If this is clear as mud, it'll hopefully make more sense when you see my examples below.) These are called 'recipes.'
• They are currently 49 'channels', or apps to connect with.
• You can share recipes with other people by making it public, or use recipes that others have created. (Note: When you make a recipe public, it doesn't share your specific information. It only shares the framework of the recipe.)

Now, how I'm using IFTTT:

• Craigslist -> Pushover: To notify me on my smartphone at the moment an item is listed for sale on Craigslist with the word 'expedit' (I'm on the lookout for one of those Ikea bookshelves!) 
• Facebook -> Dropbox: When I'm tagged in a Facebook photo, add the photo to a specific folder in my Dropbox
• Blogger -> Facebook Page: If I post something new on my photography blog, add the first image in the post to a specific album on my photography Facebook page and include a link to the post in the description.
• Instagram -> Facebook Page: If I post a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #BehindTheScenes, upload it to my photography Facebook page in an album called 'Behind the Scenes'.
• Twitter -> Evernote: When I favorite a tweet, append it to a note in Evernote.
• Instagram -> Dropbox: Whenever I post a photo to Instagram, add it to my Dropbox. (This way I have access to all of my photos locally.)
• Weather -> Gmail: If it's going to rain tomorrow, email me. (I live in Seattle... I'm a glutton for punishment.)

Here are a few screen-captures: 

Above: a sampling of my list of personal recipes.

Above: Here's my favorite recipe - it pops up a notification on my smartphone when an item is listed on Craigslist with the word 'expedit'

I'm constantly thinking of new recipes to add.

The only drawback I've found is that it doesn't support multiple accounts, such as connecting more than one Twitter account or Facebook page. Once you authorize it for a specific page, it's set. But, I contacted support and they told me that this feature should be coming in the future.

If you're interested in automating some connections in your tech-life, check it out!


Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com | Twitter: @RatherGeeky | Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips

Templates for Sending Custom HTML-Formated Emails

In my last post, I shared a link to a tool that lets you design or send HTML-formatted emails.

When I was first experimenting with it, I used Vertical Response's templates as a starting point.

But, I found a few other great template sources that you can use. They are free and a great way to get started, especially if you aren't adept at manually crafting layouts in HTML. Or, if you're like me and you can never remember all of the attributes for a table.

I prefer to use a template to start, then switch to HTML-mode and make changes as necessary to spacing, alignment, etc.

Without further ado:

• 36 basic templates from MailChip
  These are a perfect starting point for customizing to create your own template. Basic layouts with sidebars, mobile-friendly versions, etc. I'll be using these often!
• 100+ free templates from Campaign Monitor
  Some of these look really nice! I wanted a more basic layout (white background, no extra graphics) but these were rather appealing. I might use them for personal email campaigns.
• 20 free templates from Benchmark Email
  Some outdated colors/styling, but still could be customized.

Tips: 

• When editing HTML, Ctrl + F becomes your friend. Use it to find specific code snippets or to locate the formatting properties for a particular text block.
• Once you have the main template customized as you'd like, you can copy/paste it into a new Salesforce email template. Fancy!

Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com | Twitter: @RatherGeeky | Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips

How to: Send HTML-formatted Emails with Gmail

I love Gmail. But sometimes, there's a feature that I *really* miss from desktop email applications.

Html-formatted emails is one of them. I'm not talking about bolded text or selecting my font. I want tables sometimes... and columns...

And so I was excited when I discovered a tool for designing and sending html-formatted emails with Gmail.

You can use the editor to design your email and then paste the html code to send or you can write the html manually. I used a template from Vertical Response to get started and customized it in their editor. Then, I pasted the code into the Google Docs sheet tool and sent.

It worked exactly as I expected! I used it to transform a bland text email to new users into a more professional welcome email.

It turned out like this:

Potential uses:

• Company bulletins
• Tip emails
• Personal newsletters (no need to buy credits and use an email service!)
• Pretty much anything...

Here's the link to the tutorial. Give it a try!



Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com | Twitter: @RatherGeeky | Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips

Admin Journal: Crafting a Unique Id for Updating when Record Id is Missing (@salesforce)

Dear Admin Journal:

Sometimes, users do something silly... like exporting a report to Excel, making changes that they'd like me to import and forgetting something pretty important: the record id.

It's not impossible to update records without the record id. It's just not handy... and it can be error-prone.

Over the years, I've figured out various ways to get around the missing record id, usually involving several queries and some rather complex vlookups.

But, here's a pretty simple method that I used today when the csv I received from a user had only 7 columns + one column for reassigning record owner.

1. I queried Salesforce to pull out the same 7 columns + record id with LexiLoader.
   
2. In my user's spreadsheet, I created a new column. I concatenated 3 fields that I knew would have at least 2 unique values, so it looked kind of like this:
   
   AccountName&LEFT(BillingAddresss,5)&BillingCity.
   
   Side note: I used the LEFT() function because my user had copied the data from a report in their browser and pasted it into Excel. The Billing Address had split into two rows in the spreadsheet. So, it wouldn't match my query.
   
3. In my query spreadsheet, I created 2 new columns. In one of them, I concatenated the same 3 fields to use as a unique id. In the other column, I created a vlookup to match my manually created unique id and return the column that had been updated in my user's spreadsheet.
   
4. Before updating using LexiLoader, I could remove the columns that I'm not using (Owner Name, Forged Unique ID, etc), or I could just leave them out of the field mapping.

It sounds kind of complex. But trust me, it's simple. 

Here's a rather lame screenshot (Skitch doesn't support blurring? What!?):

So, when I'm stuck with a spreadsheet without the record id and the user is waiting for me to update their data, I calmly remind myself of this.

In other news, I switched to a MacBook Pro last week. While I really like my Mac (I hesitate to say 'love'... but I'm sure someday I will), I've found that quite a few of the tools that I relied on are not available. I'm missing the Excel Connector, but I'm making it work with LexiLoader (a version of the Apex DataLoader for OSX) and Excel (although OpenOffice or Google Docs would work fine too).

Now, I'm off to finish updating.

Love,

Jenna, The Admin

Jenna Baze is a rather geeky girl with average social skills and an affinity for: Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Pinterest, natural light photography and finding creative ways to avoid doing dishes (which includes updating a handful of blogs).
Email: rathergeeky@gmail.com | Twitter: @RatherGeeky | Facebook: Rather Geeky Tips