woooooohoooo!!! technology ROCKS!!!

this is the best thing since sliced bread!!!

you may have noticed a new image on the forums, it is at the bottom of all pages and looks like this...



i have designed a custom multimadrid toolbar that you all can add to your browsers for...

- quick acccess to multimadrid from anyplace on the www.
- shortcuts to sections of the site.
- instant notifications of new activity on the message board via live feeds.
- important messages from jer live on your browser toolbar

you go fetch it at http://jersmultimadrid.ourtoolbar.com and install it. it will detect the browser you are using and install the toolbar on that browser. when you click the "Download Toolbar" link at that page, it will ask you if you want to run or save the application to disk. if you save it to disk, you will have to find where you saved it to and then double click it to install it. if you choose to run it instead, it will install instantly. either way, when you do it, just follow the install instructions on the screen. it installs in seconds

when you restart your browser, there will be the multimadrid toolbar that looks like this...



... only a bit bigger (had to shrink it to fit it in here).

here is how it works, piece by piece...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- the is simply my logo. if clicked, it takes you to the first page of my website.

- the little black arrow between the logo and the search box, drops down a help menu with help info as well as "tell a friend" so you can tell others about the toolbar, a link to refresh, shrink and unshrink the toolbar, etc...

- the is a search box. you can type in your search word/term and click the 'search "multimadrid"' and it will pull up the search results page for that word/term in your browser. you can also type in a search word/term and clik the little arrow to the right of 'search "multimadrid"' which will show the following...



... and allow you to choose a different search engine. so, if you want to search for internet cafes madrid on multimadrid, you type "internet cafes madrid" into the search box and click the 'search "multimadrid"'. if you want to search for internet cafes madrid on google, you type "internet cafes madrid" into the search box and click the small arrow and choose 'search "google"' from the dropdown menu.

note: the little when clicked after a search results page comes up will hihglight the search term on the page.

- the , when clicked, drops a menu down to let you jump quickly to the main sections of multimadrid.

- the is where the real fun begins!!! this is an "rss feed" and to make a long techy story short, it refreshes itself constantly and advises you via the "[x new]" next to it of any new posts on the board. for example, if the forums have 1 new post, it shows "[1 new]".

if you click it, the dropdown menu looks similar to this (look will vary depending on browser used)...



you can click the messages and the discussion threads will open in your browser. it is intelligent and hence marks the message as read once you open it. you can also use the tools there to mark all as read, unread, refresh the box, delete the messages, etc...

- the does the same as the one above but for the most popular (viewed) discussion threads instead of the last 20 posts.

- the is a message indicator to let you know i have something to tell you, be it to wish you a happy holiday or tell you something new about the site.

if you click it, you will see...



if there are any new messages from me, they will appear there, click them to read them.

note: for some reason the "notes from jer" feature only appears when using firefox, it does not appear when using mie.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this toolbar works with firefox 1.0.1+ and microsoft internet explorer 5.0+.

this software is windows 2000/xp only, sorry Candela, Jules, Roland, EnglishPilot, etc... but they do not make the plugin for mac (yet). if and when it becomes available for mac, i will let you know.

download and install it at http://jersmultimadrid.ourtoolbar.com

you can also get it by clicking on the image...



...at the bottom of the forum pages.


like any other toolbar, you can turn it on and off once installed (make it disappear) by right clicking on the toolbar and unchecking it.

so, you can download it even if you are not sure you want to use it since it does not take over anything.

i for one am using it in place of my google toolbar that i have disactivated.

note to firefox users: when you install it and restart your browser, you may get a box that says that firefox is running in safe mode and asking if you want to update the toolbars, etc... check the first box and click the save changes and restart.

if you want to avoid that warning each time you launch firefox, in your browser, go to "Tools --> Options --> Content" and click the "Exceptions" button to the right of the "Warn me when websites try to install extensions or themes" and add http://jersmultimadrid.ourtoolbar.com/ to the allow list (type http://jersmultimadrid.ourtoolbar.com/ into the "Address of website:" field and click "Allow".

enjoy!

feel free to ask any questions about the toolbar here.

saludos,
jer...

cool!

i see from my stats that 3 others (aside from me) have installed the toolbar

i can see the number of installs but not the names of those who install so please, if you install it, play around with it for a few days and then post any and all feedback here on this thread.

saludos,
jer...

by the way, you DO NOT need to be a registered member of the forums to use the toolbar, anyone can download and install it

saludos,
jer...

below are a few things i would like to know...

1) if anyone wants me to add more search engine options to the search engine dropdown menu? if so, please tell me which one/s.

2) if anyone wants me to add more multimadrid sections to the shortcut menu? if so, to which pages?

3) if anyone wants me to add more "last posts" to the last 20 posts feed? basically, i used 20 as the default since their is already a "last 10 board posts" box on the forum pages and with last 20 posts on the toolbar, those who use the toolbar will have 10 more last posts to enjoy and keep an eye on.

4) if anyone wants me to add more "most popular" to the last 20 most popular feed? basically, i used 20 as the default since their is already a "10 most viewed" box on the forum pages and with last 20 posts on the toolbar, those who use the toolbar will have 10 more most popular topics to enjoy and keep an eye on.

the above are things i can change if people want me to.

i can also add other custom stuff so request it if you want it and if it is an option i can add, i will see what i can do.

saludos,
jer...

I downloaded and installed it today as soon as I saw it jer and it is THE, I repeat THE coolest thing alright.

I consider myself to be internet knowledgable and I have seen stuff like Google and Yahoo toolbars that one can add to thir browsers but I did not imagine you could do this for a smaller, less corporate website.

I especially like the notes from jer. Cool to know that only those with the toolbar will receive them. Can't wait for you to start tellin jokes there

Was it hard to design and implement? Looks like it was

3 cheers for all you do!!!

thanks Luces

quote:

I especially like the notes from jer. Cool to know that only those with the toolbar will receive them.

true but i do not want people to think of that as anything that is meant to exclude anyone.

the toolbar is more like a bonus for the die-hard multimadridians (using pc at least).

as for telling jokes there, i will see if i can "trow" (as a famed comedian once put it) a few bangs in there

hard to design?

not that hard, just time-consuming (as most things when it comes to web design). a lot of fun though

saludos,
jer...

yeeeeaaahhhh!!!

a total of 6 peeps (myself included) officially have the multimadrid toolbar.

get yours now at http://jersmultimadrid.ourtoolbar.com !!!

you would not want to be the only one without it now would you?

everybody's doin it!!!

saludos,
jer...

p.d. if anyone did not notice, the above is called bandwagon advertising and it is the only thing i remember from my 12th grade marketing class

jer,

works great!

felipe

hey felipe, thanks for the feedback

are you using mie or firefox? and do you see the "notes from jer" section at far right on the toolbar?

thanks.

saludos,
jer...

Jer, all I have to say is that I LOVE IT! it's great! Now I can have email or whatever open, and the board! no, I think the number of post and stuff is fine, if we want more we can just exert ourselves and actually open the entire window! oh no! haha ITS GREAT, I love it, I wish everything had one! keep up the great work! Besos, Joy

hey Joy.

now THAT'S what i call feedback
you sell it girl!!!

woke up this morning to see the number fo peeps that have installed it has doublked, we are now 12 strong

ok, a side note.

i got an e-mail today from what appears to be a disgruntled "lurker" (not a member yet) and mac user.

too make a loooong story short, this person must have a mac at work and a pc at home. apparently he/she spends a lot of time on the board while at work (as more of you should since work bites ).

this person wrote me basically asking me why i cannot design the toolbar for mac as well since "Google offers it for Windows XP/2000, Mac OS X 10.2+, or Red Hat Linux 8.0+".

i want to make a few things VERY CLEAR:

- i did not create the toolbar software. it is made by another company. i simply created one for multimadrid according to the capabilities of their software.

- i am not google.com. if i were, there would be no limit to what i could do and i would do it all. if anyone wants to donate a billion euros/dollars to multimadrid and bring it up to google status, i will be very happy to return the favor by designing a mac compatible toolbar

thanks for listening & keep on installing the toolbar

saludos,
jer...

I didn't even notice the notes from Jer section till Luces pointed it out. I was too focused on being able to scan the last 20 posts while being able to surf the net at the same time. Pretty cool feature.


Bonnie

Actually maybe you can use the Notes from Jer feature to feed clues to those of us that have it the next time we have an multimadrid trivia game, like the one a month ago with the photos of Madrid. (insert evil laugh)

hey Bonnie, read the opening post on this thread. i explained all the features in detail, including....

quote:

- the is a message indicator to let you know i have something to tell you, be it to wish you a happy holiday or tell you something new about the site.

if you click it, you will see...



if there are any new messages from me, they will appear there, click them to read them.

note: for some reason the "notes from jer" feature only appears when using firefox, it does not appear when using mie.

by the way, i got the notes from jer feature working in explorer as well so now the toolbar is 100% for both browsers (firefox and mie).

one thing, depending on the size of your pc screen and the resolution, you will be able to see some or all of the items on the bar.

it helps to resize the search text input box ( ) by clicking and dragging the far right side of the beige input box to the left. that minimizes the input box and will bring any out-of-view bar tools that may be off to the right (liek the notes from jer) back into view.

i have edited...

- "shortcuts" to "jumper"
- "last20posts" to "last20".
- "most popular" to "hot"
- "from jer" to "by jer"

... in order to make the toolbar shorter and hence make more items visible.

saludos,
jer...

p.d. yeah, i can throw you all hints and such

It won´t let me install it cos I'm running Windows Me