The Tech-Savvy Real Estate Agent

The CD's folders and contents are as follows:

  • Top-level folder (what you see when you first open the CD): The start_here.html "home page" (to open in your browser), plus the read_me_first.txt file (you can open this file in any text editor such as the WordPad program that comes with Windows or the TextEdit program that comes with Mac OS X or use any word processor such a Microsoft Word or WordPerfect), which provides the same instructions as found in this appendix.

  • Document Templates folder: Sample flyer, listing presentation, marketing postcard, and other marketing documents in a variety of formats, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Adobe InDesign. You can use these as the basis for your own materials.

  • Online Templates folder: Sample Web pages and style sheets to use as the basis of your own Web site. There are both standard HTML versions that any Web creation program can open and Microsoft FrontPage 2003 files designed specifically for editing in that program.

  • Tryout Software folder: Included are programs you might want to purchase for your real estate work; these programs have been provided by their creators on a limited-functionality or limited-time version for you to try. Each program comes with setup instructions in a text file. Installation varies from program to program. You install some of these programs, such as those from Eurekaware, Real Estate Power Tools, and 3DVista, by double-clicking a file named SETUP.EXE (in Windows only; these programs have no Mac OS X counterparts and so will not display if you open the CD on a Macintosh). The ZangoTaxQ calculator is available for both Windows and Mac OS X; you open and work with it in Microsoft Excel.

  • Free Software folder: I have created three free Excel-based calculators that you may find handy in your real estate work. You open and work with them in Microsoft Excel.

  • Web Site Code Snippets folder: The text files include both instructions at the top and the actual HTML code below. To use the code in actual Web pages, copy and paste the HTML code (while working in code view of your Web creation program) into your page. You will need to change some of the code, such as providing actual Web page and image names rather than using the place holder names in these snippets. Open these snippets in a text editor such as WordPad or TextEdit. You might be able to open them in a word processor, but do not open them in Miccrosoft Word, as Word will try to format the code, which makes it unusable.

  • Chapter Quizzes folder: To help trainers and other educatorsas well as individual readers who simply want to review what they've learned after reading the bookI have included a PDF file containing multiple-choice quizzes for each chapter of the book. A separate PDF file contains the answers.

  • Ergonomics How-To folder: This folder contains a PDF file of an article from Macworld magazine that shows you how to set up your work environment to avoid injury while working on your computer.

  • --CD internal resources-- folder: These are internal files used by the CD's Web pages. There is nothing in this folder for you to access directly. (In Windows, this folder may be hidden.)

Checklist Software You May Need

To use the template files to create your own materials, you will need one or more of the following software programs, depending on which templates you want to use. Unless noted, the files can be used on a Windows or Mac OS X computer:

  • Adobe InDesign CS or later for any files with the filename extension .indd.

  • Microsoft Publisher 2000 or later (Windows only) for any files with the filename extension .pub.

  • Microsoft Word 2000 or later (Windows) or Word X or later (Mac OS X) for any files with the filename extension .doc.

  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 or later (Windows) or PowerPoint X or later (Mac OS X) for any files with the filename extension .ppt.

  • Microsoft Excel 2000 or later (Windows) or Excel X or later (Mac OS X) for any files with the filename extension .xls.

  • Microsoft FrontPage 2003 or later (Windows only) for the FrontPage HTML templates.

  • Any Web creation program, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe GoLive, for the generic HTML templates.

You'll need a Web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, or Netscape Browser to open the Web pages. And you'll need the free Adobe Reader to read and print the PDF documents. (You can also use a PDF editing program suchas Adobe Acrobat Professional, Docudesk DeskPDF, or ScanSoft PaperPort to read and print the PDF documents.)

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